Going to Kökar

On Sunday, the day after tomorrow, we are heading to Kökar with my hubbie Timo. Kökar is my second home, and it is not very long ago that I found it.

To make a very long story not that long, everything started when my mother got sick. My mother wished, that I would get in contact with her cousin Johnny Wickström, who lives on Kökar island as an hermit. They had always been close, but because Kökar is in the middle of the Baltic Sea, between Finland and Sweden, Johnny did not come very often to visit my mother.

Johnny is a former sea captain and he has sailed round the world so many times that he doesn't even remember. Now he is retired and his main activity is painting. He is a great artist and he has had many exhibitions.

So when my mother had passed I called John and from that started our correspondence. After a year of writing to each other I got the opportunity in October 2008 to travel to Kökar to meet Johnny. He lives there alone in a small wooden cottage without electricity and running water. He is 75 years old and is stronger and fitter than anyone I know, even anyone much younger.

My meeting with Johnny was very emotional and we had a great time together. I was one week on Kökar and completely fell in love with the place. The serenity and silence on Kökar is palpable.

At the first time in my life I did'n feel afraid of walking alone in the dark. There was no one or nothing threatening. Only the immense dark sky with millions and millions of stars. The wind humming in my hood.

After that first time on Kökar I have visited the island three times: in February 2009 for one week with Timo, in April for one week alone, and for 5 weeks last summer with Timo. In July I we had an exhibition together with Johnny on Kökar, I had photos and he paintings.

So now we are going to Kökar again for a week with Timo. I'm very excited. The trip takes 8 hours, and we go there by car. Yes, as strange as it sounds, that is the best way to travel there. There are three ferries on the way, and the last one takes 2 hours and a half.

On the map in the photo you can see a small red mark in the middle of the Baltic Sea. That is Kökar. The images on the left are from my Kökar trips.

Kökar is an island municipality to the south-east of the Åland archipelago, Finland.

P.S. We are not going to live at Johnny's place, that is too rugged for me. So we have hired a nice apartment of a friend of us. We have electricity and running water, even a sauna.