Wow, I’ve now been on the road for over two weeks, and it’s been such an incredible, insightful, meaningful, and fun adventure so far! Once I arrived to Turku from Helsinki I took two “rest” days in Turku, which were actually crazy busy. I had a great meeting with Kynnys Ry in Turku (I’ll write more updates about Kynnys Turku and the people I met there later on the blog), I did my first ever interview for a newspaper about my trip (thank you Åbo Underättelser), I made some important bike adjustments (switching my front and rear racks and fitting a new seat post), and I did a bit of sightseeing. After leaving Turku, I began cycling southwest into the Archipelago and my journey into the Åland islands began.
Turku sightseeing
I left from Turku (as is becoming kind of a trend) a bit later in the evening, around 6pm, and didn’t have much plan for where I’d sleep that night. After checking a few camp spots, and not being satisfied with any of them, I realized there was a “Warmshowers” host along my way that could be a perfect place to stay the night. “Warmshowers” is a bikepacking hosting app where bike travelers can reach out to hosts while on cycling journeys, and I think I’ll be using it a lot on my trip. I sent Samuli (the host) a message around 8:30pm, regretting that I had sent it so late and not expecting to get a response, already making potential back-up plans. But, within 5-minutes, Samuli replied and said a mattress was waiting for me. I was thrilled and cycled fast to reach their home at about 9:45pm. Despite it being late, I was greeted warmly by Samuli and his daughter Houdar, and later met Samuli’s partner Riikka and their one year and three month old daughter Elsa. I was so grateful for their friendly and laid-back hospitality. They even generously gave me some dinner (delicious mac and cheese) before I had a great night’s sleep on the upstairs mattress. In the morning, Riikka graciously offered me breakfast and coffee, and I got to play with Elsa, and watch her curiously and joyfully explore her surroundings feeling like I could see her learning new things as she played. I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect first Warmshowers experience, and thank you Samuli, Riikka, Houdar, and Elsa for being so warm and welcoming, and for giving me a glimpse into your wonderful, countryside family life in Parainen.
Elsa is curious why I chose to bike all the way to South Africa?!
After a relaxing morning, I had to get going in a rush, realizing the last ferry to the island I was hoping to sleep that night would depart at 3:30pm and was about 55km away. I jumped on the bike and pedaled hard and fast, but in the end I missed the ferry due to delays from an intermediate ferry along the way. But, this turned out to be a blessing, as it gave me the opportunity to explore some of the smaller islands in the interior of the archipelago. After missing the ferry, I finished the day biking to the island of Mossala, where I set up camp. This was the longest day of biking so far, at 92 km. The sunset over the sea blew me away, and I sat on top of an upside-down boat on the shore, eating plain couscous for dinner, and watched the sky burn and glow magnificent shades of orange, pink, and purple, the colors rippling along the water, and listened to the songs of the birds and the calm sway of the sea.
The sunsets in Åland were breathtaking
The following day, I had the goal to reach the Hotel Svala, a hotel in the Åland archipelago owned by a friend of a family friend from back in Santa Fe, New Mexico, to stay the night there and meet with the friends of friends there at the hotel. Hotel Svala was on the island of Kumlinge, many intermediate islands and ferry rides away. I had taken the last few days very spontaneously, and realized on this day that this strategy doesn’t totally mesh with the ferry schedules of Åland, as I was 15-minutes late for the first ferry from Mossala and needed to wait an extra 2-hrs for the next ferry. This delay left me flying through the rest of the islands, trying to ride fast from ferry to ferry to make it on-time for the last ferry to Kumlinge and Hotel Svala. However, as with the day before, even with frantic rushing, I didn’t make it for the ferry and had to find a spontaneous sleeping spot on the island of Torsholma, where I camped as close to the ferry port as I could manage to wake up the next morning and jump on the first ferry to Kumlinge and Hotel Svala. This day had been a bit stressful, feeling rushed and constrained by the schedule and destinations I had set for myself. So that night, as I set up camp and watched the again beautiful sunset over the sea, I vowed to take it slower and stay open to the opportunities the journey presented, trusting that the schedule and destinations would work themselves out as the adventure unfolds.
My bike got accustomed to crossing the sea by ferry
This philosophy immediately had a beautiful effect, as the next day was one of the most magical and memorable of the trip thus far. After waking, I successfully made the early ferry to Kumlinge, and arrived to Hotel Svala around 10am. I first met Helena (a generous helping hand at the hotel for the summer) who was walking Onni (a friendly and happy elderly dalmatian dog), and then was warmly greeted in the hotel by Jannika (the mother of Sage, the friend of a friend from New Mexico). My initial plan when I arrived was to hangout at the hotel until the afternoon, then jump on the next ferry towards the main westernmost Åland island, and continue the next day towards Sweden. But, in staying true to my vow of the previous night, I quickly realized that there was something special about Hotel Svala and the group of people there in that moment, and when Jannika generously offered me to stay the night, I knew it was an opportunity I had to take, and so happily agreed. This was one of the best decisions I made so far on the trip, as it was truly a magical day exploring Kumlinge, and getting a much deeper understanding and appreciation of life on the islands. We started with a delicious breakfast (accompanied by the best coffee I had so far on the trip) at the hotel, where I also met Jannika’s friends Sandra and Juan, who were staying two days there in Kumlinge. In an interesting manifestation of serendipity (it seems Hotel Svala has a magical way of facilitating beautiful moments of chance and human connection), Sandra and Juan were also from New Mexico, so was very cool to connect with other New Mexicans way out in the Åland islands. After breakfast, we met some of the colorful characters that made up the Kumlinge island community, including Monika, who showed us around her beautiful summer cottage on the rocky shoreline, and Tuomo, a former engineer and soon-to-be master boat builder, who showed us the boat him and Jannika had found in the dump and were planning to bring back to life. Tuomo shared with us about Åland’s fascinating maritime heritage and history, and also his own life wisdom, as I’ll especially remember one quote he had about seeing one of his cats (he lives in his farmhouse on the island with 6, or maybe 7 cats) playing in the field next to some tall orange wildflowers and having a moment where he recognized “this is paradise, but you have to choose to see it”.
That evening, Monika kindly invited us back to her summer cottage to enjoy a woodfire sauna experience by the sea. Me and Helena excitedly accepted, and it was an amazing evening relaxing in the sauna, interspersed with refreshing dips in the still pretty frigid Baltic, and enjoying some tomato soup Monika had cooked with her friend Paivi. Helena was about my age, and throughout the day it had felt so easy to connect and chat about many interesting topics, from death doulas to ancestry and heritage to modernity and feeling lost and how to find meaning. Helena had studied heritage and questions of meaning and what we value as human beings, and I learned so much from listening to her thoughtful, empathetic, and unique perspective, while sitting together in the sauna and watching the sky blaze powerful hues of red and orange as the sun melted into the sea. Finally, we finished the day back at the hotel with a deeply meaningful and engaging conversation with the whole group (Jannika, Helena, Sandra, Juan, and myself) discussing about New Mexican culture and heritage, and how special it is, but also the tragic challenges in how it can be lost, but also how it may be preserved, and it was eye-opening and empathy-building hearing new perspectives and stories related to the state I came from. The conversation winded down around 2am, and I went to bed feeling deeply grateful for the impactful experiences and moments from the day, that I will carry with me always.
Magical moments with beautiful humans
The following day I rode to meet with Sage (the original contact from the family friend in New Mexico), who was staying at her home in Mariehamn, the largest city on the main Åland island, working on a kitchen remodel. Sage was also so welcoming and kind and put me up in her guest room for the night, after a nice dinner by the seaside and more impactful conversations about life and how we can pivot, re-build, and stay resilient when life dramatically and unexpectedly goes in ways you wouldn’t and couldn’t expect. At Sage’s house, I also met Said, Sage’s friend and handy-man, who had himself gone on an amazing and bold bicycle journey back in 1996, riding from northern Finland to his hometown of Tehran in Iran. It was great to hear his own stories from his journey, and always feels so easy to connect and be understood when talking with other bicycle adventurers. Sage also got me into contact with the local Åland newspaper (thank you for this!) and I did another interview with Nya Åland about my journey (will share when it is released). Then I rode the last 30 km to the port of Eckerö, where I would catch my ferry to Grisselhamn in Sweden.
My ride through the Åland islands taught me a deeply valuable lesson: to slow down, enjoy the ride, and be open to change plans and embrace those special opportunities that may present themselves along the journey, because they could lead to some of the most amazing moments and memories of the trip. Thank you so so much to all the gracious, kind, friendly, welcoming, unique, and interesting people that made my time in Åland so magical (thank you Sage, Jannika, Helena, Sandra, Juan, Monika, Tuomo, Paivi, Said, Samuli, Riikka, Houdar, Elsa, and Onni!). These moments left a lasting impression on me, and I’ll carry them close to my heart throughout the rest of my journey and long after I stop pedaling. And thank you so much also to Hotel Svala for providing a beautiful experience of the Åland islands, and I would definitely recommend anyone interested in traveling to the archipelago to check out Hotel Svala as it truly is a magical place!
I’m writing this post from a café in Alunda, Sweden, after my first border crossing of the journey, and I can’t wait to explore this whole new country and experience and share the meaningful stories that unfold along the way. Until next time…
Pedal with purpose
– Max