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This will be a report that gets updated as i get time.
I had been planning this trip for about a year now, a 2 week stay in Finland to visit a friend. My air time up to this point was very limited, so it was a bit stressful at first to travel like this alone. My total trip duration was 16 hours, 35 minutes one way, and almost 11 hours in the air. When I booked my flight, I looked at the times and chose the flights with the shortest layover times! While it worked for me this time by luck, I'm not sure I would do that again.
Boston, Logan airport...Finnair flight opperated by American airlines..priority boarding which was nice.
Sunset over the Atlantic
From Boston to paris, France was a long but comfortable flight..7 hours and 35 minutes!
My layover here was a bit over 2 hours, which wasn't bad as it took an hour to get through security and find my connection gate. I got some breakfast at the airport and the spent my first Euro's..haha
This is where it got tricky...Boarded the connection flight to Helsinki but this connection was delayed 30 minutes for slow boarding reasons..then another 20 minutes from air traffic control for missing the time slot to take off. I only had a 1 hour 10 minute layover at Helsinki so I was sure at that point, I was going to miss my final connection.
waiting...
Once in the air, already 50 minutes late, we were again warned of more delays from head winds...great!! Just before landing in Helsinki, all connecting flights were listed on the drop down TV's..I saw mine listed at gate 23. As the plane I was on was heading into the gate, we passed the gate number I was connecting to..and there was no plane there? Could I be that lucky..or did the plane leave 5 minutes ahead? I showed up at the gate 5 minutes after the take off time only to see a large group of peaple all waiting there. I got lucky and my connection to Oulu was also delayed by 45 minutes. Awesome luck for a change..haha I even had time to read the Helsinki times..which I found add was printed in English..
I was at my destination 17 hours, 35 minutes later..and exhausted. My friend picked me up from the airport and we went back to his farm where I showered, ate and went to bed.
The first day started out at the MX track for a national competion. We geared up and got on the bikes, it was an hour ride from the farm to Oulu. It was an event for both ATV and bikes..pretty cool to watch. I've always been more impressing with a rider launching a 400+lb ATV in the air vs a 220lb bike in the air for some reason..
Then the rains came in for the bikes..went from dust to mud pretty quick.
After spending the better part of the day at the track, my tour guide decided to show me a little bit in the Oulu area. Not much different than here, other than people drive normal, not like the assholes we have here.
Baltic Sea? It was some odd weather, there was a very small thunderstorm and rain just offshore..was pretty cool to see
It was a long day and I was still adjusting to the time change..not to mention it was 11:30pm by the time we got back! Not sure how, but a slept something stupid, like 11 hours that night (not that it ever was dark..but still night)
Day 2 the plan was to ride some Enduro trails. Looking around the area, it looked like some easy trails as Finland is pretty flat. Hmmm, not really the case! One lap on his Enduro track kicked my ass and had me on the ground more than on the bike. I can't even describe how slick the ground is...roots and wet peat moss is what you were riding on. It was like riding in oil when compaired to riding around here! After being banged up by dropping the bike about 15 times, it was time to load the bikes and head over to a grass track at his friends house...even that was slick..haha The funny thing about the daylight hours there, it kills your sence of time. I had no idea when we returned that evening from riding, it was 1:38am and the sun was just setting!
Day 3 was a road trip...well started out that way anyways. I was able to rent a 1998 Yamaha YZF600 from a friend of his for 2 weeks, not a bad deal to rent a sportbike for 2 weeks for 300 Euro (about $450)
Waiting for a ferri...how do we pay? Ahh, we don't, ferri in Finland is free.
We ending up with about 350Km for the day and a nice scenic tour of the area. I forgot exactly what time we got back to the farm, but it was probably after 8pm. A quick BBQ on the grill and again, we were off on another adventure. We loaded up the enduro bikes and again went to the grass track for more practice. It's amazing how time flies when you're having fun..
The grass track was only 10 minutes away, and we still manage to arrive back at the farm at 1:06am to unload and clean up!
The next adventure was going to be a bit more exciting! We spent the next day shopping and prepping for a 5-6 day bike trip from Finland, into Sweden, then to Norway.
To be continued when I find more time
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Originally Posted by R7
