Cultural differences between Spain and Finland

Recycling will earn you money

By recycling plastic bottles and cans you will receive a ticket for the recycling machine with the value of all your bottles (15-20 cents per bottle). Suggestion: put them in slowly, if you do it in a rush, the scanner or reader might not correctly register the total amount of recycled bottles. For some alcoholic drinks bottles (such as wine bottles) they won't give you anything; it's their way of keeping in line with their prevention policies. However, we recommend you to recycle everything! (whether you get money for it or not). The Finnish people take care of their surroundings and we should respect that because we like to enjoy the surroundings in their pure state too.

Not one penny, nor 2

There are no 1 cent or 2 cent coins. Why? Because it's a pain in the neck to have such small coins in our pockets. Are the prices always rounded off so we don't have to pay with any one or two cent pieces? Mmm... not exactly. Let's take an example: you see a chocolate chip muffin that looks bad at you and you want to take it to settle accounts with it, it costs 2. 48€ and you pay 2. 50€; because they don't have 2 cent pieces, 2 things can happen:

1. You don't get any change.
2. They'll give you 5 cents back. Sometimes the establishment will gain an extra 2 cents and other times you will gain an extra 5 cents. This happens in different countries in the EU, not only in Finland.

Cash? What for? Cards are used for everything

Like in Beverly Hills. In Spain, it costs the establishment when cards are used to pay if the overall price is very low, so card payments can be refused. This doesn't happen in Finland. You can pay for a pack of gum with your card. Your cash is the same, metal, paper or plastic.

Bike lanes everywhere!

Everything for the environment... If you are brave enough to go to class by bike, and if not you can always wait until May when it's a real pleasure. The use of certain vehicles isn't very popular in Helsinki so public transport is very good (punctual and fairy quick taking into account the meteorological conditions).

The British don't eat early...

If you want to know what it's like to eat early, come to Finland. What would be our midday meal, they have between 11-12:30 in the afternoon and they have dinner (or they cook their 'snack') around 5pm. This rhythm forces you to eat something else between hours as well as before going to bed. The good thing is if you eventually get used to this, you will end up eating the 5 meals a day that nutritionists speak so highly of.

To the tatami; bare foot in the house

There is a logical explanation; the snow sticks to the soles of your shoes and once inside, it melts and makes the floor dirty and wet. You have to wipe your boots on doormats and once inside the building, you have to take off your foot wear. There is usually a designated area for them by the entrance of houses. Our recommendation: leave your socks with holes in them at home.

Why are the prices of certain products so high?

The government charges an increase of taxes for products which can be considered harmful for public health, these are mainly for alcoholic products and sugar (tobacco is somewhat less compared to the price in Spain). As for calorific products, it seems that they have achieved their purpose seeing as the obesity rate is very low; as for alcohol, they haven't achieved as much, there is a high rate of alcoholism that isn't just down to social class, ethnicity nor religion.

The food

In Hakaniemi Market (Helsinki) you will find more high quality products than in the small or large supermarkets; but that's Finland for you - a country covered in a lot of snow which means that 80% of products are imported. That, together with the high level of Finnish purchasing means that life in the north is more expensive for other nationalities. The equivalent to Carrefour is Prisma, where you will find a little of everything. If you manage to shop economically, you can end up spending 250€ (or less) a month on food. If you go to Hakaniemi Market, you have to try the salmon soup, which is very traditional for the country.