The long trip to Finland

Diana Porumboiu
Aug 22, 2017 · 8 min read

We recently moved from Bucharest to Helsinki and after 6 months here I decided it’s time to tell the world a few stories about what we like to believe it’s an adventure. At least our Eurotrip was kind of an adventure and maybe others get some valuable info from our experience.

Ok, truth be told, you probably won’t get any valuable insights but one night around 3 am I had a revelation that I should get back on track and practice my writing. So here it is:

How it all started

We finally decided to make the big leap and leave Romania. If you have heard some stories about Romania, then you can understand our motivation. With the dream job offer in Helsinki for him and no prospects for me we said that this is the time.

We decided that is best to drive there because we would need the car in Finland (surprise, surprise, we don’t really need it). Since I’m the planner and control freak in this duo, I made all the arrangements for the not-so-long Eurotrip.

I know, some of you might think that 2175 km should not take that much. In our case it meant 7 days of driving. Slowly driving. Why, you might ask? Well, I am kind of terrified of cars and fast driving cars and other cars on the road. You get the point. Generally, I don’t like cars when they’re moving and I’m somewhere in the area. The funny (or weird) thing is that I am not even driving and I find it hard to trust someone when he or she is driving.

My plan was to drive less than 7 hours each day for two reasons: it was winter and it was getting dark very early and we don’t like darkness (yes, I know how dark it gets in Finland for at least 6 months in the long winters). The second reasons is that I am the worst person to have in your car. I get very anxious when people drive too fast and this meant that for him is twice as tiring to drive with me on his right.

So we left Romania one very cold Saturday in February with the plan of making 5 stops. Our route was through Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and finally Finland. There was a faster option through Ukraine, but just like everyone hears stories about Romania, we hear stories about Ukraine and it wasn’t the safest way to go. The rumours apply in Hungary too and this is why we didn’t stop at all in Hungary. Not that is not a safe country, but Romanians have all sort of scary stories about how badly they are treated in Hungary just because they are Romanians.

First the protests, then Košice

This is why our first stop was Cluj, a beautiful city in Transylvania, 400 km from Bucharest. Under normal circumstances it shouldn’t take too long, but on the famous Romanian roads this means 7 hours. We got there just in time for the protests, which at the time, were happening all over Romania because of the legislation aimed at pardoning corrupt officials and other criminals. Even though we were leaving Romania and we were sure that no protest can change the country, we tried patriotism one last time and shouted the funny slogans with everybody else. One of the slogans was “Dragnea, nu fii trist, la Jilava au dentist” which translates something like “Dragnea, don’t be sad, they have dentist at Jilava”. Well, it’s catchy in Romanian and it refers to the guy’s bad teeth and the Jilava prison (it stopped being funny after so many explanations).

Košice doesn’t look that bad in this foggy light

Patriotism aside, the first stop outside Romania was a small town in Slovakia, called Košice. However, we felt like we were still in Romania, with the only difference that here people were running away from us when we were trying to ask something in English. We’ll blame it on our tired exhausted faces after driving all day in Hungary through the thickest fog we’ve ever seen. Nothing interesting at this point. If you want to visit Košice, go ahead but winter is definitely not the season.

the fog in Hungary

Why trips in winter are a bad idea

We left Slovakia and its Romanian- like roads and headed for Poland. This was supposed to be a short drive of only 400 km, but it was winter and the roads were snowy and at some point Google maps said it was a good idea to go through a village in Poland were the roads were full of snow. I must say it was a nice fairy-tale like village, completely white where children with rosy cheeks were walking home from school. For him it was a relaxing drive mainly because there were almost no cars. For me, a different story. I had so many bad thoughts and scenarios in my head I could write a few horror novels: it was getting darker, there are no cars but there are digs we can fall into, it was snow everywhere, our car is white, nobody will find us, a bear will find us…so on and so forth. Fortunately for him, while he was almost waving at children on the streets I kept these dark thoughts to myself.

Some hours later when it was almost dark we got to Lublin, a charming little town in Poland which I would like to visit in summer as well. We spent the night in a historical guesthouse called Dom na Podwalu which used to be a hospital and a church during the 17th century. I liked it, but he was creeped out by the crucifixes hanging everywhere. Compared to Košice, which was also a historical town, this one had more character and the buildings were beautifully restored. Not to mention that in Poland the food is way cheaper so we stuffed our faces at a Jewish restaurant and went happy to sleep.

The next day we had to face the long drive to Lithuania which normally should have taken 7 hours and a half. This is what Google maps told us. We got the reality slap in the form of snow. We had to drive mostly in Poland where the weather was getting worse. At some point we were moving with 30km/hour. No, not because of my anxiety, but because of the blizzard. I’m not a speed fan but 30 km per hour and that snow coming from everywhere with almost no visibility was one terrifying experience. Once we got to Lithuania the blizzard was gone.

Now terrifying experience number 2 and this time for both of us. It was dark and for some reason there were mostly trucks on the road. At some point we couldn’t even see which trucks were on our lane and which ones were facing us. We spent more than an hour behind a very slow salt spreader plough and this because more than speed, I fear bypassing other cars. Even if they are super slow ploughs that spray salt at you.

It was night when we got to Kaunas, which I am really sorry we couldn’t visit. It seemed touristy enough for a city break. Here, again, we found a nice place where we ate some slightly more expensive food but we were happy again.

In Kaunas. I couldn’t find the food photo

Invaders must die

According to my plans we had one more night to spend in Riga and then we could go directly to Helsinki. You know you’re approaching the north when prices go higher and the roads get better. This was the easy drive of only 4 hours and we were excited to get early to Riga to spend some time visiting the old town.

We got to Riga where I reserved a room in Rixwell Old Riga Palace Hotel, located in the old city centre. Fancy name, right? So fancy hotel? Well, not so much. “Booking” website says 4 stars hotel and the hotel website mentions how chic they are. We went for the more expensive room because I like to enjoy the cool design that I can’t have at home. They said first floor, but I learned that in this area 1st floor actually means ground floor. This was one of the new rooms in a newly renovated area of the hotel.

Indeed fancy entrance, fancy lobby, even fancy room, though very small. So the fancy stopped when we were invaded by ants. Yes, there were ants everywhere in the room because it was on the ground floor. Did I mention it was winter? So why so many ants? The bathroom had a mouldy smell, maybe it had something to do with that? No idea but we killed as many ants as possible and went out to discover Riga.

Invaders must die, indeed, but once we got back to the room more ants came back to avenge their relatives. I know normal people would just ask for a different room, but other than the tiny invaders and the mouldy bathroom and the window that was at street level it was a cosy room.

However, we decided that for one night we can survive. Fortunately the ants had mercy on us and we did survive, even though we might have taken a few with us. I definitely want to visit Riga again, but in a different hotel for sure.

I had my revenge when I rated the experience on Booking. For some reason no one replied to my comment that included a photo of the ants. Maybe they were upset we killed their pets? Well, now you know not to go for the fancy room in that Hotel.

no photo with the ants, but Riga is beautiful

Early to rise, early to drink

The next day was Tallinn and the ferry to Helsinki. We realized that we couldn’t make it on time to get the ferry at a convenient hour so we spent one night in Tallinn. Lucky us, this is a beautiful city, easily accessible from Helsinki.

One last tip: if Booking says that the accommodation has parking included, it doesn’t mean it’s included for free. 20 € for one night is kind of expensive for a courtyard improvised parking. Well, welcome to the north, right?

In the morning we got to the ferry for the last 2 hours of our small Eurotrip. The first encounter with the early drinking habit of the Finns.

This part of the story ends here and I’m sorry is so long. I promise the next one will be very short because as everybody in Finland says, nothing interesting ever happens here.

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