The Finnish couple Mårten Mickos and Senja Larsen actually lived in California. He worked there as an IT expert in Silicon Valley, she as an economics and technology editor. But then the corona pandemic came and in July the two decided to return home. Since then they have lived there on a secluded island in the Finnish archipelago – a natural paradise, not just in summer. So nice that the avid drone filmmaker Senja started sharing her #PandemicParadise on social media.
Numerous users from all over the world became aware of the unusual little icebreaker film here.
“We can be locked in by the ice at any time, that can last up to six weeks. But the ice cover is probably not thick enough to support us,” wrote Senja Larsen under the video. “And we won’t get away with the boat either. So we had to push it away.”
Progress in slow motion
First her husband tried to move the ice floe with a stick from the beach, the Finn told the magazine “Der Spiegel”. And apparently Mårten Mickos doesn’t give up that easily. The next day he got into his rowboat – and actually managed to push the clods away.
How well he succeeded can only be seen in his wife’s time-lapse video: “At first we had the feeling that nothing was happening,” she says. “It was very slow – but when I accelerated the recordings by twenty times, you noticed how the clod was moving!”
“Everyone pushes their own ice floe in front of them”
The way to the mainland was clear again – and the video went viral. Because apparently many people see parallels between the man in the rowboat who fights against the gigantic chunks of ice and the daily battles of the pandemic. Senja Larsen believes that the motto is not to give up. “This rowing is symbolic of the fact that everyone is pushing their own ice floe in front of them,” she told “Der Spiegel”, “but slowly we are moving towards spring and an open sea.” And actually the couple doesn’t really want to leave the island anymore: “It’s fantastic here,” says Senja Larsen. “I’m already sad that the time will come to an end here at some point.”
Under the hashtag “PandemicParadise” you can watch other videos by the Larsen couple – not always recommended for imitation, but definitely with the message: “We can do it.”
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