After the wedding, it was time to continue our trip (the plan was to drive along Via Karelia by the Russian border up to Kuusamo, over the next few days). After a stop in Heinävesi, in order to collect some affairs my grandmother (who recently passed away) had left, we said bye bye to everybody, and set the course for Koli.
Koli is a place I’ve wanted to visit for some time now. Koli is sort of like a collection of hills flanking Lake Pielinen - a place which has inspired Finnish artists, such as Axeli Gallen-Kallela and Eero Järnefelt, for a long time now. Apparently, the composer Jean Sibelius actually had his piano transported to Koli for his wedding night! The place is undeniably one of the most beautiful places in Finland. The views over the lake are just amazing – especially as we were lucky enough to be there on a cloud-free day. We visited all the three “Kolis” – Ukko-Koli, Akka-Koli and Paha-Koli. After this emotional experience, we made our way back to the sheep farm we were spending the night. After a nice typical Carelian dinner, and a not very impressive sauna session (the temperature was around 50 degrees I think), we hit the sack.
After a nice buffet breakkie, we set off towards Lieksa. Our first stop for the day was the famous sculptor Eeva Ryynänen’s atelier and house. She basically sculpts everything from animals, furniture and human shapes from massive tree trunks. I have to say I really found her art impressive – and the house itself also (no Ikea furniture there - pretty much everything in the house was made by her). We also visited the beautiful church next to her house, the interior of which she has decorated.
After this rather interesting museum visit we headed on to Ruunankoski, a river just by the Russian border. The main activity Ruunankoski is famous for is kayaking and white water rafting, but we decided to go for a hike instead. And a very pleasant place for a walk it is! The footpaths are very clearly signposted (in spite of this, we did manage to get off the main foot path at one point), and there are even wooden planks along the boggy and wet portions of the footpath, to make life easier. The walk took us along the busy rapids, through very typical Finnish landscapes (trees, trees and yet more trees).
After this most refreshing walk (which did take us more like 4 hours instead of the originally planned 2 hours…), we carried on to Lieksa. There isn’t much of interest in Lieksa, apart from the modern church, designed by Pekka Saarinen. We really liked the interior of the church – it sort of reminds me of Temppeliaukion kirkko in Helsinki.
From Lieksa, the road took us up to Nurmes. The main attraction in Nurmes is the Bomba house, and the “typical Carelian village” which surrounds it. Bomba (or Jegor Bombin, as he was actually called) was a Carelian merchant who lived during the 19th century, who had a big log manor constructed for his son in 1855. The original house was in Suojärvi (now in Russia, to whom Finland lost part of Carelia after World War II), and was torn down in 1934 - but some enterprising people decided to reconstruct the house in Nurmes in 1978. To be perfectly honest, the house and the surrounding village is just a hotel/cabin/spa/restaurant complex, there isn’t much of interest there, really. So we quickly headed on towards Kuhmo, where we were planning to stay the night.
As we approached Kuhmo, we entered the vast wilderness of Kainuu. We were now in one of the most sparsely populated areas of Finland – which is to say it’s very sparsely populated indeed! Kuhmo is mostly famous for two things: the Kalevala village, and a chamber music festival. Having pitched our “2-seconds to mount” Decathlon tent (it does actually work – it’s brilliant!) at the Kalevala camping, we headed to explore Kuhmo town. Unfortunately Kuhmo is very similar to a lot of Finnish cities of the same size – which is to say it’s not very pretty, and there ain't nothing to do there... We did find one pretty nice restaurant, where I had a tasty steak. I asked 2 young ladies who were sitting at the table next to us if they could recommend a nice place for a drink – the response was a questioning look, followed by the answer “what do you reckon? This is Kuhmo...”. So we decided to head back to the camping, instead. So a quiet night it was then, watching the sunset over the lake (not a bad idea at all – it was a beautiful sight...).
The next morning, we decided to check out the Kalevala village. Kalevala is the national epic of Finland – the reason there is a Kalevala village in Kuhmo, I guess, is that Elias Lönnrot, the poet who collected and put to paper the old stories that make up the Kalevala myth, did a lot of his writing in this part of Finland. Unfortunately, turns out the place was closed – the tourist season is over (in Finland the summer tourist season is basically july...). So after a quick walk around the overpriced gift shop, we carried on towards Kuusamo.
The Kuusamo area is another place I was really looking forward to visit. It’s one of the best regions in Finland for outdoor activities, whether it be during the winter or the summer (Ruka, one of the biggest Finnish ski resorts, is located near Kuusamo). I came here when I was a kid, and can vaguely remember having had a great time. Mathilde was also happy to see her first reindeer here :-)
Anyways, on the way to Kuusamo, we noticed a signpost to one of the places somebody had told me we must absolutely see – Julma Ölkky. So off we went, down some very narrow and badly maintained roads (again, ominously approaching the Russian border). Eventually, we arrived. Julma Ölkky is one of the most famous canyon lakes in Finland, also known for its rock paintings. There were two options for visiting the lake; one was to walk around it, and the other was to take a boat tour. Since it was already late afternoon, we opted for the lazy option and took the boat. The lake itself is definitely impressive, with its dramatic rocky cliffs. But we were rather disappointed with the rock paintings – you need pretty sharp eyes to see them at all – and a lot of imagination to make any sense of them.
We then drove on to Kuusamo. After a quick visit to the tourist office, we headed to the local camping site, where we ended up renting a cabin (the weather was a bit rainy, so we decided to choose the “luxury option” rather than pitching our tent). For dinner, we wanted to try some Lappish cuisine, so headed for the local Sokos hotel (according to the tourist information centre, it’s the best place for it…). The food was pretty decent (apart from the disappointing dessert), although the bill was rather steep (as eating out in Finland tends to be…).
On the following day, we set out to do a walk (that's pretty much the only thing you can do in the area - apart from hunt, drink and fish). The original over-ambitious plan was to complete the perhaps most famous hiking trek in Finland – Karhunkierros (“the bear trail”). But rather quickly we realised that our plan was a bit ambitious – the hike takes at least 3 days... So we decided upon the “Pieni Karhunkierros” instead (little Karhunkierros), which is a mere 4-5 hours long. So off we went, driving past Ruka, up to edge of Oulanka national park, where the hike starts. The hike started in the village of Juuna, and carried on into the national park from there, along the Kitkajoki River. The hike took us through some very dramatic scenery, along imposing cliffs, past raging rapids (including the Jyrävä falls), across rapids on suspension bridges, and even past a mill (Myllykoski). All in all, we really enjoyed it – definitely one of the highlights of the trip so far! And parts of it were quite challenging as well, especially the steep ascent to Kallioportti (“Cliff’s gate”). Good thing we set off bright ‘n early as well, since we noticed the trail got considerably busier towards the end of the walk – and of course the rain started dropping in the afternoon as well.
After an unwise attempt to visit the famous Oulanka Canyon (we didn’t find a parking nearby...), as a consequence of which we did briefly pop into Lapland, we headed back to Kuusamo. The rest of the day was spent taking it easy, since the weather was *crap* all evening again (the weather did clear up for an hour or so – we took advantage of the respite to go for a refreshing swim in the lake by the camping). We did visit the local museum - the kind of museum to visit on a rainy day – which is another way of saying “nothing to write home about”, I suppose. For dinner we had a real Finnish camping meal – Cabanossi sausage with mustard – yummie!
That spelt an end to our eastern Finland adventure – time to head west, after a great few days in the vast, quiet, wild East...
Koli is a place I’ve wanted to visit for some time now. Koli is sort of like a collection of hills flanking Lake Pielinen - a place which has inspired Finnish artists, such as Axeli Gallen-Kallela and Eero Järnefelt, for a long time now. Apparently, the composer Jean Sibelius actually had his piano transported to Koli for his wedding night! The place is undeniably one of the most beautiful places in Finland. The views over the lake are just amazing – especially as we were lucky enough to be there on a cloud-free day. We visited all the three “Kolis” – Ukko-Koli, Akka-Koli and Paha-Koli. After this emotional experience, we made our way back to the sheep farm we were spending the night. After a nice typical Carelian dinner, and a not very impressive sauna session (the temperature was around 50 degrees I think), we hit the sack. After a nice buffet breakkie, we set off towards Lieksa. Our first stop for the day was the famous sculptor Eeva Ryynänen’s atelier and house. She basically sculpts everything from animals, furniture and human shapes from massive tree trunks. I have to say I really found her art impressive – and the house itself also (no Ikea furniture there - pretty much everything in the house was made by her). We also visited the beautiful church next to her house, the interior of which she has decorated.
After this rather interesting museum visit we headed on to Ruunankoski, a river just by the Russian border. The main activity Ruunankoski is famous for is kayaking and white water rafting, but we decided to go for a hike instead. And a very pleasant place for a walk it is! The footpaths are very clearly signposted (in spite of this, we did manage to get off the main foot path at one point), and there are even wooden planks along the boggy and wet portions of the footpath, to make life easier. The walk took us along the busy rapids, through very typical Finnish landscapes (trees, trees and yet more trees). After this most refreshing walk (which did take us more like 4 hours instead of the originally planned 2 hours…), we carried on to Lieksa. There isn’t much of interest in Lieksa, apart from the modern church, designed by Pekka Saarinen. We really liked the interior of the church – it sort of reminds me of Temppeliaukion kirkko in Helsinki.
From Lieksa, the road took us up to Nurmes. The main attraction in Nurmes is the Bomba house, and the “typical Carelian village” which surrounds it. Bomba (or Jegor Bombin, as he was actually called) was a Carelian merchant who lived during the 19th century, who had a big log manor constructed for his son in 1855. The original house was in Suojärvi (now in Russia, to whom Finland lost part of Carelia after World War II), and was torn down in 1934 - but some enterprising people decided to reconstruct the house in Nurmes in 1978. To be perfectly honest, the house and the surrounding village is just a hotel/cabin/spa/restaurant complex, there isn’t much of interest there, really. So we quickly headed on towards Kuhmo, where we were planning to stay the night.
As we approached Kuhmo, we entered the vast wilderness of Kainuu. We were now in one of the most sparsely populated areas of Finland – which is to say it’s very sparsely populated indeed! Kuhmo is mostly famous for two things: the Kalevala village, and a chamber music festival. Having pitched our “2-seconds to mount” Decathlon tent (it does actually work – it’s brilliant!) at the Kalevala camping, we headed to explore Kuhmo town. Unfortunately Kuhmo is very similar to a lot of Finnish cities of the same size – which is to say it’s not very pretty, and there ain't nothing to do there... We did find one pretty nice restaurant, where I had a tasty steak. I asked 2 young ladies who were sitting at the table next to us if they could recommend a nice place for a drink – the response was a questioning look, followed by the answer “what do you reckon? This is Kuhmo...”. So we decided to head back to the camping, instead. So a quiet night it was then, watching the sunset over the lake (not a bad idea at all – it was a beautiful sight...). The next morning, we decided to check out the Kalevala village. Kalevala is the national epic of Finland – the reason there is a Kalevala village in Kuhmo, I guess, is that Elias Lönnrot, the poet who collected and put to paper the old stories that make up the Kalevala myth, did a lot of his writing in this part of Finland. Unfortunately, turns out the place was closed – the tourist season is over (in Finland the summer tourist season is basically july...). So after a quick walk around the overpriced gift shop, we carried on towards Kuusamo.
The Kuusamo area is another place I was really looking forward to visit. It’s one of the best regions in Finland for outdoor activities, whether it be during the winter or the summer (Ruka, one of the biggest Finnish ski resorts, is located near Kuusamo). I came here when I was a kid, and can vaguely remember having had a great time. Mathilde was also happy to see her first reindeer here :-)
Anyways, on the way to Kuusamo, we noticed a signpost to one of the places somebody had told me we must absolutely see – Julma Ölkky. So off we went, down some very narrow and badly maintained roads (again, ominously approaching the Russian border). Eventually, we arrived. Julma Ölkky is one of the most famous canyon lakes in Finland, also known for its rock paintings. There were two options for visiting the lake; one was to walk around it, and the other was to take a boat tour. Since it was already late afternoon, we opted for the lazy option and took the boat. The lake itself is definitely impressive, with its dramatic rocky cliffs. But we were rather disappointed with the rock paintings – you need pretty sharp eyes to see them at all – and a lot of imagination to make any sense of them.We then drove on to Kuusamo. After a quick visit to the tourist office, we headed to the local camping site, where we ended up renting a cabin (the weather was a bit rainy, so we decided to choose the “luxury option” rather than pitching our tent). For dinner, we wanted to try some Lappish cuisine, so headed for the local Sokos hotel (according to the tourist information centre, it’s the best place for it…). The food was pretty decent (apart from the disappointing dessert), although the bill was rather steep (as eating out in Finland tends to be…).
On the following day, we set out to do a walk (that's pretty much the only thing you can do in the area - apart from hunt, drink and fish). The original over-ambitious plan was to complete the perhaps most famous hiking trek in Finland – Karhunkierros (“the bear trail”). But rather quickly we realised that our plan was a bit ambitious – the hike takes at least 3 days... So we decided upon the “Pieni Karhunkierros” instead (little Karhunkierros), which is a mere 4-5 hours long. So off we went, driving past Ruka, up to edge of Oulanka national park, where the hike starts. The hike started in the village of Juuna, and carried on into the national park from there, along the Kitkajoki River. The hike took us through some very dramatic scenery, along imposing cliffs, past raging rapids (including the Jyrävä falls), across rapids on suspension bridges, and even past a mill (Myllykoski). All in all, we really enjoyed it – definitely one of the highlights of the trip so far! And parts of it were quite challenging as well, especially the steep ascent to Kallioportti (“Cliff’s gate”). Good thing we set off bright ‘n early as well, since we noticed the trail got considerably busier towards the end of the walk – and of course the rain started dropping in the afternoon as well.After an unwise attempt to visit the famous Oulanka Canyon (we didn’t find a parking nearby...), as a consequence of which we did briefly pop into Lapland, we headed back to Kuusamo. The rest of the day was spent taking it easy, since the weather was *crap* all evening again (the weather did clear up for an hour or so – we took advantage of the respite to go for a refreshing swim in the lake by the camping). We did visit the local museum - the kind of museum to visit on a rainy day – which is another way of saying “nothing to write home about”, I suppose. For dinner we had a real Finnish camping meal – Cabanossi sausage with mustard – yummie!
That spelt an end to our eastern Finland adventure – time to head west, after a great few days in the vast, quiet, wild East...
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