Finland Journal

We finished our adventure in Luxembourg after staying for 5 days! We really want to stay longer and visit more places, but we can’t. We already bought our tickets. We’re starting our new adventure in Finland! It’s a coincidence that we arrived there at Independence Day. Today is the 6th of December. We saw shops decorated in the color blue and white and bakeries with breads that have blue and white icing on top. We went to get some of the bread and also asked the workers there if there are any important people we have to know in Independence Day. The worker was really excited to tell us some people. She said: “Veikko Hursti, the late philanthropist (a person who helps the poor), provided free food to the poor and unprivileged on every Independence Day. After Veikko Hursti’s death on 2005, the tradition is continued by his son, Heikki Hursti.” In the evening we just walked around the streets on Finland. We found out that there were candles on each of the windows, and asked some people what it’s for. They said in 1920 they put two candles on poet Johan Ludvig Runeberg's birthday which means silent protest against Russian oppression. A popular legend is that the two candles were used as a sign to tell young Finnish men that they’re on their way to Sweden and Germany to become jägers(a Finnish soldier who is trained in Germany), that the house was ready to offer shelter and keep them hidden from the Russians.

We decided to explore Finland and not to follow our itinerary after hearing the legend. We thought it was a bad idea. We didn’t know how to get to one place or another. But After walking and looking around, we realized that getting around Finland is pretty convenient. Since Finland is the 5th largest country in Western Europe, it is well connected by trains, buses, metros, and high quality roads. We somehow wandered to the train station. We stayed there for a few hours because the express only departures at night, and saw the Independence Day fireworks. We took the Santa Claus express at night from Helsinki to the south of Rovaniemi. We slept for about 10 hours and spent 5 hours looking out the window and taking pictures of the Northern Lights. We arrived there in less than 15 hours. We lived in the Santa Claus Holiday Village. The sun didn’t rise the next morning because it was winter. We visited Santa Claus Village the next day, which is part of the hotel. The whole park is quite big. We took pictures and wrote letters. We took the Santa Claus Express back to Helsinki. Helsinki is the only city in Finland to still have metros. Then we took the metro to Espoo. We went to Nuuksio National park. It is very pretty in the winter. Especially when there’s snow. We were exhausted after walking around and checked in at Hotelli Nuuksio. We got the last room in the hotel. We kept in mind that when we are going to go to Cyprus, we have to follow the itinerary.

We watched a documentary about Finland inside our room. We learned about the economy of Finland. The economy of Finland has a per capita output equal to other European economies such as France, Germany, Belgium, or the UK. The largest sector of the economy is services at 66%, followed by manufacturing and refining at 31%. Primary production is 2.9%. The key economic sector is manufacturing. The largest industries in 2007 were electronics (22%); machinery, vehicles, and other engineered metal products (21.1%); forest industry (13%); and chemicals (11%). The gross domestic product peaked in 2008. Finland has significant timber, mineral (iron, chromium, copper, nickel, and gold), and freshwater resources. The Greater Helsinki area generates around a third of GDP. Finland is ranked 40 for the GDP.