As the title suggests, I've been working remotely for a week, and have a few days left. I got fed up with the heat in central and western Europe- 38-40° without clim sucks on the 3rd floor in Frankfurt/Main and I grew up in a place with air con everywhere (I brought summer up with me though, oups). Decided a few weeks ago to just work remotely and rediscover Finland more in-depth this time. Been staying in Vantaa, rented a car last weekend to go to Lahti and the lake region as day trip.

Last time I was here was 14 years ago, and it was strictly a Helsinki-Turku-Naantali family trip. So this time, a bit more immersive, although I realise most Finns are on summer holiday like in most European cities. But the Lake Region, even for just a day, was a nice feel for what life is like for the locals.

Thoughts :

• I love how you guys managed to keep nature in mind even as the suburbs grow. Plenty of parcs, trees where I can take a stroll before I log on, or when I need some fresh air, just a couple hundred metres from my rental.
• Everything's so clean. Lake-side beaches, trails have no rubbish. C'est top !
• The public transports still work even in summer, wow.
• As an introvert, I already knew and don't mind the reserved nature of the locals. I'm past the age where I need or want nightlife. But people are polite when you need to interact.
• Love the unspoiled nature and low population density = I can enjoy nature especially outside the Helsinki region without being bothered. Reminds me of Québec.
• Stuff actually works most of the time here. In Germany, everything is broken or out of service- like living in 1980s- and the people there don't care to do anything about it.

Of course, no place is perfect.....

• Things are expensive. I try to buy Finnish at the stores (it's my French mentality- achetez local ! soutenir les producteurs !) but it's awful expensive. Strawberries, potatoes, peas, household goods, etc.... it's great to discover you guys actually make stuff but it's a steep markup in price. Do you guys try to buy local too ?
• The alcohol rules suck, and the prices even moreso. A normal bottle of french wine costs double what I can just pick up at the hypermarket in France, and I have to go to Alko for it. Problematic when I normally go thru a few bottles a week- it's part of the meal......and it's not even winter when I switch to vodka.
• I realise the job market and buying power here in Finland is rough. I feel you; I left everything behind in the USA years ago and moved to Germany in the hopes of job security, which no longer exists there either. Hang in there guys.
• Not really much of a food culture. But the lounasbuffets are a good deal, and I've been cooking mostly anyway.
• You guys have an awful lot of radars even in rural areas . I thought Germany and France were bad. Without Waze I'd probably trip half of them in the Lake region.

But still, despite having changed a lot in 14 years, you guys still have a lot of good things going for you. I can see why so many Finns are content here, and I trust that you guys will keep it nice into the future. That's the finnish way, I'm sure.

P.S : If my budget allows it, I'd love to visit the northeast during winter. I like things cold and snowy, call me when it's -10°.

I'm apparently a bit insane because I'm Northern German and want to experience a real winter in Finland for the first time. We admittedly get close to zero snow where I'm from, which means my experience with snow is limited to getting stuck in my driveway during the rare occasion of a 10 cm snowfall last year, lol.

Is it even possible to drive through the whole country (from south to north and back) in November/December? If so, could you give me some tips on what I need to be careful about and what supplies I should bring, especially for the car? Obviously, winter tires and snow chains are non-negotiable?

Do roads in the countryside get cleared regularly? Am I an idiot for even considering this? I've never driven in heavy snow, so I have no idea what I'm actually getting myself into, lol.

Thanks in advance!

I keep seeing these next to appartment buildings, and I a am wondering what are their purpose Never seen anything like this anywhere else.

I have visited all of them but not the Åland islands yet. Cruise boats I've been on have stopped at their port but it doesn't count.

Which are your favourite and least favourite regions?

My faves: Lapland, Northern Savonia, Northern Ostrobothnia (Koillismaa to be exact: Kuusamo, Taivalkoski and Pudasjärvi). I also really liked Porvoo, Rauma and Hanko but I wouldn't say the regions they're in are my favs.

Least favs: Southern and Central Osthrobotnia (It's just sooo flat) and Kainuu.

So I visited Helsinki last week, as my first time in Finland and got to experience many shocks but in a positive way. I'm originally from Latin America and I kinda new what I was going to but still was fun to experience such things as your big party on Apr 30th (including putting the hat on the statue event, etc.), trying reindeer meat, karaoke bars, and others. Despite being the capital, which is smaller than I thought, everything felt very local compared to other places in Europe, and I even felt sometimes that I was out of place, but that's ok bc I was just a tourist and I don't belong there. I didn't have many interactions beyond service people at restaurants or bars and also didn't expect many as a tourist, but the few that I had people were very nice in general.

In summary, Finland is a country I've always respected and seen as kinda mysterious, and even though I've only seen your capital, it was nice to have a small sneak into your culture. Much love and respect to you, my dear metal-karaoke-introverted-friends from the other side of the world xoxo

I just learned that this Finnish visit is the first in 17 YEARS. 17 YEARRRS?

Just a Vietnamese-American visitor who passed through earlier this month on my two week road trip in Scandinavia + Finland. I didn't draw these on-site, because the day I stopped by Sibelius Park (May 4), it was raining and the day I visited Suomenlinna (May 5), it was very windy. I had to make do with drawing from screenshots I took.

I love the culture, history, and food here, I definitely want to come back. I really love the language and using the little I tried to pick up for this trip. (I think I surprised a few people in my hunt for Hopeanuoli/Ginga manga to get as souvenirs. I reserved and bought some from Fantasiapelit!) I want to study Finnish more formally once I get my intermediate Spanish to advanced.

Also I was surprised to run into and chat with a good handful of Vietnamese residents here, more than any other country in northern Europe. (Generally we're a loud, chatty, and nosy people, the complete opposite of Finns, but we like to congregate on coasts so I guess that's the reason some Viets resettle in Finland.)

My husband has been making memes to get us pumped for visiting family in Finland this week. They're so good I had to share.

Edit: We're about to fly, so I can't reply to everyone, but just to be clear we are excited to be going. We visit quite frequently, so we just have some, ahhh, unique things that we get excited for when we visit, and we love our visits so much.

In Finland we have this thing called kaamosmasennus (SAD in English) and the main reason being the lack of light during daytime in the winter. While I'm writing this at a location in "the middle" of Finland, not north but not south either, and at 9:10 AM there is a hint of dawn in the sky - it's not black but rather a shade of dark blue. At around 10 AM the sunrise will begin and we'll have some kind of light, but the sun will still stay close to the horizon and if it's cloudy/overcast the day will feel more like a perpetual dusk. At around 15 PM the sun will set and at 16 PM it will be full on night.

So that is what we have to put up with. The worst thing about it imho is that in a normal workday you'll have very little time to experience the daylight outside as you'll be either at work or commuting while the sun is at least partially up. If you have the luxury of working from your home you can always take a short lunchtime walk to soak up some sun but other than that it's only weekends that provide a lifeline for battling that reoccurring SAD.

Hello you all Finnish people! I'll be in Helsinki this July for the first time and I'm super excited about it. I already made tons of research about there and here's my to do list about Helsinki. If you have another recommendation for me please lemme know! (btw I'm gonna use airbnb and I haven't chosen where I'm gonna stay yet. If you have also recommendations about it I'd be amazing!) Kiitos :)