Gransvallen Stadion and Pojhan stadion visited

I made a trip up to Haparanda and Tornio after I was told that I was underage to get the ferry into Finland. This trip was the only way I could get to Finland. I caught the 21:40 train from Stockholm that was to take us right up to Luleå for 10am the following morning, which it duly did. On the trip I got to see the amazing sights of the absolute wilderness that is the Swedish countryside. Once past Sundsvall the country became very undisturbed and of course being the beginning of July it never got close to being dark. There was always a bright sky above the train which duly got brighter the further north we travelled.

 Once in Luleå I made the short five minute walk to the bus station to catch the bus to take me to Haparanda. The distance was something around 120km which the bus complete with stops took just over two hours to complete.

 Haparanda was reached at around 3 o'clock which suited me down to the ground as I found my hotel room and tuned into the GIF Sundsvall v Degerfors game. After that match was over I went straight to Finland. When I say Finland I mean literally five minutes walk and I was in Tornio and an hour ahead of Haparanda. I got to see alot of Tornio and of course got to see the Pojhan stadion, home to TP-47 from the Finish 3rd tier. I thaught the stadium was nice. A small multi-use stadium that hosted athletics a few years previously. The Pojhan stadion was being overlooked by tower that is used for water I am led to beleive.

 The local team in Tornio are called TP-47 for short. Their official name is Tornion-Pallo-47. They play in the Kakkonen (3rd Tier). Their current squad is mostly local Finns, but they do have a Russian player and a Cameroonian on their books. The club is proberly best known for producing Teemu Tainio, former Tottenham and Sunderland midfielder now with New York.

After seeing what Tornio had to offer which was a nice town with some class looking buildings such as they new shopping centre right on the border, it was back to Haparanda to see the scene of the town I was staying in for the night.

Haparanda had the very classy Stadshotell which is where I was staying and had the world's northernmost IKEA store as well as being home to Haparanda FF. Haparanda FF play in the Division 4 Norrbotten Norra (5th tier) and play their home games in the Gransvallen, located just outside of the town to the north across from IKEA. Like TP-47, their ground is also multi-use with the facilities taking in Tennis, field hockey and football with a hall for Ice Hockey. 

After seeing the rest of Haparanda, the streets, parks and the scenery of plants outside the Stadshotell, I returned to my hotel room. After a few hours of watching tv with programmes from Finland and Sweden I finally found Collateral which I was delighted with.

The following day I packed my bags and got the 11am bus to Umea which was over 350km and seven hours bus ride. From Umeå I would get the train down to Stockholm in time for the next match of the holiday.