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25 Facts About Finland
1. Nokia the worlds leading manufacturer in mobile phones are based in Espoo and generate an annual revenue of 50.7 billion Euro’s.
2. Despite the country having a population of just over 5 million, there are two million guns in Finland.
3. Tampere is twinned with Kiev in the Ukraine and Syracuse in the U.S, amongst others.
Ainola Where Nature Nurtured Notes
The great Finnish composer, Jean Sibelius (1865-1957), in reminiscing to Santeri Levas, his personal secretary of his late years (1938-1957), related a strange incident that occurred after he had finished his 5th Symphony. Twelve white swans, after settling on a lake near his home, Ainola, rose up and circled the house three times before flying away. Sibelius came to regard the actions of the swans as auspicious, for his 5th Symphony remains his most performed and most enduringly popular work.
The English composer and conductor, Granville Bantock (1868-1946) claimed: “In the music of the 5th Symphony we are brought face to face with the wild and savage scenery of his native land, the rolling mists and fogs that hover over the rocks, open lakes and fir?clad forests; while in the continuous rumble of the threatening storms and the war’s alarms we are made to feel how the iron has entered the soul of the hard land where winter holds its relentless grip for seven or eight months of the year.”
Ainola was the home of Sibelius from 1904 until his death there in 1957 at the age of 91. The house was named after Aino, his wife, but Aino is also the name of the lyrical maiden figure in Finland’s national epic narrative poem, the Kalevala, which so often served as a source of inspiration for the great composer.
Finland in Winter
With approximately 5.5 million inhabitants, Finland is the eight largest country in Europe. It is often called “Land of the thousand lakes”, although it had approximately 188,000 lakes at the last count.
A very popular tourist destination, Finland offers plenty of leisure activities as swimming and boating during the summer. But if you ever decide to visit, winter is the time to do it – the lakes become frozen and more than half of Finland is a giant skating playground, heaven for skaters and skiers. The ski resorts in Finland are spread almost everywhere, with a major plus up North where the ski slopes are different from each other, so every tourist can find one suited for him.
Skiing is not everything in Finland – some prefer the modern snowmobile to see the sights, while others enjoy the unique experience of a husky-sled. Up North, past the ski resorts and the hotels, the tourists can witness one of the most beautiful natural spectacles: the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights as the locals call it.
And if all this is not enough to make anyone jump in a plane and go visit Finland, Santa Claus should be a good enough reason. Living at the Artic Cirle, in the Finnish region of Lapland, Santa Claus can be seen by the people who visit the town of Rovaniemi, the Christmas Capital of the World.
