Traveling Diary: August 2010 Archives
"Mis on mun ase!?"
I just learned this sentence.
It means "where is my gun?"
Maybe it's not the most useful sentence in the world but as it turns out, learning Finnish is difficult to the point that for the time being I am just learning it sentence by sentence. As we went through the airport, that just happened to be today's.
This most recent month long visit to Finland made me value and appreciate Finland as a country; Finnish people as a culture; and Finnish language as a challenge - it is said that Finnish is second to Chinese as the most difficult language to learn - well anyway, this last month has certainly made me appreciate it all much more than I had on my first trip as a mere 'tourist'.
Finland has a very short and extremely intense history due to a boxing match of sorts between Sweden and the USSR, (which, in fact goes back to the 12th century) but most recently, Russia owned Finland (since 1809). Then the last 100 years has been what has defined Finland. It all started off with the Communist revolution in 1917, at which point Finland declared a state of independence (from Russia). A few wars and only a few years of peace later, Stalin and the Soviet Union again came charging in during 1939. This war, known as the Winter War, saw Finland lose 10% of their land to Stalin. Not long after, Staling pressured for more, but with the help of Germany, The Continuation War caused 100,000 Finnish lives to be lost, and even more land was lost in this war to the Soviets. To make things worse, the Finns then had to oust the Germans from Lapland when they tried taking over after helping them fight Stalin. Aside from these, add world war 1 and 2 as well as the cold war. After all that, Finland still somehow managed to remain and independent country. And thanks to their further resilience and endurance, they became part of the EU in 1995. Since then Finland is blossoming into a hub for design, technology, the environment, and has seen great success in their economy. Furthermore, Finland currently enjoys one of the lowest crime rates in the world.
Although Finland is most famous for saunas (my first was had in the photo below), reindeer, racing drivers, heavy metal and Nokia, it actually has a lot more on offer. Most specifically in the area of design. From clothing and jewellery to furniture and architecture. The Finns are artists. On that same note, they love music - my current favorite is Petteri Sariola.
Families are closely knit; in the same way, the entire country seems somehow closed off to the rest of the world. Immigration laws reflect the fact that diversity is not really appreciated nor sought. This may be the one biggest difference between Finland and Canada.
Spending time with a Finn is like taking part in the first snowfall of winter. Silent, serene, clean and bright, with a promise of fun. As individuals, Finns are timid and modest to say the least. They blush easily and die of embarrassment at the mention of 'hello'. It is endearing, really. And it gives the whole place a feeling of innocence. Finns somehow balance this quietness with an insanely strong, independent character. They make up for their shyness with fun, weird events too - such as the world wife carrying competition, the boot throwing competition, and the phone throwing competition.
An old Baltic seaside family summer home is like a Finn. Modest, comforting, warm, quiet, bright, appreciated, and unique. I was blessed with some time at two of these summer homes this month. One, close to Helsinki and on the Baltic (which I swam in it for my first time!) called Knapperi. We held a cousin's 30th birthday there and spent a few evenings watching the sun 'set' from the West facing sun room. (A sunset in July in Finland is like watching a bird fly across the horizon. It never goes away and is on a weird horizontal trajectory.) The other, a few hours drive West, of Helsinki called Nirva, which, truly is Nirvana. This place is where Famo and Fafa (grandma and grandpa) live all summer. Their home was built in the 1700's and the entire ranch, with 2 other home and 4 or 5 other buildings has been in Famo's family for hundreds and hundreds of years.
At Knapperi, I attended a few family events, including a cousin's 30th bday and an I love Fred party.
At Nirva we went potato picking, explored an old abandoned cabin, saw the most insane red sunset, had a homemade sauna and watched a lightning storm, slept in a barn, and swam in a 25C lake - EVERY DAY.
It seems to me that during the summer, when Finns aren't out spending quality family time at their summer homes, they are outside at music festivals. I went to one with Bastian and his brother, Mikael, and it was amazing! The event is called Pori jazz. You can Youtube us singing along to N.E.R.D. The other memorable artist there was Sharon Jones.
We had a list, of course, of things we wanted to do, places we wanted to see, people we wanted to spend time with. And to be honest, we surprised ourselves even with the amount of stuff we got checked off that list. Aside from 'the list' I spent many days working on Orang Orang when Bastian worked, and the remainder of the time was well spent with family. Or, like true Finns, outside in nature...drinking.
I need to start this off by just saying that it's official: Stockholm has not only the best restaurants and hotels, but also the best customer service IN THE WORLD. Damn those free breakfast buffets. And beautiful smiling blonds everywhere! The food in Stockholm was a highlight to say the least. Anything after Balinese food to me is generally a highlight. But cheese and rye. And fruit. And yogurt. And more cheese. And more rye. Oh, and clean, crisp water. And oh, yes, clear skies and clean air... God I missed that.
Prior to getting to Stockholm last month, I had quite an eventful time flying to and waiting in Qatar. Qatar really is one of those places that could never be explained in words. And you'd hardly get the jist from pictures. I personally wouldn't recommend going. Not unless you really like deserts, Arabs, Africans and/or are interested in buying very, very expensive honey and dates. To each their own.
So, anyways, I arrived into to Stockholm on a beautiful, sunny, Canada Day. After singing the National anthem then hugging like it was the first time we'd seen each other in years (hey, it felt like it!) Bastian and I rode the bus into the city, dropped our stuff off at tour downtown hotel, and started walking. I'd forgotten how much I like the way he rolls.
We had the Lonely Planet guide to
Stockholm and Sweden, and although we didn't use it much, some interesting
facts from it are that Stockholm is built on 14 islands and is connected by 57
bridges. Moreover, within the city limits there are over 70 museums. One of
which is the ABBA Museum, "A Tribute To The Living Legends". Please. Ew.
As usual, the most helpful part of the Lonely Planet guide was the maps; and as usual, we didn't use them much. All we needed to know was how to get to our hotel; from the hotel to and from the Hard Rock Café; from the hotel to and from the first bike rental station; from the first bike rental station to the first café and/or bar; and in which direction the water was, which was, everywhere. In other words, we couldn't go wrong.
In my traveling journal I wrote that my first impression of Stockholm was it reminded me a lot of Victoria but everything was a bit bigger and more vibrant. Aside from that, the Princess of Sweden (they have an insane monarchy like that in England) just got married, gasp! to a commoner. And it was ALL OVER the papers. I'm talking you could not go anywhere with seeing their picture somewhere. It was like out version of Hollywood - but where the victims/characters don't change weekly (once we get tired of Brad and Angelina/Michael Jackson/other catastrophe's like Meg Ryan's new nose job, etc). And lastly, although we were in the tourist areas,and so many of the people around us were tourists, I do have to say it was a very ethnically diverse place. People were not nearly as blond nor tall as I expected them to be. So, where are all the tall blond Scandinavians?
Looking back, we have a few favorites of the trip: renting bikes and biking everywhere and switching bikes everywhere; biking up to the top of a hill where we proceeded to drink all afternoon and watch the city of Stockholm and time both pass by without a care in the world; walking through the alleys; meditating in the middle of the city; the free breakfast at our hotel - every morning; and the soccer at the Hard Rock café - every night.
Sebastian's first language is Swedish. It is the language his parents, grandparents, brothers, cousins, etc all speak. But they all live in Finland. And in Finland people speak Finnish. Regardless, I was in good hands in Sweden, albeit some people weren't too fond of Basti's accent and took to speaking him in English when he spoke to them in Swedish. A highlight for me. And oddly, when the people in Stockholm did speak English, they didn't speak with that classic Swedish accent. You know, like the cook in the muppets? Why? Where are all you funny sounding Sweeds?
So, many a assumption were contradicted in Stockholm. The last one being that Stockholm is apparently as the most liberal city in the world. And although we did not see too many men in speedo's skipping down the streets holding hands (it was, afterall, the host of EuroPride 2008), I did see a few naked kids playing in the cities central fountain; quite a few practically naked boys/men out and about sun tanning and the like; and, yes, I did see mass tributes to ABBA. (But no, I did not go to IKEA.)
On route back "home" to Helsinki, we took a huge ferry/cruise ship. Out on the back deck for 5 hours, we watched the sunset and the archipelago's 50,000 or so (I hear the number is debated to be between 24,000 to 100,000 islands here) islands pass by. By 11pm I couldn't wait for the sun to set any longer. It was still completely bright outside. But we went down into out Titanic-like bedroom and managed one last good sleep before getting back to the apartment in Helsinki. That apartment and that city.... never gets dark.
