So I finally got to write a few words about my amazing work-camp experience in Lapland.
Yes, finally, after 3 months, just when my university started – but that’s
pretty typical I guess, it’s easy to find some time for doing the things which
are not necessary to be done when there is thousand others you have to do,
right?
--- Now, part of this really was written in the start of my first semester at
university when I still actually thought that. Hahaha, God bless my naivety!! Soon
I was to find out that in this school you really DON’T have time to do anything
else, but school. Not even to go to toilet. Not kidding!! :D ---
So where did I end…? Oh, ok… So I left Tampere. I got on a train where were already other foreign work-campers – a girl from France, a guy from Denmark and a guy from Spain. And then of course our amazing Finnish guide! That train went over night and guess who choose the only 2 seats in the whole carriage which couldn’t be really laid down? Me, of course (and the Spanish). Plus we sat against a very very tall Polish man who was giving us killing looks every time we dared to move. Good night indeed… I slept a few hours and when I woke up we were already in Rovaniemi. Lapland, sweet Lapland, still as beautiful as it was almost 2 years ago. Still so green and wild, still full of swamps, trees, reindeer…and as a bonus MOSQUITOES!! Somebody said there it was the end of mosquito season which was really weak that year… well, then I don’t wish to ever be there in the middle of the season on a normal year!
Anyway… we came to the last stop – Kemijärvi. Really, the railway just ended there, after hundreds of kilometers. Then we took a bus to Salla and from there our another amazing Finnish guide (a girl who worked in the reindeer park and who, as I found out later on, was an exchange student with AFS and has been to the Czech Republic a few times) drove us to our one-week-home – Salla reindeer park!!
We came one day before the official start of the camp, so we had this little
foreign day – we did nothing, just rested, played games, ate like crazy (just
like always). You cannot imagine what a fun you can have when you try to make
pancakes outside, on a fire! Btw. that seems to be somehow very traditional in
Finland – to make pancakes and sausages outside. I mean…its normal to roast
sausages in Czech as well, but PANCAKES??!!! However, I liked it!
In the evening we continued our fun time by witnessing reindeer’ feeding. It was just amazing – our Finnish guide started weird calling and howling and out of sudden 40 reindeer appeared! We were supposed to throw some granules on the ground into a few small piles so they could get the food easier, but somehow we didn’t manage to do so on time. And so I found myself facing huge group of running reindeer (running reindeer is the funniest thing you can ever see!!!) with a full of granules in my hands. Uuuups… Anyway, reindeer that are eating, are even cuter than reindeer who are not eating. They do those silent clapping by their mouths and now imagine 40 little velvet muzzles doing such sound! Ahh…yea, I love them!
Next day first Finnish work-campers came as well, but it was Sunday so of course we didn’t work. I was quite surprised that all the Finns were way older than us – 40 and more let’s say. I thought only young people do that! And to my even bigger surprise hardly any of them spoke English! So if somebody tells you that everybody in Finland speaks English, it’s not true! But to be fair, they often understood quite a lot. This inability of speaking English was very crucial for the whole camp and division of working groups – I, as a Finnish speaker (no, seriously, don’t laugh), was as the only foreigner put into a group full of Finns! And I was glad for that. Actually I was glad that they didn’t speak English coz at least I had chance to speak Finnish again and those people obviously liked talking to me. I felt like an exotic animal again – in the evening, when we sat at the fire and said our names and some info about us and I said it in Finnish, everybody went like WHAAAAAAAAT and started those usual “your Finnish is so good, almost perfect” (just after saying “hey, my name is…” :D) which, I must admit, felt really nice. Because I didn’t really have many options to speak Finnish during that one year back at home so finding out that I still can say something and people even understand was just amazing. I really liked the Finns there, they were so fun and friendly and open-minded and hard-working and so so so nice. I enjoyed working with them, though I also joined the foreigner group for 2 days.
The first day of work was Monday and we left quite early in the morning (if I
remember right, at 9, which is super-early for me during summer holidays) to different
places to do different jobs needed in the forests around. My group went to a
place in the middle of forest where was a tourist trail and an old porch for
the visitors to sleep under. The porch was not so good anymore and so we had to
build a new one, or to be more exact, to build a new roof on the old basis.
First we had to take the old one down though. Then we started preparing planks
for the new roof but oyoyoy, we found out some of the planks didn’t really fit
to the rest. So we had to get the right ones. We spent the free time nearby a fire (in my case standing in the smoke – just so the mosquitoes don’t bite me
so much!) with our beloved sausages.
Building a roof was totally new for me and I’m so happy I got the chance
to try doing such work! Like common, who of you can say that you actually built
a roof??
Then back to the camp for food we really deserved (I ate like if I haven’t seen food for a few months), which was btw. brilliant! And then the usual sauna-chat and food again-bed ritual - for some of my coworkers was sauna experience totally new and it was quite interesting to watch their reactions to this Finnish thing that I really do love. I think guys even tried the lake on the first day; I didn’t dare to do so almost until the last day.
And then the 2nd working day came. And it was really hard. I joined
my Finnish group again and we headed up the hills (oh yes, there are some in Lapland)
to reach one of those nice cottages where you can stop by while cross-country skiing.
Only problem was that unlike in winter, in summer it wasn’t any easy to get
there – I didn’t mind that kinda longer-than-we-were-told walk uphill, but when
I had to dip my legs into those very wet lands/swamps, while being eaten by
millions of mosquitoes, that’s when my mood went dangerously below 0. But once
we got there, sun was shining again – I sat by fire and let my shoes dry, while
grilling my vegetarian sausage. Oh yes, again.
To my huge surprise, not much
later after we arrived, the group of the other foreign workers joined us! They
came from the other side where they were cleaning forest and helped us to cut
woods which was left there and put it under a shed. It was quite a fun – we made
a chain and passed the pieces from one person to another, which happened to be
one of my most favorite type of work in the end. Why?? Because I loved to do “the
brain” = the person who put all the pieces of wood in order under the shed,
which also included a lot of lifting of sometimes crazily big and heavy logs
over your head. And that’s when you get that feeling of actually working
manually. (And that’s why you won’t be able to lift your hand to wave your
friend for another month :D). Then it was already high time to get back – which
meant back to the swamps, back to our old good friends who loved to suck our
blood. And after we found out that its dinner time and we are kinda lost quite
far away from our camp, we started to lose the sunny mood again.
Fortunately
the life of our guides, who were about to get killed by a group of hungry tired
workers, was saved by another members of the camp who came to pick us up by a
car. Then our stomachs finally got what they wanted. To be more accurate – mine
got for sure at last 10 times more than it needed! And then what? Sauna, oh
yeeeeaaah! Nothing feels as good as sauna to your sore back.
Wednesday morning was as charming (and quite cold) as all the other days.
Although I found it hard to find any beauty in being awake so early during my
summer holiday, but after a few hours of waking up while trying to do
something, I finally managed to do so. And the task for that day? Something I
was really looking forward to – marking a new hiking trail. It wasn’t a long
one (only about 7kms I think), but if you have to stop every 20m to drive a
nail into a blue plate and nail it to a tree, then it can really take you whole
day. Especially if the plates are sometimes impossible to go through. Many
times I was just standing there and hitting the nail by hammer for at least 100
times….just to find out that the nail cannot even get through the plate!
Blaaaah… horrible!
We had a stop in the middle to make an interview with some reporters who wrote about our camp and the whole organization. I used that time to call my mum who was turning 50 on that day – what a coincidence – when I wished happy 50th birthday to my dad, I was in Finland as well – on my exchange...
After the short stop (full of sausages again), we continued until we reached a point where other groups were working on new stairs and a bridge. Then I signed a book in one of those touristic cottages (so if you ever walk around those places, search for a Czechie signed in books : )) and it was time to get back to camp again.
In the evening we tried a little bit of rowing, which was really nice and fun (mainly for the other people who were watching us) – group of young funny people, who don’t know how to row were trying to survive and not to get too wet after getting themselves into the middle of the lake. And I don’t even dare to talk about the “parking” in the end…. I’m still laughing when I remember those few tries to get ourselves out of the boat!
After that we spent rest of the evening with our
other favorite activity – mölkky. It’s a throwing game which looks a little bit
like bowling. Only difference is that you throw a piece of wood on…well other
pieces of wood which are marked by numbers. The main goal is to reach a
specific number of points – if you get over that number, your points are cut to
half and you have to try to get there again. I think I don’t need to say girls
were the winners. We just rock! And reindeer seemed to like it as well – they came
a few times to have a look at us, to step in between us and the other logs or
what better, to run over the logs. They are just way too cute!
Thursday was indeed a resting day – we cleaned one camping place (and also got the logs under another shed again, yep!) and then came to the camping place we passed the other day to clean it up as well. That’s all – our last working day.
Because on Friday, we had a trip! A boat trip. A rowing boat trip, to be exact.
We saw a lake called Pyhäjärvi, which is divided in the middle to Finnish and
Russian part. A reminder of the sad part of Finnish history and the land which
used to be Finland as well and which now lies behind the border line… Well, to
make the trip somehow complete, we of course stopped by on one of the islands
and had sausages. And also coffee, cacao and something sweet.
This meant almost the end of the whole work camp. Because the next day we already packed our things, cleaned the camping place and headed home. Fortunately we got a driver among us and therefore we were driven to Rovaniemi in the end and geuss what? I met Joulupukki (Santa Claus) again!! In the middle of summer! He was surprised that a Czech girl speaks Finnish, hehe. Seriously, people and other creatures – get used to it! Who ever said that this privilege of speaking Finnish is only for Finns??! : )
And then from Santa’s lap straight
onto the train and back to Tampere. Here I cannot leave out one of my epic
fails during the trip to Finland – I got tickets for a wrong train! To explain
it more in details… When I was ordering my train tickets, there was already some
alcohol swimming in my blood (I was
celebrating graduation) and because of some good prices I could get for half of
the way (the half happening on Saturday), I split each of my tickets into 2
tickets so I would get the price off at least for one of them.
Well…now
what happened… The train was leaving from Oulu already a few minutes before
midnight, but I thought probably something like “yes, I need ticket for the
other day, because its midnight, so there should be the date of the following
day written”…well..it should NOT! Because the train still leaves a few minutes
BEFORE midnight so there should be the same date. So I actually got a ticket
for some 25 euros for the night train which was leaving from the city 24h after
this one… Which I found out just in the moment when 2 angry Russians started to
kick me out of my seat. What a night ride…
And then I spent one more day in Tampere and my another trip to Finland reached
its end. How beautiful and charming, full of joy and new exciting experiences
was that one again! I love this country and always will…and a few last words:
TURUN SINAPPIA!! Hahahahaha
