I woke up this morning to Hai’s face inches from mine. “Change of plans,” he said. And just like that Iceland was off our immediate travel schedule and replaced by Sweden.
It’s about 36 hours until our departure for Europe, which is funnily enough a lot more leeway than we usually have when we need to rearrange our travel plans, so it’s just been a regular day checking off the usual pre-travel logistics. Several hours later, we have flights and accommodation sorted and I’ve even done the dreaded job of packing, at least set aside what I’m bringing. Having just come back from Australia with a ton of stuff, we can’t wait to get back to our usual minimal travel style. Carrying so much stuff is exhausting!
Why the change of plans? Well, we were going to Iceland to meet up with some of the world’s most influential Instagramers at the annual International Instameet, which this year is being held in the Nordics. Norway, Sweden and then Iceland, to be exact. Unfortunately, the last leg in Iceland has had to be cancelled last-minute, however, there was still the opportunity for us to meet up with the group in Stockholm, so that’s exactly what we are going to do instead!
Our plans for Finland remain unchanged, but we’ll now have a little more time there, which is awesome too. We’ll first be going to Salla in Lapland. Dubbed the ‘Middle of Nowhere’, there will be plenty of opportunities to enjoy the natural surrounds. I just read ‘meeting baby reindeer’ on the itinerary and could barely contain myself. Biking, hiking and something called ‘frisbee golf’ is also on the agenda.
From there, we’ll be driving to our cottage by the Finnish Lakelands, a usual summer pastime for the Finns. There we’ll be going fishing under the midnight sun, exploring the surrounding wilderness and enjoying our private sauna.
Then we’ll have a couple of days in Helsinki, before heading to Sweden for the International Instameet. After that, we’ll be back in Finland just in time for an event that we couldn’t have timed our trip better for, the annual Wife Carrying World Championships! It’s essentially a race where men carry their wives through an obstacle course and the winner receives their wife’s weight in beer. I’m still try to convince Hai to enter us in, but this is honestly serious business. People train for this thing. Interesting video footage is sure to be had in any case!
With a few more days left to explore the Finnish capital, that will wrap up our first trip to the Nordics.
If you’ll be in Helsinki over the next few weeks, do let us know. Also, if you happen to be in Tokyo tomorrow afternoon (Saturday, June 20th), we’ll be at Instagramers Japan’s Ultimate Instagram Exhibition, where the work of 1500 Japan-based photographers, including Hai, will be on display. The exhibition will be held at the Photons Art Gallery in Asakusabashi. You can find more info (in Japanese) here.
On Sunday, we’re off! We’ll post as often as we can during our European travels on Facebook and Twitter, so be sure to follow us there.
Until then, as always,
Happy adventuring!
Heather
Wednesday 24th of June 2015
Our paths will be crisscrossing! I just got back from Norway, am headed to Stockholm in July and Helsinki in August. Enjoy your travels - I'm looking forward to those photos!
Jessica - Notes of Nomads
Thursday 2nd of July 2015
Ah, no way! Seriously, our plans have to align one of these days. We can't keep missing each other like this!
Travel With Bender
Sunday 21st of June 2015
Awesome - fun times ahead :D
Jessica - Notes of Nomads
Thursday 2nd of July 2015
Thank you! Having a great time. Hope your North American travels are treating you well too! :)
Joella // Paper Crane Stories
Saturday 20th of June 2015
Change of plans but sounds like it is still going to be an amazing trip! It's good you will now actually get more time in Finland too! Looking forward to seeing all the photos.
Jessica - Notes of Nomads
Saturday 20th of June 2015
Thanks Joella! Yes, that will definitely be nice. So much to explore just in Finland. Can't wait to share our experiences. Thanks so much for following along!
Autumn Ashbough
Saturday 20th of June 2015
Sounds exciting. Looking forward to seeing baby reindeer and Hai carrying Jessica across the "Finnish" line! (Hahaha, sorry, I could not resist.)
Although...I think maybe Jessica should carry Hai.
Jessica - Notes of Nomads
Saturday 20th of June 2015
Haha The funny thing is, they actually have that on their sign at the end - the "Finnish Line"!
If I carried Hai then I don't think we'd get past the first water obstacle! We actually weighed ourselves when we were weighing our baggage before we boarded our flight from Australia the other day and it turns out we are exactly the same weight, so either way we'd be carrying our ENTIRE body weight. EEK!