Through landscapes forged by time

I'm on my annual leave now until June 15. Next Monday I have to wake up just before sunrise - 4 AM to be exact - because the entrance examination starts after nine and I have a bus and two trains to catch before that. I don't know if I'm more scared or excited.
Soon after that it's time to travel all the way to the Alps, after several years of longing. So, you may expect a mile long post filled with pictures of thousand-year-old buildings (although many of those have been reconstructed and greatly expanded during centuries) and mighty mountains. Burglars beware: dogs are staying at home, and not alone.

I was born and have lived my whole life here in Western Finland, where you can barely find few decent hills. Even so, I have loved mountains since I was a child and saw documentaries about them on TV. It was a dream come true when I got to visit Lapland with my siblings for the first time in my life, around the age of six. Those arctic hills, tunturit, made a huge impression on me and I visited them again, and again. It's the solitude and purity of the nature which attracts me. Those few people you see during your hike, all of them respect the nature and won't leave a single piece of trash behind them. It's too unusual to see places so pristine nowadays.

Finnish Lapland in late summer, more than ten years ago.

We also crossed the border to Norway few times and those majestic landscapes stole a huge part of my soul. Now it's been over ten years since my last visit. I was planning to finally go back this year, but despite my yearning to see Norway again, I thought it would be nice to see some other places too and chose Austria to be my destination this time. Very different kind of region, but I believe I will be as awestruck as I was when I first visited Lapland.