Hugo bear was totally fed up with his life on the tropic paradise island of Tonga. He wanted to do something new and extraordinary. So he decided to leave the island. Hugo walked to the local travel agency and asked for a pile of brochures. He studied the leaflets carefully. Then he announced determinedly to his family “I am going to travel to Europe and my first destination there will be Finland.”
Soon it was time to leave. Hugo boarded the plane the paws shaking. But the journey was soon over and Hugo was standing on the Finnish soil, at Helsinki – Vantaa airport. From there Hugo took a taxi and bounced to Helsinki. He booked at a Sokos hotel for the night and went early to bed, because he had so much to do and to see. Hugo slept well and was dreaming of pleasant adventures.

In the morning after enjoying a good breakfast Hugo headed to the centre of Helsinki. Hugo was surprised to see, how big Helsinki was. He had always thought that Finland was a small and cold country. “No, it isn´t.” Hugo heard a voice saying behind him. Hugo got startled and jumped up. Slowly Hugo turned around and looked directly into two big blue eyes. “Who are you?” asked Hugo. “I´m Rex” said the voice. The voice belonged to a big fuzzy dog. “You were thinking aloud” he went on smiling. “I see” said Hugo. “Do you know a place where to go and look around?” asked Hugo. “Well, if you let me show you, I can…” “Sure”, Hugo cried out. “Well, come along then, we´ll go…”

“Wow”, Hugo shouted, when he saw all the equipments of the busy funfair at Linnanmäki. Hugo and Rex ´tested´ all the equipments twice at least and the evening came too soon as always when you are enjoying yourself. The new friends said goodbye and decided to meet again the next day. After shutting the hotel door behind him Hugo dropped on his bed and fell asleep immediately. In the morning Rex came to the hotel to meet Hugo. Together they walked to the seashore. “It´s beautiful here.” Hugo wondered. “Hurry up, the ferry is leaving” Rex rushed Hugo. Rex and Hugo stepped on board of a ferry and started sailing towards ´Suomenlinna´ (Sveaborg). After arriving there, they started walking around the fortress.
Hugo found the fortress extremely fine. Especially he liked old cannons which were to be seen all around the island. Rex knew a lot about Suomenlinna and its history. Hugo was interested in everything Rex was telling him and he didn´t want to leave the island. “Not yet?” he asked looking around, when he heard that the last ferry was leaving. But he found back to his hotel happily.

Next day Rex saw Hugo to the train, because it was time for Hugo to move further up to the north of Finland. It took a long time for Hugo to sit on the train, because it´s a long way to travel through Finland. Hugo´s destination was Rovaniemi. Hugo was amazed to see how different the nature in Lapland was compared to the nature in southern Finland. There are fells (mountains) in Lapland, that´s all Hugo knew about Lapland beforehand. He tasted cloudberries, which he found a bit too tart for him though. Hugo was fascinated by the Northern Lights which were glowing in the sky at nights. Eventually came the day that it was time for Hugo to leave Finland. He walked to Oulu airport feeling a little bit sad, but stepping on board of the plane, he was already looking forward to new adventures.

Written by
Emma Harju 11 years old