The Death of Backpacking? But Who Cares?

In July 2003 I dropped my backpack at the door of a café in central Finland and walked inside. I’d just come out of the woods and was in need of some food. Next to the stand of newspapers and women’s magazines sat a man with the thickest glasses I had ever seen. He was a Canadian, a visiting professor who’d found that he much preferred the Scandinavian lifestyle to his home country.