What is Finland like?
Question by Case J: What is Finland like?
Has anyone ever been to Finland? I am interested in Finland because it just seems cool to me, the location in europe, bordering Russia and scandinavia, by the arctic ocean and lapland..
can someone tell me what finland is like in terms of the people, culture and the food?
What is lapland like?
I would appreciate it if you could be descriptive about the people and culture part thanks
If you are from finland I would greatly appreciate your knowledge!
Best answer:
Answer by Irish
I’m not Finnish but I was in Finland for about a week years ago and it is expensive! Very expensive! I was there in the dead of winter and it was pretty chilly. It was so expensive I had to jump on a ferry and head over to Estonia – cheaper there! As for the people, well, em, their Finns……most speak Finnish, some speak Swedish, some also speak Lapp in the north of Finland. Culture? I don’t know much about Finnish culture, sorry. I was only there for a week after all! Oh yeah, I think they like good bacteria yogurt drinks : )
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!
The typical Finn is often described as quiet and sullen. We like to keep to ourselves, not brag about things. We are also nice and friendly in a weird, Finnish way. but of course there’s exceptions.
The thing we love the most is ice-hockey. It’s bigger than life to us. Hockey to us is like soccer to the Brits or the Brazilians. If we don’t play hockey, we watch hockey. The ice-hockey world championships are always a huge deal to us, and it’s always like a nationwide depression when we lose. But when we win, we win big time!
Another things we love are Sauna and beer. If I said before that we are quiet and sullen, well, when we’re drunk we are the exact opposite. And we get drunk a lot.
Then the cultural part. History is a huge part of our culture. If you ever come to live in Finland, it would be good to know at least something about the Winter War and the Continuation War. The most important thing about the Winter War is the Spirit of the Winter War. It’s basically the thing that makes us Finns. But it’s a long story, you can read it here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_of_the_Winter_War
Then there’s the thing called Sisu. In english it’s something like “having the guts”. Sisu is.. it’s hard to describe.. but it’s like determination and strength of will. Again, wikipedia explains it better than me: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisu
Now the food part. We have a couple of our own traditional delicacies, for example Karelian Pastry, which is a pastry with a thin rye crust and a filling made of rice. You often put eggbutter on top of it. Then we have Mämmi, which is a Finnish Easter pudding. It tastes kinda weird on it’s own but when you put some vanilla sauce or cream, and sugar in it, it tastes amazing. But it looks like poop.
Other Finnish foods you can see again in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_cuisine (rye bread is super finnish, also sautéed reindeer and leipäjuusto)
On daily basis we eat just normal food: meatballs with mashed potatoes, chicken with rice etc.
Lapland is amazing! It is without a doubt the most beautiful part of Finland. Especially the area along Tana River. If you ever go to Lapland, I’d suggest you to go either around Midsummer (the end of June) or January. The Midsummer is the happiest time to us Finns, ‘cos we’re all on holiday and we can enjoy the summer by BBQ’ing and drinking and watching the bonfires – which btw are traditional way to celebrate the Midsummer.
And Santa lives in Lapland! There’s a place called Korvatunturi where Santa supposedly lives. There’s also a Santa theme park in Rovaniemi, it’s called Santa Park and it’s open from June 28th to August 14th and from November 27th to January 8th.
There’s also beaches in Finland if you want to sunbathe. There’s one in Kalajoki, and in Pori and in the Southern coast, for example in Helsinki. Helsinki is awesome, although it’s the biggest city in Finland, it’s not that big. It’s big enough to feel like a city but it’s not big enough to feel scary big.
Although I don’t always appreciate living here, it’s still the best place to live in. Being a Finn feels special, after all there’s only 5,359,538 of us.
So late answer but im hoping you’re still reading these.
im finnish and well. i like it here. most random people on the streets you meet are usually rather nice. if you wanted directions and asked a random guy in the street,most likely he’ll tell you directions if he knows ‘em. and most of finnish people speak english pretty damn well too so communication isn’t a problem that often.
and you know,i really cant describe the culture or the food that well. hard to describe everyday stuff for me. but guess i could try.
so to me most finns arent really religious. yeah we’re christian and all that but it’s not a big thing in everyday life. that applies to me too. i have a religion and i’ve been raised to that religion but it’s all in the side there.
food…..food… im no expert so i wont be covering that a lot. but i guess some finnish breads stand out. heck i dont know the english names for a few. like ruisleipä,rieska,näkkileipä… and thanks yahoo for telling me finnish language is misspelling.
Oh yeah,and i couldnt do this all without mentioning the sauna! it’s a weird thing for a lot of people from other countries and usually they dont understand it. going to a really hot room naked and sweating your ass off while pouring water to the kiuas to make you sweat even more doesnt seem sane. hell they have a world sauna competition in finland every year. and yes i dont know an english word for ”kiuas”
speaking of the language,many people from other countries consider the finnish language beautiful. it’s actually pretty damn complicated but if you’re raised to speak it,it’s easy. also many people that are not finnish say the most beautiful finnish word is ”laudeliina” which is what you sit on in the sauna while sweating your ass off. which is kind of ironic.
now for a negative fact about finland. we get drunk more than most other countries. i dont know how negative that actually is. i mean in finland, you just might see a guy passed out in the snow in the winter…. and we’re also loud speakers some people say. which is also a little ironic considering people think finnish language is beautiful…
i enjoy it here. it’s a nice place in my opinion. really cold at some winters but nice. and for the love of god i hope you read all this. cause if you didn’t i wrote a lot of stuff for no reason.
anyways glad to help.