After a horrendous night on the ferry coming over from Stockholm today turned out to be a glorious day of cycling.
I had decided to buy a berth in a shared cabin because last time I did that in 2011 I ended up with the entire cabin to myself. This time I wasnt so lucky. After going for something to eat I got back to the cabin to find that it was full and that 2 of the other 3 sharing were already asleep. Not wanting to waken them I just slipped into bed after brushing my teeth but this meant I had no ear defenders. BIG MISTAKE. The 4th guy in our cabin was a rather large Russian named Andrias and he turned out to be a big snorer!! It was a wet snuffly snore with particularly loud element that not only kept me awake but the other Russian "sleeping" beneath him, I have no idea what the Russian for "for gods sake stop snoring" but I heard that said a few times during the night to varying degrees of success. If it wasnt the snoring it was the party goers in the corridors so between them it was a long night. I eventually gave up at about 5am and got up. Might as well see some of the glorious islands around Turkhu than listen to the snores. Shouldnt have bothered though because there was a fog and therefore couldnt see anything.
Was off the ferry and on the road by 0730 and eventually found my way out of Turkhu heading for Tarvasjoki along the pre historic Hame Oxen road. This is a road that is hundreds of years old and winds through Southern Finland, used extensively by the vikings its of great national importance It started at the 700 year old cathedral in Turkhu and will take me to Hameenlinna.
The country side was very rural and full of farming and farmland. Reminded me very much of England the area around Hereford where I have done a lot of exploring in my bike. The only major difference being the lack of hedgerows here in Finland and of course the style of buildings. Talking of which, many of the farm buildings are really old here in Finland. Actually that goes for a lot of the building ive seen both today and back in 2011 when I cycled the west coast. Unlike Sweden which has kept modernising the buildings many of them here in Finland are originals. Its like cycling through a living Skansen, one huge open air museum. What is sad though is that many farms have merged and the farm lands taken over by bigger farms leaving the original farm to slowly decay. So many abandoned farms and buildings.
By lunchtime was starting to look for somewhere to stay for the night. I am very early in the year, actually the season hasnt started yet, so almost all the youth hostels and camp sites are closed. So I was tempted to head for Forssa as this is an industrial town with a couple of hotels. In the end though I risked going to a place that I had tried calling but nobody had answered the phone which was a museum\cafe\ accommodation complex in Porras. Luckily they were open and they had a room, in fact I had the whole house as I am the only one here. Even better they took pity on me as the closest place to eat was a 32KM round trip and made me some dinner. Very nice young couple and a lovely stay.
So a good first day. 131KM and it looks like I have about the same to do for the next 2 days. Lots of aches and pains because this is the first time in almost 2 years since I have done this but it feels good. Nothing broken and looking forward to another day on the road.
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