Pure Finland

Arriving at Helsinki-Vantaa airport - Cockpit view

2014-04-04T06:15:00.001-07:00

This is the view that pilots and aircrews are able to see when they are approaching the Helsinki-Vantaa airport.

I have arrived many times to Helsinki by plane, but I have, naturally, never been able to see the landing from this point of view.

Actually this video is quite calming; the approach and landing in a good weather, like in this video, seems to be "easy". For me, it seems to be more nerve wrecking to sit in the back of the plane, just trusting the pilot to land the plane safely, than actually landing the plane. (Of course I am not able to land a plane, and I know that pilots are trained professionals... :) )

This video shows that in a good weather, the landing process is almost soothing experience. I think I will be more relaxed next time when I am taking a trip by a plane.

Talented Finnish YouTube personality

2014-03-15T08:53:00.000-07:00

Have you seen the video where a Finnish girl talks different languages, but the words are gibberish? Well I have embedded it here for your convenience.

The girl in the video is extremely talented (and pretty) Sara, who became an internet celebrity in only few days. Her video (embedded in this post) gathered 1 million views in one day only, and just after three days the video had over 3 million views. Currently the number of views is 8,803,519 and rising...

Sara works as a cashier in a small town supermarket and is totally overwhelmed from the sudden attention she has got. She has been contacted from all over the world and she has received job offers, interview requests (for example Ellen DeGeneres has been shown some interest) etc. Joseph Gordon-Levitt has posted about her video in his Facebook wall. She has also already appeared in Finnish TV, just 10 days after her video went viral.

Check out also her other videos!

Breathtaking time lapse video from northern Finland

2014-02-08T03:45:00.000-08:00

Finnish photographer Henri Luoma has made a breathtaking time lapse video from the northern Finland. There is no other video that displays the cold full moon winter nights, starry sky and Northern Lights as beautifully as this video.

Congratulations to Henri for making such an amazing video! I am eager to see more of his time lapse videos in the future.

Visit Henri's homepage at http://www.hlp.fi/ .

Note: The video is shot and uploaded to YouTube in 1080 HD, so you might want to select the best quality for this video masterpiece.

Animated fruits are singing christmas songs - tv advertisements

2013-12-02T04:13:00.001-08:00

These two television advertisements for the Christmas season are created for the Finnish soft drink and beer producer Hartwall, promoting the soft drink brand Jaffa. The original artwork has been created by a famous Finnish graphic designer Erik Bruun. The advertisements are following the designer's original style for the same soft drink brand, from the 50's and 60's.

In this advertisement, the fruits are singing the Finnish Christmas song "Sylvian joululaulu" (Sylvia's Christmas song). The song lyrics are based on the poem "Sylvias hälsning från Sicilien" from 1853, by a Finnish writer Zacharias Topelius (1818-1898).

The poem is written in Swedish, but the most loved version of this song has been made from the Finnish translation done in 1918. The composition is made by Karl Collan (1828-1871).

The song has been selected in the 1960's and again in the year 2002 as the most beautiful Christmas song.

This song is a slightly happier "No onkos tullut joulu" (Well, is it Christmas), it is from a poem by a Finnish writer J. H. Erkko (1849-1906). The melody for this song is traditional Finnish melody.

Links:

Erik Bruun - http://www.bruundesign.com/tuotteet.html?id=1/
Jaffa - http://www.jaffa.fi/
Hartwall - http://www.hartwall.fi/en

Funny slow motion advertisement

2013-09-13T05:51:00.000-07:00

This is a television advertisement for Finnish "seven eleven" type of convenience store, Siwa.

What the man says, freely translated:
"Uhh... Trip to the grocery store. Perfect opening hours. 2000 most loved products in Finland. Gorgeous snack bites. Beautiful parcel services. Stunning customers. Dazzling staff... and perfect atmosphere. Oh yeah... Siwa - that slightly superior grocery store. "

Aarre magazine

2013-09-13T05:22:00.002-07:00

Here is the TV spot for the Aarre magazine.

Embedding is disabled, so here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMEVKUajG6g

When I saw the ad first time, I was really interested in the product it was about to sell. I was expecting the product to be some kind of food or perhaps some cleaning agent. To my surprise, it was an advertisement for a magazine, and the magazine is about forests!

The Aarre magazine covers wide range of topics from the leisure use of the forests to the business benefits. The Finnish word "aarre" means "treasure" in English.

You should know that Finland is covered with forests: the forests cover at least 70% of the land. Finland's forests cover larger area than the whole country of Italy or the United Kingdom. One out of five Finnish citizens owns at least some area of forest. When divided for the people, Finland, along with the neighbor country Sweden, have the largest forests in Europe.

Links:
Aarre magazine
The Finnish Forest Research Institute - Metla (videos inside!)
Wikipedia - List_of_countries_by_forest_area

Modern Finnish sauna

2013-03-22T01:13:00.002-07:00

The old Finnish sauna tradition has evolved along with the urban lifestyle. Check out how the modern Finnish saunas look like today!

http://www.iltalehti.fi/sisustus/201303210142931_sz.shtml

For more information about the sauna and the sauna tradition, watch the great video below.

The Northern Lights - Aurora Borealis

2013-03-18T01:49:00.001-07:00

Just recently the northern lights have been very spectacular here in Finland. Unusually, the northern lights have been visible also in the southern parts Finland, not just in the north.

Gallery of the recent northern lights; images from all around Finland:
http://yle.fi/uutiset/revontulet_valaisivat_suomen_taivaan_-_kuvagalleria/6541715#gallery

Finnish cuisine - karjalanpiirakka

2013-01-23T06:50:00.000-08:00

Karelian pasties, or Karelian pies, are as Finnish food as you can get. The pie is originated from the Karelian region, but nowadays the pies are eaten everywhere in Finland. The pie even has the status of "Traditional Speciality Guaranteed" in Europe.

Nowadays the pie has most commonly rice porridge filling with a rye crust. The other popular filling is mashed potato, but it can be also barley or buckwheat (which are rare). The crust can be also something else than rye, often wheat or rarely buckwheat.

You can buy the pies from a grocery store, but those pies are often factory made. You can get better Karelian pies if you buy them from a bakery, but then they are much more expensive.

It is also possible to make the pies yourself, really, they are not that hard to make, but surprisingly baking your own Karelian pies is not common. But if you take the time to bake the pies yourself, I can guarantee they taste better than any pie you can buy from a store or a bakery.

The first videos shows the steps _really_ quickly, but the second one has more slower and more traditional approach. In the latter video, you can also have a peek to a traditional Finnish home. :)

Links:
General info - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karelian_pasty
Recipe in English - http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cookbook:Karjalanpiirakat
Traditional Speciality Guaranteed - Karjalanpiirakka

The most watched Finn in YouTube - Beatboxer Felix Zenger

2013-01-16T01:28:00.001-08:00

The most watched Finn in YouTube is without no doubt talented beatboxer Felix Zenger.

Today (in January 2013) the most watched Zenger's video has over 35 million views.

Links:
Homepage - www.felixzenger.com
Wiki (in Finnish) - http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Zenger

Tampere city ads - Stop the nonsense

2012-12-21T04:05:00.000-08:00

This is how the Finnish city of Tampere is advertising itself. The advertisements are created by the movie and television industry students from the Tampere University, for advertising the Tampere region.

Links:
Rest of the videos - https://www.youtube.com/user/Pirkanmaanbrandi
Tampere region - http://www.tampereallbright.fi/

Meanwhile in Finland

2012-12-14T07:58:00.004-08:00

This is Finnish humor: A guy is buried in a snow pile, in his swimming trunks. The other guy pretends to be a host for a nature document and disturbs the sleeping creature. The guy from the snow pile "wakes up" and goes into the freezing cold lake for a swim. Once the guy gets out from the water, instead of going to a hot shower or a sauna, he goes back to "sleep" in the snow pile.

You can see that there are also other people going for a swim at the same time. That is because winter swimming in a freezing cold water ("avantouinti" in Finnish) is an actual hobby for some of the Finns. There are public places where the water is kept unfrozen with water pumps and possibility for a shower or a sauna is arranged.

Links:

In English - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_swimming

More images - http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avantouinti

Beastie Boys Sabotage parody

2012-12-13T03:24:00.000-08:00

Well, while the video is clearly a parody, like is the original one also, I would like to see this video also as a homage to the Beastie Boys' music and videos.

The music video is created for the Finnish TV show "Putous", which contains improvisatory comedy, sketches and music, and is broadcasted entirely live in front of the live audience. The show is about to start its fourth season on 5.1.2013 on channel MTV3.

The music for the video is created by DJ Slow with lyrics by Paleface.

Links:

DJ Slow
http://www.djslow.fi/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_(DJ)

Paleface
http://www.last.fm/music/Paleface

Putous
http://www.mtv3.fi/putous/

The Official Christmas tree 2012

2012-11-29T00:46:00.002-08:00

During the winter holiday season, many Finnish cities have Christmas trees set up in the public places, where as many people as possible can enjoy the view and atmosphere.

The one of the oldest cities in Finland, Turku, has a long tradition for tall and large Christmas trees. The Christmas tree is set up in the front of the church, Turun tuomiokirkko, which requires larger spruce than usual. The church tower is over 85 meters high, so the Christmas tree must be somehow proportional to that height.

Usually the spruce used as "the Official Christmas tree" is given to the city, honorably without a charge, by some of the local land owners. It is also usual to have the tree owners interviewed to the local news paper with the images about the preparation, cutting down the tree and process of moving the tree to its new place.

In the year 2012 the Christmas tree is donated by a family from Masku, a place near the city of Turku. The spruce is over 24 meters high and 9 meters wide, so the transportation required some special traffic control and logistics. The owners have calculated the annual rings, and estimated the tree to be at least 75 years old.

When the Christmas time ends, the tree is returned to the owners, as chopped to smaller pieces.

Another video from the local news paper:
http://www.ts.fi/tstv/?id=15891078&type=recordvideo

The related article:
http://www.ts.fi/uutiset/kotimaa/420240/Turun+joulukuusi+saapui+Tuomiokirkkotorille

The YouTube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FK2OsxaLO48

The most beautiful Finnish summer sauna

2012-10-24T01:19:00.000-07:00

The readers of the www.iltalehti.fi, an online version of the Finnish tabloid newspaper Iltalehti, have voted the most beautiful summer sauna for the year 2012.

The most voted sauna is a small self built "smoke sauna", without running water, plumbing, chimney or electricity. The sauna is so small, that there is no place or space for washing yourself, so the users of the sauna must wash themselves in the nearby lake.

The sauna is located in a small village of Kuukasjärvi (130 inhabitants).

Links:
http://www.iltalehti.fi/asuminen/2012091116062647_an.shtml

Näytä suurempi kartta

The North demands and gives

2012-10-11T02:06:00.000-07:00

Living in the north requires toughness and somewhat hard-bitten nature, even from plants. This commercial is created for the chocolate manufacturer Fazer, advertising its chocolate with cowberries in it.

The cowberries need to survive from the long winters and short and cold summers of the north. Still it is able to produce tasty berries that have been an important part of the Nordic food culture, since right after the ice age had ended and first people moved into the forests of the Nordic countries.

"The North demands and gives."

Links:

www.fazer.fi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccinium_vitis-idaea

Tough as life - Finnish bread commercial

2012-10-08T02:07:00.000-07:00

The living in Finland is tough, or at least it used to be. This bread commercial has references to the already past lifestyle, which was full of work, very modest and mirthless.

The boy in the commercial tries to cut the hard bread made out of rye with his knife (Finnish knife called 'puukko'), but fails. The boy even cuts his finger with the knife, but the rugged dad just glances at his son and asks "Well, are you hungry or not?"

The rye bread is popular bread in Finland, and Finns are always surprised (and amused) how little people in other countries use rye when baking their breads. The rye bread can be dried when it becomes crispbread style bread, and it can be stored for months. This was a great help during the long Finnish winters, when there was only little food available.

Links:
Rye bread - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rye_bread
Oululainen - http://www.oululainen.fi

Jump - a car accident without a seat belt on is like diving to an empty swimming pool

2012-09-27T00:11:00.000-07:00

Being involved in a car crash without a safety belt on, is like diving from a platform to an empty pool.

This upsetting video was created for a Finnish road safety campaign to remind people to use their seat belts. The message is quite powerful.

"Seat belt saves lives. In a collision there are enormous forces affecting to a person without a seat belt." -Liikenneturva 2011

Links:
http://www.liikenneturva.fi/www/en/index.php

Cheese commercials with the exotic Arctic circle atmosphere

2012-09-23T05:08:00.000-07:00

The geographical position of Finland, forests, lakes, and the cold weather during winter time are commonly used topics in Finnish commercials.

In these Finnish cheese commercials, the Nordic weather, folklore, music and old traditions are clearly seen and heard.

"Taivahan teitä jo pilvet käy, tuulien voimat mua kantaa."

"The clouds are moving along heavenly roads, I am being carried by the power of the winds."

The female figure skater in the commercial above is Kiira Korpi.

"Taivahalla tummana tuulet käy, minä vaan en taivu koskaan."

"The dark winds are whistling, but I will never yield."

Links:
http://www.valio.fi/polar/
http://www.kiirakorpi.fi/

Princess Leia's necklace is given away to a museum

2012-09-21T13:12:00.000-07:00

One of the most successful and famous Finnish jewelry designer, Björn Weckström, is giving all his prototypes, unique pieces of jewelry, test casts and paintings to museums.

Among Björn Weckström's designs is the famous silver necklace, Planetary Valleys, which was worn by Princess Leia (actress Carrie Fisher) in the movie Star Wars. The necklace is given away to the Finnish design museum, where it hopefully will be displayed to public.

Source:
http://www.mtv3.fi/uutiset/kulttuuri.shtml/2012/09/1621062/prinsessa-leian-koru-designmuseoon

Links:
http://www.designmuseum.fi/
http://www.lapponia.com/

Are you a monster - how the children see you when you have been drinking

2012-09-20T23:55:00.001-07:00

"The Fragile Childhood activity has begun in 1986 and has been established as a well-known form of activity in Finland. Its goal is to help children who suffer from parental alcohol misuse." - Lasinen lapsuus