Miika Oikari aka Varis gave up her apartment two years ago. He lives in an igloo, tree house or tent and pays for his food with bottle deposit money.
Hill looks like a boulder covered in snow. The uninitiated only realizes that it is a snow igloo at the doorway.
Yes, an igloo. Walking distance from Espoo's Leppävaara shopping center Sello.
It has served this winter Miika Oikarin as home.
When you peek in through the narrow doorway, it's surprisingly bright. Conifer branches are sprinkled between the inflatable sleeping pad and the ground. A 180-centimeter person can lie down, but there is no wasted space.
Oikari's entire property is quickly listed.
At the back of the igloo is a rink with a change of clothes. In addition to the ring, Oikari owns a full backpack that she carries on her back and a shopping bag that she carries in her hand. In it, he carries a sleeping bag and the cans he collected during the day.
According to Varis, his life is not a lonely hermitage, because he is featured on social media.
At night, Varis blocks the mouth of the igloo with backpacks to prevent cold air from entering.
Oikari has voluntarily lived this way for more or less two years. Lived in a tent, treehouse or igloo depending on the season.
Actually, he doesn't like to be called by his official name. He uses the name Crow for himself because it better describes his lifestyle.
“Crows are natural animals. Today, they are able to live here in the middle of society and make good use of everything they happen to find in the garbage,” he explains.
In Tiktok he has @slocrowth account, where he shoots videos about his lifestyle and gives live broadcasts. He considers his followers as friends with whom he spends time every day.
Here is all the wealth that Varis carries with him. He has received, for example, a thermometer and the Yatzy game from his followers.
Teenage years at the end, Varis did not enjoy his studies in high school or find “ordinary life” motivating at all.
“Then the corona started. I completely fell apart.”
He spent a year with his parents. There was depression and suicidal thoughts. Then it was time to go to military service.
In India, the idea of ​​a hermit-like lifestyle began to fascinate. During the service, Varis gave up his apartment. The property didn't really need to be sold, because there wasn't much of it anyway.
He was 21 years old when he decided on a new lifestyle a couple of years ago.
In a way, it was a return to childhood dreams. At the age of 7–8, Varis' dream was to become a hermit when he grew up. Is Moominlaakso's Nuuskamuikkunen, who was a role model, he ponders.
According to Varis, his parents are confident that he will survive. Sometimes they ask about his affiliations.
Life change was not a political statement, Varis says. He did it because it felt good.
He has never liked to vote, and he does not intend to do so in the presidential elections.
“When you don't know who you are, how can you vote”, Varis wonders aloud.
If your own identity is not clear, how could you choose a person who would contribute to things important to you.
He has also not wanted to apply for Kela's support money. It's a principled decision.
“I'm living my own life now and I'll see if I ever want to become more involved in society.”
Varis received Tommy Hellsten's book You get what you give up as a gift from his sister. Sometimes he reads it to his followers live. The book travels with him in a backpack.
This it is the first winter when Varis has lived outside. In the past, he has been with his parents in Kainuu in the winter.
“It's been difficult to get back on the road because it's kind of nice to be there. In a way, it's not comfortable, because you get stuck and the desire for comfort takes away freedom.”
Before Espoo, he has lived in Joensuu, Tampere and Oulu. And a few days in Kajaani.
He was visiting his sister in the capital region and was going back to Kainuise. When he tried to find a hitchhiking place in Leppävaara, he went straight through the forest. At the same time, he saw an empty wooden house and thought it would be a good winter home.
In September, he moved to a wooden house. It has served as his main residence until he built an igloo a couple of weeks ago.
Varis carries a diary in
his backpack, in which he has written his thoughts for several years.
About birds it is the crows that thrive near human settlements. It is a fairly short distance from Varis's igloo to the backyards of private houses. Maybe the proximity of the settlement brings security, Varis thinks.
The igloo was born without instructions.
“Just a bunch of snow. Now a person can pile up snow.”
He shows a model of how to crawl into an igloo. If he were to build it again, he would make it a little bigger.
Even in freezing weather, its internal temperature can rise to a few plus degrees.
It's time to head for Sello. When leaving in the direction of the igloo, a dog walker walks, who hardly realizes that someone lives there.
According to Varis, collecting bottles will get you hooked.
The crow there is a similarity in the days. He wakes up when he no longer needs sleep. Breakfast is usually a store-bought garlic butter baguette. However, eating it often stretches into the morning. At breakfast, he sometimes “lives” for the first time.
He goes around the trash of Sello's library, the shopping center and the train station. The tour takes approximately one hour.
Previously, he received ten euros from bottle pledges every day, now a little less, because social media takes more time out of the day. With the money, he buys food in the store or through the Resq club app. There are also savings, but he tries to live on the mortgage money.
In the library, he charges his cell phone, hangs out and goes live. He goes to wash clothes with his sister. He himself washes himself approximately once a week, anywhere – in his sister's shower, in open water, in the wind.
A quiet back corner of the library with a chair and a socket is enough for the crow. He holds a live broadcast there, which quickly attracts fifty followers.
Life goes one day at a time.
Varis plans to stay in the capital region over the winter, and hitchhike across the country in the summer. The purpose is to be where the big festivals are.
“I go there to collect bottles and see how big a bank I can make during the summer.”
In the fall, Varis plans to go abroad like the migratory birds. The dream is to hitchhike across Europe without any specific plans.
If he ever gives up his current lifestyle, he will go to study, Varis says and steps up the stairs of Sello's library. She is most interested in psychology and social work.
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