Biking Helsinki – Copenhagen

Supported by: @bikeonscott @justridenordic @velosportfi
Follow my journey:
📸 Instagram: @brahmma99
🎞️ TikTok: @brahmma99
☕ Support the project: https://buymeacoffee.com/brahmma99

Special thanks:
Nils & Merja Bjorksten
Lars Fasth
Dorothee Hildebrandt
Neil Walton
Julia
Mia Biddle
Pauliina & Peter Forsman
Everyone I’ve met on the way

🎶 Music (licensed via Musicbed):
“Casual (Instrumental)” – Jesse Barrera
“Champagne” – Austin Farwell
“Chicken Wing (instrumental)” – Jack Symes
“I hope you’re happy” – Jack Symes
“Fantasiestuce op 12 i des abends” – Robert schumann ignaz friedman
“lovebug (instrumental)” – Velvet Moka
“Wonder” – Kollen

🎒 Gear featured:
Bike: SCOTT Addict Gravel RC
Groupset: Shimano GRX 820 (Shimano Nordics)
Shop & bike build: Velosport, Helsinki

#NOSHORTCUTS #SCOTTbikes #SCOTTaddictgravelrc #ShimanoGRX
#ShimanoNordics

[Music] [Music] Hi there. So, today is the 30th of August. I was supposed to be departing yesterday, but I was still editing and doing stuff. And um yeah, now it’s about 700 a.m. on the day of my departure and I haven’t really packed anything. [Music] Did you pack your So, I still have to take this and a bunch of stuff here, but the back is And here’s the setup right here. [Music] And also, by the way, today I am joined with Ad. Hi guys. He’s going to be here along with the trip for the first one or two day. Depends if he has the luxury. So, I’m really glad that he’s coming with me cuz yeah, well, I think it will be like a much nicer start. We’re going to start our journey here in Caristo. Let’s go. [Music] What pizza did we order, Dom? Salmon pizza. Whoa. And before we know it, it was already really late and it was getting quite dark outside until we had to cycle in the pitch darkness uphill. Uh uh for now, I think I’m fine. Yeah, exactly. Just uh tilt it to the left a bit. The bike Morning. This is day two uh of the bike trip. Um yeah, here’s our tent. Yesterday was to be fair quite a tough uh start to the trip. Um well, mainly because I was not so prepared and we left a bit late and we arrived really late. Like the roads were completely dark. Maybe for an hour and a half we were cycling in pitch darkness. So, that was a bit scary. First time for both of us. All of our stuff is super super wet. Uh because it’s misty. It has been misty uh yesterday and today as well. Yeah, even even the stuff inside the tent are a bit wet as well because of the humidity. Uh I hope it’ll get sunnier. At least the forecast says it’s going to be sunnier tomorrow so I can try out all the camping stuff so you know they don’t start molding and smelling bad. Man, we made it through the first day. Let’s go, man. For another day. For another day. Second. Second day. Man, we decided that day to treat ourselves to a proper breakfast that we got at a nearby gas station. Some coffee and a full croissant and sausage and eggs breakfast. It was really, really nice. everything I wanted to experience. Riding into the unknown and setting setting up camps in uh places you don’t know. And after breakfast, we decided to keep on going until we finally reach the little town of Ingo. I have a list. One moment. I made a list with uh some tips and things. Every cemetery you get water. Yeah. Um, and many cemeteries you get electricity. Oh, okay. If you take a look, you mostly you find a plug or you go inside the church and ask some somebody if you can charge your phone. Nobody will say no. Okay. All right. So, we are in this really nice little area called Fagic, which is an iron works, or it used to be. It says that this church that’s in front of me here is from AC 1766. Yeah. And it’s by this really cool lake. Super beautiful. And also, look at this. The house is here. Super cute. to us about a castle as it was on our way. It was a lot of beautiful farm fields and also a lot of uphills, but obviously that didn’t face us at all. It was really fun to be able to cycle together for that day. Today, we also decided to camp at a campground. This campground is so nice, guys. Look at it. It’s so neat. Because we also wanted to check out how that is, as we’ve never done that in Finland. It comes with a kitchen right there. And also there’s showers over here. We made it, guys. We also met a really nice couple, which again was the purpose of doing this trip. So yeah, we set up our tent again for the night, but it was much better than yesterday. And we had breakfast and we were so happy. This was such a beautiful spot by the lake. There were a lot of like swans and animals around. It was everything that we wanted. So, this is the end of the road with Adam. Hey, be careful. You’re going to do really well. You’re good at this. Thank you, Adam. Uh, just got out of Tamisar and now I’m heading to uh Teo National Park or Teo Consales Pisto. Uh, just say my goodbyes with Adam and uh got quite emotional, but like I’m I’m really excited at the same time. like it is still such a long trip for me like 3 months. I know it’s going to be like super super exciting but also like it’s the unknown you know um going to be a lot of hard parts too. All right, see you. And so my solo trip starts and to be honest today was also one of the first really challenging days as it was a Monday and there were a lot of cars and trucks along the road. But it’s always always really worth it at the end of every day. They’re the same trees. The trail routs have been super nice. A lot of gravel, but uh and a lot of fields. There was a lot of birds. But now we are meeting some sand. So, hey, let’s go push this bike together. And I got lost quite many times today because there were new roads on the national park that I was trying to follow and it was not really registered yet on any of the maps. The road seems to be blocked. I mean, I can get over it, but I don’t want to like break any rules or anything like that. So, I’m just wondering where I should go instead. Now, I know why there’s a lot of sand. Look at how much sand there is. So, they’re building a new road cuz that road was closed down for construction. So, I had to track back like not so far, maybe like 1 kilometer. And now we are back on track. Or are we? It’s like left or right. I am not sure. Once I entered the national park though, all of the plants and the forest looked super pristine. There was so many types of mushrooms I’ve never seen before, and it was really, really beautiful. There were some fallen trees along the path, but all right. It was not a big problem at all. Nice. Keep going. We made it before dark. So, a lot of the trails here are mainly for hiking and not really for biking. So, I have to keep finding from shelter to shelter which one is actually accessible by bicycle. And yeah, there’s stairs and everything. So, I cannot go there. The first fall of the trip. I took the wrong way again and now we are trying to get up. [Applause] [Music] Not good. Not good. But I went too far in to like back down now. So I kept going and following this little wooden path which finally led me to one of the shelters that was actually quite nice. After falling, avoiding a lot of nails, quite a bit of ponies, we finally made it. Was quite tough, but this is the view. Hey, good morning. Um, I don’t want to speak too loud because there’s a couple other campers nearby. But yeah, I’m so happy to wake up here. It’s such a beautiful, beautiful spot. We’re right by a lake here, Matilda Lake. So beautiful. It’s not that big, but it’s nice. And I have access to the lake directly there. Lot of this like purple flowers. My first breakfast alone, it was quite nice. It’s just me and the nature around. [Music] Goodbye. This was such a nice spot for the night and the sky today is blue. But getting out of this camp spot was not easy either as all of the trails were meant for hikers. But of course, as any challenge that comes, I made it out. And I finally made it to the city of Salo, which I think is really underrated. You should definitely pay the city a visit. I decided to also go to another campsite for the day. And I met this really nice girl from Germany. Her name was Julia. And she’s basically taking my route but from the opposite end. So she was sharing a lot of information to me on how to take the fairies and whatnot. But as any nice meeting, we have to say our goodbyes. and I offered her our place in Helsinki to stay. Going off the main route that was suggested just because it looks so beautiful. And let’s see where it leads us and if I can go back to the main road. And I’m glad I took that other route because it turns out to be quite beautiful. As I pass this little town, we are in the Pokemon uh towards the archipelago. Wow. I realized since there was a lot of bikers on the road today, I wanted to get a bell for my bicycle, which I didn’t get the chance to get before uh my departure. Again, I was really blessed with the sunny weather for the whole day today. till I finally reached Paran and I met this really friendly guy. His name was Sami and he decided to help me find a bell because I couldn’t find it in any of the stores. It was not in season. So Samul sent me to this local bike shop named which is run by a guy named Hanu who was really awesome to help me out. Do you used to tour bicycle tour or uh yes but I have no times but I okay cycling very much and I have planned when I retired from this work I try to Norway and there to somewhere else. Okay. But with the ve mobile army? Yes. Okay. And I did this mobile myself. Yourself? Yes. Wow. So yeah, now I have a story behind getting this bell. I got it from the islands of Paren. So we just arrived on our camping spot for day six. This is called Solidan camping in Paragas or Paran. And look at the views. This was the most beautiful camp spot that I really suggest and recommend to all of you guys who’s passing through this area. [Music] So, as usual, I set up my tent first and foremost as I reached to the campsite. So, it’s been a week into this trip and I would like to really thank you to Shimano Nordics for helping me with uh supplying the GRX and also Scott for supplying me with this beautiful, beautiful frame. Also for Ollie at Velosport that has helped me to build this amazing bike that has withstand quite a lot of challenges already in the first week. Had some cool down time to edit and review the footage of what I have gotten. And I was quite happy with my journey so far. It hasn’t been so easy, but it’s worth every single day and every single pedal stroke that I take. But today, I also booked a special sauna session for myself because I think I totally deserve it. [Music] If you have never seen a Finnisha, it looks like this. And it’s probably one of the best things ever. [Music] So, after a relaxing evening, I decided again to head out. The sky opened up, guys. It’s quite sunny, but not too sunny. It’s perfect. It’s me and the road ahead. [Music] So many more. [Music] See that? And finally, this is the first ferry that I took. To be honest, all of this was really easy and really convenient. I think the ferry system in the archipelos, they’re really like well scheduled and just made to be very like biker friendly. Again [Music] [Music] I was greeted another day with a beautiful sunny weather. [Music] And today I am off to the island of Chukar, which I took my first bigger ferry compared to the previous days. And I met this really adorable couple who’s been traveling the world a couple times with their old Jeep. [Music] And yeah, they were just telling me, you know, like there’s nothing to worry. Whatever challenge that will come to you, you will overcome. And meeting these personalities on the way really gave me such great confidence that you know what, you can just take it day by day. You don’t have to think about so much. You can worry as much as you want about the weather or the challenges ahead. But it doesn’t really change. When you have to face the challenge, you have to face it. I think that’s also the wonder of this trip is I got a lot of time to myself. Gave me so much time to think. We made it here to Chakar. The streets are red and the wind is really strong, but it looks super super beautiful. I really wish this sunny weather would have lasted for the whole evening for me and also the next day. But of course, in these trips, you can only enjoy whatever you get at the moment. [Music] Yep. As you can see, it turned misty at night. And also, it will be misty until the following morning, which made everything really wet. But, you know, that’s part of it. It’s the art of learning to love situations that are challenging and keep going. And you don’t have to go fast all the time. And that’s something I needed to learn as well. You got to go with the pace that you can. So in the morning though, even though the weather was not the best, I decided to go to this viewpoint, which is an old church, which uh I couldn’t really see anything from here, but it was still nice. So yeah, after that, I took the ferry right away to the main island of Maria. All right, we are officially arriving at this port of Less or Lumparan and I’m going to cycle like about 30 kilometers to Maria. The cycling way from the Lumparan or the Longest port onto the city of Maria was really really nice. If you don’t already know, like these areas are optimized for the cycling experience. [Music] But then again, after the wet and rainy nights, it’s been really nice today and sunny weather. Riding with the birds here. Yeah. So, I wanted to explore the island a bit in this afternoon while I have a nice clear weather. And yeah, I’m just really stoked to be blessed by this luxury to be able to travel around, you know. Here is the viewpoint from the highest point in the island. And you can see like those sails on the distance from like an old sailing boat by their maritime museum. I was also recommended to try and cycle to the southern tip of Maria on this really fine morning, but everything was private property. So, here I am near at the southern tip of Olan. Um, this is my third attempt because a lot of the streets that lead to the southern tip are private properties and this is one of them that’s sort of in the east. But yeah, pretty much it’s just a dock. Sort of wish there was a cafe or something maybe in the summer. But it’s beautiful. But yeah, I don’t think there’s anything. There’s nature. But I was just really happy to be honest to get a full sunny morning today. And I decided to uh cycle all the way to the city or the village of Ekera which I will be crossing over to Sweden. And I thought I would be taking like much longer but since the weather was really nice and also the cycling roads was amazing. I arrived here really early because I was initially planning on um crossing over to Sweden the next day but I’m like you know what why don’t we just cross today? I finally boarded the ferry. The people in the ferry were really nice and they always give you the best seat in the house to put your bicycle. And here it is. Finally, I have crossed over to Sweden. My first ever time in Sweden. And it does look a bit different than Finland. So, I finally caved into like a little cabin, which was actually almost the same price as the camping spot in this official campground. So, I could be dry and also drying up my tent for the night. [Music] Hi. So, today I am going to attempt to ride 140 km into Stockholm uh where there is a friend’s house there. So, I’m very much motivated cuz it’s been like a week of dampness and everything is wet all the time. So, it’ll be nice to have a dry bed as well. Well, today was nice as well. Yeah, let’s see how I can cycle 140k. Beautiful, beautiful roads. This cycling route from Gristriel to Stockholm was one of the best ones I had until this point. There’s just so many farms all around and the nature was freaking amazing. And also for now, I was really blessed with the sun. So, I’m just really soaking it all in. I will go to Nutelli first. Uhhuh. And then Absola. It’s 70 km from um Nutella to Wow. Okay. So, my first city in Sweden, Nortalia. I kept cycling but yeah the weather today turned out to be quite cloudy and I was really hoping it wouldn’t rain which it ended up raining and I had to take a shelter in the showroom and a taxi driver was offering me and recommending me to take the train instead to Stockholm cuz I was still like really driven to go there. So I am in Oka right now about 100k in and I tried going to the station but yeah apparently none of the trains take bicycle at least that’s what the um officer said at the train and yeah it’s getting a bit dark and also the rain seems to be getting worse. I checked the forecast so I think I might have to stay the night here. But I cycled the next day and I finally reached Stockholm. Even though it was cloudy and super duper windy on the way here. These few days that are coming will be really windy and stormy. But I realized this is my only window to make it there. And I finally made it and met my friend Meta here in Stockholm. Time to rest the beautiful bike. And as the day goes, it got even stormier. So, I’m glad I made it there before it got really bad. Especially if the distance traveled is that far, then I feel really happy to finally find a proper laundrying place for all of my clothes for this after these past couple weeks. picking up the laundry. And my favorite thing to do whenever I have a proper kitchen is I really like to cook. Be careful. It’s fine. So, we cook chot bullar or the Swedish meatball and potatoes. For our first dish, of course, we had to do it because we are now in Sweden. This is the ride of passage. And I decided to cycle to the city the next day because it was again a really nice sunny weather. So, no time to waste. Got to keep moving. Stockholm was a really beautiful city in my opinion. It’s just like straight out of a Gibli movie, which I mean it actually is because it inspired one of their most famous The Kiki Delivery Service film. [Music] And when I was around the city, I met a really nice illustrator and I was thinking, well, you know, I kind of want to get a postcard from the big cities that I visit. So, thank you very much, Mia, for the awesome illustration. Next thing, it’s time to leave again. And here I am making my way trying to go through Sweden. [Music] It’s raining really hard right now. The sky is kind of blue over there, but it’s also raining a lot. I don’t know if you can see it here. And for the next day, I found this wild camping spot that was recommended by the locals, which is in a swimming beach. And wow, yeah, really talk to the locals. It really makes a difference in finding camping spots. [Music] [Music] And just like that, 30 minutes to 1 hour later, we are ready to go. I was so happy that my inland journey from the east coast to the west coast was accompanied with really wonderful weather and amazing views. There was still a lot of wind and a lot of rain, but there are many lessons that I learned along the way. So, I’m through this like going through this off-road route and there’s so much so much incline and uneven surfaces and it’s raining again. I’m taking a shade under this tree right now. Hopefully, it goes away. I am completely exhausted. So so many so many uphills. But here I learned that you know the uphills and the weather they will come and go. But you just have to have the perseverance to go through it all one by one. And I’m so very happy that I got a warm showers host for the first time. Her name is D Roi Hilbrandt and she has cycled from Sweden to Egypt and back and even more trips. She gave me a really nice breakfast and that she wanted to show how she makes her homemade oatmeal to me. It was quite nice to see. So, uh my left it bend today is quite sore. Um so with every like pedal It hurts quite a bit. I’m trying to stretch it along the way. Taking today a bit slower. Yeah, because this week was sunny, it was also single digits at night, unfortunately. But I was lucky enough that I also got another warm showers host who was going to have me for uh the night. So I was very motivated even though I have painful right leg to make it to the village of Hi. But like I said, the views, they never disappoint. Every struggle is always worth it at the end of the day. So, I’m staying here with my host. His name is Neil. He’s such an awesome guy who’s also done a lot of a lot of bike tours all around the world. Oh my god, you have a lot of bikes. Yeah, it’s such a nice color, too. Yeah. He was such an interesting guy that I decided to also make a mini documentary about him that I will be posting here on the channel. [Music] We exchange stories a lot about his experience and he gave me a lot of his wisdom. And by the way, he also built his own bike. I decided since the weather was not looking so good these two days that I’m going to stay at his home for an extra day and do editing on his mini documentary. But then the next day I was well rested. So even though the weather was a bit cloudy, I decided to keep going. But Neil kindly enough also decided to bike with me at least for the first 40 km of the trip. And it really really helped motivated me to keep on going. This is what cycling is all about to meet like-minded people and to inspire each other. Really, it’s been wonderful. I feel so sad that you’re leaving. Yeah, me too. Byebye. Bye. We hope to see you in Helsinki next year. So, I kept on cycling and I finally got to this city called Askarun. It was such a beautiful city. And uh yeah, I also had lunch here. I definitely saw a lot of cows on the way. I totally lost count. I was blessed that for the next couple days it was all sunny. Even though, like I said, it was quite cold at night. [Music] One thing I get to realize when I’m cycling is I experience new things every day. And I once heard a saying, you know, when you are a child, everything goes much slower because everything is new all the time. And in a way, I think this cycling experience resembles that. When it is a challenge, it does feel like it takes longer. 17 minutes could easily feel like an hour when you’re cycling through crosswinds and headwinds at the same time and then it’s raining. But during a really nice sunny day where the views are amazing, the cycling is good. Those 30 minutes of really good cycling could also feel like a couple hours and you just feel like time stops and you’re really enjoying every single moment. We’re almost there. We’re almost in Goththingberg. It’s been what a day. This was not an easy day as I cycled until the evening where Yeah. During that day, I got really bloated cuz I didn’t eat on schedule and my hands were freezing because it was getting really cold at night. So, I couldn’t feel my uh fingers and I couldn’t feel my toes either. But I finally reached my host Lars in Gothnberg and he was the sweetest guy ever. All right. He brought me to his favorite island on the next day called Brana which is in the Gothberg archipelago. And I’m really glad that he brought me to this place. It was a wonderful sunny day even though it was a bit cold. And Lars was so kind and he gave me a pair of gloves. He said he owns like 14 or like a lot of gloves anyways. And it really helped me. And now I have a pair of gloves that I’m going to bring for the rest of my trip. And I got it here in Gothn Park from Lars. So yeah, we cycled more around the city and Lars also used to be a tour guide. So he showed me around the city and brought me to some of the viewpoints and in exchange I brought him to an Indonesian restaurant since he’s cycling to Sali in two weeks. Lars is trying Indonesian food. It’s like a picture. and he loved it. So, I was so happy to bring him to the restaurant. Sure. And be very safe now. Be careful, huh? Watch out for cars and everything. I will. So, here I am making my way through the west coast of Sweden, which I think in the trip so far is the best cycling experience yet. The views are just amazing. The cycling routes are really well thought of. Here’s my first official FA. I heard some people say that cycling is the closest thing to flying without actually flying. And I really agree. [Music] [Music] Hi, this is day 30 of cycling from Helsinki to Portugal via Copenhagen. And today I am cycling to Helsingi and hopefully tomorrow we’ll be making it to Copenhagen already. As I was cycling, a guy just caught up to me from behind and he was saying hello and he introduced himself as Kai. So we end up cycling together. We realize our route is similar at least for parts of the way and we had lunch together. [Music] [Music] And I don’t know if you can see, but that’s Denmark over there. All right. And I am ready to cross to Denmark. We made it to the ferry and it’s leaving like really really soon. I had like 5 minutes left before the ferry this ferry is going to leave. But they leave every 20 minutes so it’s fine. Bye-bye Sweden. I will for sure come back again. This was my first view of Denmark. This is Helsing. Just going through all the Hellings here. Oh, and look at the plug. Denmark is very much known for its great cycling infrastructure. So cycling from Helsinger towards Copenhagen was such a pleasant experience. You see the coast, you see the forest and even though like this is actually next to the coast, but they’ve made this uh cycling route towards the city really really wonderful and also accessible. We made it here to Copenhagen and I’m going to be staying here at a friend’s place for like about a week or so to edit and yeah recover from my um saddle source. Copenhagen welcomed me with a very soft shower. I was taken aback that I have made it this far from Helsinki to Copenhagen on the first leg of my trip. [Music] I think as a little kid, I would have never imagined that one day I would cycle the Nordics. But yeah, I guess if you just keep doing what you love, wonderful things could happen, even outside of your imagination. And to top it all off, someone special has decided to come pay me a visit here. I spent the next couple days preparing for my next leg of the trip from Torino in Italy and all the way to Porto in Portugal. [Music]