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Maria Vojtovicova
@maripopeo
Best of the week 51 at #nomadict 2021
I was born and raised in Košice, which is the second biggest city of Slovakia. It’s where I spent my school days during the week. Every weekend, though, we would travel to my grandma’s house in a small village surrounded by forest and hills. We would go pick mushrooms in the forest, work in the garden to grow vegetables, and play in the creek close by. Dogs, cats, chickens, pigs and cows were all around and there was always an animal accompanying us. In the winter, we would be skiing or building snow igloos. My sister, my cousins and I were simply enjoying being kids.
My childhood time was divided between the big city and nature pretty much equally. Weekdays would go very fast as my curiosity was present at all times and I wanted to learn and try everything I could. During all in my years growing up, I had karate classes, tennis classes, played football with boys during the breaks at school, took Drawing and Art classes after school, learned to play violin, cello, guitar, piano, sang in the children’s choir of the State Opera Theater in Košice and eventually, learned to speak 5 languages fluently.
"Instead of asking why, I would always ask ”why not?” I believe curiosity and creativity is a part of my nature, a character trait."
My eagerness to learn and see new things is also reflected in my interest in travel. We would always travel a lot with my family – we used to spend the summer holidays in Croatia, where I believe my love for travelling and road tripping comes from. From my city, Košice, it’s a 12 hour drive through Hungary and Croatia, down to the Mediterranean Sea. We would leave at 5 am and would go for a swim in the evening on the Croatian coast. My mom is an amazing singer, so we would spend the whole road singing in the car or playing the cassette tapes in our old Ford Scorpio. Apart from that, we would accompany my father on business travels, so we visited pretty much every country of Central Europe over several years.
Another thing that influenced my interest in travel largely, was being part of the orchestra Musica Iuvenalis, where I played violin for almost 10 years. We would travel every summer to a music festival in a different country. When I joined the orchestra as a 13 years old, the first country I visited with them was Japan. It was my first time traveling outside of Europe and it felt like a whole wide world opened in front of my eyes.
"Everything seemed so different and new, I have been wanting to get more of that ever since."
It was exactly the passion for music that in the end brought me to Finland. I moved to Helsinki in the autumn of 2013 to study music. The beginning was hard; I was used to having people around me all the time, but suddenly I found myself alone in the country where I didn’t understand the language, had no friends and where local people are shy and introverted by nature. With time, I guess I just acculturated and now feel good among them and within the country. I travelled around Finland a lot during the four years while I was studying. After I graduated and struggled to find a job in my field, which was music, I decided to put my language skills to use and got myself a job in the travel industry in Rovaniemi, Lapland. So I moved 800km up North, to the place I visited only once before but amazed me enough to take a chance and start what felt like a completely new life in this winter wonderland.
To be honest, before I moved to Lapland I would not have considered myself an outdoorsy person. It was only here, where and when, I started spending all my free time out in nature. Lapland is full of national parks, hiking trails, and campfire places. Also, forests all over Finland are full of lean in shelters and teepees, which makes it so easy to spend the night and time comfortably in nature – they became my home. I became very comfortable being alone, spending time outside in between the trees with my thoughts and doing so in the Lappish way: picking berries and mushrooms whenever I can, going to sauna every day and ice dipping became my favorite part of them all. It was also the start of my journey to better mental and physical health. Overall, I just feel like I’m thriving here. My body got stronger, resistant to freezing temperatures, solitude toughened up my mind and emotional resilience, and I assimilated to the way of living of local people. I enjoy it so much that many of my Finnish friends tell me I am more Finnish than them.
"How I came to love winter that much remains a little bit of a mystery to myself as well. I suppose it just happened gradually as I fell in love with Lapland, Lappish people, the culture and the way of living."
I was born in September and I always loved the colors of autumn and I still do, however if I had to choose, and if it was possible, I wouldn’t mind having winter and snowy landscapes all year round. Ironically, nothing warms my heart more than seeing the sun peaking through the snowy trees and sky filled with pink and orange colors during the polar night (or kaamos in finnish language), the water running through the ice in a river, just laying in the snow and soaking in the silence. My favorite moment is waking up to the fresh snow, when it absorbs all the sounds and all the light and the world is just peaceful and perfect. I cannot imagine living anywhere else in the world anymore. And of course, another kind of magic that winter brings here are the northern lights in the sky. I have seen so many of them, spent so many sleepless nights alone in the dark forest waiting for them, trying desperately to warm my hands in -30 degrees Celsius over a little campfire.
"One would think it cannot feel so special anymore, but it does. Whether it is just a green light on the horizon, or a huge explosion with colors and shapes dancing all over the sky, every single time I do feel like a kid finding the much wanted puppy under the Christmas tree."
I often find myself alone, in the middle of nowhere, surrounded just by darkness and snowy trees, screaming from excitement, in awe of what’s going on above my head. If you ever see an aurora and cannot find the words to describe it, it is because it’s just impossible. There is nothing more magical in this world, I am sure of that. That’s how I feel about living in Lapland as well. Not only does every season bring a different kind of magic with it, but every month of the year looks so different as well, it´s like living in a different world all the time. People from all over the world travel here to see the winter wonderland, midnight sun, or northern lights, and I honestly cannot express how happy I am that I have found my home here and am able to enjoy it every single day.
I also bought my first DSLR only after moving to Lapland and it kind of became my best friend. I never leave my house without it. I had always been that one friend in a group being annoying, taking pictures of literally everything. But only after moving into northern Finland, being alone in the woods and exploring through the lens, photography got a new meaning for me. I would also follow many photographers in the area and all over the world on social media, aspiring to capture the world around me, as they did. I still feel like I am learning, trying to find my photography and editing style. It is a constant process of learning, exploring and discovering.
Currently I live in Ruka. The city and the surrounding area are very familiar to me. I came for short trips while I was living in Rovaniemi as it has so many beautiful places to visit. When I got a job offer to come working as a photographer for a starting local company, I couldn’t say yes fast enough.
My winning picture was captured in this area, in Oulanka National Park to be precise. This is prettiest of all 41 national parks in Finland if you ask me. On that day we went for a little hike with my colleagues and friends from work on our day off. The name of the place is Myllykoski and it is incredible to see it on any day of the year. The nostalgic old mill standing over the Myllykoski rapids, with the water flowing down…you can feel and hear the power of nature around you.
On that day I didn’t bring my tripod with me, but luckily I was able to capture the long exposure to create that flowing effect of the river under me. It is not an easy shot, which was taken from the suspension bridge over the river which is moving with the wind. It was also a cloudy day with low light, so it took a couple of tries with different exposure and ISO settings until I got the shot I wanted. When editing the picture, I just brought up the contrast in the trees and highlights in the water stream and brought down blue hue saturation in the snow. I aimed to keep the photo as natural as possible. I would have hoped for some sunlight and colors in the sky. Nevertheless, that place is breaktaking and majestic on any day and under any weather condition.
I love to come back whenever I can, so I am more than happy that after moving to Ruka I can reach it in 30 minutes by car. Weather, especially here, is very unpredictable and forecasts are unreliable. So often you leave home having a certain vision of pictures you are going to take on a certain day in certain places and then because of the weather conditions or other factors, you are not able to capture that vision. It can be very disappointing but as with any other moments like this in life, if you deal with what you have and try to make the best out of it, the results might surprise you. That’s what happened with this particular shot with me!
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