Painter Pentti Ikäheimonen handed me a glass of orange juice inside his studio with shiny floors and posh armchairs. He doesn’t speak any languages a so he talks Finnish to me, very slowly and clearly. No, I have no knowledge of any Finnic branch of languages, but I do get what he says. This “château” is his studio. He doesn’t live here, he only works here on his paintings. He called me inside, because not many people get here through the 3 miles of forest lanes, certainly not on a scooter and definitely not all the way from London. After he showed me all the rooms with all his paintings, I expressed my admiration and left to set up a camp by lake which he marked on a map for me. I can go for a swim to wash off all the dust from the road before I enter the crowds of the city…

Pán umelec Pentti Ikäheimonen mi nalial pomarančový džús vo svojom ateliéri s ligotajúcou sa dlážkou a luxusnými kreslami. Nevie jazyky, a tak mi rozpráva po fínsky, veľmi pomaly a zrozumiteľne. Nie, z ugrofínskej jazykovej vetvy nerozumiem nič, ale chápem. Teto zámok s parkom a jazerom, to je jeho ateliér. Tu nebýva, len maľuje. Zavolal, Read More

They’re warning me from bears, overpopulated in these forests. It is not safe to sleep outside anymore. This is their forest, their taiga. And so I walk every evening many miles through the forests to seek shelter in log cabins. There I can tease the bears safely with my opened cans of tuna. Even today I walked across deep forest when suddenly a person appeared in front of me. He was wearing wide hat and was very sweaty, tired and surrounded by massing mosquitos. He asked how far it was to the road. “Only one hour.” he could hardly believe and showed me the map of his trip, 6 days walk across the forests from the russian side, where no roads go…

Varujú ma pred premnoženými medveďmi, už nie je viac bezpečné spať vonku. Toto je ich les, ich tajga. Preto každý večer chodím dlhé kilometre cez les do drevených zrubov, kde môžem v bezpečí vzbudzovať zvedavosť medvedích nosov svojimi konzervami s tuniakom. Aj dnes som tak išiel na noc hlbokým lesom, keď sa oproti mne, Read More