Seaside Haukilahti invites you to explore the outdoors

Daniela Rostedt goes ice swimming near her home in the winter and collects litter while jogging in the summer.

As a child, Daniela Rostedt lived on the outskirts of Haukilahti in Iirislahti and Koukkuniemi. Six years ago, she and her child moved from Helsinki back to the same building in Haukilahti where she had lived while studying.

“I wanted to move to a quieter part of Espoo so that my child could eventually go to school here,” she says, explaining why she moved back.

Her now eight-year-old child attends a Swedish-speaking school in Matinkylä. Their home, a three-room apartment in a building from the 1970s, is located in Haukilahdenranta.

“The location is good as the buses stop nearby and the sea is close. We have a sunny balcony to which the light filters through green birch leaves, and the neighbours are nice.”

Haukilahti is charming in its tranquillity, beauty and proximity to nature. In addition to the sea, there are also forests close by.

“There were some conflicts between teenagers last summer, but peace has returned since then,” says Rostedt.

Her favourite spot in Haukilahti is on the rocks of Mellsten beach during summer evenings.

“There’s a wonderful view of the sea. We have a summer place in the archipelago, which is easy to reach by boat, and from the rocks you can see both our home neighbourhood and our haven of peace.”

She is also fond of the sea in winter as she enjoys ice swimming, and there is a heated changing room on Mellsten beach for winter swimmers.

“There are also good walking, running and cycling routes here,” she says.

“Actually, everything you might ever need is close at hand.”

In the spring, when the snow has melted, the plogging season begins and continues until winter comes again. The idea of plogging is to pick up litter while you are out for a jog.

“I got into plogging during the Covid pandemic when I started going for walks during my work day and noticed that there was litter everywhere. Now we bring litter pickers and plastic bags with us, and my son and I go out together to pick up litter.”

Plogging combines outdoor activities and caring for the local environment. Daniela Rostedt jokes that it can be mildly addictive.

“You can always collect more or do it a little faster. At the same time, you feel good about helping nature.”

Picking up litter is not enough to put an end to it, even though that is of course the goal.

“I don’t understand what makes people throw their rubbish away in nature. Especially when we’re so close to the sea.”

• A district in south-east Espoo, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland
• Swedish name: Gäddvik
• Settlement history goes back to the Bronze Age – there are Bronze Age burial mounds in the area
• The village of Gäddvik is first mentioned in an urbarium from 1544
• At the end of 2023, the area had 5,873 inhabitants, of whom 918 were Swedish-speaking and 537 were foreign-language speakers

Teksti: Katariina Krabbe.

This article has originally been published in the Espoo Magazine 2/2024. Read other articles in the Espoo Magazine.