Finland In the Summer
The Finnish summer is nice although most Finns do what they can to escape it. They head off to the Canary Islands, Florida, Greece, Italy, the rest of mainland europe, and most anyplace south where the weather is warmer. Finns also travel north into the countryside. Almost every family has a summer cottage in the forest where they relax for a couple of weeks. Finns recieve five weeks of vacation every year. Typically four weeks are taken in the summer and one week in the winter.
Each summer there is a fair in Senate Square that exhibits shops from different parts of Finland. This fair has brought food from middle Finland. See how the salmon is nailed to the wood boards and cooked around the fire.
Countryside? This is still part of the City of Helsinki. This was the part of the city I lived in my first year. This is a picture of the local horse ranch.
There are many bachelor and bachelorete parties in the summer. Most are very creative and highly visable in the city center. It is not uncommon for a bachelor party to last the whole weekend. Finns have some sort or evil sence of humor when it comes to these parties. There are stories about grooms waking up the morning of their wedding on a ship to Sweden, on the plane to Greece, on the train to Lapland.
This is downtown Porvo. It is one of the oldest cities in Finland. It is about an hour east of Helsinki however I do not go there very often.
This is someplace between Helsinki and Porvo.