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July 7: Modern art, Nurmes, pizza

The idea was that we would get up at 6.30, cycle into town fully laden, and take the 9.20 train to Nurmes. When I tried to buy tickets the woman behind the desk explained that, as stated in the timetable, the 9.20 only connects to Nurmes on Saturday.²

Having a while to wait until the next train at 4.15, we had breakfast in a park and took a look round the impressive Oulu cathedral, which dates from the fire of 1822³ and boasts the country's oldest portrait, dating from 1611.

We also visited the museum of modern art. Finland is big on museums, particularly modern art museums, and this one contained some excellent, striking wood-and-iron sculptures, as well as some rather odd videos of an Estonian burning trees.

The journey to Nurmes was complicated by the fact that schedules had been changed to accommodate a large rock festival in the area. After many mumbled announcements by the driver and helpful explanations from the ticket inspector, we ended up, alone, on the Nurmes platform, at 9 in the evening.

The fact that Finland's population is half that of London becomes apparent in the evening: Nurmes showed very few signs of life, apart from local youths sitting in parked cars in the station car park.⁴ We found an open pizza and kebab shop, and managed to ingest two huge pizzas⁵ before they closed. Then we succeeded in getting a taxi to the campsite, which was situated on the edge of a lake in the extensive grounds of a hotel, and predictably wonderful. Went swimming at midnight in the lake, which was fresh and warm, then dried out around a thoughtfully-provided fire.

Footnotes

... Saturday.²

She explained this in Finnish, making me very happy. I don't know why, but the Finnish rail network seem to seek out the few Finns who have no knowledge of English whatsoever and employ them.

... 1822³

Finland contains few old buildings, because so many buildings are constructed of wood. These have stood up badly to the ravages of warring Russians, Swedes, Germans, British, and Finns. Buildings which survive wars are generally destroyed by fires, as was the case with the old cathedral.

... park.⁴

Why? I don't know.

... pizzas⁵

As we quickly discovered, the pizza is Finland's unofficial national food. They're available everywhere and always excellently made, even if the toppings can be a little unorthodox (salmon and peach, for example).