After leaving the busy-ness of Istanbul it is almost a culture shock to arrive in Helsinki. There is virtually no traffic on the roads and the architecture towards the main part of town is bleak, with rectangular rendered blocks of apartments lining the streets. Once we get closer to the harbour the architecture changes and becomes a little more ornate with hints of art deco. As we arrive at the Hotel Kongressikoti I literally only see three people on the vast cobblestone streets. The hotel was recommended by Stefan from the yoga center and it is a simple hotel, clean and friendly. The hotel is on the 5th floor of one of those art deco-ish buildings with a rickety old elevator where you have to slide back the springloaded screen to get in and out. There is wi-fi and a kitchen as well as shared bathrooms and shower. It is cheap in contrast to the other hotels, yet I had a view over the rooftops and it is only a few steps from the harbour.  I made my way down to the Esplanade and suddenly was surrounded by people. With 22 hours of sunlight it is easy to forget what time it is and most restaurants will serve dinner quite late. I decided to eat at a Finnish restaurant called Aino . The menu boasted raindeer fillets and hoping Santa wasn't watching decided to order them. The waitress assured me that the deer I was about to consume was definitely not employed by the old man and it turned out to be delicious.

The next day I made it to the train station with plenty of time to spare only to find out that the train to Hanko had been cancelled. I called Stefan Engstrom from The Midnight Sun Ashtanga Yoga Retreat and took another train to Karjaa which is the station where I would have had to change onto the Hanko train. After a one hour train ride I arrived at Karjaa and Stefan was there to pick me up.



Stefan Engstrom is the 5th generation of Engstroms to have his home on Kadermo and the first to turn it into a yoga retreat 16 years ago. The island is remote, with no cars or shops or roads for that matter. This is an all-natural environment with dramatic coast lines and lies just east of Hanko on the southwest tip of Finland. To get to the island Stefan uses the fishing boat his father made.



I arrived at the small timber boat pier, where Stefan anchors his boat, and saw that several other yogis had arrived before me. As soon as we set off across the smooth waters of the Baltic Sea the smile on everyone's face is unmistakable. It is difficult not to feel excited and emotional at the same time. This is a place so peaceful and beautiful it takes our breath away.





Upon arrival we are taken to our accommodation. Six of us are sharing the Summer House which is perched on top of the granite rocks that hug the coastline of Kadermo. The view is spectacular and we find that during our stay we have brunch and dinner on those rocks rather than inside the house so that we can marvel at the view.





On the first evening Stefan meets with the group to explain the schedule. We are able to use the yoga room before 9 a.m at which time he will begin supervising self-practice. In the afternoons we have yin yoga and pranayama. It turns out to be a perfect combination for me. The yin yoga sequence was especially designed by Stefan to enhance the Ashtanga practice and pranayama leaves us with a clear and focused mind. On other weeks Stefan also teaches in the afternoons and in a three week course he will take you through the anatomy of yoga, breathing and energy techniques. If you stay longer Stefan will also discount your stay.



This is already one of the most reasonable yoga retreats I have been to with very little reciprocal tasks. Sure sharing a house can be a challenge to some, but generally you are sharing with like minded yogis who are all there to experience the unique environment as well as improving on their yoga and health. I found that by Wednesday I felt already part of a family and believe I made friends for life with some. One of the most controversial tasks is the dish washing schedule. Each person will have to wash the dishes with a buddy at least once, and considering I refuse to do the dishes at home, because what is a dishwasher for anyway, I was challenged by this. Turns out that my dish washing buddies ended up being really interesting people and had it not been for the half hour spent performing this task I would not have gotten to know them as well as I did.



Then on Fridays there is 'Karma Yoga'. Again this is a task most challenging to some, who believe that they didn't come to Kadermo to clean. Yet cleaning our own accommodation took only one hour out of our lives and as Stefan says, people tend to respect their environment more when they know they will have to clean it up in the end. Tell that to my 17-year old! In the end we were all mighty proud of having fluffed and puffed every cushion and wiped every surface, keeping in mind that perhaps some good karma point were coming our way.