The Archipelago

Yesterday afternoon we made it to the camp grounds with a trailer in tow. My host family’s friends are with us on this trip so now there are ten people all together. We’re just outside Turku in one of the Swedish speaking towns and about 100 feet from the trailer I can see an inlet of water from the Baltic Sea! It’s pretty cool actually seeing another sea/ocean other than the Atlantic. It’s really been the last week where I keep getting the thought “Oh m’lord, I’m actually in Europe!” You would think it would be in the first few days (which it was, but not as shocking as it seems now) but it is finally making me so excited and unstable when I think about it! But then a second later, I remember that everything feels so normal to me here now. 

the camp grounds (that's our trailer)

This morning after we woke up, we went outside to have breakfast and then we left to drive out to the archipelago. We drove for a while through the countryside and over a few islands before we came to the ferry. We took one ferry, drove across that island, and then took another to the island we ate lunch on. In Scandinavia there are HUGE ferries (more like ocean liners) that cross the Baltic all around, but the ferries I went on today were small, only having room for about 20-30 cars each. It was really cool to ride a ferry and be on the water, even though each ride was around or under ten minutes. The islands we were on were mostly all Swedish speaking, and if you told me that we were in Sweden, I would’ve believed you. When you think about the Scandinavian islands with their small towns and colorful houses along with a shoreline everywhere, this was it. The fact that the weather was perfect also added to the greatness of the Finnish summer out there. 

hey.

We had lunch on the island where we would eventually turn around to go back. We ate at the Buffalo Restaurant……………………………yeah, I know what you’re saying. I came all the way to Finland to go to a restaurant with the same name as the city I left. And no, I didn’t order the “Buffalo Wings” (not used to saying “Buffalo” before it!) But it was really good. I got the lunch special which was pork with mushroom sauce and ranskalaiset (French fries – when talking about French people you would also say ranskalaiset – the food and the people are the same word!) So from there we turned to head back from the way we came. We took both ferries again and after a few detours came back to the camp grounds. It took up a large part of the late morning and early afternoon. 

We cooked dinner in the camp grounds’ kitchen and it was a pretty Finnish meal. Salad, potatoes, and the dense bread that’s made in this region with smoked fish on top. You will always find some sort of salad and potatoes in just about every meal here. 

After dinner time I headed out with my host parents Anne and Matti along with the father in the other family, Petri, to medieval castle ruins on the island of Kuusisto. It was a really awesome place. At first when you drive up to it, it doesn’t look too big, but once you walk through the main archway in the front of it, it’s amazing. The walls were intact enough that you could see where the different rooms were and where the courtyard was. So we were all just walking around and then it started raining really hard. I ran to find cover so my camera wouldn’t get wet (I still ended up taking pictures…) and I found it in one of the arch ways in the front. The pour died down a bit (not totally) and I attempted to go find everybody else, but I couldn’t find them. So I was wandering around medieval ruins alone in a strange mix of sunshine and pouring rain. Creepy…but soooo awesome to be there. 

Oh Google... thank you. 

Between all this touring around, we’ve just been at the camp grounds hanging out. Today has just been a great day of seeing the island life of the archipelago and medieval Finland. What a brilliant day! 

And here are just a few more pictures I took in the last two days...