Finlandia

Moi Moi
No niin tulee, ole hyvä ja kiitos!
Well that concludes my knowledge of Finnish that I’ve picked up - impressive I know.
All the language learning came from my 10-day discovery tour of Sweden’s younger brother - Finland! Although positioned on a similar height above the world, I was soon to learn the many differences between the brothers and the long history of their ongoing relationship. Bordering Russia to the East and the Vikings of Norway and Sweden to the North and West respectively, the Finns have had it rough with maintaining their independence and way of life. Today, the land of Nokia provides its people not only with world-class mobile phones, but a beautiful natural landscape brimming with lakes, forests and islands.

Summer for the Finnish means closing shop to get away from the technology and stress of everyday life, to spend relaxing days at the family owned summer cottage. A place where going back in time may remove everyday comforts like dishwashers, but replaces them with stress-free afternoons spent swimming and fishing at the lake, BBQing and sweating it out in the sauna (an age old Finnish tradition).

To begin my voyage I traveled by ferry (yet again) from Stockholm harbour. Only this time, instead of having the company of fellow students for entertainment, I was amused for 12 hours by 50 year olds singing classic Finnish karaoke ballads. Good times. But honestly, it wasn’t that excruciating, when I got tired of the screeching harmonies, I had the pleasure of watching the Tour De France - without sound, on a black and white TV with minimal reception. Good times.

Needless to say my arrival in Turku (Ã…bo as it is affectionately called in Swedish) couldn't have come sooner. Due to the history and close proximity of the two nations, on every Finnish road sign there is also written the Swedish equivalent. Actually Swedish and Finnish are both considered national languages and there is a large portion of Swedish speaking Finns living on the West coast. In my opinion they’re the intellegent finns, because finnish is an impossible language - completely different from the germanic base of languages, no words represent anything an english speaker has any chance of recognising.

I was reunited at the terminal with Anna and Anna, my Finnish compatriots with whom I shared the first crazy Gothenburg Road trip. The trip that started it all. After spending the last 2 months saying goodbye and farewell to everyone I had met this year it was a little strange to switch gears and be welcomed by old friends. But after the initial shock had warn off it was like old times. I was taken straight from the Ferry to Turku’s famous Jazz pub, built along the river and housing hundreds of music and beer lovers. On this particular night we were entertained by one of New Orleans finest who were in town to participate in the summer music festival: Down by the Laituri (DBTL). A week long program was organised to showcase artists of all genres and nationalities to play on various stages dotted along the river. Even despite my minimal time in the city I could feel the impeding festival vibe buzzing about like a mosquito searching for the perfect entry point.

The next day I hopped on a train to Helsinki (Helsingfors in Swedish- fyi) to visit Emmi, Elena, Henri and Annika - some more exchangies who were based in the capital. Once again it was a strange feeling at the greetings, but recounting trips and events of the past semester soon extinguished any awkwardness and let the laughter flow freely. Obviously the - ‘Architecture in Helsinki’ - was not ‘imaginary ordinary’ but like ‘tiny paintings’ ‘vanishing’ into a ‘wishbone’ of amazingness everywhere I turned, ‘its 5’ out of five!

We went to an NRJ pool party (apparently the French pronounce J as G thus creating the slang for ‘energy’, which made perfect sense to me since there are about 7 countries separating Finland and France). I guess they both start with F. On top of my initial confusion about there being an enerjay party featuring a pool, when we arrived there was no pool to be found. Luckily I had left my wetsuit back home thereby eliminated the possibility of severe embarrassment, but still in my opinion a better case of false advertising could not be construed.
I have to admit though, the party was good. One thing I noticed was the crowed differences. In Sweden everyone seems to be wearing the same thing - girls with leggings and blonde hair - guys with tight jeans and witch shoes. But clubbing in Finland allowed me to observe the diversity of the crowd. You had your head nodding Goth kids in one corner, Ice Hockey jocks in the other, Swedish impersonators on one side, Fat-Joe meets Ja-rule kids eyeing them up from the other. It was entertaining just to watch the gamut of styles all trying to squeeze themselves into the same room without looking like a cheap, cliché 80s dress-up party.

I also spent an afternoon wandering the island of Suomenlinna Sveaborg. A 20min ferry ride of the coast of Helsinki, Suomenlinna is an extremely old sea fortress giving us tourists an insight into the fortification architecture of the past. The island is filled with dark tunnels, forts, castles and crumbling walls and you are given free reign to walk where you please. At one stage we found ourselves 2 meters underground in a dark, damp tunnel with our only source of light being our camera flashes which we’d use to advance 2 steps at a time. The light at the end of the tunnel, as the saying goes, was a relieving vision.

After 3 days in Helsinki, I returned to Turku for our full Gothenburg reunion. Eve and Anu who lived out of town joined the Anna’s and myself. We spent the days on River Boats (permanently docked to the wharf they serve as additional bars with open air atmosphere and ‘on the river’ views. We visited the famous Turku Castle, which also allows one to walk through the hallowed halls and stairwells and explore the past king’s residence at ones leisure. And Over the weekend we attended various DBTL events, including beach soccer tournaments, live music in a farm villa, and some famous Finnish Indy/pop acts. To take time out from all the ‘stress’ we did what all good Finns do and spent some time at Anna’s summer house, to eat, lie in hammocks and stroll through the forest to pick blueberries and mushrooms around the lake.


Food became a central focus of my time in Finland. I have come to love trying out native dishes and after my brush with ox-tongue in Russia and rotten fish in Sweden, not much can phase me. Apart from the amazing cuisines Anna cooked up for me back in the flat, some Finnish specialties I was (un)lucky enough to try include:
Karelian pasties - rye crust with a rice filling. Covered in hot melted butter it was quite edible.
Mämmi - dessert served with milk/cream. Tastes like what it looks like.
Smoked herring - eaten whole, lightly salted. Slight improvement on Sweden’s tinned version
Reindeer - suprisingly tasty. Like a good cut of beef
Beetroot Sausage - part of my Viking lunch. Amazing. Did I mention it was served on a Sword!
Leipäjuusto - known in English as Squeaky cheese and acts as the name suggests. Straight from Clark’s Rubber factory. Served with Cloudberry jam which is heavenly.

hyvästi
Dev

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