Kajaani

Health authorities in the northern town of Kajaani offered a thousand plastic buckets to entice people to get a shot, playing off a joke that Finns will line up for anything for a free bucket.

A wonderful secondary route from Oulu, on the Gulf of Bothnia in central Finland, runs south-east inland through Kajaani to Kuopio, playing cat and mouse with the Oulu River as its heads into a land of lakes and forests.

The mid-point is Kajaani, whose art nouveau wooden station is painted in muted shades of grey and cream, reflecting the landscape.

South from Kajaani, the train rolls past farmsteads and cottages with picket fences.

“If people come too close to you, it becomes uncomfortable,” said Aki Leontaridis of Kajaani, Finland, who relaxed with others around a virtual campfire under a night sky in the app Convrge.