Road Trip: Finland

Jeremy's 160km race starts tomorrow (Friday) at noon. We're ensconced in Kuusamo now, at 65.9 degrees N latitude (Fairbanks, Alaska, is 64.8 degrees N). This is the farthest north I've ever been in my life, and I'm glad that when Jeremy is running all night tomorrow night, it will only ever get dim for him, not completely dark.

This is our first roadtrip since moving away from the UAE. Here are a few differences I've noticed between a road trip in Finland and a road trip in the UAE/Oman.

1. Length. We just drove for more than ten hours and we are still in the same country. However, as we headed north and east away from Turku, we saw less Swedish and more Russian on signs and shops.

2. Speed limits. In the UAE and Oman, most of any given road trip will be conducted at 120kph. Finland seems to believe in much lower speed limits - we mostly went between 80 and 100kph.

3. Food. When I used to pack for road trips into the wilds of Oman, I had to prepare all our days' worth of food. There are no grocery stores in the wadis. I started to do the same for this trip, then realized that after 10 hours of driving...we would still be in civilization. Total paradigm shift.

4. Gas. Different stations charge different prices for it here. It's not just the same (state-subsidized) price everywhere. Weird.

5. Lakes. I saw more lakes on this one road trip than I have seen in the entire rest of my life combined. Finland has so many lakes! And yet, I can't help but exclaim at each and every one of them - they're so picturesque. We happen to be staying by one for the next few days.

Sleepy time now. Here is a picture of a lake.