Although we only travelled
about 85 km over the Gulf of Bothnia on ferry the previous night, the weather
in Finland seemed to change quite dramatically for the better.
We were awoken in the Finnish
truck stop car park in the blazing sun and it felt like things were going to
heat up from there on after the turbulent weather we experienced in Sweden and
Norway.
After a bit of trouble with
an automatic diesel machine (it stole our 50 Euros without giving any diesel),
we hit the road and started heading south.
Now despite the weather
heating up dramatically, the scenery didn’t do the same and we were met with
flat and boring farmland and pine plantations as far as the eye could see. To
be honest, after the constant twists and turns of Norway and their maximum
speed limit of 80km/h, it was welcome relief to be able to drive in a straight
line at 100km/h and not pay too much attention to the road.
On that point, the first
thing we noticed about Finland was the massive amount of speed cameras they
have stretched right along the roadside. Fortunately, they’re not as sneaky as
our Australian police with their placement of the cameras and often have a sign
letting you know that a speed camera is coming up.
So as long as you haven’t
fallen asleep and forgotten to slow down for the 15 meters of road they make
you drop to 80km/h, you’re generally okay.
Following a fairly lengthy
stop at the ‘Pack and Save’ supermarket, we arrived into the town of Rauma about
3pm. Rauma was listed as one of the more picturesque towns to visit in Finland
and was also a UNESCO world heritage listed town so we decided to give it a go
for the night.
To be honest, after visiting
a great deal of UNESCO world heritage sites at this point in our trip, I’m a
little skeptical about their entry criteria as pretty much every second town or
remotely interesting landmark seems to be able to get onto the list. In fact, I’m
pretty sure with a little bit of ‘creative’ marketing we could get Morwell and
Dandenong on the UNESCO list when I get back home!
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| Off to Church. |
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| At Church. |
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| After Church with Car. |
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| Checking what time Church starts next Sunday to beat the crowds. |
Anyway, UNESCO aside it was
now 3pm in Finland and we still hadn’t eaten lunch so were quite famished. With
such brilliant weather we decided to get out the BBQ at our wild camp spot
(which turned out to be a car park in the middle of town) and cooked up some
BBQ pork.
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| How could you resist a BBQ here? |
It’s funny how your
sensitivity to other people's opinions starts to numb as you travel in a campervan for an
extended period of time. I’m pretty sure if I invited a group friends over for
a BBQ they would jump at the invitation until I mentioned it was the local car
park. Yet, we now have no hesitation in whipping out the BBQ in foreign places
and cooking up a storm while random strangers pass us by.
With it being the first day
of Olympic competition, we took it easy for the rest of the day, watching the
men’s road race being won by a reformed drug addicted Kazakhstani and a
freakish Chinese swimmer – seriously a dolphin wouldn’t have a chance against
that girl!
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