Back in Sweden - and a crazy camping experience

We are now back in Sweden, after two fantastic months in Finland and Åland. The first few days in our home country we thought we would take it easy at a campsite, but it was anything but peaceful there ... what a circus!

An amazing journey through Finland!

What a fantastic trip we had through Finland! We thought that we would be able to cover the coastline much faster, but it turned out that there were so many pearls and so a lot to see. In total (if we count Åland), there were two months in Finland ...

We've made a concerted effort to write moderate reports on each place, which can serve as guides for others travelling along the Finnish coast. It's impossible to keep up with the pace of our travelling, so more stories will be added over time. So far you can read about the following great places:

• Helsinki
• Turku
• Naantali
• Rauma
• Kristinestad
• Närpes
• Vaasa
• Oravais

Back in Sweden

Now we are back in Sweden again. After visiting Oulu, we travelled across the border between Finland and Sweden. Tornio and Haparanda.

This border is quite fascinating, as the cities are largely intertwined and the border runs through the centre of built-up areas. It is hard to imagine that the border was actually closed, and that there were riot fences between the two countries, during the pandemic.

In and around Haparanda we have also seen several really nice places, which we will of course tell you more about eventually! For example, the header picture is from Haparanda harbour, where there is a very nice and affordable parking space.

Camping in Haparanda - what a circus!

Our first encounter with a Swedish campsite (Haparanda camping) was not as peaceful as expected, although this is a nice place, but a bit of a circus. During two days we had to change places no less than four times ...!

There are apparently new owners who have recently taken over Haparanda camping, and we hope that in time they will be able to organise what we experienced as a mess. The best thing about this campsite is:

• Great locations close to the Torne River, in some cases right on the waterfront, with views of Finland.
• Good location with walking or cycling distance to the city centre, IKEA and more.
• Happy and friendly staff at reception

However, we have to admit that the price shocked us a little. If you have to put up with broken lights, deep holes in the ground, messy rubbish areas and horror film dark corridors to the toilets, it helps if the price is slightly lower than 420 SEK/day. Well, we paid nicely and thought we would have two quiet days. It didn't really turn out that way ...

The seat we were given, number 4, turned out to be occupied. But don't worry about the roof! Can we maybe stand by the quay instead, where you have such a nice view? Yes, we got seat 48 and the girl explained that we would not get anyone next to us on the right side. "We can't sell seat 49, because it will be too crowded in the corner", she explained. Ok, perfect. We moved to 48.

"Could you move a little to the right?", asked the Norwegian who got seat 47. The seats are narrow and the Norwegian said that we would be too close to each other. We were actually in the centre of seat 48, but since we had been told that the 49 would not be sold, we offered to move a bit. We packed up, rolled a few metres, and stood a little diagonally across 48/49.

"Can you move? This customer has booked seat 49"another girl from the reception suddenly asked. It was now day two. "But we thought you don't sell that spot?", we asked. "Not really, but this customer has booked seat 49 online, and they definitely want to stand here." (At the time, there were lots of other vacancies with a sea view). "Would you, pleasecould you move a bit...?" Ok, again we packed up our stuff. Now the Norwegian had left, so we stood in the middle of the 48 again.

Do you really mean to stand like this ...? We just yelled when the new motorhome backed into place 49. We stood on 48, facing the river, just as all the other motorhomes had stood before. (One usually tries to stand in the same direction, so that each motorhome gets its "own" space for outdoor furniture at the door side, without having to collide with the neighbour.) However, this motorhome chose to back in, so that their open door ended up opposite our open door, with very little air between. Without saying hello, they started taking out their outdoor furniture. So, really ...?

Here's how we didn't want to spend the evening. Although most of the other pitches on the campsite were suddenly vacant, we and the new neighbours shared the same few square metres of outdoor space ... Peter went up to the reception and asked if we could switch places. Yes, we could move to pitch 46 ...

"We have place 50", we suddenly heard a caravan family say to the motorhome in site 49. When someone is standing on site 49, it is impossible to get a place in number 50, and we followed the circus from a distance. The caravan first moved to 48, and a little later they moved on to 44 ... Phew, what a circus!

Best this week

The best thing about this week is that we can look forward to a fantastic trip in Finland, while we are now looking forward to discovering northern Sweden. Of course, it is also fun that we had Record number of visitors to FREEDOMtravel in July.

Your turn ... what is the most positive aspect of the week?

The week ahead

In the coming week, we will continue to look around northern Sweden at a relatively leisurely pace. Here at FREEDOMtravel you can count on continued reports from Finland - we still have a lot to tell you about!

Did you miss the last Happy Friday? Read the Motorhome fix - finally fixed stuff in the motorhome!