Flowing Firm’s Springish Road Trip in Finland

It is been an unusually freezing cold spring here in Finland. Still, we wanted to go ahead and take a road trip in Finland. We visited relatives living in Central Finland. They were the only close people we hadn’t yet seen after coming back from tropical Southeast Asia. All the other relatives live in Southern Finland.

The weather has felt even colder after being six months in beautiful Southeast Asia. Ah, those memories warm a bit at the moment. Luckily, there have been a tiny glimpse of hope from warmer times ahead here, too. It’s a summertime, anyway!

With that being said, let’s take a closer how our road trip in Finland went!

Vernal Road Trip in Finland

First, we had a plan to borrow an RV from my parents in order to travel almost 450 kilometers. In total, that would make 900 kilometers from Salo to Kuopio – and vice versa. It would be quite an accomplishment during a longer weekend period of time with a vehicle that size. As you very well know, my driving experience has lately limited only on two wheelers such as scooters and motorbikes.

We came up with wiser choice and borrowed a tinier car: My mother’s Daewoo. Since we already had a roof over our head for the weekend, we didn’t have a need for a camper. In addition, we had much fewer luggage comparing, for example, our recent trip.

We hit the road on sunny, vernal Thursday afternoon. The plan was to stay three nights in Kuopio. It would take around six hours to get there from Western Finland to the Eastern part of the country.

Finnish countryside is full of lakes, wooden landscape, and peaceful fields. Instead of pushing full-speed along the highway, we chose smaller roads for relaxing driving and better views. Our journey included a quick ride through the national park as well.

From Western to Eastern Finland

After 7 hours of driving, three gas station stops, and a couple of photographing moments we finally arrived at Kuopio. Since it was 8 pm already, we drove instantly to the apartment of my sister-in-law and her husband. They were kind enough to let us keep our exhausted and very thirsty Daewoo in their apartment complex’ garage. Moreover, they had prepared a very-much-needed tasty supper for us.

Rest of the evening went flying by when talking through our six month’s highlights in Southeast Asia.

There was a street food festival in Kuopio city center on Friday. The weather was sunny but breezy. That didn’t stop us from going to the beautiful downtown of this 110.000 inhabitant city. After an authentic lunch, we had a chance to take a boat ride in Lake Kallavesi. The lake is surrounding the city making it an astonishing experience to see the whole area from a different perspective.

We had quite a frigid time on the lake when riding full steam ahead with the powerboat. Yet, it was definitely worth it. A hot Finnish sauna felt unbelievable good after a couple of hours ride in the windy 10 degrees lake.

The weather forecast hadn’t promised a lot on Saturday. Nonetheless, it was miserable to notice the temperature fall under 10 degrees Celsius. Furthermore, the rain didn’t add any improvements for this extraordinarily cold late spring Finnish weather. Anyway, we tried to get best out of our reunion by playing board and card games as well spending time together.

It is the most important thing to spend time together regardless of the external matters, isn’t it?

On Sunday, after having an excellent, healthy breakfast provided by our hosts again, we packed our backpacks and were ready to begin the journey back. We have had three great nights in Kuopio and were more than happy to be able to visit there. There might be another possibility to come back later this summer.

One Annoying Matter While Taking a Road Trip in Finland

There was one thing which we hadn’t remembered to prepare while taking a road trip in Finland. Since we have used to ride around with our own steady pace without speed cameras in Southeast Asia, we didn’t think about it too much. That was a huge mistake. There are countless of speed camera areas along the main roads in Finland.

Whilst it’s properly announced when reaching a speed camera area, it is still difficult to obey the rules. The reason for that is speed limits constantly change. Every time an intersection is approaching, the speed limit drops 20 km/h – sometimes even more. Of course, it’s an important thing to pay extra attention when there is a crossroad in sight. But what makes it annoying is that a speed camera is located right next to the speed limit sign. It’s not just one or two cameras once in a while but almost every time the same principle applies.

That makes you wonder the true purpose behind the speed cameras. Are the cameras at the road side for protection or as a cash machine?

In conclusion, our road trip in Finland had a more important cause than speed cameras. We could see a totally different landscape than we had used to during these past months. In addition, it was truly important to see close relatives living further away. Finally, it was great time for me and my wife to spend some time together after intensive traveling, again… 🙂