Wrapping UP! - Heading South via the East, from Åland to Berlin, Frankfurt and Kempten via Helsinki and Rostock
Well mid December had arrived and finally also the snow that looked like it came with the intent of staying. That day was a day of mixed feelings, for the past three months here had been very educational for me and others and had brought me in contact with people i now would like to call good friends, and who I hope to not loose touch with despite the ever restless-pressing on life of a migratory bird, a "little" delayed in catching up with the warmer weather.
Winter had already managed to drive a huge wedge in between me and the areas above freezing and even in those had replaced the sun with clouds and rain.
Without winter tires on the bicycle, and just a three season sleeping bag, i wasn't exactly eager to go camping and riding bike extensively.
Having said goodbyes to my friends, especially Åsa and her kids, I cycled in to Mariehamn to see the local Emmaus second hand shop, still wearing shorts, despite the snow, pushing the limits of the fall (officially 'till Dec 21st).
Well mid December had arrived and finally also the snow that looked like it came with the intent of staying. That day was a day of mixed feelings, for the past three months here had been very educational for me and others and had brought me in contact with people i now would like to call good friends, and who I hope to not loose touch with despite the ever restless-pressing on life of a migratory bird, a "little" delayed in catching up with the warmer weather.
Winter had already managed to drive a huge wedge in between me and the areas above freezing and even in those had replaced the sun with clouds and rain.
Without winter tires on the bicycle, and just a three season sleeping bag, i wasn't exactly eager to go camping and riding bike extensively.
Having said goodbyes to my friends, especially Åsa and her kids, I cycled in to Mariehamn to see the local Emmaus second hand shop, still wearing shorts, despite the snow, pushing the limits of the fall (officially 'till Dec 21st).
Needed to have a look for something warmer for my feet, having to return the loaned Nokia felt lined gumboots to Åsa's mom, and with only Birkenstocks to my name, with the help of a friendly curious russian lady named Svetlana, originally from bittercold Ural Mountains, the suture between Europe and Asia/Siberia, I was blessed with a pair of knee high finnish leatherboots, light and brandnew, which she found for me in the back. The price was right and I was able to look forward to riding my bike in the snow.
Afterwards I headed down for a last dumpsterdive at City Livs, the friendly keepers of which supermarket are totally fine with people taking stuff from their compost bins, while their greedy competitiors owning the largest and most plentiful stores in Mariehamn and even all of Åland, namely Mathishallen and Kantarellen of the K-Market chain who had begun locking their dumpsters and thus making sure the perfectly good food they decide they don't want anymore will get destroyed for sure, (see also previous post). They don't want people to know how wasteful they are, probably out of shame for wasting so much precious food wrought from the earth in local fields or distant mysterious lands. Most people when they learn about the scale of the waste behind their food stores, are very shocked and surprised and get very upset.
Even most employees that i have ever talked to when i met someone working there while dumpsterdiving, especially now that the stores have locked their dumpsters in response to my reuse and rescue activities and media attention, will side with me and are apologetic. They find it morally wrong anyway to throw away all this food as part of their job, often themselves not able to afford the food they are ordered to throw out in masses, to add insult to injury are they allowed to take home any.
Even most employees that i have ever talked to when i met someone working there while dumpsterdiving, especially now that the stores have locked their dumpsters in response to my reuse and rescue activities and media attention, will side with me and are apologetic. They find it morally wrong anyway to throw away all this food as part of their job, often themselves not able to afford the food they are ordered to throw out in masses, to add insult to injury are they allowed to take home any.
City Livs, Mariehamn, Åland 14.Dec 2009
As you can see all just awesome finds again, Pineapples and loads of Fairtrade bananas, and a heap of red and yellow peppers that perhaps had to make way for a new shipment of perhaps slightly better quality (hard to fathom the logic behind all this from the condition of much of the thrown out food alone), , I couldn't find much wrong with the peppers at hand and took some to another friends house to go into my fare-well dinner.
Perhaps I will miss the peace and quiet and light of Åland and my beloved north sooner than i think, but there isn't much i can do about the cold except to move further south at this point......
Ferry to Helsinki, 15.12.2009, all of a sudden a large fog bank near the mainland Finland is ready to swallow the whole ship
Dec 15 meets me in Helsinki with sun and minus 12 degrees C, my bike freewheel mechanism, replaced only 3 months ago in Tallinn Estonia with a new one, that has made funny sounds basically from the start, is not happy about the cold fiiniish teemperaaatuures.
The grease in it is not winter-ready, and gets to stiff for the mechanisms to engage and all of a sudden there is no more resistance, and no go.
I find a cool bike shop on my explorations on Drumsö/Lautasaari, an island west of downtown, sporting an Xtracycle in the snow outside, as if to say, "we are different"!
Xtracycle is one of the best allround Bike upgrades, that lets you carry more than you need to own in a super fun way!
The owner and staff of the shop were extremely helpful in injecting magic potions and antifrost juices into the cassette, and voila, all is well, and they refused payment!
www.pyorahuolto.com
Meripuistotie 5 / Sjöalle´n 5Lauttasaari - Helsinki / Drumsö - Helsingfors
GSM: 040-5924664
GSM: 040-5456859
I was lucky enough to have my tall finnish boots from the second hand shop, they proove to be exrtremely breathable, windproof and warm, so at no time do i have cold feet, only my knitted mittens are no match for the cutting wind, but with a few tricks I manage quite well, and manage to enjoy the 25 km ride from downtown to the other ferry terminal on freshly falling big-flake-snow on Helsinki's excellent network of bike trails.
By chance i had found a detailed map, which shows them all in detail and the whole greater Helsinki area. I obtained the map for free from a wall with information materials for travellers and locals alike, right in City Hall, downtown!!
On the way to the North Sea Harbor, I pass a few shops, but luckily I still have enough bananas and homemeade sourdough bread to make it nicely all the way to Germany.
Here is the backside of a K-Market shop in a suburbian area east of the city.
They really are afraid people could get something out of their trash.
It's impossible to make use of their waste in any way. Electric gates, it's a whole ghetto in there.
Saddening, the disregard of Turbo Capitalism!
K-Markets lonely NO-Obtainium ghetto, Helsinki Dec 15, 2009
arriving at the southbound Tallink ferry @8:30 PM
"Looks like Gotland!"
It is Gotland, just had passed the lights of Visby, dawn Dec 16, 2009
And sunset arrives a few hours later, the ferry which is mostly transporting large freight-hauling trucks was surprisingly empty, perhaps due to the so-callled economic crisis, empty lounges and hallways made for a very quiet crossing, if one ignores the fact that Tallink in an effort to cut costs, piled everyone in as few cabins as possible during nights, less cleanup!
Only one problem, when you have to sleep in one room with overweight snoring russian truckers!
Only one problem, when you have to sleep in one room with overweight snoring russian truckers!
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