Up bright and early. We had around 1000 kms to travel, and had to hope that our two trains, two buses and a tram all connected. Bid our farewells to the awful Eurohostel, and hopped on the tram. The 7:30 train from Helsinki to Oulu departed on time, and sped along at close to 160 km/h, but still managed to arrive an hour late which mystified me. The connecting service from Oulu to Kemi had to wait for us, so it was an hour and a half late leaving Oulu, but duly deposited us at our station in the middle of nowhere.
To appreciate where we were going, you really need to look at a map, but we were traveling by land from Finland into Sweden around the top of the Gulf of Bothnia, so Kemi is the closest Finnish station to the Finland/Sweden border. Now the bus from Kemi to the border wasn't a connecting bus and had left, so we walked from the train station to the Kemi bus station and were in luck as there was a bus departing in a few minutes. More than that, it wouldn't just take us to the Finnish border bus station in Tornio, but would go across the border into Sweden and drop us at the Haparanda bus station, which saved us a long walk. Now this is a rare but wonderful piece of cross country co-operation, but you have to understand that there is absolutely no sign of a border between the countries here, not even a line on the road. The first sign that you are actually in Sweden is the huge Eye-Key-Ya on the corner of the road that separates the countries. Regardless, we were grateful, especially as it made sure that we were in the right place.
The bus from Haparanda to Lulea had long gone, but there was one more bus for the day, and we had a surprisingly nice meal from the 7 Eleven next door to the station as we waited. A double storey deluxe coach for the 150 km trip, and we sat in the front of the upstairs section and admired the snow, the river ice, and the lovely scenery as the sun went down. You may know that Australia has this long rabbit-proof fence, but Sweden has 2m high reindeer fence along all its main roads to look after, and we saw 150 km of it. Periodically along the fence are gates, all locked in case the reindeer turn out to be smart.
Arrived in Lulea as twilight descended, and walked to our lovely hostel in the centre of town. Just a shame we are only here one night. Only one other guest in.
Now I have to mention the Helsinki to Oulu train. It was a double decker train, very comfortable, and very child friendly. One of the carriages had spaces and toilets big enough for wheelchairs, and mothers with babies. Downstairs was a toddlers room and a cryroom, and upstairs was a playroom with stair guards, toy corner, slide and reading library. There were also bike lockers and baggage lockers. The buffet car even sold 'fruity apples'.
Note to people reading this blog to work out how to get between Helsinki and Stockholm overland by train and bus:
Yes it can be done, and works well, but some of the information we found on the internet seemed to be out of date. So here's how it works as at April 2010.
Take the train from Helsinki to Kemi. Cost is around E80 and takes about 7-8 hours. Its actually two trains - Helsinki to Oulu and then Oulu to Kemi, but they are connecting trains if you book them as one trip, so the Kemi train will wait if the first train is late (like ours was).
A bus will meet most (maybe all) trains at the Kemi station, but more services depart from the Kemi bus station about 100 meters away. Follow the street signs. It cost E5.9 per person, and will go all the way to Haparanda station in Sweden. The bus from Haparanda departs regularly for Lulea, and cost SWK155 per person. See http://www.ltnbd.se/ for times. From Lulea you can take a train south to Stockholm, or north to Kiruna.
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