Two and a half weeks painting yellow and sailing! Workaway number three.
On 23 August I reached Carl’s little farm in Vantaa! Carl had great reviews and feedback on Workaway, and I was confident the next two and a half weeks would be fun. He greeted me warmly and immediately showed me around. I’d actually arranged with him that I’d sleep in his caravan. Unfortunately, though, he’d cleared out a room up under the roof after all — or rather, was in the middle of doing so. And I’d already been looking forward to „life in the little camper“. The house was just being, and still had to be, renovated. After his mother passed away half a year ago, he took over — or rather, was given — the house, or the whole property. Actually, I don’t think he really wanted it at all. Because he’d specially bought the little camper to drive south with it. Carl has got around a lot in his life. Lived here and there and always somehow got by. But now he’s here and, alongside his main job as a theatre director and yoga teacher, is trying to renovate the house. During my time with him it increasingly turned out that his mother also couldn’t and wouldn’t throw anything away. To put it bluntly, the house and the two little barns looked like a hoarder’s. In the basement, where the shower is, there used to be a sauna too. But Carl had to rip that out right at the start, since it had gone completely mouldy. Most of the floor, too, by the way. My room was still lovingly done up, clean, and Carl tried to make everything possible for his guests. Everything necessary was there, and on top of that the house was right by a national park. So you had untouched nature and lots of hiking trails! I was looking forward to exploring the area in the coming days!
Carl was very open, spontaneous and had a dry sense of humour. In passing he told me that this evening a family from Italy would be coming by for one night with their camper. They wanted to park two bicycles here, since their bike rack had broken and they still had to head further north! I moved into my room and first sorted out my things. Unloaded my motorbike and laid out my tent, sleeping bag and sleeping mat to air. Together with Carl I then prepared the food and set the table. Shortly after, a camper pulled into the driveway! Sandro and his wife Ersilia got out and their two children, Giacomo and Anita, jumped out of the side door. We greeted each other warmly! I helped Sandro manoeuvre the camper onto the little ramps. Because Carl’s driveway sloped slightly downhill, so they’d have rolled out of bed at night. The „just quickly“ then turned into half an hour… the camper was a bit overloaded and already too heavy for the built-in stilts. The little ramps also had a hard time in the gravel. After a short while they flipped up and now jammed under the axles. So we had to dig the camper free again, put big wooden boards underneath and try the whole thing from the start. This time it worked! Sitting together at the table, the two told us about their project and what the trip is all about. The four of them have been on the road since the start of summer and want to go all the way up to the North Cape. They’ve taken their children out of school and want to teach them along the way. Their project aims to show that it’s better (especially for children) to look at history „in reality“ and not just read it in books. They want to make a documentary film about their trip, with interviews of people who have similar views or have already been doing it for many years. They also write a blog on their website: https://orizzontidigioia.com Of course they also had a bottle of Italian wine with them…
The next morning I started at 10 with Carl to sand the house down from the outside, or rather scrape off the old paint. Although there was quite a bit to do inside, he absolutely wanted to repaint the house from the outside first. That way he’d be glad to come home again and wouldn’t always have to look at the grey, faded house. The main colour was yellow and the trim was to be white. In some places the paint was already so old that you could simply peel off bigger chunks. So, in swim shorts and flip-flops, I stood on the ladder over the coming days and tried, with a wire brush, a broom and a scraper, to get at least the largest part of the old paint off.
At the weekend Gabi and Anna also came to the little farm. Anna came from Portugal and Gabi from Vilnius in Lithuania. The two had met this summer at a hostel in Portugal, where they worked together. Shortly after, they decided to travel on. Gabi studies and works in Copenhagen; Anna wants to spend the coming while in Helsinki. The two planned to stay here for a week and help with the house renovation. At midday the two always prepared lunch. Since Anna ate a vegan diet, it was always cooked vegan. In general Carl always had lots of fresh vegetables and fruit. It really was two very healthy weeks! On Friday afternoon we got a message from Carl asking whether we fancied sailing at the weekend with his sailing boat to the island of Pentala near Helsinki, to his little summer house. The weather app showed 25 degrees and sun! The next morning we packed our things for one night and set off by bus and train to a small side harbour in Helsinki. By the way, you could buy the bus or train ticket really easily online via an app. If I remember rightly, for 5 € you could ride as far as you liked for 90 minutes. We went shopping and then walked to the little sailing boat. Since, unfortunately, it wasn’t really windy, we first went a good way under motor. From the water you had a great view of the city!
The last stretch we could then at least sail with the foresail. Between several small islands we moored at an old stone jetty. Next to it was a small beach with two benches and a table. Stand-up paddleboards lay there too. Close to the water stood a big house that belonged to Carl’s aunt and his cousins. Behind it stood a somewhat smaller cabin with a vegetable patch. Carl, Gabi and Anna stayed there. I had my own little cabin with a big bed, a little in front of the house. After we’d tidied up a bit, we prepared dinner together, carried everything over to the little beach and looked out over the water towards the sun. After the sun had set, we fired up the little sauna and, under the starry sky, jumped into the water a few more times to cool off.
The next morning the sun was already shining through the curtains early on, and you could immediately tell it would be another warm summer day. After breakfast on the beach, Gabi and I grabbed the stand-up paddleboards and paddled a little way around the west of the island. It was to be the last summer day for the next few weeks, and so we spent the whole day outside. After we’d paddled back, we took a walk across the island of Pentala. On the other side, you see, there was a small harbour with a little village. As a tourist you could take an excursion boat here from Helsinki. There was also an ice-cream parlour, a museum and an island shop there. Since Carl’s family has partly lived on the island for two generations, he’s well integrated into the little community and knows lots of people there. He also creates a little book each year with information and events on the island. For this, on the way back, we stopped at an old house, where I was allowed to take a few photos of the façade and of a logo well known for the house, which will later be printed in the book. For lunch, two friends of Carl’s as well as his aunt and uncle joined too. Together we sat on the little beach again and ate together. It increasingly turned out that there’d unfortunately be strong thunderstorms in the evening. So we hurried a bit… as we set off, you could already see dark clouds approaching the mainland on the horizon. At least it was now really windy. But Carl still didn’t want to sail; instead he wanted to do the whole route under motor again. It quickly got dark, too, and slowly we also noticed that we were by now really the only ones on the water. Every now and then a yacht flew past at full speed, but that was it. The darkness didn’t make it easier to navigate either. Since, as I said, there were no other boats on the water, you couldn’t really make out a channel. The way back really took forever. At one point we even went back a little way around another island so as not to sail straight into the storm. After several hours on the water, we still made it back to the harbour unharmed. Quickly squared the boat away and walked back to the station. There we were able to take one of the last metros. Since Carl was a bit stressed from the return trip and the storm, he promptly ordered a taxi, which dropped us off in front of his house. Around one in the morning I dropped into bed. That was a cool weekend!
Anna and Gabi then stayed until Wednesday, and together we carried on working on the house. Gabi then tipped me off that she wanted to bake a birthday cake for Anna on Monday evening. That was a funny coincidence! So Anna had her birthday on exactly the same day as me! So in the morning we celebrated a bit together! Carl had also spontaneously organised a bit of pastry and made us breakfast. That I’d ever get to celebrate my birthday, somewhere near Helsinki, on a little old farm in a kitchen badly in need of renovation, together with someone else — I wouldn’t have imagined that either! It was odd, but lovely all the same!
The week flew by. By now it had got pretty cold and standing on the ladder in flip-flops no longer worked either. But it was never boring either. On Thursday evening, I was just in the shower, Carl wanted to light the stove. But since the chimney hadn’t been cleaned in a long time, the smoke came back. I just heard all the smoke detectors in the whole house go off at once. There had actually been such a build-up of smoke that even the basement was a bit hazy. So we spent the evening not by the fire but in warm clothes, since we first had to air out the whole house. Over the weekend I was alone in Carl’s house. He had to look after a friend’s animals, since they had to go away spontaneously over the weekend. On Saturday I explored the national park and did a big hike! I spent the whole of Sunday properly cleaning my motorbike again and checking everything over for the next stage. It was good to spend some time indoors again and just be able to lie on the sofa. On Monday Aleksandra from Poland then arrived. She studies and was just on semester break. She’d always wanted to go to Finland and had used Workaway to look for a cheap holiday option. In Poland she was helping her sister and her boyfriend build a house. Since the house isn’t finished yet, she currently sleeps there in a tent. Aleksandra stayed for two weeks. A day later Sarah and Antoine from France joined too. As a host gift, the two brought French wine from their region.
We were a cool group! On Wednesday afternoon after work, we hiked together to a nearby sauna — or you could already call it a sauna landscape — that lay right by a lake.
Since we got on so well, it was a shame that I was only staying there a few more days. But the journey was to go on, because on Thursday my buddy Olli landed in Helsinki. To then look at Helsinki over the weekend, I’d tried to organise a place to sleep for us via Couchsurfing. It wasn’t easy to find a Couchsurfing host for two people. But Jakob then did confirm the stays until Sunday for me. After that we’d be heading „up to the countryside“ for about two weeks, to a good acquaintance of Olli’s brother. But more on that later. On Wednesday midday I then met Jani, the acquaintance of Olli’s brother. Olli’s brother had once bought an old Beetle from him. Since then the two have been in regular contact. Since Olli needed a helmet and I needed room on my motorbike for another person, I rode to Jani’s work, half an hour away. He told me we’d meet in the car park in front of the company. His Beetle I’d „easily find among all the new Mercedes and BMWs!“ And so it was. After a bit of small talk, I swapped a large part of my camping gear for the helmet. It was pretty strange to hand the stuff over. Without a pot, gas stove, tent and sleeping mat it somehow felt odd. The tent was always my emergency solution in case I hadn’t found anywhere to sleep in a city or a place. Now I had to trust that Jakob was waiting for us in Helsinki. On Thursday midday, after lunch, I then set off for Helsinki. It was a great time at Carl’s and it was lovely to do something with other people again. The work was cool too! Painting a house yellow in the sun had something meditative about it. I listened to a lot of new music and podcasts while doing it. Even did a bit of „exercise“ now and then, so my back would get reasonably straight again. I’d have liked to stay longer, but it does have to go on. Together with two friends of Carl’s, we then sat outside in the garden and had lunch. By now the whole front was already finished being painted. It was good to see what we’d managed in the two and a half weeks!
