Helsinki to Kemi

Well the trip up Finland to Kemi was today. Somehow we’d imagined small trains meandering through valleys, Alpine style. In fact it was state of the art intercity trains going at 200km/h packed full of people. It’s school holidays here, and it seems people from the south of the country head north.

It was a snow-covered landscape the whole way-
Mainly coniferous trees, weighed down with pure white snow - beautiful. Small wooden houses and occasional large farms with an even more occasional town scattered around.

We changed trains in Oulu and the second train had many young people in Finnish Army fatigues, maybe heading north for a National Service camp.

So, we arrived in Kemi at a hostel. Good, relaxed, quirky place with, thank goodness, opening windows (though -10 degrees outside) and no air-con so no chance of over-heating and waking up like a dry prune… yay!

Kemi is a stopover for us but we’ll have a look around tomorrow.Read more