By what means do you normally travel in order to reach your holiday destination? By car? By plane? By train? By bus? I can imagine that it usually depends on how far your holiday destination is. Now, can you imagine that you would walk that distance?
In Lithuania we met a guy from Finland. He looked very unusual with a trolley he pushed in front of him. He intrigued us from the first moment and so we decided to find out more about him.
As Finnwalker would characterize himself he is an ordinary man who has more time than money. He therefore walks while travelling. He is not absolutely rigid in it since he does not consider it a mission. It can therefore happen that you meet him on a train or on a boat (as we did). He however prefers walking since this way of travelling is by far the cheapest one.
At the moment he is on his Baltic Tour. You can follow him on Facebook. As he stated, he posts there in Finnish and bad English. He started his tour on the 23rd May 2016 in Talinn. Since then (today is the 23rd June 2016) he walked more than 800km and reached the Curonian Spit in Lithuania. He used the shortest route in order to get here and now he plans to go back along the Baltic coast.
We have placed a couple of questions to this extraordinary traveller and he agreed to answer only if we will not publish his name or face. That is why we do not have any pictures and call him simply Finnwalker.
Vista Travellers: Why did you decide to travel this way?
Finnwalker: Because I have plenty of time but only a little money. I also can see more as if I would travel by car or train. You see the country from a completely different perspective. You also can easily get in touch with people. It happened to me several times that a car stopped next to me or a pedestrian approached me with the question whether I have a place to stay. We started a conversation and it always ended in a way that they invited me to their house and offered me hot dinner and bed. So this way of travelling shows me as well that there are good and hospitable people everywhere.
Vista Travellers: Do you have any negative experience?
Finnwalker: Well, not really. The only negative experience I had by now was a bad customer approach in one of the hotels I stayed. But that is just a question of service quality not character quality.
Vista Travellers: Is this your first tour or did you do some already in the past?
Finnwalker: Yes. I did already other tours. Last year for example I walked through Finland and made about 1 200km.
Vista Travellers: That is very impressive. What is your daily maximum?
Finnwalker: Last year it was about 64km, this year I made maximally 54km a day.
Vista Travellers: Do your feet hurt after such a day?
Finnwalker: Yes, they do. And the calfs as well. But as soon as the new day starts, the pain disappears.
Vista Travellers: How do you choose your route?
Finnwalker: I prefer roads that are neither too busy, nor too quiet. And I always walk on asphalt. On such surface it’s more comfortable for me to push the trolley and I don’t get so dirty when it rains.
Vista Travellers: Don’t you feel sometimes lonely when you are alone on the road?
Finnwalker: No, not at all. Actually, I am rarely alone. Every day I meet someone. Sometimes, maybe, it is already too much interaction for me. And I also keep in touch with my children via Facebook.
We hope you find this guy as inspiring as we do. You can follow him on Facebook: Finnwalk / Baltic Tour.
