Finland
The land of saunas, reindeer, and metal music
Finland certainly is not one of those countries we in North America know much about. Some people may know a little about about Sweden and/or Norway, and then Finland is just sort of ‘there.’ To many people it’s just the name of a place and nothing more. I have to admit I was in that boat to a certain extent before coming on this exchange. I never would have thought I’d find myself in Finland at any point, but there are three good friends I met here last semester who are from Finland who went back home for this semester, so some of us decided we’d go visit them.
Ryanair fly’s from London direct to Tampere in Finland, which is kind of handy because two of our three Finnish friends live in or near Tampere, but also not so handy because I had to get all the way to London from Glasgow. In order to save some money I decided I’d take the nine pound overnight Megabus to London which took about eight hours. Basically it was like an 8 hour boring flight with nothing to do or look at. I managed to doze on and off the entire time. Upon arriving in London I met up with Fil and we had about six hours to kill, which really isn’t hard to do when you’re in the heart of London. We had a nice big breakfast near Trafalgar square then just walked around the Whitehall/Westminster areas while Fil tried to talk to one of the guards who isn't allowed to break formation. I wanted to see 10 Downing Street, the official residence of the UK Prime Minister, but unsurprisingly the security is rather tight. Still, it was nice to have a few more hours in the heart of London which is one of my top 4 favourite European cities.
2 1/2 hours on a Ryanair flight later, we landed in Tampere Finland which is the third largest city in the country and is a kind of regional hub. Pretty quickly we learned how very expensive nearly every restaurant in Finland is as it cost about 7 Euros (12 dollars) each for a pizza. The next morning we woke up to a nice peppering of snow on the ground which is the only time I have seen snow this winter except for at the top of an Austrian alp at Christmas; it seems North America got everyone’s share of winter this year. We were lucky enough that one of our Finnish friends had borrowed their parent’s car so on that first full day we road tripped it to Helsinki. My impressions of the city were that it was a very nice looking city right on the Baltic that is considerably less dense than any city in the UK I have been too. There’s a lot more space on the roads, sidewalks, and it’s just not as crowded both in terms of people and buildings. There are also a lot of apartment blocks that I wouldn't classify as sky scrapers but there are definitely more tall apartment buildings in Helsinki proper than Glasgow proper. The city also hosts two very impressive cathedrals, one of which we were able to go inside. Just a few minutes fairy ride away is an island that was formerly a fortress that was fought over by Finnish and Russian forces a few centuries ago. It was a foggy, overcast evening and the island was a very quite, almost desolate place which gave the whole excursion out there a very eerie kind of atmosphere that we all enjoyed. And it provided for some great pictures!
All in all, Helsinki was a nice city but it struck me more as a city geared towards working people with some money more than anything else. It didn't really seem like a city that was built for university students, but perhaps we just didn't get to experience that part. It also reminded me a little bit of certain parts of Vienna in the sense that both cities have a bit of a mix of western as well as eastern European design. Still, Helsinki is a very pretty place.
The other full day we had was spent touring around the actual city of Tampere itself. We went up a couple high towers and were able to get a good feel for just how many massive lakes there are in Finland, similar to Ontario. We were even able to spot some people cross country skiing across the ice. After an all you can eat Asian buffet we explored Tampere’s city centre which is rather neat; the city is something of a big industrial and telecommunications hotspot so it has a fair number of factories.
Probably the coolest part of the trip was actually really hot (bad pun) as we visited a local sauna. Saunas are pretty much sacred in Finland and I'm pretty sure they have the highest ratio of saunas per person in the entire world. My previous sauna experiences weren't in real saunas but merely rooms that you sit in while they get really hot, but this was a real sauna without a doubt. Basically there is a big bin of rocks at the end which I guess are heated by electricity or more likely some kind of gas and then there are three levels of seating theatre style. Pretty soon after arriving I was sitting in the top row closest to the door which, unbeknownst to me at the time, is literally the hottest spot in the room. The top row is the hottest while the bottom is the least hot which makes sense since heat rises and eventually drifts and settles furthest away from the source. Every few minutes someone would toss water on the rocks creating steam which resulted in massive tsunamis of raging heat that felt like getting whipped by the sun. Even breathing and touching my hand with my other hand was kind of painful. But acting as a perfect counterbalance were the stairs leading right into an ice lake just outside the door. After that raging inferno of the sauna and a dip in the ice cold lake the feeling one gets is that of ultimate refreshment. After that experience of going to the top row right away I learned to start easy then work my way up which made it a lot more of a pleasant experience. It was an amazing experience because it was something so quintessentially Finnish; a local sauna by a frozen lake. And it was only 5.50 Euros! If I lived in Finland I’d be there weekly.
After the sauna we walked about half an hour back into the city centre, but despite the cold we all felt perfectly fine because of how much the sauna had risen our internal body temperatures. We had dinner at a really cool local restaurant and I had some nice chopped up reindeer with bacon and mashed potato. You might even say the meal was Dashing ( really bad pun). By the time we left the restaurant our immunity from the cold had worn off.
A few other observations about Finland… many things are quite expensive there such as food at a grocery store or a restaurant; alcohol is too. A lot of the people there are blond so it’s not merely a stereotype, though it is exaggerated a little bit but that shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. Finnish people generally are also huge into metal music which probably seems a little random but it’s quite a big deal there. Also, I think Finland reminded me more of southern Ontario more than anywhere else I have been to in Europe for a few reasons, such as the copious amount of fresh water lakes, the distinct feeling of cold Arctic air, the numerous pine like trees, and the way the highways are constructed; they have the same green and blue road signs, and similar looking guardrails and overpass bridges. Overall it was awesome to be able to see our Finnish friends again whom we dearly miss in Glasgow and it was really nice to see a place like Finland which is somewhat off the beaten trail in terms of European vacation destinations. I’d love to maybe go back one year and go skiing up in the northern part of the country. Overall another fantastic trip! Next stop: Isle of Skye.
Questions, comments? Love to hear them!
