by It is after 10 p.m. and the sky has just lost the blue of the day. I sit on the Baltic Sea, toes in the water and look at distant, tree -covered islands, while gentle waves round over the long, flat rocks. I follow a rough, winding path back into my cabin, through forests, so calmly that you can hear the pine needles fall.
In Santalahti Woods near Kotka on the southeast coast of Finland, I am on the trail of the Finnish author, writer, painter and illustrator Tove Jansson (1914-2001). The best known as the creator of Moomins and for her love for island life also wrote Jansson for adults. Last year her first novel, The Summer Book, was made in a film with Glenn Close and staged by Charlie McDowell. A film critic described it as “an ode of Finnish archipelago nature”.
The summer book is a number of 22 vignettes on the island of Summer Living with a young girl, Sophia and her grandmother. I first read the slim volume of the Covid Lockdown in the early days.
During this unsafe, anxious time and every year since then reading has been a balm, a memory of getting slower and becoming aware of. I came to Finland to explore the Finnish summer life, fill my lungs with Archipelago and try to find a little of silence and ask that Jansson’s writing gives me.
Summer should be enjoyed in Finland. The south of the country only gets six hours of daylight a day in winter, and in the far north the sun remains under the horizon in December. It is this darkness that worships Finns and celebrates summer. School children get 10 weeks of summer vacation, and most Finns take the work in July. Summer is mainly spent in one of half of the summer huts, known as FurniturePresent Usually through a lake or on one of the tens of thousands of islands that are scattered along the coast.
The equipment vary, but there is a deep affection for traditional rustic cabins: outside the grid, without electricity or flowing water and definitely without WLAN. House life, or MökkielemäFocused on slow life in harmony with nature: time in the forest, in the sea, berry plants and relaxing in the sauna.
I start my trip on Pellinki in the Porvoo Archipelago, about an hour east of Helsinki. This part of Finland is bilingual. (Like 80% of Pellinki’s residents, Tove Jansson was a Swedish speaker; the island of Pelle is called Swedish). It is a short hop over the water on a free ferry into another, slower pace of life. Through the forests, I spy on dozens of cute red and yellow painted cabins, each with a water section.
Tove spent many children’s scashing for Pellinki and pulled her first Moomin cartoon as a teenager here on the wall of an outbuilding. In order to generate additional income, families rent families their houses for summer and turned into an outbuilding. The von Tove family rented the home of the family of the Gustafsson boat building. Abbe Gustafsson, of the same age like Tove, became a life -long friend, and the children turned their daily milk collection into a complex challenge: there were trees that could navigate in one direction, streams for jumping and “bad” skirts to sprint past.
This child’s play was the inspiration for the book about Moomin, Mymble and Little My, which was puzzled with puzzle solution of outdoor puzzles. Information is in the rhyme and I try a few, filter water to make the next hint in a small fountain on the surface and chase after a red umbrella in the trees. “You just have to play like a child and use their imagination,” says Erika Englund, a local who developed the way.
From the forests you can see the small island of Bredkär, in which the Jansson family built a house in 1947. In 1964, they desire for a further loneliness built a cabin on the even tinier island of Klovharun, where she spent 28 summer with her life partner, the graphic artist Tuulikki Pietilä. The couple led a very simple life with the island, mutual and their enormous ideas for society.
Tove built a hut on the tiny island of Klovharun in 1964, where she spent 28 summer with her partner Tuulikki Pietilä
The landscapes of Pellinki, Bredskär and Klovharun are easy to recognize in all media. The sea and the weather play a central role: storms anger, belongings are lost and found in the sea, and life is lived with respect for the elements.
Porvoo is the next city to Pellinki and a stop point on the way to the archipelago. The old town is one of the best in Finland that was built after a catastrophic fire in 1760. I hike through the winding streets, admire the colorful wooden houses and learn the history of the city as a salt trade with Birgitta Palmqvist from Porvoo tours.
I stay in the pretty art youth style runo hotel in the city center. The building was a bank and the city library and now has 56 minimal rooms in Finnish style, changing art exhibitions and an award -winning breakfast.
On the outskirts of Porvoo I visit Kannonnokka, where a sauna was sometimes built deep into the forest in rocks. The sauna culture is of essential importance for the Finns: In 2020, UNESCO recognized the Finnish sauna culture as part of the intangible cultural heritage of mankind, and there are estimated 3.3 million saunas in a country with 5.6 million people (although everyone I speak to give a higher number). Even in the tiny cabin in Klovharun, there was a sauna in the basement (more important than running water). The Kannonnokka sauna is kept longer, longer sessions with dips in the cold diving pool and gently warm whirlpool bath. Then the young couple, who heads the event location, cooks delicious pancakes over the fire.
As a young artist, Tove paints murals for local buildings in cities along the Finnish coast. In Kotka, 50 miles east of Porvoo, a huge fairy tale wall picture can be seen in the city’s youth work department. It is a joy with stories, hidden mouse figures and gemstone decorations.
The long days of daylight are perfect for Happihyptely, a Finnish concept that was literally translated as “oxygen hopping”: take a short walk for fresh air and movement
In Hamina, a neighboring city, Panorama -Fantasy scenes decorate the walls of the town hall: mermaid flirts with cadets under water and ships fills Hamina Harbor. In Kotka I visit the Maritime Center Vellamo, where courage, freedom, love! A Moomin adventure was launched this year (until March 2027) to mark 80 years since the first Mooomin book was published.
Children can play in a replica -Moomin house, climb on the rocks surrounded by an animated sea and dress up in a small theater. Tove and Tuulikkis Boot are also exhibited in Victoria, which Abbe Gustafsson built for the couple.
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From Kotka I start a free ferry to Kaunissaari (90 minutes). The name of the island means “beautiful island” – in view of its pine forests, long white beaches and pretty marina. The port is a group of red wooden huts with wildflower gardens and boat sheds with coil fishing nets outside. There is a fascinating island museum that lives with souvenirs from centuries -old Hardy Island. I follow the winding paths through the trees to find a long sandy beach that I have for myself. I can’t resist swim – even without a sauna to dive. I warm in the Kaunissaaren Maja Restaurant, where the recipe for simple salmon soup has not changed for 70 years.
I stay in my own little summer house near Kotka. The amenities are simple: a kitchen meal and a bedroom, but of course a sauna. I put it on, then I spend an hour through the forest and around the bay and watched the sunset. The long daylight lessons are perfect for happyA Finnish concept that was literally translated as “oxygen hopping”: a short walk for fresh air and movement. Back in my cabin I jump between the heat of the sauna and immerse yourself in the icy Baltic Sea. I breathe out with the night, the light and summer that stretches in front of me. I can see why Tove Jansson loved this coast: Everything I need for a dreamy summer is here.
The trip was made available by visitors Finland. The Runo Hotel in Porvoo has double of €171 B&B. Self -catering cabins in the Santalahti Resort start of € €89 (sleep two); Sauna cottages of €198 (sleeps up to four)
