Hyvää aamupäivää! Some notes from Finland
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Title : Hyvää aamupäivää! Some notes from Finland
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You are now reading the article Hyvää aamupäivää! Some notes from Finland With link address https://newstoday-ok.blogspot.com/2018/02/hyvaa-aamupaivaa-some-notes-from-finland.html
Title : Hyvää aamupäivää! Some notes from Finland
link : Hyvää aamupäivää! Some notes from Finland
news-today.world | Hei guys! I have just returned from my holiday Finland where it was very cold - the warmest it ever got was about -6 on one of the days in Helsinki and when we were up in Lapland, it dropped to -25 degrees. Do check out my Instagram for photos and videos from Finland. It can drop down to -50 in Lapland but I only got -25. I was lucky to have been the guest of one of my Finnish friends who lives in Helsinki, we went up to visit his mother up in Oulu and then traveled together further north to Kemi and then to Tornio-Haparanda on the Finnish-Swedish border (and yes I spent about 30 minutes in Sweden). I spent a lot of time sightseeing and enjoying the wonders of a real winter, doing everything from walking on frozen lakes, cross-country skiing, sailing through the frozen sea on an ice breaker and visiting the world's biggest ice castle/fort. I hardly ever get snow in London, it was quite a thrill to experience such low temperatures and since I get a lot of hits on my blog looking for advice on winter wear/weather, allow me to compile a quick series of notes on this topic.
The wrong trousers
I normally just wear normal trousers (or in this case, a pair of Chinos) when it is below zero as my legs tend not to get cold but when it falls below -10, that's when your legs will get cold. Some people would wear thermal underwear (like jogging/yoga tights) to keep their legs warm, but I think that's so unattractive that I refuse to even contemplate that thought. I brought a pair of salopettes (otherwise known as 'ski pants') for my skiing in Finland, but ended up wearing it most of the time as it kept my legs warm even when it dropped down to -25. When your legs get cold, your whole body gets cold, even if your upper body is well wrapped up. But here's the other problem with salopettes: yes they keep your legs so toasty and warm but on my last day in Helsinki (it was -14 at 9 am), I abandoned my plans to visit a museum as my legs started to sweat on the train as the carriage was very well heated. By the time I got to Helsinki central station, the thought of walking around a well heated, warm museum in those super thick trousers had turned into a really bad idea. So instead, I visited two of the parks in central Helsinki so I would be outdoors and not get too hot. In hindsight of course, I should have just worn my Chinos instead if I was going to spend most of that day indoors inside that museum.
The right gloves
I brought two pairs of gloves to Finland: a thick pair for the very coldest weather and a thinner pair for the city. The thinner pair of gloves were okay down to about -10 and then I needed the thicker gloves for anything colder than that. The thing though is that it is a trade off between comfort and convenience: the thinner gloves are a lot more comfortable to wear and I can do a lot more with my fingers even with gloves on. The thicker gloves will keep your hands very warm no matter how cold it is, but they are cumbersome and uncomfortable. So for example, I can happily pick up a cup of coffee and drink with the thinner gloves on, but with the thicker gloves, I just don't have enough grip and I would have to end up taking off the gloves - not something you wanna do when it is -21 degrees. I kept both pairs with me and switched between the two, but make sure you always keep track of your gloves. It is easy to misplace them when you are taking them off and putting them away, I am quite disciplined about things like that but even I have lost a pair of gloves before - thankfully that happened in London when it wasn't too cold, but you really don't want to lose your lovely, new gloves.
What happens when you take off your gloves at -25 degrees?
You see, I have blogged a lot about winter wear in the past and one of the question I had to entertain was this Singaporean woman who told me she was afraid to take off her gloves in the cold because she was afraid of frostbite. That's my cue to roll my eyes in disbelief, #swaku. The fact is I regularly took off my thick gloves at those temperatures to take photos/videos with my phone, I wanted to share my trip with all of you through Instagram! I didn't get frostbite and sure my fingers felt quite cold when I was making videos, but did it occur to you that you experience the same kind of discomfort when you are rummaging around your freezer? Your average freezer is chilled down to -18 degrees or below - that's right, -18, not just 0! But do you think about wearing gloves when you take some ice cubes or frozen peas out of your freezer? Of course not, you just reach in, grab in, expecting it to be cold. So the kind of discomfort I experienced holding my phone with bare hands at -25 wasn't that dissimilar to taking a tub of ice cream out of the freezer. Yeah it's cold, but so what? It takes much longer exposure to those kinds of temperatures for your body for frostbite to set in - certainly taking off your gloves to take some photos and videos don't do any more harm than taking a frozen chicken out of your freezer. Do you worry about getting frostbite in your mouth when you put ice cream that is about -18 degrees in your mouth? No, of course not! In fact we rather enjoy that experience - the coldness is what makes ice cream pleasant.
Make sure you have enough fuel in the tank
It makes a lot of difference whether you are hungry or not - you're far less likely to feel cold when your stomach is full. You will get more hungry, more quickly in that kind of cold environment as your body is consuming a lot more energy just keeping warm. But that's just another excuse to enjoy more good food on holiday without worrying too much about the calories consumed. However, one thing you do have to be wary about is that you will want to urinate a lot more often when you are cold - this is not a myth, it is true though it affects some people more than others. I have included a link to a Youtube video below to explain why this phenomena happens. Also, it could be quite tempting to have another mug of hot coffee or tea when it is so cold, because that's just what you will crave for at those temperatures and you may find yourself consuming more hot drinks: what goes in must come out! Thankfully, Helsinki was really good for public toilets. There were plenty around and most were for free, the only place which charged 1 Euro for a visit (what a total rip off) was the Central Railway Station. But like a local, I just crossed the road and used the toilets at the City Center mall for free.
Fashion goes out of the window
 |
| By the famous Helsinki Cathedral in the snow! |
The wrong trousers
I normally just wear normal trousers (or in this case, a pair of Chinos) when it is below zero as my legs tend not to get cold but when it falls below -10, that's when your legs will get cold. Some people would wear thermal underwear (like jogging/yoga tights) to keep their legs warm, but I think that's so unattractive that I refuse to even contemplate that thought. I brought a pair of salopettes (otherwise known as 'ski pants') for my skiing in Finland, but ended up wearing it most of the time as it kept my legs warm even when it dropped down to -25. When your legs get cold, your whole body gets cold, even if your upper body is well wrapped up. But here's the other problem with salopettes: yes they keep your legs so toasty and warm but on my last day in Helsinki (it was -14 at 9 am), I abandoned my plans to visit a museum as my legs started to sweat on the train as the carriage was very well heated. By the time I got to Helsinki central station, the thought of walking around a well heated, warm museum in those super thick trousers had turned into a really bad idea. So instead, I visited two of the parks in central Helsinki so I would be outdoors and not get too hot. In hindsight of course, I should have just worn my Chinos instead if I was going to spend most of that day indoors inside that museum.
The right gloves
I brought two pairs of gloves to Finland: a thick pair for the very coldest weather and a thinner pair for the city. The thinner pair of gloves were okay down to about -10 and then I needed the thicker gloves for anything colder than that. The thing though is that it is a trade off between comfort and convenience: the thinner gloves are a lot more comfortable to wear and I can do a lot more with my fingers even with gloves on. The thicker gloves will keep your hands very warm no matter how cold it is, but they are cumbersome and uncomfortable. So for example, I can happily pick up a cup of coffee and drink with the thinner gloves on, but with the thicker gloves, I just don't have enough grip and I would have to end up taking off the gloves - not something you wanna do when it is -21 degrees. I kept both pairs with me and switched between the two, but make sure you always keep track of your gloves. It is easy to misplace them when you are taking them off and putting them away, I am quite disciplined about things like that but even I have lost a pair of gloves before - thankfully that happened in London when it wasn't too cold, but you really don't want to lose your lovely, new gloves.
What happens when you take off your gloves at -25 degrees?
You see, I have blogged a lot about winter wear in the past and one of the question I had to entertain was this Singaporean woman who told me she was afraid to take off her gloves in the cold because she was afraid of frostbite. That's my cue to roll my eyes in disbelief, #swaku. The fact is I regularly took off my thick gloves at those temperatures to take photos/videos with my phone, I wanted to share my trip with all of you through Instagram! I didn't get frostbite and sure my fingers felt quite cold when I was making videos, but did it occur to you that you experience the same kind of discomfort when you are rummaging around your freezer? Your average freezer is chilled down to -18 degrees or below - that's right, -18, not just 0! But do you think about wearing gloves when you take some ice cubes or frozen peas out of your freezer? Of course not, you just reach in, grab in, expecting it to be cold. So the kind of discomfort I experienced holding my phone with bare hands at -25 wasn't that dissimilar to taking a tub of ice cream out of the freezer. Yeah it's cold, but so what? It takes much longer exposure to those kinds of temperatures for your body for frostbite to set in - certainly taking off your gloves to take some photos and videos don't do any more harm than taking a frozen chicken out of your freezer. Do you worry about getting frostbite in your mouth when you put ice cream that is about -18 degrees in your mouth? No, of course not! In fact we rather enjoy that experience - the coldness is what makes ice cream pleasant.
 |
| Ice cream - stored at -18 degrees in your freezer! |
Make sure you have enough fuel in the tank
It makes a lot of difference whether you are hungry or not - you're far less likely to feel cold when your stomach is full. You will get more hungry, more quickly in that kind of cold environment as your body is consuming a lot more energy just keeping warm. But that's just another excuse to enjoy more good food on holiday without worrying too much about the calories consumed. However, one thing you do have to be wary about is that you will want to urinate a lot more often when you are cold - this is not a myth, it is true though it affects some people more than others. I have included a link to a Youtube video below to explain why this phenomena happens. Also, it could be quite tempting to have another mug of hot coffee or tea when it is so cold, because that's just what you will crave for at those temperatures and you may find yourself consuming more hot drinks: what goes in must come out! Thankfully, Helsinki was really good for public toilets. There were plenty around and most were for free, the only place which charged 1 Euro for a visit (what a total rip off) was the Central Railway Station. But like a local, I just crossed the road and used the toilets at the City Center mall for free.
Fashion goes out of the window
When it is that freezing cold, fashion just goes out of the window. Everybody is wrapped up in so many layers of winter clothing you have no idea what they are wearing underneath - you have to be practical when it is -25. It is all about staying warm enough, rather than trying to look chic and stylish. You can of course, be as stylish as you want once you arrive at your destination like an office, but when you're out and about in the cold, everyone has to wrap up. On one day, not only was it very cold, the wind picked up and there was snow blowing everywhere. People were wearing ski masks and using scarves to shield their faces - it got to the point where it was hard even to tell the gender of the person when their faces are completely protected and you can't tell from the contours of their bodies as it is wrapped in so many layers of winter clothing. In fact, when I was wrapped up like that, this lady in the street came up to me and started talking in Finnish - I did a double take, who is she, why is she talking to me and what is she saying? Once I replied in a smattering of bad Finnish and English, then she explained that she had mistaken me for her friend who had worn a very similar blue jacket that day. You can't tell if someone is really fat or if they are simply wearing a thick puffer jacket over layers of sweaters, I guess that partly explains why shopping for clothing was crap in Helsinki - why invest in nice clothes if you're usually wrapped up in so many layers and nobody can see your designer shirt? I'd stick to shopping in London instead.
There's no bad weather, only wrong clothing.
Yes it was very cold, even for the locals at -25 but it didn't stop me from going out to enjoy everything that Finland had to offer. Because I was adequately prepared, I didn't experience any discomfort from the cold - I think the only complaint I had was when I was shopping, the malls were heated to about 21 degrees and wearing all that winter clothing indoors made me sweat instantly. The alternative would be to start taking off a few layers, but that create a new inconvenience of having to carry so many pieces of clothing around. Anyway, as explained above, shopping in Finland was a disappointing experience! The only things I brought back were some roasted reindeer meat and a special kind of bread called a Karelian Pie. I would have brought more T-shirts to change (I had planned to wear one a day as my base layer) because you do end up sweating a lot more than you think and that happens whenever you step in from the cold into an well-heated indoor location like a train, a museum or a house. I saw plenty of kids playing in the snow, people going jogging and exercising in the park when it was -21: the Finns do not hide indoors when it is cold, in fact they embrace the winter.
The Finnish sauna experience
Yes, I did visit the sauna a few times when it was there: it was quite an experience. You sit in the sauna and sweat it out, then you stand out in the cold to cool off before heading back in. The sauna I visited reached 75 degrees (there was a thermometer on the wall) and we then dashed outside with little more than towels around out waist for modesty and a pair of slippers to protect our feet: the temperature outside was -25 degrees so that was a full 100 degrees difference between the temperature in the sauna and the cold night outside. Some of the more enthusiastic locals would roll in the snow but I found standing outside quite enough to cool my body down. My mother would probably think that this is insane and exposing yourself to such a huge range of temperatures, dashing back and forth between cold and hot would cause you to fall ill - she used to claim that air-conditioned rooms were unhealthy for that reason but I didn't experience any discomfort from the sauna experience. The Finns swear by their saunas, claiming that it is good for health. I can see why it can be a pleasurable experience, to sit somewhere really hot when it is freezing outside - but I do feel that sweating is overrated. Perhaps that's just me having already sweated enough in the first 21 years of my life in Singapore.
Preparing your car in the morning in Finland
Ever wonder what happens to your car when you leave it outside overnight and the temperature falls to -25? Well, firstly, for at least 15 minutes before you want to begin your journey, you need to plug in a special heater to heat up the interior of the car - you don't want to be trying to drive when it is -25 in the car and the heater would warm the inside of your car up nicely. Bear in mind that at -25, it could take a while for your car to warm up but in the meantime, you have plenty else to do. You need to sweep off any snow that has settled on your windows and windscreen. Fresh snow is easy to deal with, but it is frost that is the real problematic one. You need to scrape any frost off your windscreen as well to ensure that it doesn't obscure the driver's view. With a bit of practice, you should be able to get this whole routine down to 15 to 20 minutes. And even after all that, the car will still feel decidedly cold. The roads in Finland are of good quality and well maintained even in the winter - the snow packs down and is covered in grit, so you can easily drive on the snow covered roads with winter tires. Given how big Finland is, many people who do not live in the capital Helsinki have a car and are very dependent on it. After all, you don't really want to wait outside for the bus when it is around -25 degrees out there.
The snow doesn't melt for a few months
The temperature stays below zero for at least six months in northern Finland, so a lot of snow just accumulates. The local authorities are really efficient in clearing the snow away from the side of the roads, the pavements and even the roof of the buildings. I saw some snow clearing teams work with incredible efficiency, shoveling the snow off the roof of buildings in Helsinki - you need to do that regularly otherwise the roofs might just cave in under the weight of the accumulated snow. The pavements however, are usually covered in a thick layer of packed snow which can turn dangerously icy sometimes. In the UK, we spread a salt mixture on the snow on pavements to melt it away, but in Finland there's so much snow that they cannot try to melt it all away: they spread grit (a mixture of sand and small rocks) on the snow so that it forms a rough, crusty surface on the packed snow. That means that when you walk on it, the rough, crusty surface allows the soles of your shoes to grip the snow easily and you will not slip on the ice. However, it is necessary to watch where you're walking: don't assume that the grit has made it completely safe: there can be small patches of packed snow with no grit. Step on one of those small icy patches and you will definitely slip and fall. Be extra careful on stairs where snow can accumulate - just look out for footprints and stick to the paths where others have walked before.
And finally, 为什么赫尔辛基有这么多的中国人？
Holy crap, it was unreal just how many Chinese tourists there were in Finland. This wasn't the case back in 2010 when I last visited Finland. This is because Finnair is flying direct from Helsinki into a number of Chinese cities including Beijing, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Shanghai and Xi'an. These Chinese tourists use Finnair to get to Europe and they usually spend a few days in Helsinki before proceeding onto other parts of Europe. There were signs in Chinese in Helsinki airport, along with a large number of Mandarin speaking staff on the ground there. Plenty of Chinese restaurants in Helsinki. When I walked into big department stores in Helsinki, some proudly displayed signs that they accepted Alipay and I was once again greeted by more Mandarin speaking staff. But wait, as I traveled into the northern parts of Finland, there were still Chinese tourists in places like Kemi - a tiny town in Lapland. It was really when I went quite far off the beaten track into rural Finland that I stopped seeing any Chinese tourists. I happened to be in Helsinki on Chinese new year's eve on the 15th February and there was a huge celebration in the middle of the city - certainly not something I had expected. Apart from the tourists, the universities in Finland also attract a large number of Chinese students who are allowed to study in English rather than Finnish. When I went for sushi in Helsinki, I realized that the staff in the sushi restaurant were all jabbering away in Mandarin and not Japanese. I barely saw tourists of other nationalities on this trip! Of course, I met some tourists of other nationalities along the way, but they were vastly outnumbered by the Chinese.
Okay so that's it from me on this topic. I do recommend visiting Finland as it is a thoroughly fascinating country and do visit in the winter - yes it is very cold but the country takes on a whole new charm when it is sparkling in the snow like a Christmas card. Please let me know your thoughts, leave a comment below and many thanks for reading. Kitos paljon!
There's no bad weather, only wrong clothing.
Yes it was very cold, even for the locals at -25 but it didn't stop me from going out to enjoy everything that Finland had to offer. Because I was adequately prepared, I didn't experience any discomfort from the cold - I think the only complaint I had was when I was shopping, the malls were heated to about 21 degrees and wearing all that winter clothing indoors made me sweat instantly. The alternative would be to start taking off a few layers, but that create a new inconvenience of having to carry so many pieces of clothing around. Anyway, as explained above, shopping in Finland was a disappointing experience! The only things I brought back were some roasted reindeer meat and a special kind of bread called a Karelian Pie. I would have brought more T-shirts to change (I had planned to wear one a day as my base layer) because you do end up sweating a lot more than you think and that happens whenever you step in from the cold into an well-heated indoor location like a train, a museum or a house. I saw plenty of kids playing in the snow, people going jogging and exercising in the park when it was -21: the Finns do not hide indoors when it is cold, in fact they embrace the winter.
The Finnish sauna experience
Yes, I did visit the sauna a few times when it was there: it was quite an experience. You sit in the sauna and sweat it out, then you stand out in the cold to cool off before heading back in. The sauna I visited reached 75 degrees (there was a thermometer on the wall) and we then dashed outside with little more than towels around out waist for modesty and a pair of slippers to protect our feet: the temperature outside was -25 degrees so that was a full 100 degrees difference between the temperature in the sauna and the cold night outside. Some of the more enthusiastic locals would roll in the snow but I found standing outside quite enough to cool my body down. My mother would probably think that this is insane and exposing yourself to such a huge range of temperatures, dashing back and forth between cold and hot would cause you to fall ill - she used to claim that air-conditioned rooms were unhealthy for that reason but I didn't experience any discomfort from the sauna experience. The Finns swear by their saunas, claiming that it is good for health. I can see why it can be a pleasurable experience, to sit somewhere really hot when it is freezing outside - but I do feel that sweating is overrated. Perhaps that's just me having already sweated enough in the first 21 years of my life in Singapore.
Preparing your car in the morning in Finland
Ever wonder what happens to your car when you leave it outside overnight and the temperature falls to -25? Well, firstly, for at least 15 minutes before you want to begin your journey, you need to plug in a special heater to heat up the interior of the car - you don't want to be trying to drive when it is -25 in the car and the heater would warm the inside of your car up nicely. Bear in mind that at -25, it could take a while for your car to warm up but in the meantime, you have plenty else to do. You need to sweep off any snow that has settled on your windows and windscreen. Fresh snow is easy to deal with, but it is frost that is the real problematic one. You need to scrape any frost off your windscreen as well to ensure that it doesn't obscure the driver's view. With a bit of practice, you should be able to get this whole routine down to 15 to 20 minutes. And even after all that, the car will still feel decidedly cold. The roads in Finland are of good quality and well maintained even in the winter - the snow packs down and is covered in grit, so you can easily drive on the snow covered roads with winter tires. Given how big Finland is, many people who do not live in the capital Helsinki have a car and are very dependent on it. After all, you don't really want to wait outside for the bus when it is around -25 degrees out there.
The snow doesn't melt for a few months
The temperature stays below zero for at least six months in northern Finland, so a lot of snow just accumulates. The local authorities are really efficient in clearing the snow away from the side of the roads, the pavements and even the roof of the buildings. I saw some snow clearing teams work with incredible efficiency, shoveling the snow off the roof of buildings in Helsinki - you need to do that regularly otherwise the roofs might just cave in under the weight of the accumulated snow. The pavements however, are usually covered in a thick layer of packed snow which can turn dangerously icy sometimes. In the UK, we spread a salt mixture on the snow on pavements to melt it away, but in Finland there's so much snow that they cannot try to melt it all away: they spread grit (a mixture of sand and small rocks) on the snow so that it forms a rough, crusty surface on the packed snow. That means that when you walk on it, the rough, crusty surface allows the soles of your shoes to grip the snow easily and you will not slip on the ice. However, it is necessary to watch where you're walking: don't assume that the grit has made it completely safe: there can be small patches of packed snow with no grit. Step on one of those small icy patches and you will definitely slip and fall. Be extra careful on stairs where snow can accumulate - just look out for footprints and stick to the paths where others have walked before.
And finally, 为什么赫尔辛基有这么多的中国人？
Holy crap, it was unreal just how many Chinese tourists there were in Finland. This wasn't the case back in 2010 when I last visited Finland. This is because Finnair is flying direct from Helsinki into a number of Chinese cities including Beijing, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Shanghai and Xi'an. These Chinese tourists use Finnair to get to Europe and they usually spend a few days in Helsinki before proceeding onto other parts of Europe. There were signs in Chinese in Helsinki airport, along with a large number of Mandarin speaking staff on the ground there. Plenty of Chinese restaurants in Helsinki. When I walked into big department stores in Helsinki, some proudly displayed signs that they accepted Alipay and I was once again greeted by more Mandarin speaking staff. But wait, as I traveled into the northern parts of Finland, there were still Chinese tourists in places like Kemi - a tiny town in Lapland. It was really when I went quite far off the beaten track into rural Finland that I stopped seeing any Chinese tourists. I happened to be in Helsinki on Chinese new year's eve on the 15th February and there was a huge celebration in the middle of the city - certainly not something I had expected. Apart from the tourists, the universities in Finland also attract a large number of Chinese students who are allowed to study in English rather than Finnish. When I went for sushi in Helsinki, I realized that the staff in the sushi restaurant were all jabbering away in Mandarin and not Japanese. I barely saw tourists of other nationalities on this trip! Of course, I met some tourists of other nationalities along the way, but they were vastly outnumbered by the Chinese.
Okay so that's it from me on this topic. I do recommend visiting Finland as it is a thoroughly fascinating country and do visit in the winter - yes it is very cold but the country takes on a whole new charm when it is sparkling in the snow like a Christmas card. Please let me know your thoughts, leave a comment below and many thanks for reading. Kitos paljon!
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