March 15
It was sad waking up this morning realizing that when we loaded the bus with our gear it wasn’t going to a trailhead. Instead we were being dropped off at locations where we would be staying, in our case to a condo in Kemi or in most cases heading back to the participants home country. There were two buses departing the hotel. Most skiers were going to the airport in Oulu. Our bus only had a family from Denmark who were flying out of Kemi and Don and I who were going to an apartment in Kemi. They were on the last flight out of Kemi as the airport was shutting down due to the virus. We weren’t quite sure what we were going to find when we arrived to our apartment, but figured we had a couple of days to figure it out. Goodbyes were said and the bus departed from the hotel. The bus driver dropped us off at the bus station and speaking in Finnish helped us unload our gear. Saying Kitoss which means thanks was the only word we could reply. As we watched the bus pull away we realized that we were really on our own, (no more being part of the ski event.) all decisions were to be made by us. We had arranged to stay in a condo for the next three nights which we had been told was near the bus station. Originally we were going to meet a couple of friends from Finland here, but due to the virus they were unable to travel. We had the address and the iPhone so we only walked around the block twice before figuring out that we were indeed quite close. Our check in time was around 3 and it was only 10. We had talked to the owner a couple of days ago and he said that we could leave our gear in the apartment till check in time. Of course when we went to use the phone to tell him we had arrived the battery had died. Fortunately we had a charger which enabled us to recharge our phone. When we made contact with the owner, he told us to just wait there and he would arrive in 15 minutes. Sure enough Esa pulled in and showed us the condo. His English is quite good and he gives us an introduction to the condo. He wanted to give the apartment a cleaning so leaving our luggage here we head over to the snow castle. This usually is a quite popular destination, but as we soon find out the country is about to be shut down. There are only a couple of people here to check out the castle. We purchase tickets for the snow castle and the next door ice palace. The snow castle is created each year from snow and ice made of sea water from the Baltic Sea. It lasts till around May depending on the weather. It was first built in 1996 and several years ago had over 300,000 visitors. The castle has a new theme each year. This year was the future.
Welcome!
We were greeted at the entrance by a women fluent in many languages. She told us a little history of the castle then left us free to go exploring. One could tell she was in shock that the snow castle was closing.
The theme was the future.
We checked out the different hallways, amazed at the intricate designs.
Pre virus, one could rent a room for a night here. The ice bed was covered with reindeer skins.
There was also a chapel where one could get married and a restaurant inside the snow castle. Tomorrow it would be closed!
Inside a building, located next to the snow castle was the ice palace. It is opened year round, but will also be closing tomorrow. When Finland reopens hopefully this will be included. Here again we find the work of master carers.
When it was open for business, one could order drinks and a meal in the dining hall.
It was late afternoon when we walked the short distance back to our condo. It is just one room with a bathroom. There is a shower and sauna in the basement.
Has everything we need!
A bed and sofa and of course dead center is the TV!
The kitchen has more room than our van which we have been mostly living in the last two years. We have a quick conversation with Ryan who fills us in on the status of the states. He recommends either flying back soon or be prepared to stay in Finland for awhile. He leans toward staying where we are. He comments that there is some panic buying going on in the states. Toilet paper is in demand. We are rather tired from non stop activity and decide to think about it tomorrow. We will plan on checking out a grocery store tomorrow.
March 16 and 17
Guess it is decision time. Our travel plans to visit Norway and Sweden are no longer. The borders are closed and the chaos of returning to the states is not appealing. Our original flight plan was leaving Oslo, Norway on the 3 of May. We check the airline website and the flight is still scheduled. We begin the process of cancelling our reservations that we have made. In most circumstances we are able to have our money refunded. We contact the landlord and his bookings for this condo have also been canceled. He makes us a very nice offer to extend our reservation to April 1. We are hoping in two weeks that there may be a clearer picture of the future. We take a break from cancelling hotels, trains , lodges etc and head to the grocery store. Glad that most of the food items have pictures, the descriptions are difficult to understand..
No shortage of food items here. Plenty of toilet paper.
Then there is the receipt.
We could easily translate Texas Pete Hot sauce, but that was about all.
Learning Finnish may prove to be very difficult! Don is slowly recovering from his cough and I have developed a cold. It feels good just to hang out for a couple of days.
After a couple of days of taking it easy, it is time to head out to explore the neighborhood. The map below shows the location of our condo.
We are very close to The Baltic Sea. Kemi is a town of about 22,000 and is the largest town in northern Finland.
We are excited when we see the groomed nordic trails on the Sea.
Tracks are groomed every day!
Looking back to where the Snow Castle is located
Most weekdays we have the tracks to ourselves, but on the weekends it is a popular spot.
We thought folks were doing a good job of social spacing!
The tracks lead to an island which had several miles of groomed trails.
These buildings on the island could be rented out for the summer.
One of the trails on the island would take you back to the main part of the town.
Our Finnish friend Maija sent us a link about other ski trails near town. We were quite pleased when we discovered the trail system about a half of mile from our condo.
These trails were also groomed just about every day. It was quite fun to see all the people out using the trails.
The trail groomer.
One day we decided to take a break from skiing and walked to a nearby island that had the remnants of a sawmill town.
Glad to see some of the descriptions were in English.
Severals places that we skied by had these shelters. They often came stocked with wood that the residents could use.
Nice place to get out of the wind. In summer they can be used for camping.
Trail signs were posted at junctions.
Still trying to get a feel for the language.
Don enjoyed using his Watch to track our ski for the day.
One of our favorite trails was next to a small creek. We called it our meditative trail.
This trail also passed by two well stocked wood sheds.
Don was envious!
We checked an English translation of the Finnish news each day.
Doesn’t look like we will be doing much traveling.
Some afternoons we headed down to the boat harbor,
Summers are short, but days are long. Looks like a good place to go sailing.
It was always fun to just walk the streets and check out sculptures and murals.
We think this was on a school building
Sculptures were scattered thru out the city.
The steeple from this church could be seen from most parts of the town.
All churches were closed when we were there.
We had never heard of the town Wuhan, but now it is frequently in the news. This sign caught our attention.
Street signs are always interesting to try to pronounce.
This is the land of the Midnight Sun. We are gaining daylight each day. Probably by the time we leave there won’t be many sunsets so we enjoy this one.
So ends our last two weeks of March. After it was evident that we are not allowed to cross borders ,we have rented our apartment for the month of April. We look forward to more skiing and enjoying the town of Kemi.