Finland

Finland
Information
Language:	Finnish, Swedish
Capital:	Helsinki
Population:	5,301,701
Currency:	Euro (€)
Hitchability:	(good)
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Finland is a part of the Northern Europe, one of the Nordic Countries. It is a member state of the European Union as well as the Schengen Agreement. Its neighbouring countries are Sweden, Norway and Russia, but possibly the most probable transit country on your way hitchhiking there is Estonia. Most people use this way. It's called the Via Baltica - road E67 between Helsinki, Finland and Prague, Czech Republic.

Cities

• Jyväskylä, Joensuu
• Kuopio
• Lahti
• Helsinki, Hämeenlinna
• Oulu
• Pori
• Seinäjoki
• Tampere, Turku

Other areas

• Lapland

Crossing Borders

Nothing special about the Finnish borders. Apart from the Russian border, they exist only on the map, not in reality. Since the dawn of time has there been very liberal co-operation between the Finnish, Swedish and Norwegian borders. Finland signed the Schengen Agreement, but Ahvenanmaa where the ferries to Stockholm stop supposedly isn't, so the border-control can use that as an excuse to go through your property.

From/to Sweden

Ferries to Stockholm go from Helsinki and Turku. The latter being closer is considerably cheaper. Both ferries also stop in Maarianhamina in Ahvenanmaa, or Mariehamn in Åland as the swedish-speaking population there tend to call it. The two companies running ferries between Finland and Sweden are Viking Line and Silja Line. Both of the companies concentrate on bringing the customers a cruise-experience, and are bound to be tacky. At least Viking Line sells simple tickets without a cabin, which would be rather useless on the daytime trips between Turku and Stockholm anyway. A ferry from Stockholm to Turku costs about 25 euros and Stockholm-Helsinki 55 euros (both without a cabin).

Silja Line is the poshier of the two, and thus more expensive. It's still tacky, though.

The Viking Line cruise ships have free tourist maps of Turku at their information desks onboard. Be warned that if you take a daytime cruise (which is about half the price), you will arrive in Turku at night. In the Fall, Winter, and early Spring, that means no daylight for hitchhiking, and possibly extremely cold temperatures, as well.

It isn't to say the archipelagoes of Stockholm or Turku don't make a nice scenery. On the ferries there's a constant attempt to lure people to buy as much tax-free booze and other stupid things as much as allowed by the regulations. It really isn't much more affordable than at land especially since the regulations for importing from Estonia, which they won't tell you of course. So, do bring a book. Usually there's free Playstation or XBox games at the kids-section to spend the time, plus usually some other backpackers or other such to chat with. You can also try to spot a small islands severely damaged by great cormorants a few hours off Stockholm.

Then there's the Swedish Birka Cruises, whose product is apparently closer to a more proper cruise.

From/to Estonia

There is no land-connection between Finland and Estonia. There are several daily boats from Helsinki to Tallinn. It takes 1-3 hours, costs about 20 euros the cheapest without a cabin.

From/to Russia

Note

• There is no walking on any of existing crossing points.
• Crossing Vaalimaa–Torfianovka border post via cycling was permitted at least in 2006 and, most probably, still permitted
• Russian visa is not issued on the border

The most important crossings to Russia (St. Petersburg region) are Vaalimaa–Torfianovka one the road E18/7 Helsinki-St-Petersburg and Nuijamaa–Brusnichnoe near Lappeenranta.

The first one is always animated, open 7 days a week and 24 hours a day. There's lots of through traffic as well as lots of locals from both sides of the border, with Russians coming to buy goods, Finnish people going to the other side to buy alcohol, cigarettes and fuel and all sort of traffickers. On Finnish side they are crowding on the first gas station, just before the customs zone. You can alternate asking drivers on the parking and those queueing to the terminal. A ride to Torfianovka is enough – there's lots of transport going to Vyborg and St. Petersburg from there, that doesn't necessarily cross the border to the Finnish side. No use trying to get into Russia with trucks – freight terminal is separate, and sometimes you wait hours, sometimes days. Russia–Finland seems to be faster. To get back from Russia to Finland the best way is to ask on the parking of one of the supermarkets around.

The other one is on the road 13 going south from Lappeenranta and bypassing the village of Niirala on the north. There is less traffic here, but the route is more scenic, going along the Saimaa canal (Russian: Сайменский канал; Finnish: Saimaan kanava)

Next crossing point north from there is Niirala-Värtsilä, on the road 70 south of Joensuu. The trafic is low, from there a road goes to Sortavala, from where it is possible to reach St. Petersburg by the south shore of lake Ladoga, with a portion of unpaved road, or Petrozavodsk via north shore.

Language

The language most people in Finland speak is Finnish, which isn't a Scandinavian language. The country is officially bilingual, as there is a large Swedish-speaking minority. Anyhow, most of the people speak at least some English, so most of the international hitchhikers won't have big language problems in Finland. Though you might encounter some old people who don't speak English. In this case it's good to know some Swedish (which is useful all over Scandinavia).

Useful expressions for hitchhikers

• Hello = Terve
• Hi = Moi or Hei
• Hitchhiking = Liftaaminen
• To Hitchhike = Liftata
• A Ride = Kyyti
• Thank You = Kiitos
• Where are you driving to? = Minne ajat?

Safety

Hitchhiking is quite safe in Finland indeed. As always, common sense is your friend.

Legal matters for hitchhikers

Hitchhiking is legal in Finland. Anyhow, there are some places where it is illegal for the cars to stop and some places where it's illegal for pedestrians to stand. Both of these make hitchhiking de facto illegal in these places.

Highways

It is illegal to hitchhike on the highways (called “moottoritie”) and some motorways (“moottoriliikennetie”) in Finland. You can recognize these from the green signs.

The cars can not stop in crossing areas, and some cars not obeying this rule and taking hitchhikers on board are know to be fined.

Hitching is illegal in Finland on the motorways and two lane expressways. On any other highway you can legally hitch. On motorways you can also legally use the on-ramps as well as the gas stations. This is the same with most countries in Europe and most states of USA.

Culture

Hitchhiking used to be popular in the 70's and 80's, and a considerable amount of the rides will tell the hitchkiker(s) they've hitched themselves back in the day. Nowadays it's quite rare among Finns, but of course there are some European backpackers, often heading to Lappi, Lapland.

Links

• Finnish hitchhiker's club The site is mostly in Finnish but there is an English section in the forum
• Hitchhiker's guide to Europe A Hitchhiking site by a Finn
• Liftausvinkkejä Hitchhiking tips in Finnish