This weekend, we went camping at Porkkala. Porkkala is an small peninsula of land about 30km from Helsinki, which had a turbulent history in the 20th century.
From the wikipedia entry on Porkkala
“During the Cold War the Soviet Union secured the rights of lease to naval base at Porkkala, in accordance with the armistice agreement that ended the Continuation War, between Finland and the Soviets, in 1944. A large area centering around the peninsula, including land from the municipalities of Kirkkonummi, Siuntio and IngÃ¥ and almost the entire area of Degerby, was leased to the USSR.”
We didn’t venture as far as the naval base, but found a beautiful spot to camp right by the edge of the Baltic Sea.
The camping site was free, and well provisioned, with fireplaces, WCs and huts that doubled as barbeque cookout spots and woodchopping venues complete with complementary saws, axes and old copies of the Helsinki Sanomat for starting your fire with. We soon got a fire going, and a couple of Nakki (sausages) cooking to accompany some red wine.
A beautiful night, with almost no-one else around apart from the odd sailboat drifting into view, making it’s way around to the archipelago.
Petafloptimism 