Our Group On The Road!

In the follow-up to our writing club, we decided to leave our offices and experience new challenges. thus we headed towards the North and the subarctic Värriö research station of the University of Helsinki.[1]

 


 

The journey was crowned with skiing 8 km or taking a snowmobile ride to the station, which is located only some seven kilometers from the Russian border. As soon as we arrived at Värriö, the sunny weather and kind hosts promised us a really pleasant and progressive stay in the middle of inspiring northern nature. The weather was great throughout the visit, and the snowy scenery with snow-crowned trees and almost absolute silence was stunningly beautiful.

 

During our time at the research station the group successfully managed to make progress in some of the ongoing manuscripts, PhD and Master’s theses, and data analysis. We also visited the SMEAR I station, made plans for future research activities there, and had time to discover the stunning surrounding nature and wildlife, take hundreds of photos from reindeer, Siberian jays and capercaillies, relax in sauna and take many dips to the hole in the ice (avanto in Finnish), and play some card games .

 

Even though this trip was short, we all feel more relaxed and refreshed after four days of working in a different atmosphere. We absolutely recommend visiting the Värriö station and we are planning to go again next year – for a stay at least one day longer.