The drizzle came in off Lake Saimaa just after seven, a fine, patient mist that seemed to hang in the air rather than fall. I stood at the window of my room at the Original Sokos Hotel Lappee, watching the harbour below turn from grey to a softer silver as the day decided what it wanted to be. The forecast had promised a chance of rain, and it delivered, but the kind that doesn't really get you wet so much as it cools the edges of the day.
I pulled on my jacket and went out anyway. August in Finland rewards the stubborn. The street was quiet, the kind of quiet that comes at the end of a season, when the summer crowds have loosened their grip and the town takes a breath before the autumn work begins. I walked down towards the Satamatori, the harbour square, where the market stalls were setting up under heavy awnings, and the smell of fresh bread and fried fish mixed with the damp stone.
The fortress sits just above the harbour, a 17th-century star of earthworks and stone that has outlived every empire that built it. I climbed the low hill slowly, the gravel crunching underfoot, and stood for a while looking out over the rooftops towards the lake. There's something about a border town — it holds its history closer, like a hand cupped around a flame. Lappeenranta has been Swedish, Russian, Finnish, and each layer is still visible if you know where to look. The oldest Orthodox church in Finland stands within these walls, its onion dome a quiet reminder of the east.
The drizzle had softened to a mist by the time I reached the museum. I paid the entrance — around twelve euros, I think, though it's worth checking the current price — and wandered through the rooms of the South Karelia Museum, thinking about how a place so far north became so many people's crossing point. The fortress walls have been a refuge, a prison, a garrison, a home. Now they're a walk for locals and a destination for the curious, and the stones still hold the cold of centuries.
I came back down to the harbour around noon, and the rain had stopped entirely. The sun was trying, weakly, to break through, and the lake had turned a pale, hopeful blue. I stopped at the market hall, a low brick building that smells of coffee, spices, and the particular sweetness of fresh rye. I bought a small paper cone of fried vendace — muikku, the tiny lake fish that's everywhere here — and stood by the water eating them with my fingers, the bones crisp and salt-bright.
It was at the harbour that I noticed the preparations. A stage going up at the edge of the Satamatori, barriers being set along the roads that ring the square. I asked a woman folding brochures at a stand what was happening, and she told me — a celebration, tomorrow, for Alisa Vainio, the marathon runner who won the European championship last week. The whole town turning out, she said, with a band and speeches and the mayor revealing some sort of honour. I'd had no idea, but it made sense. A city at the edge of the country, always looking for a reason to gather close.
The road closures will run all day, apparently, with parking near the harbour shut down and the half-marathon cutting through Myllysaari and Pikisaari. It's the kind of logistical tangle that would usually send me looking for the quietest route elsewhere, but something about it felt right instead. A town celebrating its own, in the last light of summer — that seemed worth seeing. I made a note to come back early and find a spot near the stage.
Instead of retreating from the crowd, I decided to lean into the day's rhythm. I walked out onto the pier at the harbour, where the excursion boats were tied up, their decks still wet from the morning. The lake stretched away into a grey-green distance, islands scattered like dark punctuation marks. Lake Saimaa is the fourth largest in Europe, and standing at its southern tip, you feel the weight of it — the water, the forests, the quiet. I thought about the coming ruska, the autumn colours that would soon set the shorelines on fire, and felt a small, patient excitement settle in my chest.
For lunch I found a place called Ravintola Sumu, a name that means fog, which felt right for the day. I ordered a bowl of creamy salmon soup, the kind that comes with rye bread and butter, and sat by the window watching the harbour. The soup was around fourteen euros, and it was the kind of meal that warms you from the inside out, the dill bright and the fish flaking apart at the touch of a spoon. The café was half empty, two old men at the counter arguing softly about something, a young woman with a laptop in the corner. The fog of the morning had lifted, and the world was soft-edged and kind.
After lunch I wandered up past the market square towards the Armila district, following the sound of construction — a new swimming hall going up, the signs said, a thirty-three million euro project that will open in a couple of years. The street was partly closed to traffic until December, and I threaded my way past orange barriers and piles of gravel, the smell of wet earth strong in the air. It’s strange to see a city building for the future while the summer slips away, but there’s a comfort in it too. The work continues.
I came back down through the old town, past the wooden houses with their painted trim, and stopped at a small café called Café Majurska, set in a yellow 18th-century manor house. I ordered a coffee and a slice of blueberry pie, the berries still tart from the forest, and sat on the terrace under the dripping eaves. The coffee was about four euros, the pie a little more, and I thought about how this town balances its layers — the fortress and the data centres rising outside the city, the border and the lake, the past and the future.
It was late afternoon when I walked out to Myllysaari, the island that sits just off the harbour, connected by a low bridge. There’s a beach there, and in the summer it’s crowded, but today it was nearly empty. A few hardy swimmers were in the water, their heads bobbing in the grey distance. I sat on a bench at the water's edge and watched the light change, the clouds beginning to break into long streaks of gold. The half-marathon will run through here tomorrow, I remembered, and tried to imagine the paths filled with runners, the harbour loud with voices.
The day had the texture of a held breath — the pause between the busy summer and the quieter autumn, between the light of July and the colours of September. I thought about the people who have lived here across the centuries, the Karelians who had to leave, the Swedes and Russians who built and fought and traded, the town that keeps reinventing itself while holding fast to its edges. Lappeenranta is a border town in more than geography. It is a place where things meet — east and west, lake and land, past and future.
In the evening, I went back to the harbour. The drizzle had started again, fine as dust, and the lights along the pier had come on, reflecting in the wet boardwalk. The stage was nearly finished, and someone was testing the sound system, a low murmur that carried across the water. I bought a hot dog from a kiosk — about three euros, mustard and ketchup, eaten standing up — and watched the last boats come in for the day. The marathon champion's name was on a banner now, hanging from the stage. Alisa Vainio, running through the streets of her hometown tomorrow, and the town turning out to watch.
I walked back to the hotel slowly, the streets empty under the streetlights. Tomorrow there would be noise and crowds and celebration, but tonight the town was quiet, tucked into itself like a bird before rain. I thought about the coming week — the cruise out onto the lake, the sandcastle, the last of the harbour season — and felt the small, steady satisfaction of being somewhere real, somewhere with roots deep enough to hold a story. The ruska is still a few weeks away, but I can already feel it gathering in the trees, the slow shift of colour waiting like a held note.
The rain tapped at the window of my room at the Original Sokos Hotel Lappee, a soft rhythm that matched the beating of my own thoughts. I stood there a while longer, watching the lights of the harbour blur and sharpen, and thought about what it means to be a border town, to live where things meet. Tomorrow there would be a celebration, and the day after a quiet walk, and the day after that the slow turn towards autumn. For now, the harbour's last long light was enough. Moi.
If you're thinking of coming this way, or just curious about the practical details — the tickets, the road closures, where to find the best fish — everything I've talked about is in the episode notes. Take care, and maybe I'll see you by the lake.
That's all for this time. The kettle is nearly boiled, and there's a quiet room waiting. Until next Friday, stay curious, and let the season find you.