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Holidays in Finland

Summer is the best time in Finland. It is also the time for homecoming, as Finns living abroad return to their home to enjoy the endless sun, fresh fruits and warm weather. Summers are meant to be spent in the summer cottages. Families move to the hinterland during the weekends. The favourite spots are villages with a lake, cottages and above all idyllic settings.

The native name for a summer cottage is “Mokki”. The locals rent out their cottages that are completely secluded and isolated, ideal for a complete unwinding holiday. Finns who come to stay in these cottages spend most of their time lazing and lounging, or at the most sometimes go out for fishing. If they have their relatives living in close proximity to these summer cottages, they pay a visit to them.

Since the days are long, families take their meals together which is otherwise not possible owing to their busy city life. Food is sourced from the cottage garden where vegetable salads and potatoes are largely grown. People do frequent the nearby village shop as well from where readymade food and bottled drinks are bought. So important is the influx of summer visitors in these small villages that in the summer months, sales multiply by three-fold. As the summer unfolds, they take up summer activities like fishing, cycling, swimming and sailing. Interestingly, every village specialises in an activity and it is easy for families to set up home in a village that would have the requisite paraphernalia for a sport they want to indulge in.

Finland is the land of the sauna and the Finns are a nation of sauna-enthusiasts. The sauna is considered an age-old Finnish feature, although it is not a Finnish invention. In the late 19th century, sauna-bathing was practiced in the Old World all the way from the Baltic Sea to the Ural Mountains. The sauna was also common among the other Finnic nations in the Baltic region — the Estonians, the Karelians, the Veps and the Livonians. Other traditional sauna-users include many Slavic, Baltic (Latvians, Lithuanians) and eastern Finno-Ugric peoples as well as Turkic Tatars.

The traditional sauna is a wooden building where the bathers sit on benches splashing water on the hot stones of the stove and gently beating themselves with leafy birch whisks. It is generally believed that the first wooden saunas were built in Finland in the 5th to 8th centuries. They were single-room log buildings, which were initially heated by fire and smoke (smoke sauna). In those early days the buildings served as both a dwelling and a sauna. They were an example of Finnish timber construction technique that Finnish emigrants always took with them wherever they travelled over the centuries.

This technique is visible in the New World in the structure of the Pioneer House in New England. e shops, fashion stores, museums, art galleries, restaurants and showrooms. If you have a liking for performing arts then Museum of Contemporan Art Kiasma is the right place for you. They organise enthralling plays, operas, music shows and also host lectures on relevant issues pertaining to the performing arts.

Another spectacular way of exploring Helsinki is to go on a cruise, the trip is organised by a company named Sun Lines. The route covers Suomenlinna Maritime Fortress and the narrow Degerb canal. The cruise has expert guides who keep tourists enthralled with interesting tales of Helsinki’s past. Other attractions on this voyage are the saunas, the Korkeasaari zoo, the Finnish icebreakers and the cruise ship harbours.