%t Finland, Earth %n 2R61 %s Land of Hundreds of Thousands Lakes %a Petri Mikael Honkamaa (petri.honkamaa@iki.fi) %d 19940202 %d 19980803 %d 20040728 %n 8R %x Earth %x Sweden, Earth %x Sweden: The True Story %x Celsius, Anders %x Wolves, A Non-Mythical Account %x Tourists %x Football, Association %x Football %k European Union %k Scandinavia %k Sauna %k Helsinki %k Kalevala %e Location ======== The first thing you might want to know about Finland is its location. It's not a town somewhere in Russia and it certainly isn't another name for Poland. In fact, Finland is a land in northern Europe right between Sweden and Russia. Finland is also a member of the European Union as of the beginning of 1995. Nature ====== The mean annual temperature in Helsinki is about 5 degrees Celsius. The temperature actually varies from about minus 20 Celsius to about 30 Celsius. There aren't too many really hot days during the year, but we'll see how the greenhouse effect is going to improve the situation. There are quite a lot of forests in Finland, containing actual wild animals. Like squirrels and rabbits. But also bigger ones, like elk, deer, bears, wolves, lynx, and god knows what else. Reindeer are a special case, because although kept free, they are actually owned by some people. It is quite safe to hike in Finnish forests. To really see bears, you'll probably have to go to a zoo. There's only one kind of poisonous animal here, a snake called "kyy", and it isn't necessarily lethal for a grown-up. Still, messing with them isn't recommended. Other things you should beware of are: getting lost, eating poisonous mushrooms, and bashing into tree trunks. Which is a pretty common habit among tourists. There are also mosquitos that may bother you with their stings. In northern Finland there are a lot of them, enough to drive you crazy! This is probably one of the main reasons why people move from the north to the south in Finland. Besides forests, the Finnish landscape is filled with fields and lakes. "Land of thousands of lakes" it is called in an old slogan. But actually there are hundreds of thousands of lakes (about 184 000). The area that is taken up by Finnish towns is so small that it can be considered as a rounding error. But yes, there are also towns in Finland. And Finland is even quite proud of being on the high-tech frontier of the world. Whether this is true or not doesn't matter. We're proud anyway. People ====== People who live in this northern country are called Finns. Finns are generally very silent and dull people, unless they are drunk (which is mostly the case). Unlike people in most of the other countries in Europe, Finns have a very special way of drinking. Finns drink too fast and usually also too much, basically until they pass out, although nowadays there are some evil gossips claiming that the Finnish way of drinking has been changing towards a more European and more civilized way. Future will tell whether this is true or just some Finnish government's trick to make Finns drink a little less. There are three days on the Finnish calendar that are great occasions to have a drinking party: "Vappu" (May Day), "Juhannus" (Midsummer), and "Uusi Vuosi" (New Years Eve). "Vappu" is on the 1st of may and "Juhannus" is on the Saturday that falls between 20th and 26th of June. Probably there are some proper purposes for these celebration days, other than them being pretty good days for drinking, but the fact is that these are the days you can spot even more drunk people than usual. Note however, that in "Juhannus" the cities are deserted as everybody are spending it in their summer cottages. If you are visiting a Finnish home there are two key things you should be aware of. Firstly, you should take off your shoes at the entrance. Secondly, if you are offered some food or candy -- eat it. It isn't necessarily too rude to refuse to taste something, but if you do refuse, you'll miss some excellent experiences. At least don't miss salmiac (salmiakki) or rye bread (ruisleipae). These are the things the Finns living abroad beg their friends and relatives to send to them. Equality between men and women is pretty much reality in Finland. At least as much reality as it is in any country. And yes, equality means that women can open doors for men, ask them for a date or even offer them dinners. Often though, each of the dinner guests pays for his/her own share. Or one pays and the bill is divided roughly afterwards. This way the waiter isn't bothered with unnecessary calculations. No tip is usually required but you can give some if you're pleased with the service. Or if you just feel like playing rich and want to show off to the locals. There are also some world-famous Finns. Although the Finnish definition of "world famous" is somewhat different from the common one. For example, a Finnish band is considered world famous if it gets a gig in a barn on the German countryside. Some famous Finnish sport stars are Teemu Selaenne (ice hockey), Mika Haekkinen (F1) and Jari Litmanen (football). Some famous Finns on other fields are Linus Torvalds (father of operating system Linux), Alvar Aalto (dead architect) and Jean Sibelius (dead composer). Language ======== Finland's two official languages are Finnish and Swedish, the latter now being the mother tongue of about 6% of the people. All Finns have to study Swedish in school. This has traumatized generations of Finnish people and an average Finn still isn't any good in Swedish. So, chances are that you will get better along with English... if you can only stand the terrible pronunciation. Finnish is a Finno-Ugrian language. Other Finno-Ugrian languages are Estonian, Hungarian, Saami and some minor languages in Russia. As you might guess Estonian is spoken in Estonia, and Hungarian in Hungary. Saami (in some sources Lappish) is the language that is spoken by few remaining aborigine in northern Finland, Sweden, and Norway (also in near parts of Russia). Finnish doesn't have a thing in common with other languages like English, Swedish or Russian. Or, if you ask me, even with Hungarian. Finnish pronunciation is quite straightforward. Every letter has a corresponding phoneme. This way you automatically know the right pronunciation for a written word -- you just say the letter phonemes in a row. Below is a short list to help you through Finnish vowels. a - like 'a' in "father" e - like 'e' in "net" i - like 'i' in "tip" o - like 'o' in "oh" u - like 'oo' in "boot" y - like 'ue' in French word "rue" ae (a with two dots) - like 'a' in "cat" oe (o with two dots) - like 'ea' in "early" A good word to practice your Finnish vowels with is "haeaeyoeaie" (wedding-night intention). History ======= The Finnish national epic is called Kalevala. It is a collection of old Finnish poems. It tells just about all there is to know about the ancient history of the world, starting from when the world was born from the broken pieces of seven eggs laid by a scaup ("sotka" in Finnish). The main events in the book include men trying to get one particular lady for themselves, and the making (and later the stealing) of the Sampo -- whatever that may be. The origins of the Finns is a mystery. Linguistics think that the Finnish population has moved here from somewhere in Russia, and archaeologists think that we are from western or middle Europe. Probably there is some truth in both of these theories. Anyway, the fate of Finland has always been to sit in between the western and the eastern civilizations. Much of that time Finland has been used as battleground, and Finnish men as soldiers for whichever side was winning at the time. If you meet some older Finnish people they will probably talk to you about World War 2 battles between Finland and Russia (Winter War 1939-1940 and Continuation War 1941-1944) or the one with Germany (1944-1945). And this is their right, because it's their achievement that Finland is now independent and not just another state of Russia. Although it seems, when you listen to these old war stories, that the Russians should count themselves lucky that Russia it isn't just another state of Finland. Sports ====== Most Finns are sport maniacs. They can sit in front of a TV-set for hours, watching any kind of sports which has Finns in it. Of course, a Finnish sport enthusiast has a bottle of beer in his hand and a lot of loud advice to give. And nothing is more bitter to a Finn than to lose to some "weaker" sport country like USA or Russia (or in fact to any other known country... especially Sweden). When this terrible loss happens (it isn't as rare an occasion as one might think) you can hear hart-aching crying and cursing in just about every Finnish house from South to North. And all just because of these soft and weak youngsters of the TV-generation. These damn modern athletics who don't even drink like the real Finns used to. No wonder they aren't any good in sports... The relationship between Finland and Sweden is a love-hate kind of relationship. Lots of Finns have moved to Sweden and vice versa. Actually we have a lot in common. But all the sport events (particularly ice hockey) between the two countries are taken dead-seriously. But this may be changing. I've even seen a Finnish newspaper article that claimed that Swedes were quite good in an ice hockey game. Sauna ===== One thing that no Finn can live without is the Finnish sauna. Almost every building in Finland has at least one sauna. For those of you who haven't the slightest idea what the heck a sauna is, I can tell that it is a quite warm place (from 60 to over 100 degrees Celsius) where Finns go to relax every now and then. The ritual goes like this: first you get shed all your clothes. Then you go and sit in the sauna, completely naked, and hit yourself with a bunch of birch branches (called "vasta"), and every now and then you throw some water into a thing called "kiuas", basically a pile of hot stones. When you feel really hot you go outside and jump into an icy lake (or just into something cold that is available, like snow or the neighbour's pool). And when you feel cold, you go back into the sauna and start all over again. If you have a little time to drink a couple of beers somewhere between the icy lake and the hot sauna, the evening will be perfect. More commonly the ritual is somewhat shorter: Visit the sauna and drink a couple of beers afterwards. Or you can use the sauna even without the beer. After all, the main idea is purification and relaxation. Sometimes, though, (when more beer is involved) the relaxing sauna evening can turn into a boasting competition about who can last longest in a hot sauna. This approach is not recommended. Sights ====== The capital of Finland is Helsinki. About 10% of the Finnish population lives there. But still most of the people in Helsinki have strong origins in the Finnish countryside. Either they, their parents, or at least their grandparents moved there from some other part of Finland. There is actually even a restaurant, named "Zetor", for nostalgic countryside moments in the middle of Helsinki. A must-see place for a tourist. And once you're in the mood for restaurants let me also mention one called "Torni". It has a terrace on a tower in the heart of Helsinki. Nice place for discussing whose home can be seen from there. Other topics are also allowed. And one thing that is well worth seeing is a sea fortress called "Suomenlinna", located on five islands near Helsinki. It has been a town (bigger than Helsinki at the time) and it still has some 850 inhabitants. Nowadays it has a reputation of being a great place for summer picnics. Dancing houses, located all around the Finnish countryside, are also worth visiting. If you can dance foxtrot or waltz they are a must. Other common dances are tango, humppa, jenkka, mazurka, polka, and jive. Depends quite a lot on the orchestra. And the peculiar thing is that in dancing houses the drinking isn't the main part of the fun, but the dancing is. Dancing restaurants are yet another matter. There are also quite a lot of churches, squares, museums, parks and other general tourist mish-mash in Helsinki alone, but I have no intention of listing them here. For a more complete reference of sights in Finland you should check out some kind of traveling guide or tourist pamphlet. Conclusion ========== If you are for some strange reason going to visit Finland (which is something that I think everybody should do) you must be aware that probably some crazy Finn will make you drink too much booze after making you half dead from running between a sauna and an icy lake. But please go ahead. Five million Finns can't be wrong... %e *EOA*