A visit to Åland
Viking and I went to Åland this weekend to visit Petter and Alva together with Björn and Egil. We were a trio of dads with two-year olds traipsing around the bush having picnics. Thank god the kids didn’t synchronise their bad moments — there was generally only one child pissed off at a time.
Åland is a beautiful place in a harsh kind of way. There are lots of fields and deciduous trees, but the dominant feature is rock scoured smooth by the latest ice age, thinly covered by moss and stunted pines.
Petter and Giséla have a very nice place in Björnhuvud, about 15 minutes from the harbour and 20 minutes from Mariehamn, the capital.
Åland is closer to Sweden than to Finland, both geographically and culturally. The signposts are all in Swedish, none of the inhabitants have to serve in the Finnish army (the islands have been demilitarised since the 1920s), and only persons with citezenship can buy property there. Much of the income of the region comes from the sale of tax-free liqour to thirsty Swedes, although Åland also provides more than 40% of Finland’s onions.
Björn had a digital camera with him, which we shamelessly borrowed, snapping away at our kids wandering around picking blueberries. We quickly realised his wisdom of investing in half a gigabyte of memory. As soon as he gets the pics to me I’ll post some.
Update: pictures are now up at my album on MrX.no. Thanks Terje for giving me some space on his site!
Posted at 17:03, in the alt category. Comments [0]
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