Scandinavia
Holà, bonjourno,
In July, last summer, before coming back to France, we learned about the hay season in the north, up there in Scandinavia. We stopped for some days in two places in particular, to give a hand for the tough time hay time!
Our first stop was at Tomas' place, lost in the middle of Sweden, far from everything, close to nature, and almost selfsufficient. We were then with Adrien, dear friend in Aymeric's heart.
We reached this extraordinary place by feet, under warm conditions and heavily attacked by mosquitoes. Tomas lives alone with his dog, few chickens and rabbits and he sometimes has the visit of travelers like us or Lena, a german traveler who was there too.
Having moved in this old house few years ago, Tomas is really skilled, he creates everything himself; from the splendid sauna to small utensils, but also compost toilets and other tiny huts... Handiwork is what's going on. The big constructions are made from wood logs fixed into each other; easy to do, this method combines simplicity and beauty using only this one material that is everywhere in Swenden: wood. Tomas just uses what's in "his" forest.
Very simply, he explains to us that the current modern way of living doesn't fit him, since a long time he lives alone or with others in the forest, that's where he feels he belongs. Very humble, it's not about boycotting, but simply living the way he likes, without trying to please anyone or prove anything.
So we spent a beautifull week, into the nature with no running water nor electricity. Daily life was about going in the forest and seek for water at the drinkable spring, washing ourselves and our clothes down at the lake, cooking what we fished that day with potatoes and weeds. We spent the rest of the day picking the hay and bringing it up the hill, weeding, cooking, protecting against the mosquitoes, fishing, waiting for the rain to stop, and sometimes, depending on the weather, we would go heat up inside the cosy sauna.
By working about a month in the year in the capital, he can provide himself with his few financial needs that are gas for the car and rare shopping. The life of Tomas is to grow and harvest vegetables, fruits and berries to eat them and dry them to anticipate dark and cold winter, where skis an books become his true friends. His life is to take care of nature around him so that it can serve him with food in return.
A simple life in an amazing setting, we liked it, it inspired us.
For Anna and Adrien, being covered from top to bottom in the middle of summer to barely try to avoid mosquitoes was hard, even harder was to see that Aymeric wasn't sensitive to these evil beasts. Even Aymeric today admits that "sometimes it was driving me crazy".
It was a beautiful place to share a bit of our daily traveling life with Adrien, thank you for coming !
Thanks Tomas.
Our second step was in Norway, in the north, close to the Loffoten islands, we discovered a very small island where only Gunnar and Barbara live there all year long.
There too, our main work was hay work. In the country where the sun never goes down, we met Julia, our dear Julia, who then joined us in France for the festival. All around us was islands, mountains, blue lagoon water (because of a temporary alga), quite a taste of paradise.
Everyday surrounded by these gorgeous landscapes, we were hanging the hay freshly cut onto iron wire, placed on a ephemeral wooden construction. Just as if we were drying our laundry in the wind. Later, the hay will be given to their sheeps which will survive the cold and long winter thanks to this work.
The life on the island was very pleasant to us, far from everything a second time. When we went on the continent, we had to think about everything and the essential before going back in the middle of the fjords. There is a pure thing when you are living on an island, maybe because it's surrounded by water it's like a human sized Earth on which local and short circuit are very important to survive. Finally this is a place where fences and locks are almost non-existent, the trust is more easy to reach, what a nice tranquillity.
Thanks for this joyfull stop in the middle of the water, thanks Gunnar, thanks Barbara.
After these two steps which, by the ways of living, have touched us, we go on with many ideas for our future life: nature, selfsufficiency, island... dreams and ideas are flourishing.
We then headed towards the north cap, by boat, following the norwegian fjords, slow and smooth trip to reach the humid coldness and bright nights of the very north of Europe. It was a short stay due to nasty weather. We then for the first time of the trip, went South; to go to Finland and crossed it from north to south, hitchhiking.
Few visits in few towns such as Rovaniemi, Oulu, Vasaa, Turku, Helsinki. Our trip was a bit different since we didn't stop to help anywhere.
We still have met a lot of people on the road, on these long northern lands, inhabited by reindeers! Beautifull trip down, to then join Swenden by boat, where we flew back to France, friends and family from Stockholm.
As of now, we are in january, and after our french months, we are so ready for a new departure. It's official, we are leaving the known grounds on friday the 19th of January. Let's go to spain!
New on the website: a map stands below all our articles, it shows most of the stops we made for the project so you can follow us more precisely!
Hasta pronto las chicas! (yes we're learning spanish super quickly)
Good bye
A&A