SUMMER ROADS

 

PINUS SYLVESTRIS & SALIX (VIDE)

VERY COMMON along summer roads.

SNOW AND ICE on the roads still.

This is how a typical village road in Finland looks like in summer. Many forestroads between villages do not yet have pavement or even roadsigns!

So a good advice is: Take a friend, a local guide with you or speak with village people, many actually these days speak three languages or more. Try swedish, english or finnish. You might hear some dialects on the west coast also. But do not be afraid of vikings. These days they tend to be out and about fishing. Salmon is of course the favorite, you can note many places in the archipelago ending with three letters -lax, for example: Vinlax, Kantlax, Petalax and so on. LAX is salmon in swedish. "Lohi" in finnish. Vik (Gulf) is also "Lahti" in finnish. 

If you want to go berrypicking for wild strawberries, lingonberries, cloudberries or blueberries,

check NATURE GATE site first! Names in latin and the site is translated into many languages. 

A goldmine for Nature Lovers.

KALIX is a town in northern Sweden. Go with ferry AURORA BOTNIA from VASA to UMEÅ or choose the alternative way of travelling, by car or train "around the bend" (Gulf of Botnia) and discover how Finland and Sweden still are geographically and historically connected. Our friendly neighbour to the north is of course Norway, should you want to explore higher mountains than we have here, a bit north of  VASA. (Vaasa)