Vuohensaari in all its simplicity makes us linger a bit longer. We hang out by the beach, stroll through the forest and cook in the camp’s well-equipped kitchen. There isn’t much to do and somehow that’s the best part of it.

In the early afternoon we continue on driving to Nagu where we pick up some local smoked salmon and ‘island bread’.

It is supposed to rain the following day so we decide to drive to the Archipelago Centre / Skärgårdscentrum in Korpoström where we want to visit an exhibition in the morning.

The place turns out to be the most pleasant surprise. Not only do we find and excellent spot to park the van just outside the harbour, there is also a restaurant opened late so we have access to super clean bathroom facilities. Before watching the sunset, we enjoy a pick-nick on the rocks in front of the van and take a walk through the area.

After a very peaceful night we wake very early to a partly cloudy day. The harbour is still completely quiet when we get out of the bus and it seems like it’s going to be a beautiful day again despite the forecast.

While the boys head over to the Archipelago Centre I feel very grateful to be able to join Gaby and Niina for a ‘Rise and Shine’ yoga practice on the pier. Gaby comes here every summer to invite the people in the harbour to yoga and this is her opening class for the season.

The air in Finland is like champagne.

Gaby Gahnström

Getting into all kinds of poses right on the pier at a harbour in the middle of an island in the Finnish Archipelago is definitely not part of my comfort zone. But the peaceful environment and the calm attitude of the people around me might be contagious.

After a hot shower (thanks to the very nice receptionist at the harbour who told us the code to the shower room that is reserved for guests) we finally make it to the exhibition we came to see. “The Plastic Garbage Project” www.plasticgarbageproject.org (Plast I havet / muovi meressä) is an exhibition by the Museum für Gestaltung in Zürich about the global plastic problem.

Anna, who works here, gives us a private tour of the installation and points out the specifics of the problem both on a global and also on a very regional scale regarding the very island we are on at the moment. Seeing the vast amounts of plastic that have been collected on only one beach in Hawaii on one day piled up high to the ceiling is crazy. But most shocking to me are the photographs of decaying sea birds – not only do you see feathers and bones but about a handful of plastic that has found a way into their bellies.

Anna tells us how even the boats sitting in the harbour gradually lose micro-plastic particles that are then washed into the sea water and swallowed by fish and eventually find their way onto our plates as well.

I would consider myself aware of the environmental impact of plastic and conscious about my consumer choices. Still, plastic is everywhere and it is an everyday challenge not only do recycle properly but above all to avoid the garbage in the first place.