2018 Sep Finland: hike up Oejberget, old Vaasa, finishing up

2018 Sep 05 Hike around Öjberget 

Getting to Öjberget required a car and then a little walk, which made it clear this was one of the few hill-like areas in the region. The third/rightmost picture is some kind of ski mascot (found at the base of the skiing hill, around which the nature trail wanders.


View up the hill:


The hiking scenery was entirely different from Svedjehamn. Included wild blueberries and lingonberries (left picture).




The whole place was pure granite, mostly one giant boulder-seeming formation. Regular signage mentioned how inhospitable the granite is, and it becoming forest started with lichen, then moss, and these two built up some dirt-like substance that eventually brush and trees could take root in. Note: fuzzy looking stuff (left picture) was not fuzzy.


Interesting rock formations included the "Giant's Cauldron", formed as ice receded but was still moving stones around inside other stones, forming a hollow.



The signage by the following boulder explained that during the stone age,  this part of the hill was at water level, so it was an island with a boulder outcropping. Seal-hunting was clearly what people were up to there in the area, with stone-age tools found under the rock where people must have sheltered from the weather/storm/angry seals?.


This next thing, a field of stones, was also created by retreating ice effects/formerly being under the ocean. Called a/the devil's garden, I enjoy the supposition that the Devil would gather up rocks to make more rocks, and that was what he was interested in harvesting.

View from the top of the ski hill, down to the start of the hike. This from atop a tower like thing that seemed to be somehow used in winter as well, maybe as the start of some kind of ski-jumping part of the hill.


In the tower was a map explaining how the area looked over time. You can notice the meteorite crater, and how Öjberget started as a neighboring island and became a nearby hill as time and land uplift went on.


View of the crater from the tower:

Bike rides: old Vaasa and some of the open air museum

During the next few days, we took some bike rides, including swinging by "old Vaasa" on the way home. The prior port/harbor is now solidly on land, which is part of why Vaasa moved. The rest being that Vaasa had burnt down a few times, and after 1852 they gave up and tried to build in a way to minimize future fire danger, with very broad streets and alleyways forcing spaced between the (even now) largely wooden buildings. As a result, old Vaasa ruins is mainly the mostly-stone church:


The signage on the church is pretty funny.  It talks about the various expansions, including one where they made something larger, and the local peasants demanded they remove the support pillars to "make it more airy", and it promptly collapsed. They tried to fight having to pay for the repairs, to no avail.

The area around the Open Air Museum (aka a small swedish settlement that didn't want their old farmhouse buildings anymore, so they moved them and made them a museum) was very pretty, along the shore.



Given it was post-tourist-season for the open air museum, one could walk around it but not actually get inside of any of the buildings, which seemed to be the most interesting part. Enjoy an odd windmill:



Also saw on our bike ride a very very green house, next to a totally standard red house.

Parting thoughts on Finland

I think Finnish is a language where one would have to live there to learn it, and it would always be quite a challenge. It is nice that this region has Swedish as a very common language. 

Temperatures were, as highs, between 17 and 20C. Definitely a great range for outdoor activity, and when on/by the water, it felt quite toasty.  It was supposed to rain one day, but didn't (still spent the day checking out outlets and sports stores to see if any brand there fit well/better than what I could get in Germany for a softshell or allweather shoes).  

Sauna every day, especially with the option for somewhat brisk ocean water to cool off, was really lovely and relaxing. I may join a gym here just for sauna access. Well, and, you know, to exercise a little.

Side-note: public and private toilets alike seemed generally stocked with what I would call a "Finnish bidet". Which clearly also doubles as a tool to wash your hair in the sink or maybe even hose off your feet if you need (all bathrooms and rooms with water-using appliances have drains in the floor and tile or linoleum floors).

Fly home: 

If you zoom in, to the right of the airplane tail, is a totally normal house, just looking out onto the runway.


Last views of Vaasa from the air:


Til next trip (or, you know, I write some of the backlog of travel blogs I keep intending to write ;) ).

pre flight "chilling" in rocking chairs at airport

2018 Sep Finland nature walk around Svedjehamn

 A Unesco World Heritage Site, Svedjehamn has a nice observation tower from which you can see the moraines and the effects of land uplift.

"Distinct traces of the land uplift, and its effect on nature and culture, can be observed in Svedjehamn, Björköby, in the heart of the Kvarken World Heritage area. Along the nature trail Bodvattnet runt, the visitor is able to learn more about these effects, while also observing the most magnificent De-Geer moraines in the Kvarken area from the 20 meter high observation tower Saltkaret. Along the trail is also Bodback, which was used as a harbor as late as in the 1930s." source

 We followed the path to the tower, not Panike (which is an outlook point on the edge of the island

 Various signage says that the tower is about 20m tall, corresponding to 2000 years of land uplift in Finland. There is a view of the harbor -- now only home to tiny boats -- which had to be moved to the other side of the island in the 30s.

View of the moraines:


And a view of the harbor:


After the view from the tower, we went on the smallish route (3km) and chose the path which was "more variable and closer to the water".


Some more varied scenery:



In the edge of the water to the right, in the righthand/second picture above, you see a little red. It really was red, and I am guessing from the notorious red algae one hears tell of, as one of these consequences of too-hot summers. Finland has suffered its local version of the same heat wave that has hit the rest of Europe, so I suppose one should not be surprised.

At the end of the walk, a fog rolled in, very quickly, and very localised to this island (after crossing the bridge to the next island, the skies were clear).




The walk was nice and interesting until we were attacked by a very persistent, broad winged bug which, when thrown away, came back, and creepily liked burrowing under the hair.  I had a bit less trouble with them, until closer to and in the car, when I fended off two of them. Turns out, they were likely there because of the highland cattle raised in the area (along our more scenic path), given they were these ugly things,:

"Lipoptena cervi, the deer ked or deer fly, is a species of biting fly...They are parasites of elk, deer, and other bovines, burrowing through the fur and sucking the blood of the host animals. ...L. cervi is a poor flier and can only fly for short distances. Once the insect reaches its target, it sheds its wings and starts burrowing through the fur....[they are ] a newly discovered vector for Anaplasma phagocytophilum, a Gram-negative, obligate intracellular bacterium that causes anaplasmosis, and also for Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent of Lyme disease.^[3] They...bite humans, and the bites are said to be painful and may cause an allergic skin reaction. Initially, the bite may be barely noticeable and leaves little or no trace. Within 3 days, the site develops into a hard, reddened welt. The accompanying itch is intense and typically lasts 14 to 20 days. Occasionally, an itch papule may persist for a year.^[4] ...Remains of L. cervi have been found on Ötzi, the Stone Age mummy from the Schnalstal glacier in South Tyrol"

Getting back to home base, went for a walk to the nearby harbor for some nature that wasn't so aggresive.

nice map of the archipelago

view of sunset from the harbor

Next, hike in Öjberget, bike rides, and wrapping up the trip. 

2018 Sep 02-04 Vaasa and a Meteorite Crater (Soederfjaerden)

Saturday evening, arrived and had time to buy groceries and (of course) have a sauna.

If you didn't know, Finland loves licorice (also the ammonium-choride-salty kind, Salmiak). Turns out, dates dusted in licorice taste and have the mouth-feel of, well, soft licorice.

Finland prides itself on design, one rather big porcelain producer is "Arabia", which you can find everywhere, including the grocery store. (Above right)

There was a chips and tex mex aisle.

Sunday 02 Sep 2018 the local highest point

The first full day necessitated a walk up the only hill in the area, for a good view of the surrounding archipelago.

The path up, full of birch trees (reminds me of the Northeast US a bit, really striking, especially with the flowers still blooming), and another guest on the trail:



The view from the top of the archipelago (including the prevalent various sorts of pine trees around):




Further exploring yielded a delightfully progressive sign (imo)

Also saw this Pizza place, "Dallas Pizza Palazzo", which has a sort of oddly proportioned white statue of liberty, and a matching white limo for guests? I hear the pizza is not that great. The sign (left) is a good example of local signage. This is the Swedish-speaking region of Finland, and often signs are first in Swedish, and second in Finnish (other way around in Helsinki, e.g.)
</

Monday 03 Sep 2018 A Boat ride and Cranes in a Meteorite crater

The day involved some noodling around on a smallish boat (one can also effectively row it, which I am not a natural at).

500 000 years ago, a crater was made in this region by a giant meteorite impact. 

Since the retreat of the glaciers (post ice age), which were 3km thick, Finland has been slowly lifting up. So given the time that has passed, the crater went from a nice deep region of water to something more swampy and around 1920 (?) the locals decided it made more sense to pump the water out (and keep pumping it) to free up the land for farming:


Cranes love this (although farmers do not love the cranes) and in the summer, they nom on whatever cranes eat and then fly out to the islands at night.

Some video of the cranes flying, complete with noises.

Zoom-less picture of some of the cranes flying away:

(start of) Tuesday 04 Sep 2018

In the morning, cycled into town and back.

Vaasa has a university and about 60 000 inhabitants. The statue of the woman centaur is in front of a university building (former factory building). The dude on the right is in the main town square. I like the yellow building behind him.