A Year In Europe
So a little basic information on Suomi (Finland) and believe me, I only have the most basic of knowledge on the country. Suomi is located to the East of Sweden. In fact Finland used be a part of Sweden. Then the Russians and then Sweden again. As far as I can gather Finland has always been in the middle of an ongoing rivalry between Russia and Sweden. Being a large piece of mostly unused land in between the two both Sweden and Russia wanted the country for strategic purposes. In WWII Finland enlisted help from the Nazis in keeping the USSR out but in classic Nazi fashion they decided they would also like the country so the Finns were then invaded by the Germans too. Finland gained independence on the 6th of December 1917 and it became official on the 4th of January the following year. It is now home to 5,352,000 Fins. As the old saying goes ''Swedes we are not, Russians we will not become, so let us be Finns.''
Finland is now a fast growing nation who seems to keep to itself. She keeps herself busy exporting timber and paper. Finland is also one of, if not the largest exporter of meteorological equipment (weather balloons launchers, weather stations and meters). Finland's biggest claims to fame though are probably NOKIA phones, the Dudesons, Santa Claus (although this is debatable), Saunas, the bands HIM, Children of Bodom and Nightwish and if you watched the controversial Eurovision in 2006 you would have seen Lordi take home the gold. The most common languages spoken are Swedish and English and of course their own language... Finnish. The elvish language in J.R.R Tolkien's 'Lord of the rings' was based on the Finnish language and they do sound astoundingly similar.
It is the 8th largest country in Europe in terms of area and the most sparsely populated in the European Union. The capital city is Helsinki which holds 583,484 people. The highest ever temperature recorded in the city was 31.6 degrees which is a mild day where I am from. The record low was -34.3 but that was 22 years ago. Averagely it is only a brisk -25 which is what we set our ice cream freezers to in Australia. That is really the only experience I have had with those sort of temperatures.
If you travel to Lapland, Finland's north you can see the Northern lights and then if you hung a left (West) you could walk to to Sweden and Norway as they are all attached in the north. That being said you would be walking for roughly 1609.344 Kilometers to get there and that would be through thick snow and never ending pine forests so bring a tent. The country has 187,888 lakes scattered around the place and can boast a fresh water seal (Saimaannorppa) which is endemic to Finland who lives in the Saimaa lakes. Unfortunately the seal has a population of roughly 250 individuals so efforts are being made to preserve the species for as long as possible. Other native species are Reindeer, Elk, Weasels, the Arctic fox and Lynx. They also have a species of brown bear and to my delight a total of four seal species with most of them scattered in the Baltic sea.
Finland is now a fast growing nation who seems to keep to itself. She keeps herself busy exporting timber and paper. Finland is also one of, if not the largest exporter of meteorological equipment (weather balloons launchers, weather stations and meters). Finland's biggest claims to fame though are probably NOKIA phones, the Dudesons, Santa Claus (although this is debatable), Saunas, the bands HIM, Children of Bodom and Nightwish and if you watched the controversial Eurovision in 2006 you would have seen Lordi take home the gold. The most common languages spoken are Swedish and English and of course their own language... Finnish. The elvish language in J.R.R Tolkien's 'Lord of the rings' was based on the Finnish language and they do sound astoundingly similar.
It is the 8th largest country in Europe in terms of area and the most sparsely populated in the European Union. The capital city is Helsinki which holds 583,484 people. The highest ever temperature recorded in the city was 31.6 degrees which is a mild day where I am from. The record low was -34.3 but that was 22 years ago. Averagely it is only a brisk -25 which is what we set our ice cream freezers to in Australia. That is really the only experience I have had with those sort of temperatures.
If you travel to Lapland, Finland's north you can see the Northern lights and then if you hung a left (West) you could walk to to Sweden and Norway as they are all attached in the north. That being said you would be walking for roughly 1609.344 Kilometers to get there and that would be through thick snow and never ending pine forests so bring a tent. The country has 187,888 lakes scattered around the place and can boast a fresh water seal (Saimaannorppa) which is endemic to Finland who lives in the Saimaa lakes. Unfortunately the seal has a population of roughly 250 individuals so efforts are being made to preserve the species for as long as possible. Other native species are Reindeer, Elk, Weasels, the Arctic fox and Lynx. They also have a species of brown bear and to my delight a total of four seal species with most of them scattered in the Baltic sea.
