Helsinki

Helsinki was the one place on this journey I had never been before. It was also the place I had the least free time, that I’d heard from others that wasn’t all that exciting, but I tried to not judge before I saw it and I it started to grow on me. An important detail I think to understand about Helsinki is that it wasn’t a city, let alone the country’s capitol, until the early 1800’s when the Russian Czar decided he needed the territory capitol to be closer to St. Petersburg. So to compare Helsinki to Stockholm, Copenhagen or Oslo is possibly a bit unfair. Aitor (a Spanish/Finn) told me it was a great place to live. It seems many Finns leave to study but end up back in their hometown, much like so many of us do in the U.S. An Estonia guide told me Helsinki was a great place to live, but not to visit. I can see it.

I did like Finns a lot as they seem to be the 90’s Alternative kid of the Nordics - so many tattoos, many more cigarettes, much more dyed hair and black shirts, pants, and boots. Very nice folks too. I had read about the tragic civil war and I was told about their brutal Winter War with Russia just before WWII arrived. Now they’re in NATO and a European leader in tech and startups. I can’t not contemplate the parallels they share with Norway of only receiving their independence a century ago just before enduring more occupation and how important it has been to them to embrace their national identity as they build their nation. Many told me that Finns are great at building things, but not at promoting things.