Episode summary:
I just revisited my favourite island in the archipelago just offshore from Finland’s capital, Helsinki. On each trip to this wonderful country I try to explore new islands but I keep getting lured back by one in particular: Pihlajasaari.
This is one of my happy places. I feel connected to the land and enriched by every moment I spend here. It’s my rehab, detox and therapy all rolled into one. It’s also the place that first inspired me to create the Six Minutes Somewhere Else podcast. I couldn’t have been in a more fitting place to celebrate my podcast’s first birthday. Cheers!
If you are wondering ‘can I go island hopping in Helsinki’, ‘what are the top ten things to see and do in Helsinki’, or ‘what are Helsinki’s hidden gems’, this first birthday podcast episode should give you a few answers.
Listen to a podcast about spending time on a serene island in the Helsinki archipelago.
Transcript – S5 E5: Helsinki’s paradise island
This week we’re celebrating our first birthday here at Six Minutes Somewhere Else by exploring one of our favourite places – an island in Helsinki’s archipelago.
I’d like to say a huge thanks to those of you who have stuck with Six Minutes Somewhere Else over the past year and give a warm hug to those who have joined more recently. I sincerely hope these short escapes into nature have given you some comfort and relief from the stresses and strains of life.
Addicted to Pihlajasaari
There are numerous islands and islets just a short boat ride from the southern waterfront of Finland’s capital, Helsinki. Some are super-touristy, others seldom visited. On each visit to Finland – still by far my favourite country in the world – I try to explore at least one or two I have not visited before. This is, however, becoming a bit tricky as I keep getting lured back by one small island in particular: Pihlajasaari. I have walked all of its paths and sunbathed at most of its different expanses of smooth granite. In fact the only bit I have not frequented is the small nudist area but that’s definitely on my list if I can only muster the courage to get my kit off.
No matter how many times I visit Pihlajasaari, it’s never enough. So, here I am again, stepping off the small ferry that chugs over from the mainland. The boat can only make the short trip in spring, summer and autumn because the Baltic Sea freezes hard each winter. Icebreakers carve out paths through the ice for the big ships on the main routes but the smaller islands remain ice-locked all winter, accessible only by skaters, skiers and ice-hikers. Ooh, now there’s an idea for my next winter visit.
Even on busy warm-weather days I can always find a spot away from people to spread out a towel and have a picnic of rye bread, a haunch of smoked salmon and a pot of skagenrora – a delicious mix of shrimp, mayonnaise, lemon and dill. During the first years I came to Pihlajasaari, I favoured the south coast of the island but recently I have been drawn to the western end, where you can look over the sound to the larger island of Melkki and see the truly gigantic Helsinki–Tallin ferries powering past, leaving wakes that swish satisfyingly against the rocky shore.
On my last visit, in June, I got lucky as the island’s wildflowers were all out, coating its grassy banks and bay inlets with colour. I find it truly amazing that the bulbs of these beautiful and seemingly fragile flowers can survive Helsinki’s severe winters, when temperatures can dip to –20C or less and the ground is frozen solid and coated with inches of snow and ice for months on end. Yet, here they are once more, tempted back to life by long warm days and soft rain, and putting on an incredible display.
Hundreds of bullrushes create a forest towering over a small inlet and providing shelter for coots and moorhens. Nearby is a grassy grove littered with deep-green ferns, bright yellow celandine, white and blue forget-me-nots and a flower I do not know but later discover is called red catchfly, which is a little confusing because the ones here on Pihlajasaari are bubblegum pink.
The border where the island’s lush interior meets the granite boulders of the coastline is obscured by shrubs and flowers thrusting out at every angle. I see the mauve candles of lilacs and the bright red explosions of rugosa roses.
Never leaving paradise island
I am always tempted to deliberately miss the last ferry back to the mainland and stay overnight. I imagine it is frowned up by the island’s managers or rangers but I am sure it happens in summer. After all, Finns are devoted to nature and take every opportunity to immerse themselves in it, whatever the weather but especially on long sunny summer evenings after a brutal winter. And at this time of year, the sun only sets for a few hours, so there’s virtually no nighttime anyway – just a beautifully drawn-out sunset and sunrise.
I also want to miss the ferry because – to be honest – I never want to leave here. Pihlajasaari is one of my happy places. I have four of these spiritual, natural spots on the planet and two are here in Finland. I feel connected to the land here on the island, and enriched by every moment I spend here. It’s my rehab, detox and therapy all rolled into one.
It’s where I can drift easily into mindfulness and truly forget about the horrors of the world. Here, I feel the tensions of my life are – at least temporarily – kept at a distance so I can’t hear their caterwauling and carrying on. I am untethered from the real world, from deadlines and responsibilities, from bills and business, and instead purely at ease and at one with the rocks, flowers and the gentle waters of the Baltic.
Also – and this is appropriate today as we celebrate one year of this podcast – Pihlajasaari was the place that originally inspired me to create Six Minutes Somewhere Else, so – on this idyllic summer’s day here – I raise a glass of Finnish cider and thank this beautiful part of the planet: KIITOS!!
