Living in Helsinki - A Spaniard's Opinion

Hats with no self-consciousness whatsoever

Have you ever seen those hats with animal ears that kids wear in the wintertime? Well, in Helsinki you'll see them everywhere, but with more original designs than the ones you've seen in Spain, and also... on adults's heads! Just wait until you see an adult dressed in their work clothes but also wearing a hat with woolly ears - the first time you see it, you'll laugh your head off. You won't just get used to seeing blue and green ears and hair coming out of people's heads, you'll also start seeing it as a 'trademark look'. Here's an example, and if you happen to be into cute hats too, take a look at them online.

Student or construction worker?

If you see a group of people dressed as construction workers but looking very clean wandering through the streets of Helsinki, it doesn't mean that the workers in Helsinki are on strike: these are students! Every school or faculty has its own colour (just like the different degree types do in Spain). The end of their courses are usually celebrated in faculty groups, and each school wears its own overalls, just as they do for other activities or for academic competitions. They customize them with different patches and other accessories.

A car? You can have mine...

I'm not sure if travelling by car is the fastest way of getting to work in Finland, but what we did learn is that it's the method of transport you have to get up the earliest and sweat the most for! Here's our neighbour in this photo undertaking his daily ritual: first clearing all the snow from the bodywork, next turning the car itself and the heating on, a bit of arm exercise scraping the front and back windows, and to finish off, some aerobics using a shovel to remove the snow trapped around the tyres. So, use a bike in the summertime, and in the wintertime, get your 20 minutes of exercise digging your car out of the snow in the mornings!

One country, two languages

Everything here is in Finnish as well as in Swedish. Swedish speakers are a minority group in Finland, but they study at the universities here and so all traffic and public transport signs as well as everything else is in both languages. The train stops are also announced in both Finnish and Swedish - you'll end up learning the names in both languages. Helsinki, for example, is Helsingfors in Swedish.