Two countries for the price of one

If you ever want to witness an incredible transformation on a national scale, move to Finland for a year. That’ll give you two vastly different and highly contrasting countries for the price of one – if you survive the experience.

During winter, the country falls into such melancholy that it just cannot be explained, it has to be experienced.

There is not one smile in sight and people drudge through day after day, attempting to soothe the dreary, slowly moving season with world-class alcohol consumption. Life seems to go on; people still work & everything still functions even in temperatures of -30C, to the great surprise of tourists. But the illusion of life is just that; there is no life, no happiness, no sparkling eyes and no smiles. It’s as if the whole nation becomes a horde of the living dead, a zombie-land. Sure it’s “exotic” not seeing the sun for days or weeks. Freezing temperatures might be really “cool” for some tourists, and the white stuff sure is beautiful every now and then.

But it gets old really fast. During winter, Finland is not a place for anyone wishing to keep sane – or happy. The best you can hope for is a numbness, punctuated by the occasional glimmer of hope, a realization that it will not last. And the worst part is that you don’t realize how fogged you are, not before spring again comes and wakes you up.

Fast-forward a few months and it’s as if you enter a different planet. During the summer months, Finland is a happy, warm, vibrant and lively place, teeming with life and people simply enjoying life. It’s difficult to imagine that the situation just a few months back was different, very different.

In the spring the warmer and longer days seem to literally melt the people in addition to the snow – usually in just a couple of short weeks in April/May, people blossom like you’ve never seen before. I realized this transformation very vividly yesterday, when walking around downtown and seeing that life had returned to the city. In the summer, there are smiles on peoples’ faces and an untouchable but very real sensation of life, love, hope & happiness. We even sleep less – how could you sleep anyway, there’s too much life going on and it’s always light outside.

With the fall begins the transformation to the zombie-months again. This way it’s more subtle; there is no sudden and dramatic change of mood like in the spring – instead, the national psyche just goes down (and out) gradually, with a whimper instead of a bang. As December sets in, Finland again finds itself in a strange state of non-being and the cycle restarts.

Until then, I will enjoy the brief period of life, also called summer.