Helsinki in Brief

A few trivia about Helsinki I picked during my short stay there:

• The whole Finnish population is around 5 million. 10% of that (or 0.5M) lives in Helsinki.
• Finland was under Swedish rule for 650 years. It was under Russian rule for 110 years. Stockholm used to be the capital, then Czar Alexander made Helsinki the Finnish capital. Finland finally got its independence in 1917.
• Finland has two official language: Finnish and Swedish. Less and less Finns are studying Swedish now.
• Helsinki has a hundred kilometers of shoreline, tens of thousand of berths, and lots and lots of marinas. People usually bring their rugs down to the wooden jetties to wash.
• Education is compulsory and free for kids from ages 7 all the way to 16.
• Health care is also free.
• There are about 400 main libraries, and most of them have Internet access.
• There are around 2 million saunas in the whole of Finland. Babies are born in the sauna, and the dead are laid there to rest before burial. It is said that when Finnish troops are deployed abroad, a sauna is the first thing they build - even if they're in the middle of a desert.
• Favourites: summer cottages, sauna, sausages, fishing, ice cream, salmon, red herring, strawberry, rye bread, cured ham, coffee, beer, vodka, small talk - NOT!