If you’ve followed me for awhile, you’ll know that I spent some time in Finland in early 2018. I’ve wanted to go back ever since! I had a tentative plan to go during the fall of 2020, and then, ya know, covid came along. I postponed that dream, and in the meantime, I ended up moving to Duluth MN and met a man I now call my husband. Insert new job, dating, engagement, wedding, and then a baby girl!
Before too long, I started feeling like I needed to make it happen before more babies came along and it wasn’t feasible anymore. I also really wanted to share my love of Finland with Jess and I didn’t want to wait until we were 50 to do that. In July of 2023, I had my annual review at work and one of the questions was “What are your personal or professional goals for the next 12 months?” Guess what my personal goal was? To get to Finland! My very generous boss actually offered to let me book our tickets using miles on the company card so that we would be able to make that dream come true. Right then and there, the planning began!
We considered timing, weather, where we wanted to go, and we booked tickets for May 2nd-26th, 2024. We visited three countries- Finland, the Czech Republic, and Germany. This post focuses primarily on Finland, and I’ll be sharing photos from the second two countries later!
I purposely chose an overnight flight on the way there in hopes that Audyn would sleep. We left Minneapolis at 10 pm after an hour delay. She did sleep, although pretty fitfully. She did great overall! We had a layover in Amsterdam and we had to RUN since our flight had been delayed, but we made it! We landed in Helsinki at 5:30 pm on May 3rd.
Upon arrival, we rented a car and drove an hour up to Lahti, the city I called my home when I was in Finland all those years before! We stayed with my dear friend Laura and her family in their beautiful hand-built home.Their youngest greeted us very excitedly and began telling a story in Finnish, and when he realized we couldn’t understand him, he felt so embarrassed. Poor little guy! Audyn LOVED their sandbox and trampoline!
After a good nights sleep, we spent part of Saturday going for a walk near the bay and getting an ice cream treat!
Initially I had wanted to take the ferry over to Tallinn, Estonia for a day, but Audyn had some pretty significant jet lag after our first night there. (Jess and I took turns driving around during the night and going through the McDonald’s drive thru at 3 am. I’m sure they didn’t expect for a car to pull up and ask “Do you speak English?” at that time of night!) It sounded like too much with our lack of sleep to pull off going to Tallinn, so we settled on spending a day going to Suomenlinna instead, the sea fortress of Helsinki.
When we got off the ferry, we stopped at the K Market to get some snacks. Jess bought a donut with pink icing. When we got back outside, he took a bite and then held it out to see what type of filling was inside. A seagull seized that opportunity to snatch it out of his hands! We laughed so hard.
We borrowed an outdoor suit for Audyn for our outdoor activities and she looked soooo cute in it!
This dry dock is used for boat repairs.
My little babushka.
Lots of the pathways were made from the rocks in the bottom of this image. It was pretty tough on the feet, and I imagine a pretty bumpy stroller ride too!
When we got back from Suomenlinna, we meandered around Helsinki for a short bit.
One evening Laura and I took our littles to a big park in Lahti. We even came up with our own workout while the kiddos played!
One evening we had a fire in the woods with many of my friends. It was such a special time! We visited, roasted sausages and candies, visited some more… It felt like my heart was bursting with joy by the time we left.
Most of our days in Lahti were spent visiting friends, attending church a couple of times, and stopping by the shopping malls to check out the Finnish candy and goods. Exactly what I wanted! It felt so special to reconnect with everyone after six years. <3
We left Lahti on Saturday, May 11th and drove up to Oulu, which was six hours North. We kinda took the long way around to stop at a market along the way, and then drove directly over towards the Gulf of Bothnia and drove the rest of the way to Oulu along coastline.
We stopped at the beach in Kalajoki. It took us a minute to find a beach access point! The tide was out so we hoped to see some creatures in the tide pools, but I think it was too cold still in mid-May, or maybe it’s not normal to see creatures that far North. I have no idea! Audyn had a blast taking a break from the car!
If you’ve been following along for awhile, you may recognize this couple too! I took their wedding photos in August 2019. They initially lived in Southern Finland but had moved to Oulu a few years back, so I made it a required stop during our trip!
Our first day there was a Sunday and I don’t have any photos from that day, as we went to church and then went visiting. The following day, Erika and Panu and their two boys took us all around the city for some sight seeing.
Such a sweet family. <3
This policeman is a famous landmark in Oulu.
I loooooove indoor markets! We found some great souvenirs here.
We stopped briefly at the beach here! It was pretty quiet in May. I imagine it’s a busy place when the warm weather rolls around.
Erika and Panu had arranged a special treat for us even before we arrived! A friend of theirs has a wooden castle and outdoor retreat/recreation area at his house, and it’s called Liisanlinna (Liisa’s castle) in honor of his wife. They gave us the grand tour of the castle and their property and treated us to a meal around the fire afterwards. Markku, the castle creator, was also a boy scouts leader and he and Jess bonded over all of his badges and the history behind them. Such a lovely evening!
Audyn and Luka becoming fast friends.
Markku asked for a group picture before we left and I’m so glad. I love this photo.
After 13 days in Finland, we spent time in other countries before coming back to Helsinki for two nights at the very end of our trip. Initially I had a hotel booked, but after spending so much time with friends, we felt like that was a bleak way to end our trip. Plus I still had a friend I hadn’t gotten a chance to visit and it didn’t sound like fun to try and arrange a cozy chat at a hotel. So, I reached out a fellow Yooper who lives in Helsinki and asked if she had room for us. She didn’t, but sent us to another friend of hers and we ended up staying with them for those two nights. It was so much fun getting to know them! Leila is actually from the US too and we discovered we had similar friends in common over our years of travels. Her husband unfortunately had a headache and skipped out on our dessert picnic and coffee date below.
Jess and I were so thankful we decided to skip the hotel. It was a cozy and warm way to end our trip and we went home with thankful hearts. He fell in love with Finland too and we really hope to go back again someday! Probably not with an 18 month old though. :) More on that to come when I get to the Germany and Czechia posts!