Day trip to Lappeenranta and Lake Saimaa
Lappeenranta, February 14th, 2018.
Today I had a day off and decided to visit Lappeenranta, the 11th largest city in Finland by population. One of my colleagues needed to go there for some errands, so I saw the perfect opportunity to take a break from Savitaipale, since I haven’t visited any cities since I arrived.
Basic Information About Lappeenranta
Lappeenranta is a city located on the shores of Lake Saimaa, the largest lake in Finland. It is situated in the southeast of the country, about 30 km from the Russian border, and has around 72,000 inhabitants. It is the second most visited city by tourists in Finland and the largest one near Savitaipale, followed by Mikkeli.
Early Morning Adventure
The bus left Savitaipale at 6:50 AM. I set my alarm for 5:45, but I didn’t wake up until around 6:15… and only because I had to take a shower! Otherwise, I would have stayed in bed a bit longer. We had a quick breakfast and went to the bus stop, which is about 4 minutes from home. At that hour, it’s still dark outside.
The trip from Savitaipale to Lappeenranta takes less than an hour, and the ticket costs €8.20 one way (as of 2018). It’s cheaper if you buy it online, but we were lazy and bought it directly on the bus. We took the 6:50 bus and arrived at Lappeenranta at 7:40. My colleague went off to handle his errands, and I stayed to explore the city on my own until he finished. You might wonder… what can you do at 7:00 AM in Lappeenranta when everything is closed and empty? Well, the options might be limited, but you’d be surprised to know that there’s still plenty to see!
Lappeenranta Church
When I visit a city, I like to do it at my own pace, without a fixed list of places to visit. I prefer to be flexible, walk around the streets, and observe how the city feels, letting myself be guided by intuition. When I said goodbye to my friend, I saw a church in the distance that looked orange, so I headed toward it. It turned out to be Lappeenranta Church. I walked around it, but unfortunately, it was still closed, so I continued my journey.
Lake Saimaa
I had a general idea of where the lake was, so I decided to walk towards Lake Saimaa, Finland’s largest lake. At that time of the morning, the streets were fairly empty, and the sky was overcast, which is pretty common in Finland. There are days when you hardly see the sun.
Like all Finnish lakes at this time of year, Lake Saimaa was completely frozen. Even though I’m getting used to seeing large frozen lakes, I still find it incredible to see the thick ice and the snow covering it. The sky was pretty cloudy, as you can see in the picture:
Obviously, there was no one at the lake at that hour. There were only a couple of people skiing and a few people running. And that’s another thing that surprised me: to see people running down the street at -15ºC and wrapped up warm. As for skiing on the lake, since the lake is so large, it is common to make ski trails on the surface.
On the Lake
In general, I prefer visiting natural landscapes over cities, so I spent about two hours walking along the lake and one of its islands. I strolled by the harbor with the boats docked in the snow until I reached the end. I saw a path that led into the lake and to the nearest island, so I decided to follow it. The path was perfectly cleared of snow, thanks to a vehicle that had passed earlier. Due to the strength of the ice, they can drive on the lake without any issues—although they don’t push their luck!
As I ventured further onto the lake, I noticed the ground was completely dark. At first, I thought it was solid land since I was near the shore. In fact, I assumed it was solid ground until I saw clear cracks in some areas. That’s when I realized I was still walking on ice.
Karhusaari Island
I walked all the way to Karhusaari Island, which seemed to be the best connected (at least according to the tracks and the path). It’s a small island, and it looks like it becomes very popular in the summer. The first reason is that it had a small wooden cabin where people could have picnics and bonfires. It also had another wooden building and a toilet with toilet paper! Imagine my surprise when I found a fully equipped toilet in a cabin in the middle of the lake during winter…
I highly doubt anyone goes there in this season, yet they have everything ready. In fact, this is not the first time I’ve seen this in Finland. There have been several occasions where they seem one step ahead of the rest. Here, they really take care of the details to make life easier for everyone.
And, finally… Green!
It was on Karhusaari Island that I saw trees and nature in green (and not covered by snow) for the second time since arriving in Finland. The first was during our hiking trip to Rovastinoja.
After spending a couple of hours wandering around the lake, I noticed it was almost 10:00 AM. I was getting hungry and starting to feel cold. Suddenly, the temperature seemed to drop significantly. Either that, or there was a strong wind because the cold started to bite, and I had to put on my windbreaker’s hood to mitigate the feeling. So, I began my way back to civilization.
Warming Up in Lappeenranta
I ended up at Coffee House, a café located in the Armada shopping mall, and surprisingly, one of the places I enjoyed the most in Lappeenranta. There, I ordered a pink donut filled with strawberries and a coffee with milk. I found it curious that you have to serve your own coffee. You pay at the counter, get your cup (small, medium, etc.), and then there’s a table with milk, coffee, sugar, honey, etc., for you to customize as you like.
I sat down by the window with my book to read for a while. Honestly, it was exactly what I needed—sitting in a quiet place with no noise, no distractions, just me and my book. After a while, my colleague arrived, and we hung out there for a bit.
I know that this is not directly related, but the restroom in the café was rather unusual. The lights were purple, and the stalls didn’t have their own light. You had to rely on the faint purple light outside to guide you. Quite strange, to say the least!
Running into Familiar Faces
One of the funniest moments of the day happened when we went to the supermarket. We ran into two Spanish colleagues who are doing another WorkAway in Savitaipale! One of them is actually our Finnish teacher. What a coincidence—just at that time, in that place, the four of us met. Small world, indeed!
Walking through the city in the direction of a supposed sand castle, we found curious things like this ice figure:
The Nonexistent Sandcastle
After chatting for a while, each of us went our separate ways. My colleague and I headed toward Lappeenranta’s sandcastle, which turned out to be a complete fail since it’s winter and there’s no sandcastle to speak of…
Pancho Villa: The Best Mexican Restaurant in Lappeenranta
It was almost 12:30 PM, and we were getting hungry, so we decided to look for a place to eat. The options weren’t great—kebab, expensive restaurants, or fast food—until we found THE place. It’s a Mexican restaurant called Pancho Villa, located on Valtakatu Street, one of the main streets in Lappeenranta, in front of a lovely park whose name I can’t remember.
The food was delicious. We ordered two large burgers (one with cheese and the other with chili), upgraded with fries and bacon for €1.50 more, and water. For dessert, we had some lemon tea that was available on a little table. The best part? During weekdays at lunchtime, they have a discount, and the menu cost us €14 per person. Very affordable, considering how expensive Finland is.
Kauppakeskus Galleria
After spending a couple of hours eating and resting, we went back out into the street. We wanted to take one last walk around Lappeenranta since we still had about two hours before our bus. With not much else to do, we headed to the Kauppakeskus Galleria shopping mall to browse a few stores before heading to the bus station.
Back to Savitaipale
Our bus left at 4:40 PM, and this time the ticket cost €10. I don’t understand why the price is different—same trip, different price? Just like with the outward trip, we could have bought the tickets cheaper online, but we were feeling lazy, so we bought them directly there.
We were back in Savitaipale in less than an hour. It was a fun and productive day, so if I get another day off, I plan to do a similar trip—maybe to Mikkeli or see what other possibilities are there from our village. When I have a day off, I don’t like staying home; I prefer to go out and discover new places… so we’ll see what’s next!
PS: Happy Valentine’s Day!
