Ten Interesting Things About Finland

1. Finland's population is about 5.3 million, substantially less than that of Israel. Its land area is 337,030 square km, over 15 times that of Israel, which has 20,770 square km.

2. Finland's official languages are Finnish and Swedish. Finnish uses some extra letters/symbols/diacritics in addition to the standard alphabet and is not a European language. This leads to the interesting situation of my telling my Norwegian neighbor "so when we didn't understand things, we read the Swedish." and him saying "but you don't speak Swedish either." True, but we were actually able to figure out a fair amount of what we read in Swedish and almost none of the Finnish.

3. Blueberries are called mustikka and are very popular, though not very cheap. Blueberry pie, called mustikkapiirakka is considered a traditional Finnish food.


4. Most of Finland's trains are electric, but have diesel backup, because snow and electrical storms can down the wires. If the tracks are entirely unavailable in an area, the train providers provide buses for the shortest possible part of the route.

5. Many of Finland's trains contain a family car. On the family car, there are private compartments for families, as well as a children's area containing a mini-library, a small slide, and some other toys. Other cars on Finnish trains include the dog car and the dining car.

6. There are trains from Helsinki to St. Petersburg and to Moscow daily. The morning train from Helsinki to St. Petersburg is a Finnish train, while the afternoon train is a Russian one, and vice versa. On the Russian morning train into Finland, they offer you two choices for breakfast - apple juice and cake or beer and nuts. Air conditioning on Finnish and Russian trains is spotty at best, and not all are equipped with windows that open. When it's 27 degrees out and you have a baby sleeping on you, this is unpleasant.

7. Almost everything in Finland is wheelchair/handicapped accessible. In places built before elevators were around, there are elevators that follow the path of the stairs. This is highly cool.

8. Because of the enormous number of lakes, streams, rivers, etc, there are enormous numbers of mosquitoes and other biting/flying insects in Finland. They all think Kinneret is very tasty.

9. Swimming in lakes in Finland is very different from swimming in the Mediterranean in Israel for a number of reasons. The one you'll notice first is the temperature. If the water temperature is 24, that's considered warm.

10. Public places, including public restrooms, including those at campsites, are immaculate.


And finally, a video on Finland:

Tourist Trap

Yesterday, my parents, as professional tour operators for Shai Bar Ilan Tours, went to IMTM, "International Mediterranean Tourism Market" the Israeli conference for tourism professionals. Being good parents, they asked if I wanted to attend, and I attended the conference in the capacity of their assistant.

My parents decided to avoid some traffic and complications, so they drove to the airport and took the train to the fairgrounds. It was a nice train ride, and the train goes directly to the fairgrounds.

The conference was very cool, although a lot of the "freebies" were either wine or beer, which was somewhat limiting, since I'm pretty good about abstaining from alcohol when pregnant. In addition, one very cool exhibit was a miniature version of the Jerusalem Time Elevator. I couldn't go in it (there was a whole ride) b/c it's not recommended for pregnant women...

Still, I got some neat keychains, a few pens, and a cup of hot cider with cinnamon. The highlight of the day for me was that one of the Israeli exhibitors was advertising a nature experience, and had brought a basket of ducklings. One of the ducklings and I bonded. It's not as soft as a hamster, but since Mishmish (our hamster) finds humans completely terrifying, I haven't picked her up in many many months - She escaped from her cage and I had to pick her up to get her back in. She bit me pretty hard, and I kinda lost my interest in her... Anyway, back to the duckling... it was very sweet, and had this cute little miniature bill (which was how I knew it was a duckling and not a chick). My mom took a picture...


So anyway, after the duck and the cider and stuff, I sat down for a while and then we got back on the train, went back to the airport, got back in the car...

And my fingers had a fight with the car door. To be fair, my fingers were out of place. On the other hand, the car door really didn't have to fight so dirty! After a blood-curdling shriek, my parents took me to Terem, the local emergency clinic. Two of my fingernails are broken, which means I'll have to have the acrylic removed, let the nail heal, and have the acrylic replaced. The removal part is loads of fun. It involves soaking the fingers in nail polish remover for many minutes. That would be ok, but... there's a small cut that runs all the way through, and acetone on broken skin is a lovely idea... for torturing terrorists.

On the bright side, the bones aren't broken. The fingers aren't swollen. The typing is darned slow, because I can't use two of the fingers on my right hand. But this too shall pass.

t.c.