Pyhäjärvi Archives

1 August 2016 by Wiebe

Day 139 | Pyhäjärvi to Kokkola

Day 139 | Sunday July 31

Last night I had one of the best sleeps. After the sauna and some beers I slept like a rose.

In a few weeks I’m going to Russia and this is the first country which asks for a visa. This means I need money to get one so my idea was to exchange goods for other goods until I have enough to sell it for money and get that visa which is around 70 euros. In my car I have some stuff which I never use and can give away. I showed it to them but there was nothing which was really at use. They do wanted to support me and gave me a generous amount of €25 and a tool to pick berries! So nice! In Germany I received €5 from someone so I have 30 euros in total now which makes the half of my visa. When I left they also provided me with a bag full of noodles, bananas, nuts and more.

I thanked them for their hospitality and nice stories and around 1pm I left. I had no plugger down south which was in reach today so I drove to Kokkolo, which was halfway Ilmajoki were I needed to be the day after.
As I had no pluggers there I decided to test the hospitality of Finland. I walked into the first hotel I could find, Finlandia Hotel Seurahoune. A nice classic hotel founded in 1894. I told my story to the receptionist at the hotel and she could offer me a room, breakfast included! So far Finland has been treating me well.

I tried to use my time in the hotel effective and wrote a blog, searched for sustainable companies to visit and finished a new movie about the GEEF Cafe, have a look at it below and let me know what you think of it!

I am still looking for interesting companies, projects, events or initiatives who are active on sustainability and might be interesting for me to visit during my stay here in Finland. If you know any please use this form to tell me about it.

https://www.facebook.com/PlugMeIn/videos/517040358505031/

Pictures of today

The Hotel

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31 July 201631 July 2016 by Wiebe

Day 138 | Sauna time in Pyhäjärvi

Day 138 | Saturday July 30

Quick flashback to yesterday, I mentioned that I was offered a little tour through Oulu but we didn’t go as there was not much to see. So apparently Teemu’s mother-in-law read this, called and told him we absolutely needed to drive around. So we did. The ride itself was very pleasant, Teemu drives this big fat Mustung GT something which he imported from the US. 300 horsepowers! Everything shaket though, one of the downsides of ICE cars 😉

I have to admit that Teemu was kind of right. Not to say that Oulu is not a nice town, it has it’s charm and feels cosy but it’s missing some highlights like architecture, parks or something like that. There was a festival were The Prodigy was playing, that was a highlight even though I didn’t see them.

So back to today. I went for a run, need to keep my mind and body fixated. When I got back Heli already made a big breakfast. Today I was planning to go to Ylivieska, I had an host there and contacted them a few days ago. When I wanted to leave I found out that they didn’t reply on my mails so I quickly needed to find another place to stay. Luckily I’m well covered in Finland.
I contacted Tony in Pyhäjärvi, he quickly responded that it was ok to come by today.

It was a 180km drive which is never sure if I can make that but the weather was perfect (+20 degrees) and the roads mainly flat so I got there with 7% left. My navigation didn’t find his house number, later he explained that the number means how many kilometers the house is located from the main road. So for example ‘Churchstreet 400’ means the house is 400 meters from the start, if it’s an one-way road.

The house was in the middle of a forrest and they use it for summer holiday’s, christmas and new years parties. Located right on a like and one of the most beautiful places I had the opportunity to stay. So as it’s their summer resort they stay there with the whole family. Toni with his girlfriend Vanessa, the parents and his brother Niko with his wife who I didn’t met unfortunately. Their grandparents are staying at a house next door. Oh yeah and a dog. Think that feels crowded? It definitely doesn’t because there is a huge forrest and a lake where you can jump in to. And we did that. They read on the blog that I didn’t take a sauna yet in Finland and they had to change that quickly. They had a separate sauna building next to their house. I never was a big sauna fan as I found them to hot and steamy mostly but this one was pretty good. Nice temperature and they put some tastes in the water to let it smell like eucalyptus and freshly baked bread.

After the sauna we took a dive in the lake, which was nicely 20 degrees, then we went into the hottub and repeated this process a couple of times. Accompanied with the unlimited beers they offered me, this was a damn refreshing experience!

Pictures of today

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