Tom and I cycled up the hill out of Turku on Friday, expecting to reach Helsinki the following evening. It is now Monday and we’re still in Turku (still no museums).
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The reason for our delay is that we recognised a familiar face on our ascent, there aren’t many 2-year beards around. The man beneath this prodigious growth is Matti and he travels by rickshaw. When we saw him, he had just arrived in Turku to work transporting artists between hotel and venue during a music festival. It may sound to you like there are a lot of festivals in Finland, the reason is that the winter is so bleak (so we hear) that everything is saved for the summer, which lasts about another month. Anyway, Matti assured us that this was the best festival in all of Finland and that leaving would be a ridiculous decision, he also said he may be able to get us cheap tickets.
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When we went to collect our tickets, our friend presented us with passes for the weekend, explaining that somehow he had got ‘Cyclists from Cambridge’ on to the artists list and so entrance was gratuis. Incidentally, if we are to be artists then my name is ‘Red Rider’ and Tom shall be ‘Cyan Cyclist’. The weekend was great; this time we danced to drum and bass, electronica and rap. One bad thing about the smoking ban is that in an indoor venue with hundreds of people sweating, the smell is rancid.
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We have been pitching our tents in the city parks most nights but last night we once again met friendlies, called Natalie and Jussy, who took us under their wings, fed us and beered us ready for a long cycle today. We hope to have company on the way to Helsinki, from a guy we met last night. He had come here with his bike for the festival and plans to travel back on the same route at a similar pace. He is meant to meet us today at 1 O’clock although he did confide in me that he was very drunk and quite possibly wouldn’t be awake in time – I’ll find out soon enough.