(Note that this post is written from a Finnish perspective; namely, Helsinki is here considered as a ‘big’ city and all that. Oh, and the photos cannot be clicked or enlarged this time around.)
People often think that cities are concrete hells with no real way to get in touch with nature. They think that us poor city-dwellers are deprived of being in touch with nature.
That is so not true.
Unless, of course, one defines being in touch with nature as being in the middle of a forest, in which case this on the right is what you get: a forest, with the added bonus of mosquitoes and mites. Now how many different things can you do there? Hiking, maybe. Picking berries. Hard-core skiing in the winter. And … well, that’s about it. If you want to exercise, you’re going to have to drive somewhere, probably far away, where the facilities are located.
But in the city, the forests come with well maintained dirt paths that you can casually stroll or run along. Plus in addition to the forest, you get lakes, rivers, the sea, islands, parks etc in Helsinki. And not only in Helsinki; Boston, San Francisco, Vancouver and many other big cities are also very good when it comes to finding nature closeby.
Just imagine the range of sports that one can do: facilities for biking, running, tennis, badminton, golf, bowling, skiing, skating, rollerskating, windsurfing, playing football, kayaking.. you name it. Okay so one thing you cannot do is surf, but that’s a problem with the whole country and ranks right up there in the list of reasons why to move away. Anyway, back to the topic: the distances between sports venues are short and easily covered by walking, biking or public transportation – all of which are vastly more ecological options than driving 20km to the next sporting venue in the countryside. And not only are things close to each other, there’s always an ice cream kiosk, store or a cafe where you can go to get something to drink or eat if you feel like it.
Let’s take swimming for example. In the countryside, you have the option of swimming in one eutrophic lake if you’re lucky – or not swimming at all. In the Helsinki area, you can swim in the sea, lake, river or in a pool (outdoors or indoors), all within a single day if you like and all within a biking distance of each other. And the beaches are nice, like the one here on the right.
As a semi-related point, cars make people lazy. Once in an American hotel I questioned the concierge whether there was a restaurant within walking distance as I felt like walking and was hungry. She replied that “oh there are a few, but they’re at least half a mile away. Nothing within walking distance I’m afraid”. I thought it was just an American thing at work there, but turns out people who are too used to driving everywhere have similar attitudes whatever the country.
I used to think that people who live in the countryside are in generally good shape, don’t mind distances and all that. That also turns out to be not true – when the long distances mandate that people must have a car, they actually tend to get very lazy. Then you hear them complain in the city that “oh it’s such a long way there!” when they have to park the car a 100m or 200m from their hotel or a store or whatever. A 10-minute walk (one kilometer) is no longer considered “walking distance”.
Wow.
Guilty as charged. Ouch, that hurt.