June 10
We find a couple bikes on Suomenlinna. Tough old clunkers that have what the Finns call sisu. I ask my friend Orvokki to translate the word. “It’s perseverance, personal strength, and determination all rolled into one,” she tells me. Sisu is what you need when you live a whisker south of the Arctic Circle and Russia is your next door neighbor.
I take a ride around the island. It's early evening, so all the day trippers are gone and I have the place to myself. I roll past the rusty cannons and grass-covered bunkers that date from the Swedish occupation and both World Wars. Three centuries of fortifications that have finally outlived their usefulness. It's not that Finland doesn't have anything to defend against these days. It's that stone walls and watch towers just don't cut it anymore.
I bump and rattle to the far end of Suomenlinna where I find the Kuninkaanportti— the King's Gate. It’s the monumental 18th century entrance to this island fortress. It's also the island's most picture postcardy location, with its massive drawbridge and its big stone arch and cannon holes. The King’s Gate would be a good location to film a period drama featuring guys on horseback wielding crossbows and wearing chain mail. A marble slab reads "Posterity, Stand Here Upon Your Ground and Never Rely on Outside Help," which is as good an expression of Finnish sisu as you're likely to find, even if the plaque was put there by the Swedes.
I pedal through the gate. At practically any other point in the long history of this island, it would have been unwise for some nerd to storm the King's Gate on a clunker bike. But that's the funny thing about posterity. When it wants to ride a bike through the King’s Gate, the past has no say in the matter. No vote. I ride through the gate in the long light of a June evening and no one can stop me.
Can’t wait to find out what comes next❤️