I almost wouldn’t have written this post! At least I wondered if I would survive after joining a nature excursion to an island that is located only some 100 m from the seashore in front of Kaivopuisto, but felt like being located at the Northpole. I could have done with a few more layers of clothes, but even the properly dressed Finns were admitting that it was kind of chilly out there. The island is part of “ulkoinen saaristo”, meaning, it is an outer island and behind it lies the open sea. And with that comes the wind, merciless, icy Finnish spring-wind. The view, however, was spectacular.

While I could have done without the snowflakes from those beautiful clouds when they passed the island, and the wind who moved them forward, I loved the drama of this nordic sky.

We were only allowed to walk on the paths and our guide had to “fight off” some very protective-aggressive father-geese, defending their mother-geese who were sitting glued to their nests everywhere on the island. I learned that there is Canada-goose and “valkoposkihanhi” (barnacle goose). Also, some herbs have become very popular in the “culinary world” due to a “wild food hype”, so it’s good that some of them are protected in the nature reserve on Harakka Island and can survive. “Harakka” means magpie, but we didn’t see any of those, just lots of geese, lokki = seagulls of all kinds, Eurasian oystercatcher, swans and some type of ducks and mergansers.There is one large building, a former military chemical research centre, that is nowadays used for artists, as a get-away-from-it-all-and-be-creative-place. I just hope they have heating in there, because otherwise…

Should you want to go, there is a ferry-boat going from the pier at Café Ursula.
http://www.harakansaari.fi/en/frontpage