A quick scan of the other passengers around us in line to board our flight – towheaded students with piercing blue-green eyes, athletic builds and an impenetrable language – and there was no doubt we were headed for Scandinavia.
Friends expressed their surprise when we told them we would be spending a long weekend in Finland in the middle of July. Won’t it be cold? Imagining brisk walks, gray, fluffy clouds and the occasional rain shower, we erred on the safe side – arming ourselves with light jackets and umbrellas though nevertheless incredulous that we would be swapping one un-summery city for another. Or would we?
To our surprise, we only donned our ‘gear’ once in four days. Instead, we reveled in Helsinki’s and Turku’s soft, summer rays and extended daylight, wishing we had dared to pack shorts and bathing suits to sunbathe and read alongside (half naked) locals in Kaivopuisto, Helsinki’s oldest park.
Hemmed in by water and vast expanses of blue sky, Finland is truly a place of beauty during its brief estival season. I don’t think I’ve ever breathed in such unpolluted, fresh air before – at first inhale, it summoned summer euphoria and a…
