It's so ...

Again, this post has nothing to do with electronics, but some anecdotes about tourism in Finland.

One thing many foreigners don't get when talking about Finland is how sparsely populated this country actually is. Huge land area, combined with just 5 million or so inhabitants mostly centered in larger population centers at southern part of country means that there are literally thousands and thousands square kilometres of ... well, you could say nothing, but there's forests, lakes, rivers and such mostly natural things. Entire northern part of Finland, Lappi, has over 100000 square kilometres of area, with some 120000 people on it (excluding Rovaniemi - largest city there - that has about 58000 people living there).

When I decide to take a car for a work trip, the first three to four hours from Oulu - at highway speeds; 80-100km/h - is usually spent for just getting to main population hubs of this country, first being typically Jyväskylä (about 300km away from Oulu). For the first 200-300 kilometres or so the scenery is mostly forest among main roads (and when traveling southwards, there is only four major routes - I know them all my the heart by now). Later it turns to fields and forests along roads.

I was told this story some time ago now, but I think it's worth repeating here.

Some persons I know had a friend of theirs from (I think) Germany visiting them here at Finland one summer, years ago. Like many Finns, they had a summer home/cottage by a lake, with all the usual accessories; pier with small boat, sauna, and nothing but forests and lake nearby as their nearest neighbor was kilometers away (or possibly there was another cottage nearby, just with no one in there at the moment).

They had good time, going to sauna, having some beers, talking and so on. It was getting a bit late (but it was still light; due to northern location, there is plenty of light in summer nights here) and suddenly someone noticed that it had been ages now since they had seen their German friend.

They got worried and went looking for him. Quite soon they found him, too. He was there, just sitting at the end of the small pier, by the lake, just staring at the opposite end of the lake.

They asked him what he was doing. He didn't respond for a while, and when he did, all he said, in quiet and almost trance-like voice was:

"It's so quiet here..."

Having just the sounds of nature around you, with no man-made noise, can be a real experience alone, one that being native here don't necessarily appreciate as much as one could.


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