Marchela During my stay in Sweden, I also visited Finland for few days. My initial idea was to write one article for both countries, but I was so impressed with both Sweden and Finland that one article wouldn’t be enough for everything. In the meantime, I had mentioned that in Finland people speak Swedish as well and I’d like to clarify why. I always found it weird that all Finns that I met knew Swedish. Can you guess the reason? When asked like this, the answer of this question appears obvious, right? Jahaaa! The Swedish is the second official language in Finland!I only realized it, because one friend in Finland started sharing random facts about these countries. The philologist in me was in awe as you can imagine. It’s not every day that I visit countries that have 2 official languages that have NOTHING in common with each other… Yes. I can confirm that my curiosity was awaken.
I ended up doing some research on the history details. The Finns have been around these lands for a long long time. Meanwhile in the 13th century Sweden conquered Finland for some centuries. At the moment I am not sure how exactly the story went in 18th and 19th century, but Finland became an autonomous territory under the Russian dominion and in 20th century gained its independence. It is in these centuries (19th and 20th century) that Finnish regained power and was announced as an official language together with the Swedish. Maybe these are unnecessary facts, but after these clarifications I was even more amazed with this country, because it became independent 100 years ago and is now one of the wealthiest countries.
What impressed me most and ended up inspiring me was the cycle path in these countries, although I only mustered up the courage to ride a bike in Finland, where the weather was even colder compared to Sweden and on the way there I put on even more clothes so I don’t freeze to death. So I ended up with a new motto: “It’s never too cold to ride a bike.” After you have ridden a bike around frozen lakes, I don’t think you will ever say that the weather is too cold. At least I speak for myself.
Apart from fact that I survived riding a bike in the cold, which was the most awesome moment in my life, the other happiest moment was in Helsinki where I bought 4 Swedish books for 1 Euro from on library. Long live the library mania! I managed to see a little bit of the city and I found it really interesting. It doesn’t seem to be a big city and the people are not in a hurry on the streets like in the bigger cities. It was really relaxing. Unfortunately I couldn’t check out the saunas there as there wasn’t enough time.
At one point I felt as I was part of the TV show Fear Factor. Why? As I arrived during the Easter holidays, my friend from Helsinki recommended one typical dessert there.
I bought the respective dessert upon my arrival at Jyvaskyla (one of the three cities I visited), but my friends from Jyvaskyla and the locals made me feel like in Fear Factor when I did. They just couldn’t believe that I wanted to try this dessert and described it as horrible. Then when I tried it… I didn’t like it. I don’t know it it is because everyone around me said it is horrible and I was already expecting the bad taste or because it is horrible. Who knows… The weirdest part is.. why the Finns prepare this dessert, if nobody likes it? It is one of the questions, whose answer I have to find.
Speaking of Jyvaskyla, the main reason that made me go there is because there are more chances to see Aurora Borealis in this small city. I found it super nice that the locals (foreigners and Finns) had a group with forecasts for Aurora Borealis.
Unfortunately I didn’t get to see Aurora as I only stayed for a day and a half in the city. She appeared 2 days after I left. So the conclusion is.. If you want to see Aurora don’t visit viewpoints only for one day. I was reading posts in one group and found out some really interesting sites related to our dear Aurora.
http://www.gi.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast/Europe
http://www.aurora-service.eu/aurora-forecast/
Basically the months with higher chances to see Aurora are September, October, February, March and April. And don’t forget that the sky has to be clear. Unfortunately my dear Aurora didn’t want to see me neither in Finland nor in Sweden. So shy.. That’s why it gave me a new task, to plan my next trip to Scandinavia just to see her.
