Åland: Autonomous, But Finland
Last weekend, I visited an "autonomous, demilitarised, monolingually Swedish-speaking administrative province of Finland" (Wikipedia), called Åland. You easily reach the island from the Swedish port of Grisslehamn by ship and the trip takes exactly two hours.
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Åland's flag
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On the island itself, you do need a car because there is not too much to see in the capital city of Mariehamn, which can be reached by bus. The landscape looks surprisingly different from Sweden. The earth from the fields is somehow "grey". Åland is also in a different time zone (GMT +2) than Sweden and you get the Finnish mobile phone networks there.
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Masts of the "Pommern"
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One thing you can see in Mariehamn is the "Pommern" museum ship.
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Viewpoint
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When driving around the island, there was suddenly an approximately 30 meter high view point, which offered a nice vista over the island. So if you are looking for a nice one-day trip, Åland is definitely an option. Especially when you have such a nice weather...


