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Sami Hyrskylahti - MY 5 Things I miss about Finland |
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1. My childhood in Mänttä in the early 1980s Back then Finland was tied to the Soviet system economy and people took it much easier than today. I remember playing cards with my uncles for money, visiting and spending a lot of time with my family. Even in Helsinki the mood was romantically melancholy, like straight from an Aki Kaurismäki film.
2. Clean air I live right in the center of St Petersburg and partly due to the bad air quality I live mostly at night when the massive car jams ease up and the air quality improves. After the St Petersburg gas chamber, downtown Helsinki feels like a nature preserve.
3. Bedrock Built on bogland, St Petersburg has no visible rock, which is the oldest and probably the strongest element. The walls of rock propping up everywhere in Helsinki give me mystic kicks and a huge feeling of stability. On the other hand, the rock also radiates quite forcefully and not always in the best way for the human mind.
4. Nature By now I've understood that after the hyperactive culture and nightlife in St Petersburg I must seek something totally different in Finland. Unfortunately, my visits to Finland are usually way too short, but luckily it only takes a day for Finland's pure nature and its peacefulness to recharge your batteries. On the other hand, you only have to travel a half hour out of St Petersburg to reach the country paradise on the Karelian isthmus.
5. Tampere One of my favorite towns in Finland, probably the most Russian one. The people speak a cute and funny dialect - a lot of it - and they lead less hectic lives than people in the Helsinki area. Tampere has a Lenin Museum, Finland's oldest public sauna Rajaportti, and the magnificent scenery of Pispala. The beautiful waterways and nature are always close by.
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Sami Hyrskylahti is a Finnish artist and journalist who has lived in St Petersburg for ten years.
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