Europe India Trip: Day 28-29: Heja(bye) Sweden, Moi(hello) Finland: Kapellskar (Sweden) - Turku(Finland) - Klaukkala [May 10-11, 2023]

The day of longest (8 hour) ferry ride on this trip. Also experienced best of Finnish hospitality

Update 1 :-

Manne (my host at Klaukkala, north of Helsinki) read the post & then sent me some updates.

1. The martial art folks were practicing with the sword is called Iaido . As per Manne ‘The purpose to learn to draw the sword and cut elegantly and effortlessly in one single movement, when attacked by someone. The aim is to learn to control one's body and mind in perfect harmony’ .

2. The beer that Manne is showing at the end is called Karhu not Karua as mentioned. Manne mentioned Karua means rough & Karhu means Bear.

Manne & I had a pretty long conversations & one interesting bit that I forgot to mention is the term ‘Noniin’ (pronounced as No Neen) in Finnish. As per Manne, if you behave as if you know Finnish, some false confidence & word noiine can do its job. Watch the video below (switch on the subtitles) to know why.

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This is part of my Europe India solo motorbike trip . Please read the post for more context.

The hack to add stops in Google Map reached its limit (yes the hack reached its limit) so had to resort to this meta hack of combining two images :). Total distance covered so far - 4589 kms

As mentioned in the previous post, I did not have a great night sleep as my feet were freezing. At some point, I started googling reviews of my sleeping bag to see if it is the sleeping bag or just me (maybe I have fallen sick or something) & did came across reviews that said the temperature rating of the sleeping bag is a joke (it rated for 3 degrees comfort temperature)

I got up at around 5 thinking an hour would be sufficient for me to pack & react ferry port which was not even a km from the camping place.

Took a pic just before I started to pack. The sun in Scandinavia summers comes out at like 4 in the morning.

As usual, I ended up cutting it too close & remember tying my rucksack pretty haphazardly as it was 6:30 AM & I was like - I gonna miss the ferry the 2nd time. Thankfully, I dint. At the check post, the lady identified me (she was at the counter the previous day where I went to reschedule my missed ferry). I rode in to the parked ship (or ferry) & was a bit relieved. Took a few pictures. I think I was the last one to board because most vehicles were parked in.

I was made to park at the center & there were exits on both sides. It was good that I wasnt on the front so that I wont have pressure to ride quickly .. but I was parked next to a garbage container which made the area stink :)

Baltic Princess was the name of my ferry. It was pretty good from inside.

There was a band performing in the ferry pretty close to the cafe where I sat

Tim from Turku (refer to my previous post for details) had messaged me that he will meet me outside the ferry port & will ride me to the workshop they have in Turku so that we can try fixing my right indicators that have stopped working. Tim asked my motorbike model so that he can see the wiring diagram. I realized I should also do some research from my side, so I started to look into it myself.

Being from India, getting hold of wiring diagram of motorbike is a new thing for me. But seems like in the west, people tweak the electricals of their bike themselves & these wiring diagrams that can be readily downloaded from the motorbike company website come in handy

I spent some time & figured that there might be something wrong close to the switch on the handle bar itself for both indicators to not work. It could be the connector or faulty switch. I told the same thing to Tim on whatsapp & now we had our fiddling start figured.

The ferry stopped at Mariehamn, a group of islands between Sweden & Finland. I remember Nel ( the Dutch old lady whom I met at my camping place last night) had mentioned that the islands are very beautiful. I had a look from the docked ferry.

Ferry docked at Mariehamn

Mariehamn view

I remember spending time on ferry to write pending blog post. I also bought a few items to eat. If you are on budget travel, I would recommend carrying your own food & drinks to ferry. The food wasnt exorbitantly expensive but the expense could have been avoided.

Also, the prices were now in Euro, so that saved me extra calculation in my head. But it wasnt cheap. A chicken panini & coffee costed me around 9 Euros. Good thing was, the coffee refill only costed 1 Euro & I did happen to refill a few times.

The ferry was on time for Turku. Tim sent me a picture on where to meet him post ferry disembarking. He was actually standing at the point & waved at me when I reached there (I was the only motorbiker on the ferry).

We then rode to his workshop which was nearby. Tim & his friends have been working on making these ‘Chopper’ motorbikes. It was a pretty large & well equipped garage where pretty much everything related to motorbike including frame work can be done.

Some of the choppers that have been worked on

Tim got into action as soon as we are in. He quickly opened the indicator shell & we sprayed the corrosion removing spray to clean up the connectors. Sadly, the indicators have started to work as soon as I disembarked at Turku, so we were not sure if it actually fixed things, but at least, I know where to look again if it malfunctions (& it actually did later).

We spoke for some time about our past. I had also bought a drink for Tim (a mix of Cognac & Vodka which is popular in Finland). I had thought that the fixing will take long & I would probably stay in Turku itself & we will probably drink it together, but guess, I wasn’t destined to taste it :).

Tim & I before I left the workshop

I messaged Manne that I am ready to come to Helsinki & Manne sent his exact cordinates to me. I started to ride to his place at around 7 PM. I started to feel sleepy because of lack of sleep from previous night & stopped at a Shell petrol station on the way. I picked a panini & coffee there.

Pretty decent panini for 7.5 Euros

Manne’s place was in North of Helsinki close to a small town named Klaukkala . I remember riding on countryside road & it felt very surreal to ride on the winding roads between farm & jungles. Unfortunately I did not have the GoPro fixed on my handlebar so I could not take pictures.

At some point, I got worried if I am heading to the right place & I stopped & messaged Manne the final place I am heading to. Manne said that is not right & sent me updated cordinates. I started to ride to the place. I had sent my cordinates to Manne too & Manne replied he will drive to me but since I started riding, I missed his message.

Manne crossed me on the way in his old Citroen & then he came behind me, honked & I stopped. He then waved & turned around. I was pretty tired at the moment & I thought - oh someone must be from UK & waved at me seeing a UK motorbike. I waved back & continued to ride as per my map pointer, only to realize later that it must be Manne. I stopped a little ahead & then I saw Manne coming back again. This time, I followed him & we reached his place.

Manne’s house was in the woods & probably my closest experience of staying in the wild in the trip so far. Manne asked me if I drink beer & I was like - sure. So he opened a beer cans & some chips packet & we started to talk. He sat behind his Citroen car & I was standing. We talked for quite sometime. Somehow, I forgot that I was actually tired.

I went to sleep at probably like 1 AM. The next day plan was to take rest & then fix the indicators that started to malfunction on the way again. But this time, I wasnt as clueless as before. Thanks to Tim, I knew where to look & how to work on the bike. Plus Manne was an expert in DIY repair. So I knew I would have help if I need it.

I woke up leisurely the next day. Manne came over & invited me for a coffee & breakfast. We sat on the tables in his garden & had the breakfast. I also asked Manne for a picture & he obliged.

I soon started to work on my indicators. This time, I opened it completely. Manne provided expert guidance when I got stuck.

The indicator shell hanging from my handlebar completely opened.

I asked Manne to have a look when I was able to open it completely. We both agreed that connectors might have some green oxidation & we cleaned them. I also felt the movement of the switch is probably not the best so I cleaned that too. I put the assembly back & it seemed all good.

I had my right rear view mirror broken & I had asked Manne a shop nearby to buy one. I had managed to tape it but it wasnt holding that well. When I was about to leave, Manne brought a chrome rear view mirror from the garage. He said someone who stayed with him via Bunk A Biker had left it at his place. We first thought that it would not fit but it had a clamp & Manne fitted it on my bike’s handle bar.

The right rear view mirror that Manne has graciously donated to me.

I then took my bike for a ride & rode to a supermarket in Klaukkala. I bought some eggs & groceries. I also bought beer for the beer party on that night.

I remember cooking my lunch/dinner that day on the stove with the eggs & bread I got. This was my first time using my portable stove for cooking. Unfortunately I did not take any pictures.

Manne taught Akkaido (a Japanese martial art) at a place in the nearby town & I decided to accompany him to the place. It was fun watching grown ups practicing. There were also some people practicing an art with swords. Manne did tell me the name but I forgot.

Manne in green T. He was wearing the martial art dress but this was when he had changed & we were about to leave. Someone asked him some doubt & he started to show them how its done.

The sword martial art that two of the folks were practicing

We were back at Manne’s place by 8:30 PM & it was beer time. We ended up talking about a lot of things - religion, politics, Ukraine war, history of Finland. Overall I enjoyed Manne’s company. He had sense of humour but he use to say things being fairly serious. He said that is how Finns sense of humour works :).

Start of our beer party. Manne holding a beer brand from Finland called Karua. It means Bear in Finnish. He said, most Finns pronounce Bear & Beer the same.

This time we were up till 12 & then I went for sleep. I had plans to leave for Helsinki the next day, do some sight seeing there & then leave for Tallin (Estonia) via ferry.