Day 29: Herzlich Wilkommen in Deutschland

After a big breakfast and weird looks of French tourists while we were cooking it in the morning we made our way to Trelleborg port from where we caught a ferry to Germany. After six hours spent on the boat playing "Can you guess which word I'm thinking of?" we finally arrived to Rostock, to price pleasant Germany prepared to visit Berlin. :)

*UPS*

Our royal breakfast

Waiting in the line for the ferry

Little miss sunshine

Six long hours on the ferry

Day 28: Stockholm Revisited

We spent the day strolling along the same streets of Stockholm as last year popping into the shops on our way and spending the money that we have left on our budget. Disappointingly the Björn Borg shops weren't as amazing as we were hoping, hopefully Berlin will be a bit better.

Despite the Björn Borg disappointment, Stockholm still is an amazing city, we could spend an entire week just walking around and taking photos of people and all the tinny streets in Gamla Stan.

*UPS*

Ps: The moose is ours :)

Day 27: Driving across Sweden

On our first day in Sweden we did what everyone has to do here - we went shopping to IKEA. We were planning to buy a bed and a couple of chairs, but none of this would fit into our car so we ended up buying only a couple of blankets. On our way to Stockholm we also stopped in a university town Lulea and strolled around the town for a bit.

The weather has significantly improved, and we can wear short sleeves instead of fleeces and jackets again:)

*UPS*


Trip to Ikea

Lulea street chess

The chess master: ''The game of chess, is like a swordfight . You must think first, before you move.''

The Candy Shop

Ice Cream is gonna save the day!

It's dinner time!

Our five-star restaurant

And our five-star VC

The midnight snack (note the arrival time)

Day 26: Escape to the South

When woke up into the freezing cold rainy morning the whole car was shaking furiously, because of the strong winds. We ate breakfast, got dressed and put the seats back up without even stepping out of the car (that definitely was an achievement), started driving south towards Sweden and escaping the arctic climate as soon as possible. Moving south the weather and the temperatures slowly improved and we soon stopped to celebrate reaching our final destination by eating tortillas and 50-cent coffee and doughnuts. Our next destination is Stockholm and we're planning to reach it by tomorrow evening.

*UPS*

Norwegian landscape

Day 25: Nordkapp

We spent most of the day driving north towards Norway taking pictures of the reindeers walking along the road. On the way we stopped in Inari, a village well known among those interested in Sami culture. We bought some smoked salmon, but of course no expensive souvenirs. The more north we went, the more the landscape changed. From the vast areas of taiga we were slowly coming to the areas of tundra and have reached the Nordkapp peninsula in the afternoon.
After the first shock that we have to pay an outrageous fee of 240 Kronas (30 EUR) for the way in AND also for the way out of Nordkapp area, the second, even bigger shock followed. If you want to visit the well known Nordkapp cliff, you have to pay another 30 EUR per person to come through the gate. What is the most outrageous by the whole thing is that the touristy cliff that they are proclaiming for the northernmost point in Europe actually isn't the most northern point at all. The most northern point Knivskjelodden is thankfully inaccessable to vehicles and therefore away from all the tourist fluff. If you want to reach it you have to put on your hiking boots and hike for about 5 hours both ways (as if we didn't get enough hiking done on the Bear trail) , which is what we did although there was a blizzard and only 7 °C outside. But it was definitely worth it and we got one of our legendary photos taken right at the edge of the rocks facing the north pole.

*UPS*

Mr. Reindeer

An albino reindeer

Smoked fish!

Not bothered to move away

The Nordkapp peninsula

Norwegian mountains

The only other Slovene we met on our trip so far

Hiking towards the northernmost point

Victory

The fake touristy Nordkapp cliff

Day 21 - 24: Hiking the Karhunkierros

We spent the last four days, seven hours per day on average, walking through marshes, forests and over the hanging bridges and hills of one of Finland's biggest national parks Oulanka. We walked the popular 80 km Karhunkierros route (Bear trail) in four parts that were from 15 to 25 km long. We left our car at our ending point in the resort village of Ruka and then took a bus to our starting point in Hautajärvi visitor centre.
We experienced pretty much everything, from light drizzle to heavy showers in the first three days, to nice and sunny weather on the last day. Because of pretty much flat terrain the trail itself isn't very physically demanding, but the fact that you're carrying food and clothes for four days and a tent on your back all the time makes the whole thing much more demanding.

Hikers can stay either in closed or open air wilderness huts over night free of charge, but because they are usually full in high season during summer it is recommendable to bring a tent with you.
We were lucky on the first night and managed to find a place in one of the closed huts and even managed to sneak Lu into it, although dogs aren't allowed to stay inside, but weren't so lucky in the next two days; we spent the nights sleeping in a tent and an open hut.

Spending four full days outside definitely is a great experience, eating only what you brought with you, occasionally stopping and eating blueberries and raspberries on the way and warming yourself with the fire that you made by yourself. You can also see various animal and plant species and meet interesting people. Sitting next to the warm fire in the middle of the Finnish wilderness in the evening, sipping coffee with rum, listening to the nearby stream and waiting for the short night to come, what else do you need?

We're back to civilization now and are continuing north towards Nordkapp. Only a day more and we won't be able to drive any further and will have reached our destination. We decided not to go back the same way, but to drive across Sweden and Germany back home and visit some of the places that we liked so much last year.

And an update on our knitting marathon; the beanies are done, even Lu got her own scarf! We are definitely ready for Nordkapp!

*UPS*

Ready for the trek

At the gate of the Karhunkierros trek


Photos from the trek

At the finish gate

Grooming Lu afterwards