 | McLae´s guide to Finland |  |
|
Finland Internet country code: .fi International telephone prefix: +358  Finland is in Northern Europe and has borders with Russia to the East, Norway at the North and Sweden to the West. The country is thoroughly modern with well-planned and comfortable small towns and cities, but still offers vast areas of unspoiled nature. Finland has approximately 188,000 lakes (about 10% of the country) and a similar number of islands. In the northernmost part of the country northern lights can be seen in the winter and midnight sun in the summer. Northern Finland is also (according to the Finns) the home of Santa Claus and he can actually be visited there. Despite living in one of the most technologically developed countries in the world the Finns love to head to their summer cottages in the warmer months to enjoy all manner of relaxing pasttimes including sauna, swimming, fishing and barbecuing. History: Finland was a province and then a grand duchy under Sweden from the 12th to the 19th centuries and an autonomous grand duchy of Russia after 1809. It finally won its complete independence in 1917. During World War II, it was able to successfully defend its independence and fend off invasions by the Soviet Union and Germany. In the subsequent half century, the Finns have made a remarkable transformation from a farm/forest economy to a diversified modern industrial economy; per capita income is now on par with Western Europe. As a member of the European Union, Finland was the only Nordic state to join the euro system at its initiation in January 1999. Climate: Finland has a cold but temperate climate, which is actually comparatively mild for the latitude because of moderating influence of the North Atlantic Current. Wintertime temperatures can still reach -30°C in the south and even dip below -50°C in the north, although these extremes are uncommon. The brief Finnish summer is considerably more pleasant, with average temperatures around 20°C, and is generally the best time of year to visit. Early spring (March-April) is when the snows start to melt and Finns like to head north for skiing and winter sports, while the transition from fall to winter in October-December — wet, rainy, dark and generally miserable — is the worst time to visit. Due to the extreme latitude, Finland experiences the famous Midnight Sun near the summer solstice, when (if above the Arctic Circle) the sun never sets during the night and even in southern Finland it never really gets dark. The flip side of the coin is the Arctic Night (kaamos) in the winter, when the sun never comes up at all and the south daylight is limited to a few pitiful hours with the sun just barely climbing over the trees before it heads down again. Geography: Unlike Norway and Sweden, Finland is mostly low, flat to rolling plains interspersed with lakes and low hills, with mountains (of a sort) only in the extreme north and Finland's highest point, Mount Halti, rising only to a modest 1,328 m. Finland has 187,888 lakes (about 60,000 of them are big lakes) according to Geological Survey of Finland (Geologian tutkimuskeskus), making the moniker Land of Ten Thousand Lakes actually an underestimation. Along the coast and in the lakes are (according to another estimate) 179,584 islands, making the country an excellent boating destination as well. |
|
More information:WikipediaWikitravel
|