2. The amount you get fined for speeding on the
roads in Finland depends on the amount you earn
A man with an annual income of 7€ million was
recently charged 116,000€.
3. The land of a thousand lakes
Finland is known as the land of a thousand lakes
because it has over 180,000 lakes (larger then 500
square meters). The lakes are used for swimming and
fishing in, for drinking water and even as roads in the
winter when they are frozen over.
4. Finns are one of the most ingenuitive peoples on the planet.
Give a Finn a bottle of beer and he turns into Macgyver, delving into his
pockets to fashion a bottle opener out of what ever he can find.
I’ve seen beer bottle tops popped off with lighters, key-rings (and not ones with
bottle opened on them), other bottles, knives, rocks. You name it, they can do
it. I think it must be part of the school curriculum.
Example- The RaceAbout was conceived and developed largely by students
from the Metropolia, but many other Finnish companies aided with
technology, research and development. Designed with a range of 200 km (125
miles), the four-wheel drive electric car has a direct-drive electric motor for
each wheel, eliminating heavy gearboxes, while the transmission was replaced
with a vehicle control system developed during the project. The chassis weighs
half as much as a normal chassis, which is achieved by incorporating
lightweight materials and technologies. Meanwhile the lithium-ion battery
pack can be express charged in 10 minutes.
5. Land of the midnight sun
As well as being the land of a thousand lakes Finland is
comonly called the land of the midnight sun. And for
good reason. During the months of June and July the
sun shines all day and all night in the north, not
dropping below the horizon at all.
6. Polar nights
Conversely, in the middle of winter in the north of
Finland, there are days when the sun never makes it
above the horizon and everything is bathed in a blue
light called kaamos.
7. There are no public payphones in Finland
Finns have a reputation of being very
quiet, introspective people who aren’t big on small
talk. And generally, that’s true. Until you hand them a
mobile phone. There are over 5 million mobile phones
in Finland for a population of 5.4 million and Nokia is
a Finnish company, based in the town of Nokia in
southern Finland.
Which goes a long way to explaining why there are no
public phones in Finland. There’s no need for
them, everybody has mobiles phones.
8. One and two cent coins are not used in Finland.
When you pay cash for something in Finland the price
is rounded to the nearest 0.05€ so there is no use for 1
and 2 cent coins. Although 1 and 2 cent coins are,
strictly speaking, legal tender, shops are not obliged to
take them.
9. Finland probably holds the world record for
hosting world championships.
And the majority of them are far from serious events.
Finland holds world champion competitions for wife
carrying, mobile phone throwing, mosquito
catching, swamp soccer, sauna, boot throwing and air
guitar and more.
10. When driving in Finland you must keep your
headlights on at all times.
It’s been the law since 1982.
11. 93% of Finns graduate from high school.
17.5% higher than the US
