Sailboats compliment the architecture in Helsinki

Photo: Graham Simmons

Finns have set a number of world records. They’re the world’s biggest users of mobile phones and email, the world’s greatest per capita consumers of coffee, and they have the highest literacy rate on the planet. It is claimed that Finnish kids learn to read very early in life so as to be able to read the subtitles on American movies.

“And we have the world’s highest suicide rate too”, adds Kauko, a computer technician who like most Finns is totally committed to his job. “For half the year it’s so dark and cold that you feel really bored.”

But on a warm summer night, in Helsinki’s main park and café precinct, between Pohjois Esplanadi and Etelä Esplanadi, it’s hard not to feel exhilarated. The whole place rocks like a jelly in an earthquake. It seems that the whole population of Finland moves outdoors for the duration of summer.

It’s in the countryside that Finns really find themselves at home. Finland is widely known as “the country of a thousand lakes”, but some of the tourist brochures claim that are over 187,800 “lakes and pools”. This total must include mere puddles - a more realistic estimate is 70,000. Whatever the actual total, Finland’s lakes and rivers provide a glorious quality of life for most people. It’s the norm for Finns to have a country cottage set beside a lake somewhere outside the big city, with a boat and a set of skis at the front door and a rustic sauna out the back.

Maybe this is what enables the Finns to endure the long months of winter - there’s always another summer on the way.

Survival Guide:

The Finnish language sounds as though the speaker is trying to talk through a mouthful of Morello cherries. The written language is even weirder, with a huge number of prefixes and suffixes sometimes collapsing a whole sentence into what can be a long word. Despite the strangeness of the vocabulary (for example, “olut” means “beer” and “puhelin” means “telephone”), it’s worth learning a few words of colloquial Finnish.

The currency is the Euro (€).

The Finnish rail system is excellent, with the fastest Pendolino trains, covering the whole country, running at speeds of up to 220 km/h.

Accommodation in Finland can be expensive. Fortunately, there is an extensive network of Holiday Villages offering cabin or tent accommodation, often with golfing and other “country  club” facilities.