Lakelands

Savonlinna, Finland

We traveled from Estonia across the Baltic Sea to Finland via the Viking Ferry Line early this morning.

It was a 2.5 hour cruise and we spent our time having a leisurley traditional nordic breakfast, shopping in the duty free shop and sitting/napping on the sun deck (even though it was a little too cool).

From the cruise, we traveled across town via metro and rented a car. We were offered an upgrade and ended up with a nice black on black Mercedes hatchback, which Josh has throughly enjoyed driving.

Our drive took us 4 hours north from Helsinki to the Olavinlinna Castle (St. Olaf’s Castle). The drive itself was a little monotonous. Mostly a flat straight road with little traffic lined by green grass and tall birch trees. We passed lakes every few hundred kilometers.

Once we arrived at Olavinlinna Castle, we met up with a tour guide. The tour was actually in Finnish (if any Finnish nationals are in the group, the museum must do the tour in Finnish rather than English). However, it was still worth it to take the tour rather than explore on our own. With the tour group we were allowed special access to climb the spiral stairs up into the castle towers.

Olavinlinna Castle was originally built in 1475 by the Swedish to serve as a strategic defense site to protect against Russian incursions. It was likely built by the same group of people who built the Bastion Tunnels we visited in Estonia yesterday,

This Castle was never intended to host royality, but still houses a huge “King’s Hall” with whitewashed walls and high vaulted ceilings, just in case.

The castle consisted of three main towers connected by walls with courtyards inside. We were able to climb up two of the towers. The climb up was narrow, steep and dark (and scary!). Many of the castle’s original materials were still in tact - including a beautiful cupboard door.

Oddly enough, the most incredible find was a medieval toilet. During our Christmas trip to Bratislava, Slovakia we visited a church which had previously been part of the city walls with a medieval toilet that our tour guide pointed out.

It was a strange feature from the outside. And, today, I got to see what it looked like on the inside. This castle has 3 remaining toilets - though they believed there were probably more originally. We actually got to walk into the outhouse room and look down the wooden toilet (which still smelled bad - all these years laters) to see where the waste would have fallen down hundreds of feet below into the mote.

Another uniqe feature was the hagioscope in the chapel. This is believed to be the only church with a hagioscope in all of Finland. Basically, a hagioscope is a side room next to the Chapel with with a carved out hole looking into the Chapel. It was used for people who were unable to enter the church (like prionsers, people with contagious dIseases or pregnant women all of whom were forbidden to enter) to be able to still see the service.

After our visit to the castle, we drove west another hour and a half to Mikkeli where we checked into a lakeside cabin that will be our home for the next two days.

We booked the cabin through AirBnb and it is the most cozy and quaint little accommodation! The cabin is a tiny two bedroom red cabin with a little kitchen, living room and real Finnish wooden sauna in the bathroom. In front is a lake access, a little patio and a row boat. We are way off the beaten path and it is so peaceful and quiet.

Visits to the Lakelands are a common practice for Finnish people. Many of them have family lake cabins that they retreat to and go on holiday in the late spring and early summer. We are about a week or two too early for the high season - so we were lucky to still be able make a reservation here.

Tomorrow, we are taking an even deeper step in Finnish cultural and meeting a man Josh met online through his ancestry and genealogy searches. He is going to be showing us around the Tossavalansaari Island where Josh’s Tussey family line can be traced.