Paws, Peo­ple, and the Path to Oulu: Lucy’s Adven­ture

Lucy was look­ing for adven­ture when she decid­ed to move to Fin­land for work, and she says she def­i­nite­ly found that here in Oulu. Accom­pa­nied by her beloved dog Tilly, she packed her bags and head­ed north – from the busy city life she was used to back when she lived in Lon­don and Glas­gow to the calmer streets of Oulu. 

Work­ing at Luke — Nat­ur­al Resources Insti­tute Fin­land, since Feb­ru­ary 2023 has meant Lucy has not only got to enjoy the sights of the city, but she has also ven­tured out into the wilder­ness of nature dur­ing field­work. She is a researcher look­ing at how salmon cope and sur­vive dur­ing heat waves. 

Trav­el­ling Com­pan­ion

When mak­ing the move to Oulu, Lucy didn’t come alone. Her emo­tion­al sup­port came in the form of her fur­ry friend, Tilly. They flew togeth­er from the UK to Fin­land, with Tilly hav­ing to go in the hold of the plane.  

- I knew it was going to be scary to move to a new city. I knew that Tilly had to come with me to be my emo­tion­al sup­port. That way I knew I would have one friend when I moved here. 

Tilly, an elder­ly Scot­tish Pat­terdale Ter­ri­er, took to the move with­out any issues. She loved being out in the beau­ti­ful nature in and around Oulu and was par­tic­u­lar­ly inter­est­ed in the wildlife – squir­rels piquing her inter­est the most! Lucy how­ev­er, was a lit­tle more per­turbed by the change in pace at first. 

- I arrived on the 31^st Jan­u­ary of 2023 and it was minus 17 degrees, I just thought ‘Oh my God’ it is so snowy, I couldn’t recog­nise any­thing I had looked at on Google maps before arriv­ing, it was all just cov­ered in snow.

Find­ing Their Path 

Lucy and Tilly quick­ly set­tled into a rou­tine despite the dras­tic change in weath­er con­di­tions. The need to get out­side and explore because of her dog meant that Lucy had no choice but to fig­ure out how to stay warm in the Finnish win­ter. 

- It is real­ly stress­ful to move a com­plete­ly dif­fer­ent cli­mate and learn things like how many lay­ers to put on in the freez­ing cold. Because I had to go out­side to walk Tilly, I had to learn those things real­ly quick­ly. 

This wasn’t the only thing Lucy learnt quite quick­ly, as she dis­cov­ered that the peo­ple of Oulu weren’t quite like the Finnish stereo­types. She accred­its this most­ly to Tilly how­ev­er, as she found peo­ple were always keen to talk to her dog which then prompt­ed con­ver­sa­tions and friend­ships to blos­som. 

- Peo­ple are chat­ti­er than I expect­ed, def­i­nite­ly chat­ti­er than stereo­types. My top tip is to have a dog. I have chat­ted to lots of peo­ple because of my dog or their dog or our dogs meet­ing. 

Fur­ry Friends  

This easy way to con­nect with peo­ple was a big decid­ing fac­tor when Lucy looked into get­ting anoth­er dog after Tilly passed away. Her newest com­pan­ion is called Papu (mean­ing ‘bean’ in Finnish) who was a res­cue from Lithua­nia. She says that hav­ing him has not only brought her joy and love but con­tin­ued the con­ver­sa­tions with peo­ple in her com­mu­ni­ty and giv­en her a safe space to prac­tice her Finnish lan­guage skills. 

- Papu has lots of dog friends and I try to speak Finnish with their own­ers. Many of my neigh­bours are also learn­ing Finnish and some don’t real­ly speak a lot of Eng­lish, so it’s fun to try and com­mu­ni­cate with them when we are both just prac­tis­ing the bits of Finnish we know. 

Con­nec­tion Mat­ters 

Despite work­ing in Eng­lish at her com­pa­ny, she feels that learn­ing the Finnish lan­guage is import for true con­nec­tion with the com­mu­ni­ty here.  

- Even though you can get by in Oulu just with Eng­lish, it real­ly is use­ful to be able to have basic Finnish. In the shops or if some­one is ask­ing you for direc­tions, even if you can’t speak, if you can under­stand, it helps build a com­mu­ni­ty with neigh­bours or with local peo­ple. 

Con­nec­tions have also been found with­in the com­mu­ni­ty through Lucy’s love of music. She says that despite it being a small­er city, the music scene is still thriv­ing and some­thing she enjoys being involved with. 

- It makes me hap­py that Oulu is on the gig cir­cuit. I like elec­tron­ic and indie music and there are bands that come specif­i­cal­ly to Oulu. Aavikko was a favourite of mine at 45 Spe­cial in the town cen­tre.  

Jam-Packed with Adven­ture 

Lucy was look­ing for an adven­ture when she came to Fin­land, and she believes that adven­ture has been found here. Her free time now includes a lot more out­doors time than before, with her tak­ing up many new hob­bies since mov­ing here. 

- I am in gen­er­al more out­doorsy now. The out­doors is very acces­si­ble here. I do things like stand-up pad­dle board­ing in the sum­mer, and in win­ter even though I’m not very good at them, I like going cross coun­try ski­ing and snow­board­ing. 

Anoth­er very Finnish activ­i­ty Lucy has invest­ed time in is Avan­to. She was intro­duced by a Finnish friend to the icy plunge and now says she can’t even count the amount of times she has been. 

- Even though it’s hor­ri­ble when you’re in the water, you feel real­ly good after – it’s true what they stay. The longest I have stayed in the water is about 1 minute when I was real­ly crazy. 

I came here look­ing for an adven­ture and I’m still get­ting an adven­ture every day.

Work-Life Impor­tance 

Her work at Luke gives her a sense of pride as she realis­es the impor­tance nature has to Finns. She feels that her love of fish and her sci­en­tif­ic back­ground led her to the right place, as the salmon pop­u­la­tion real­ly mat­ter to peo­ple here. 

- Salmon are a very impor­tant species cul­tur­al­ly for Finnish peo­ple – for food and for fish­ing as a hob­by. We’ve found they can be very vul­ner­a­ble to heat­waves so we’re look­ing at how heat stress affects them.  

She also takes part in some riv­er restora­tion work in Lap­land as part of her work, some­thing she again feels is a key part of Finnish pri­or­i­ties. 

- It’s nice to take part in the riv­er restora­tion work in Fin­land. It’s reward­ing because Finnish cul­ture is so entwined with nature and it’s very impor­tant to spend time out­doors which is a verb in itself – ulkoil­la – it’s so beau­ti­ful and rich that it’s impor­tant to look after it. 

After all of her hard work, Lucy also appre­ci­ates the great work-life bal­ance she gets here in Oulu, know­ing that work can be left in the office.

- The pace of life is slow­er here, which is good for men­tal health. I feel less stressed because the work life bal­ance is bet­ter. It is very impor­tant in Finnish cul­ture, and it is real­ly good for every­body. Peo­ple val­ue their time off and it helps them be more pro­duc­tive when they are at work.   

Key Mes­sage for Oth­ers 

Whilst Lucy of course miss­es her fam­i­ly and friends and the mul­ti­cul­tur­al restau­rant cul­ture back in the UK, she is find­ing her place her in Oulu. Her friend­ships have grown, her list of favourite restau­rants has grown and her desire for adven­ture con­tin­ues to grown every day. 

Her mes­sage for oth­ers is clear. If you’re look­ing for adven­ture and beau­ty, Oulu is the place for you. 

- If you are look­ing for a qui­et city that isn’t over­whelmed with events but is a good base for adven­tures, then it is the city for you. There are beau­ti­ful sun­sets, beau­ti­ful nature, and good peo­ple here. What more could you want! 

Text by: Sophie Platt