My vacation is over and I'm back at work, at Midsummer. Vacation was great, we spent the last week camping. We traveled trough eastern Finland and spent a few days in Helsinki. It's been a few years since I've been in Helsinki, unless you count Helsinki-Vantaa Airport.
Helsinki is in Finland but it's a whole different world from the rest of the country. It's a great city to visit and a lot cleaner and safer than most cities I've visited(Edinburgh is still number one) but I wouldn't want to live there. It's tuned to a different beat than the rest of the country, faster and prettier. It's more cosmopolitan than rest of Finland but it also lacks something that can only be found outside Kehä 3.
Hmmmmmm.......I agree. We spent time in Vasa and then another place..... "tulamemee" ?? What is that word, Nana always said it?
ReplyDeleteI love Helsinki because it feels so old and grande and European, but in a small and quaint and safe way. I love the other parts of Finland that we saw, because it felt like/looked similar to the southwestern region of British Columbia (where we live)! It also felt similar to Whistler in many ways.
You are blessed to have such diversity in a fairly close space...one day I would love to bring our kids to Finland and show them where Papa (Carl) was born....and the red houses and the hay stacked on spikes/poles!!!
I've tried to figure it out and if it was the place you stayed at, about 20 km south of Vasa the place "tulamemee" is spelled "Långåminne".
ReplyDeleteHelsinki was recently voted as the third safest city in the world, the more safer two where both in Switzerland, Bern and Zürich. Lots of rental cops, a good social security system and low unemployment might be the answer too way it is such a safe city =).
I also recommend spending time in Norway with it's mountains and fjords, i has been voted as the most beautiful country in the world and I agree. Sweden is very similar to Finland and if you want to see an "European" country Denmark is very European and most people know English. All these countries can be reached within a day or two, by car and/or ferries.
Nowadays the wrap the hay in white plastic turning them into large cone shaped hay bales, in white plastic but a few people that breed horses still stack the hay on poles =).