Finland sure is a country and a nation never seen before. There are couple of things that make Finland special and pop out from the world map. These are some of the things I find the most finnish about Finland:
NATURE
I’m quite sure I’m not the only one when I want to talk about the beautiful nature that Finland has all around. Finland is the land of thousands of lakes and forests so wherever you go you can be certain that those two things can’t be too far away. There are four seasons in Finland (even though nowadays it’s sometimes hard to see it because of the unfortunate global warming). Winter, spring, summer and autumn are all different kinds of seasons in Finland and it can definitely be seen in the nature and in finnish people.
Winter is a unique time of the year when there’s lots of things and acitivities do. It divides finnish people into two categories – some love, some hate. During winter there’s snow and crispy cold climate. On the perfect winter days, the ground and trees are all white covered in powder snow and sun is still shining warmly even though it can get for example as cold as -30 degrees even in the south. When it comes to spring, all finnish people seem to crawl out of their holes that they have been hiding in the whole winter. Trees are starting to bloom and get greener every day and the climate is getting warmer. Never soon enough, summer comes and the whole Finland is praising the warm (krhm) weather, sun and not having to wear winter gear to keep warm. Finland is full of beautiful summercities and pretty much wherever you travel during summer in Finland, you will find beautiful landscapes and various activities to keep you busy. In the middle of summer the sun doesn’t set at all in Lapland, northern part of Finland. It never stops amazing me how incredibly light it is outside during summer, no matter what time it is, day or night. Around September the frightening fall is upon Finland. Just joking, it’s not THAT bad. Fall captures beautiful scenery when the trees are changing colors and the weather requires people to wear a light jacket and something else than flip flops. During November people seem to be a little down, and the energylevels are quite not the same as in the summertime. Luckily finnish people enjoy Christmas, and not too long from November that time is upon everyone. And all of a sudden we are back to winter and snow again!
LANGUAGE
The finnish language is quite special. It’s complicated and difficult to learn since there are no other languages that would even remotely remind or sound the same (except maybe estonian language, which isn’t really more common than finnish). Learning finnish requires patience and undivided will to learn it, because let me tell you, if there’s no desire, there’s also no results when it comes to finnish. There are many different meanings for specific words, letters are pronounced in ways that are not common in other languages such as the letter R, and there are like a billion forms for each word. However, it’s not impossible to learn finnish and if you end up learning it, that if something is an accomplishment and you can be pretty proud of yourself!
SAUNA
Sauna, sauna, sauna. Can it get more finnish than this? No. There are thousands or saunas in Finland and it is very common to have your own sauna at your house. It doesn’t matter whether it’s summer or winter, sauna is being used all year round. During winter sauna and running to a pile of snow to make snowangels are the perfect combination. During summertime especially at cottages saunas are heated pretty much every day. Sauna and a dip in the lake is almost a requirement for cottage life. It seems like finnish people attach sauna to all the holidays and special or less special days that exist in Finland: Christmas morning sauna, midsummer sauna, saturday sauna and the list goes on.. What can I say, sauna is the answer to everything!
On top of these three things that I find the most finnish ever, there are lots of other things to be proud of in Finland. We value the health system in Finland, that is available for everyone and our free education has been listed as the best in the world. All these things need to be experienced to be able to actually know how amazing and FINNISH Finland really is!
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