If you think Vikings - that is Denmark, if you think ABBA, Ikea and all blonde and suntanned - that is Sweden, If you think North Sea oil, whale hunters and too snobby to be in the EU, that's Norway. For almost 600 years the Finns were ruled by the Swedes, and then the Russians took over. During WW2 there was an epic mid Winter battle between the Finns and the Ruskies and despite the bravery of the Finns, the Russians won, after which they stole a big chunk of territory and exerted their influence all threw out the Cold War. As a small country, there are 5 million Finns, wedged between the devil and the deep blue sea, the Finns might just be happy that no one notices them and they are left alone to be their happy little Finnish selves.
In Zambia I met a bunch of Finns there on a University exchange program. I had the good fortune of running in to one of them again, Sari, in Malawi and she kindly invited me tod she kindly invited me to come and visit Finland to see what it was really like. (Perhaps Finns are secretly a little upset that they don't get many tourists)
When I arrived in Finland begin to see why else Finland flies under the radar of most people. In Helsinki all of the buildings are new, with modest architecture, they are drab and grey and nothing stands out. (Almost everything was destroyed during WW2) The streets are clean, as is the air, and you can even swim in the sea and lakes in Helsinki, and there are trees and parks everywhere. There is no flashy advertising to assault the eye, and when you do see advertising it contains very ordinary people, in ordinary clothes, doing ordinary things - no using sex to sell everything here.
All this is very characteristic of Finland, all very plain, the people beavering away doing the write thing socially, environmentally etc etc, and to be honest, it is a little boring and predictable (The most surprising thing I can tell you about Finland is that I got a suntan there - for the five weeks I was there it rained twice, and every other day it was over 25 degrees !!) Everyone is polite - if perhaps a little too polite - in general most Finns are quiet and reserved. They even make sure all the public signs and government documents are printed in Finnish and Swedish so as not to upset the Swedish speaking minority who are left over from Swedish rule. They all ride a bike or use public transport. Everybody recycles - there is a container deposit system (Oh you don't have that in Australia - we have had it for ever !!!) People conserve energy (even though most of it comes from hydro power) and all houses are buildings use double glazing and are well constructed, so when you sit inside it is almost silent. However even when I am outside I notice that it is fairly quiet as well - the background noise of snarling traffic and screeching tyres, the metallic clang of construction and the yells of vendors that were omnipresent in the third world have disappeared.
Supposedly the Finnish population is one of the most genetically homogeneous groups in the world, but they don't look it - in fact probably less than half the people I see are blonde - rapidly destroying my idea of every native Scandinavian being blue eyed and blonde haired. As Finns remind me, they aren't Scandinavian anyway - Nordic is the right word.
When we hitched up to the north I saw the evidence that Finland is the land of 100,000 lakes, and there is water everywhere - I should say everywhere there isn't trees. For most of the six hundred kilometre journey all I see are endless tracts of lush, green pine forest. I indulge myself and have the pleasure of taking several guilt-free thirty minute showers with the water on full - no water restrictions or spying neighbours here. (It is the little thi
ngs !!!)
Having so much forest and water, and with the exodus from the land to the cities being relatively recent, Finns still have a strong attachment to the land. Every Finns' dream is to have a little cabin in the woods, a place to escape to the quiet and sit in the sauna, drink vodka and not say much at all !!! Lots of families have little cottages and especially in summer they head out there to relax, swim in the river, wander through the forest and remember the good old days. I had the good fortune of being able to spend a few days in the self built log cabin of Sari's grandfather, in an idyllic bit of forest, next to a small river. I got to experience my first smoke sauna, and had the masochistic pleasure of running from a scaldingly hot sauna in to a freezing could river - well actually that is a slight exaggeration, the river was probably about 20 degrees, but it felt cold !!! I got to see my first real life reindeers (no sign of Rudolf) and watched the sun go down at midnight. It was all very relaxing and reinvigorating.The Finnish forest also seems to be very fecund, filled with
food for the picking - in fact any person is allowed to come to Finland and harvest the fruits of the forest tax free. (So of course enterprising capitalists ship in teams of Thai workers to work for a tuppence) As traditionally most food had to be collected during the summer months and preserved for winter Finns often go in to the forest to collect kilos upon kilos of berries to be frozen and eaten during winter. A couple of days we headed out with empty buckets and specially designed tools to separate blue berries from the bushes. By the third or fourth day I was getting the hang off it and managed to collect an entire bucket in not much over an hour, but as the blue stains evidence I think I nearly ate just as many blueberries !!! Never having seen, let alone eaten, fresh blueberries I discovered the reality of the artificial taste that I had eaten in some many industrially produced ice creams and deserts. As we crushed a few berries that we picked and piled in to the buckets the scent permeated the forest, wafting between the trees and continuously making my mouth water despite seemingly 
constantly eating berries and slacking my work rate in the eyes of my Finnish friends/overlords. On the way back to the car we stumbled across some bear footprints which my Finnish friends casually showed me, like I would show people crocodile tracks in Australia.
Not satisfied with me only meeting one of her grandparents, Sari also took me to see her maternal grandparents, and before I knew it I had become a Finnish potato farmer.
Her parents have a larger field behind there house and as they are well over seventy their eyes lit up when they saw a fit lookin' city boy like me ripe for the workin' !!! It was actually enjoyable to spend a day or two working for a change, and there is nothing like a bit of gardening and weeding to reacquaint you with your connection to the soil. However when I woke up the morning after the first full day I was saw all over, and couldn't touch my toes because my muscles were so tights. Fortunately we finished all the weeding on the second day, so we could move on to the lighter work of stacking firewood, but even a couple of days afterwards I was still a little stiff from all that gardening. The reward however was particularly sweet though, we got to eat freshly picked from the ground new potatoes that were absolutely scrumptious.
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