Just a small evening walk near Vaasa, in Österhankmo village in Korsholm. Difficult to get here by accident, it's at the end of a small dead-end road, partially on a peninsula.
A rocky mound named Karika in the woods next to the village, a bit over 30 m over sea level, has a nice observation tower. Hadn't even heard of this one before yesterday.
The sea (Kvarken/Merenkurkku strait) is visible in the north, and the archipelago barely visible on the horizon seems to be Mickelsörarna, uninhabited except for a research station and some cottages. Far in the south there are two wind farms that I couldn't identify. Of Vaasa buildings I could only spot the Vaskiluoto coal power plant.
In Österhankmo the sea forms a shallow narrow bay several kilometers long, named Sundet. Could it be Kyrönjoki river's old course? That river, the biggest river of South Ostrobothnia and the water source for Vaasa, now flows into the sea some kilometers to the south, into Vassorfjärden bay, but its current mouth is very visibly strongly shaped by human activity, in particular with levees protecting fields around from spring floods. Well, and the beach is the reason we came here on a weekday evening in first place :) I don't swim, may take a dip on the very hottest days of summer at best, but my girlfriend uses every opportunity for it.
There is also a small Finnish War (Swedish-Russian war of 1808-1809) monument on the shore. Here Colonel Bergenstråhle and his force of 1100 Swedish troops landed in June 1808 in an attempt to liberate the city of Vaasa, captured and sacked by Russians. The attempt failed; the force joined the main Swedish army.
The village has no customer-facing businesses or public buildings, except for a village house and a youth club. The latter has a book exchange shelf next to it.
Ostrobothnia can be amazingly beautiful in summer evenings. If only I left home with a camera more often :)
Original Twitter thread:
