i feel as though my brain cells are rotting and expanding at the same time.
the crew we have and the company we keep know how to get things done, are nerds in various topics, and together our skills are (almost) endless. but we do not forget to also have fun and laugh and to communicate across culture and language our weird senses of humour.
in the north of helsinki we were greeted so warmly and with such hospitality by some of the people from solis who generously hosted us in their garden for a week.
we were fed fresh lettuce from the greenhouse and strawberries from the garden, plus some foraged nettles and a dish of yummy garlic pasta. the friendly people who were renovating one of the buildings borrowed us a few tools when our toolbox wouldn’t arrive and shared their coffee with us in the “morning” (12-15:00).
close to the community living was a river with gorgeous crushed gravel paths alongside it. some of us went swimming every day and one of our circles (where we learned how to welcome one another) happened in a meadow full of wildflowers next to the water. though in general our circles tended to be – let’s put it nicely – “thorough” and this one was no exception.
during our stay we had some nice group dinners and some fruitful (or rather breadful) dumpster missions. having arrived just after midsommar time became a weirdly irrelevant concept since it never got really dark and we regularly found ourselves thinking it was around 20:00 when in reality it was 2 in the morning. i’m not sure what ever went on there before noon and i don’t think many others do either.
i’m often in & out of sleep problems but the white noise of the highway against the calmness of solis and the garden helped immensely. plus i have a hefty eye mask and a sunshade curtain inside my tent i’ve improvised with my towel – which then also dries though the night while protecting my sensitive little hawk eyes from the blaring sunrise. and maybe helping my body preserve some semblance of a circadian rhythm.
many of us arrived ready to go, bicycles or luggage maybe just needing a few tweaks here and there. some arrived with just a backpack from rainy cold italy to sunny hot finland (??) by hitchhiking and ferry and more hitchhiking (in a tesla almost all the way to our doorstep). so we still had to come upon some bikes which wasn’t as easy a task as hoped since just a few weeks before we arrived the Pyöräpaja Helsinki (helsinki bike kitchen, which was supposed to be our starting project) had accidentally flooded and all their stock moved to various locations until the damage could be repaired or a new location is found.
on the 28th we had the bicycle fleamarket into which some of us had put almost all their hopes of finding a bicycle. more people than we had expected showed up and it was a very chill and casual round with interesting conversations and winning over one more member of ecotopia who will join us in tampere!
sadly though, there was just one bicycle brought there to be sold (and it was not so suitable for touring) and only a few pieces of equipment.
but in the end, by searching through a lot of recycling stores, flea markets, bike shops, abandoned bikes around the trainstation and the pyöräpaja we did all manage to find bikes, backracks, bags and anything else we needed. the last bikes were being fixed and made ready during the night before our first cycling day.
what also didn’t arrive as prepared as we had hoped were our parcels. there were five packages that had been sent to Pyöräpaja Helsinki way in advance, from various places. but only one (the flyers) had made it there – and actually we never picked those up.
our packages were waiting in several post boxes, logistic centers or hadn’t even arrived in helsinki yet (or hadn’t even left poland)!
in the end we only managed to get the toolbox (for now) and had to get some cooking equipment, first aid, etc. additionally to organising functioning trailers. most of this happened in a process of chaotic acquisitions during the last two days. but – it all worked out (kind of) and we started cycling with two borrowed trailers, medium sized pots and people skilled in fire making, no communal tarps and very little weight on the communal trailers – yay!
so, our conclusion of the preparation week: do not trust posti, an ugly bike is better than no bike at all and sometimes the scouts CAN leave at 14:30.
