In a tent

To my surprise there seems to be an audience for this project among the English speaking people too. Because of my job, I know quite large number of people how don't speak Finnish. Some of these people are interested of this project and therefore I thought, why not write something in English too? So here we go.

What is this project all about? In short, after one month from now, I don't have a home anymore, because of a renovation at my flat. I will be without home for one month from mid-May to mid-June. My solution to my temporary situation is to move into a tent.

I live in Espoo, the second biggest city in Finland. Ironically, if you look at the satellite maps of Espoo, you will notice the city doesn't look like a city much. It looks more like group of towns and lots of space between them. This "space" is mostly forrests. There is lots of opportunities for tenting inside the city.

Take a look:


Näytä suurempi kartta

In Finland, tenting is allowed for one or two nights at the same place pretty much anywhere it won't cause any disturbance. If you keep a decent distance to other's homes, don't make too much noice, leave trashes behind you, or don't make fire, it's perfectly ok to set a camp for night or two, even if you are not the owner of the land. Of course you can't go to other's yards and close to buildings, you need to use your common sense there.

If you look at the map, you'll see it wont be a problem for me to find a place to stay. My plan is to spend every night at a different place from where it won't be too much of a trouble to go to work (in Ruoholahti) every morning by bike.

I succeeded to get a sponsor to this project. Partioaitta, a Finnish camping equipment company has agreed to give me all the equipment I need for the month. I'm not really a professional in this camping thingy - actually, quite far from it. The last time I was in a tent was during my military service ten years ago. I definetely need the expertice from my sponsor to make sure I have the equipment I need. After all, I'm just an average Joe working at the office.

I know, this a major jump to the unknown for me. But I can't escape it anymore. I'm way too far to turn around now. I have to do this. We'll see what happens.

I don't know for sure how many English speakers there are reading this blog. (According to Blogger statistics, there has been traffic to the site from US, UK, South Korea, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Spain and Switzerland.) I will be writing mostly in Finnish, but if you'd like to read more in English, that won't be problem. Just leave a comment here, so that I know if there's anyone interested.