Welcome to Finland, the land of Saunas, lakes, birch forests and the Moomins.

Finland has been proudly independent since 1917. Before that, it was annexed by Russia and before that Sweden. Despite this, it keeps mostly cordial relations with both of its neighbours nowadays.

Freezing. In Suomenlinna, a sea fortress right next to Helsinki

Today Finland has a proud reputation for high levels of press freedom and ranking at the very top of country stability rankings, the world happiness index and the gender gap report.

One other thing for Finns to be proud of is the amount of coffee they consume. Depending on which source you choose to believe the Finns either drink the most, or the second-most coffee per-person in the world. Apparently, when it’s dark for almost all of the winter you really need that extra cup to wake up in the morning.

I visited Finland for a weekend break back in December 2018. My most prominent memory is how cold and windy Helsinki was. My puny Denmark spec-jacket really wasn’t cut out for a Finnish winter. Visiting the beautiful fortress island of Suomenlinna was a particularly frigid experience. When we weren’t walking around freezing in the cold, we visited the delightful Allas Sea Pool and sauna which was exactly what we needed.

I have surprisingly few photos from that weekend. I think it was simply too cold to take photos.

Right, enough writing, time for a warming shot of Finlandia.

I'm writing about every country in the world. One a day for 195 days. Learn more