It is mid summer and a fresh but sunny 18C, clothes are coming off and bikini clad women lie on the tiny patch of brown sand that qualifies for a Helsinki beach. I do not see anyone brave the chilly waters of the Baltic sea, though. Finnish society is very much shaped by the unique geography of this country. There is a very obvious Scandinavian vibe to this place, distinctly different in look and feel from neighbouring Europe and Russia. Geopolitically the Finns have struggled with the fact that they are wedged between Sweden and Russian. Up until the early 1800s the more powerful Swedes controlled this country there is no love loss between the two countries. War with Russia resulted in Russia taking over and once again the poor Finns were an occupied nation. In 1917 after the Russian Revolution Finland finally gained independence. Until 1991 it was an uneasy existence, sharing a land border with the USSR the Finns measured their political pronouncements regarding Russia betraying an undercurrent of anxiety that the “big bear” may one day attack.
The other factor that shapes this society is the climate. We are very near the arctic circle, in fact Santa Claus lives in this country. More than 6 months of the year it is freezing cold and the country is blanketed in snow. At that time the sun rises at 10 am and sets around 2 pm. Right now the reverse is true, the sun sets after 11 pm and rises around 4 am. Each morning here the sun is high and blazing in our room by 5 am forcing us to draw the blinds to snatch a couple more hours of sleep. The cuisine reflects the long cold winter. There is no animal husbandry so meat is light on. Seafood is plentiful in the summer months as are vegetables including fields full of berries in particular. In the winter even the sea freezes over. Hence the variety of pickled foods and salted and cured fish to sustain one over the winter months.
Enough of my take on this country. I must say that I find this to be a pleasant orderly society. The streets are clean the people pleasant and helpful and the pragmatic Finns decided long ago to adopt English as their second language as their own languages is fiendishly impossible for an outsider to master. Nonetheless the way to really get a big broad warm smile out of a local is to say “kiitos” (pronounced as written) instead of thank you, they love it! This is one of the world’s most liveable cities albeit fiendishly expensive a la the rest of Scandinavia. Take a look at Helsinki.
