golden days

yesterday i arrived in Mo I Rana, Norway, after an 8 hour north-western horizontal bus ride across the entirety of Sweden. i was in a semi expensive guesthouse (but still the cheapest option in this town) last night, but i had no choice, as this once-daily bus to Norway got in too late to catch all the ferries and stuff i needed. at least breakfast was included.

on the other hand, i went to the supermarket and for 73 NOK / $12 approx, i got lots of food and veggies and fruits and juice: avocado tomato and smøreost (butter-cheese), bread, beet salad, some nectarines and greentea and lime juice. oh and pretzlesticks for tomorrow. i am heartened to know it's possible to eat well from the supermarkets at least here, although maybe i have been away from the US for so long that spending $12 for what i bought today seems normal now....

from now on i will try not to put off updating this blog like i have in the past weeks: too much to describe. but honestly i was just too busy living and doing things, and it's not always so easy to set myself up with my laptop in the kinds of places i end up in.

now i shall recount my adventures, illustrated in shyly taken but well-meaning snapshots, starting from after the Midsummer holidays.

Joustijärvi, Finland

as i mentioned, my last destination in Finland was to be the family home and farm of the Kanabro brothers, some 60km north of the Arctic Circle.



Matti lives in Rovaniemi, but Ville currently lives and works on the farm alongside his parents, tending to, among other things: Highland cattle, a cow, sheep, chopping trees and moving logs in the forest for various uses, fixing up the other farm and house they own. the working week was monday-saturday.


the big house. the wood details on the windows and porches are traditional to Karelia


the barn and the cow pen in the distance


fields where the sheep hang out and the river in the distance


their mom, Kaija, grows lots of geraniums aka my favorite flower of all time


she also grows cucumbers, tomatoes, rhubarb, strawberries, and, this year, wine grapes


Kaija Kanabro with Huotko the cat (camera shy)


Aslak, father of Huotko and cat about town

the first full day, the task was to move a giant pile of wood about 20 meters (?) to a shed. it took a few hours between me, Ville and a wheelbarrow.


the woodpile in it's new home


cow that lives next to the woodpile.

next, i accompanied Ville while he went to feed the crazy Highland cows that live on the other farm.






the usual schedule of the day around the farm, though flexible, was this: wake up between 6-10, eat breakfast around 10 in the morning, coffee and sweet breads for lunch around 2, supper at around 8 or 9, and then more miscellaneous work till 11 or midnight, then bed.

one afternoon, Ville showed me a really awesome thing. this was the artefacts of a game he and his brother had dedicately played for about 10 years as children, consisting of elaborate and evolving characters and situations and locations with various toy animals. there was even a serial comic book (in color) based on the adventures of these little guys, the longest of which i believe was over 100 pages long. oh there is also a feature length soap-opera/war movie in the works too.

we set up a little scene to get the full effect, heres a sneak peek


fighting the law, but the law won


more money more problems


the little guys even had home made clothing, including this hat embroidered with "SAN JOSE SHARKS" on it. yes!

in the middle of the week we went to Rovaniemi for a night to check out Orkestar Business Class playing at the Jutajaiset Folklore Festival.


mural by Samuli Kontio


classy


some of the drunken older ladies were going positively nuts and blowing kisses


then it was back to the farm

tunturri in the distance - a type of hill/mountain i don't think we have in the US?


earning my keep


and feeding the cows buns !!




farm boy Ville




inevitably, my time there was all too short, and it was soon time to go. i'm already missing everyone. what a special family - so kind and close, just so postitive altogether. äiti (mother) gifted me with some salmon for my trip and i was off. thank you Matti, Ville, and their äiti and isä (father)!


in Tornio, Finland - the last town before Sweden - i stopped to check out the tiny Eastern Orthodox church i had read about. lovely!









crossing the border to Sweden


a giant cheese slicer sculpture on the road to Umeå - why is Sweden so cool?

Umeå, Sweden

arrived in Umeå around 11:30pm, with way too much stuff. i was to CouchSurf with an awesome guy named Jonas for one night, but ended up staying for two since i had never been to Umeå (beautiful), the migration service business took about 5 minutes, and the weather was amazing




Jonas




i have concluded that Sweden must be the most idyllic country on earth. i don't know what it was, but walking through this park towards the river, through the shady trees and sunny sun, i felt very content


Jonas took me to a little outdoor historical museum about energy/hydroelectricity he used to visit as a child.


this diorama illustrated the water cycle. the mechanized cloud moves around


something about socks?


underground




afterwards, we went swimming at the lake. my first swim of the season


thanks Jonas!

Nordland, Norway

here are some images taken from the bus to Mo I Rana. please excuse the dark blob in some of them, apparently my lens has acquired some sort of fiber which i can't figure out how to get rid of, and i don't have photoshop on this computer yet









Norway is heart-stopping beautiful, and i haven't even made it to the coast yet. Mo I Rana, though a juxtaposition of the epic steel mill (uses more power than the municipality of Oslo ) and quaint small town, is a pretty nice place and the people are seriously friendly. as i was crossing the street yesterday, i gave a flick-of-the-wrist "thanks" to the Mercedes waiting for me to cross. they responded by honking and waving and smiling energetically...i must admit that after being in Finland for 2.5 months, this caught me off guard - public niceness!

well i am off to take a shower and then stuff my things back into my already overstuffed bag before checking out and killing time at the bus station. as i've mentioned before, the place i'll be staying with for the next few weeks doesn't have the internet, and i don't know yet of anywhere on the island to use it. here is the post address where i will be staying:

Elisa Lopez
c/o K. & M. Randecker, Hestmonvågen
N-8197 Storselsøy, NORWAY

i haven't asked the people if i can receive mail here, & i'll only be there for about 3 weeks, so don't send anything unless it's totally crucial. i guess that it's for now. see you when i see you...