This is Finland

Photos: Mikko Suoninen

The country

What kind of a country is Finland? The strangest stories of Finland tell about ice bears walking in the middle of streets of Helsinki. These stories are urban legends, as are stories of endless winter. Oh yes, we have snow in the winter - at least in Lappland. However, the global changes in climate can be seen also in Finland. Our climate is gradually getting warmer. We have seen winters with most rain and just a little snow in the south of Finland. Gradually, snowy winters are just a memory in the south.

What strikes most foreigners coming to Finland is the dark winters with just a little light, or as in Lappland, almost with no light at all. The "kaamos" as the dark months of winter are called in Finnish lasts from November to January-February. But as the winters are dark, the summers in Finland are bright, filled with light even in the late ours of night. In midsummer the sun never sets, days are long and people enjoy the light after winter's dark months. Many foreigners say that it is impossible to sleep in the summer in Finland, one just has to wonder the northern light.

Lappland in the north of Finland is beautiful with wild nature and mountains. This is reindeer country. In the autumn the leaves in the trees, mostly birches, and the plants in the ground turn into wonderful, flaming symphony of colours as the first cold nights colour the landscape. This is the time when many people travel to Lappland to wander in the wilderness and maybe catch some fish from the clear Lappland rivers.

Most part of Finland is forests and lakes, thousands of them. Finland is often called the "land of thousand lakes". Finland is very sparcely populated and there are not many people living in the countryside. About one fourth of the population live in the Helsinki area consisting of Helsinki, Espoo and Vantaa. Other bigger Finnish cities are Tampere, the former capital Turku, Oulu and Jyväskylä.

The coast of Finland is beautiful. In the west there are long sandy beaches near the cities of Pori and Oulu. The capital town Helsinki is situated by the sea and the very heart of Helsinki with the City Hall and the market place faces proudly the sea. In front of Helsinki lies the Suomenlinna fortress on the isle of Suomenlinna, built by the Russians over 200 years ago. The wiew from Suomelinnan to the see is beautiful, and when the weather is clear, one can almost see to the other side of the Gulf of Finland where the capital of Estonia, Tallinn is situated also by the sea.

The magnicifient Finnish archipelago stretches out from front vof the old town of Turku to the Nordic Gulf. It consists of thousands of islands, many of them not populated. This is the Finnish summer paradise, where many people come sailing and enjoying the fresh sea winds. The biggest islands are the Åland isles, an independent county of Finland, where most people speak Swedish and the isles have good contacts with Sweden. Many people travelling to Finland take the ferry boat from Sweden and enjoy the beautiful scenery of the archipelago.

In the Finnish archipelago one can enjoy the delights of country life and take it easy!