by Robert Goldstein
For the Sequim Gazette
In the summer of 2007, I flew to Helsinki, Finland, with a suitcase holding pieces of a folding bike. Two months later, my little blue bike with a wagon in tow, groaned over the last barren arctic headland before curving down to the edge of the Barents Sea.
After surviving storms, long stretches of solitude and illness, I was within a day of reaching my goal.
Like most personal epics, this trip had strange roots. Years earlier, when crossing Russia aboard the Trans-Siberian Express, I was mistaken for a Finn because my travel documents were issued in Helsinki.
I later published a book about my trip, “The Gentleman from Finland — Adventures on the Trans-Siberian Express.” My readers began to ask, why not next write about Finland?
My desire to travel and write about Finland grew as I delved into Finnish history and culture. It looked interesting, but was expensive to visit. To save money, I bought a used folding bike, a New World Tourist by Bike Friday. It came in a suitcase with an axle assembly that converted the case into a towable wagon. This allowed self-sufficiency.
I could camp and cook, bunk in hostels or scrounge whatever accommodations available, as I zig-zagged my way 2,000 miles from the bottom to the top of Finland.
The first leg took me from Helsinki to Turku, the old capital of Swedish-ruled Finland, then southwest to the Aland Island.
After returning to the mainland, I turned northeast through the quiet rolling countryside of Ostro-Bothnia, through Tampere, where I had a near disastrous accident when the wheel of the wagon flew off.
I fell ill in Kuopio, but was cured in a public wood-fired sauna followed by a plunge into a freezing lake. In eastern Finland, pressed against the Russian border, I was warned about marauding bands of wolves and a mysterious beast called the Gulo Gulo.
In South Lapland, I spotted my first reindeer, a wild one that caused me, in my excitement, to jump off my bike and follow it blindly into the dripping forest. Further north, I passed the mass graves and rusted artillery that still remained from the 1939 Winter War with Russia.
I shivered through fierce storms that swooped down from the Arctic leading me to question my sanity for even thinking that such a trip would be appropriate for my 52-year-old body.
But even on my worst days I was cheered by reindeer, more numerous the farther north I pedaled. They often jogged alongside my bike and creaking wagon.
After nearly 60 days of continuous travel, I crossed the northernmost border of Finland with Norway, and reached the town of Vadso in Arctic Norway. To return before the freeze, I cobbled together a sea voyage, bus and train rides along with another 200 miles of biking to scramble back to Helsinki. I was 10 pounds lighter, but lived to tell the tale now memorialized in my book that is really about Finland; “Riding with Reindeer — A Bicycle Odyssey through Finland, Lapland and Arctic Norway.”
About the presenter
Robert M. Goldstein was born in Los Angeles, but grew up in Santa Clara, Calif., where he began his first bicycle forays. After graduating from Oregon State University in 1977 with a bachelor’s degree in technical journalism, he worked as a newspaper reporter for the Walla Walla Union Bulletin and the Bellevue Journal-American.
In the late 1980s, his career took a different direction after he received his master’s degree in public administration from the University of Washington. Since that time, he has held a variety of administrative posts in California and Washington.
He has traveled extensively and has published travel articles on Nepal, Bhutan, and China in the Seattle Times and the Journal-American.
His critically acclaimed first book, “The Gentleman from Finland — Adventures on the Trans-Siberian Express,” chronicles a madcap journey across the Soviet Union.
The book earned Goldstein the coveted Benjamin Franklin Award for best travel book published by a small publisher in North America in 2005.
His second book, “Riding with Reindeer,” earned him a silver medal in 2010 from the Independent Book Publishers Association annual awards.
Currently, he is the chief financial officer of the Kitsap Regional Library. He lives in Seattle.
About the presentations
Traveler’s Journal is a presentation of the Peninsula Trails Coalition. All of the money raised is used to buy project supplies and food for volunteers working on Olympic Discovery Trail projects.
Shows start at 7 p.m. in the Sequim High School Library at 601 N. Sequim Ave. Suggested donation is $5 for adults; those 18 years old and younger are free.
One selected photo enlargement will be given away each week as a door prize. Creative Framing is donating the matting and shrink wrapping of the door prize.
For more information, call Dave Shreffler at 683-1734.
Traveler’s Journal
About the presentation:
When: 7 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 25
Where: Sequim High School library, 601 N. Sequim Ave.
Cost: Suggested $5 donation (adults); 18 and younger, free
Presenters: Robert Goldstein
Presentation: “Riding with Reindeer – A Bicycle Odyssey through Finland, Lapland, and Arctic Norway”
