On the last day of my trip, I took a day trip across the Gulf of Finland to Tallinn. I took the M/S Finlandia, Eckerö Line cruise-ferry between Helsinki and Tallinn. That day was a sunny day like my initial days in Stockholm and I couldn’t resist my temptation to go swimming in 5°C water at the long Pirita Beach. That beach is a long sandy beach, typical of the beaches in Baltic countries, with blue flag certification but it…
After FinTrailO day 2 in Tampere, I went to a sauna. I had read from tourist websites that people normally use sauna in combination with swimming, for example, swim – sauna, or sauna – swim, or even alternate between them. After I changed my clothes, I first went swimming for about 28 minutes. The lake temperature was 5°C at that time. Afterwards, I entered the sauna. However, not long after I entered the sauna, people thought that I was in…
On 4/5, day 5 of my trip, I went to Porvoo for doing FinTrailO. TempO and PreO were held in that day. However, the terrain was too difficult for me, mainly rock and cliff hidden in forest. I scored 790 seconds for 30 controls in TempO, where the winning time was only 237 seconds, and 15 out of 28 in PreO. It was snowing in May! However, the preceding days in the end of April were very warm, like in…
I did my second orienteering competition, Swedish League in this trip on day 4 of my trip, 3rd May. It was a sprint competition with world ranking status. It was the highest level competition in Sweden. The competition was held in Fisksätra with a typical suburban setting, running between low density residences. My friend Raphael, living in Gothenburg, was there as well. However, even I was a so called elite in sprint orienteering in Hong Kong, I got another last…
I originally signed up for a kayak tour on 2nd May, but it didn’t take place and I got refunded. Therefore I had to find alternative itinerary to fill in the day. I looked at the map and tourist websites, and found out an island called Sandhamn, which is located at the outermost in the archipelago. That island, as shown in the name, is a harbour (hamn means harbour in Swedish). That harbour is one of the entry port when…
The first orienteering competition in my trip was IFK Lidingö, middle distance. It was a national level competition and nearly a thousand people participated. The scale was much more than the competitions in Hong Kong, there were a market and also a stall selling orienteering equipments. I participated in class H21 (H means men in Sweden). The map was very white and the difficulty was very high when compared to similar races in Hong Kong. As a result I returned…
As a man living in a subtropical region but afraid of heat, I always complain that how hot Hong Kong is. Even when the others are all putting their wetsuit on in 22°C water, I still feel it to be a bit warm to swim on skin. Hong Kong is never cold, the normal winter temperature is about 16°C, but in the winter just passed, the lowest sea temperature was about 18°C. The coldest water I had swum in the…
After completing the swim, I headed to a guided tour of City Hall. It is the place of the Nobel prize banquet, and the guide explained how it is possible to fit in so many people in such a small hall.The City Hall was built to give a permanent meeting place for the city council.After visiting the city hall, I had lunch then headed to Vasa museum. The ship Vasa was a warship built to show the power of empire…
The idea of going this trip emerged in last September, when FinTrailO 2019 was announced. As I had a pleasant experience in FinTrailO 2018 and cheap refundable Aeroflot ticket was available, I bought an air ticket and waited for the competition. However, a few months later, my idea changed. As I found out that two days before my original scheduled departure was a public holiday, I could extend the trip without using too many annual leave allowance, and the sea…
Conclusion During this 22-day trip, I went to a total of 7 museums on Soviet history, 9 beaches on the Baltic Sea, and participated in 11 orienteering competitions. In the museums of the two regions, we can see the different feelings of the people of the two regions in the same period of history. Russia regards the Soviet Union as the most glorious period of its country, as a world superpower at that time. Russian museums display many Soviet leaflets…