To be honest, I'm a bit annoyed with Finland at the moment. It's better than it was earlier this week, but when I first got home from my weekend trip I was thoroughly aggravated with this country. The moment I stepped off the ferry in Helsinki I just wanted to get right back on. Maybe its because Estonia was so cool and in comparison Finland is just no longer doing it for me. Here are a couple reasons that might be contributing to my annoyance:
1) Everything is cheap in Estonia and Finland is so unnecessarily expensive. For example, a beer at a bar in Helsinki will cost you around 6 whopping euros, whereas the same beer will cost you 2-3 euros in Estonia. It's easy to see why the Finns love their booze in Tallinn so much- it's basically free! Seriously though, alcohol is the number one reason Finnish people visit Tallinn. Everyone knows it. You step off the ferry and theres a sign that says "you are fifty steps away from the first bar." When you're leaving and return to the ferry there is a bar in the terminal called "The Last Bar." A bit ridiculous, no? Oh, and if you buy enough booze in Estonia you get a free trolley to take strap all your boxes of Karhu and Long Drinks on to take home. Brilliant.
Now, I don't necessarily care about the cheap alcohol. What's important to me is the food. In Tallinn we went to the infamous "pancake place" where I received a giant, authentic Estonian pancake for a mere 3.5 euros. I think the only thing I've bought for 3.5 euros in Finland is a parking stub.
And finally, I also noticed an extreme difference in the cost of transportation. When we took our morning train back from the countryside to Tallinn it was 1 euro. Yup. Count em'- one. If I want to go from Espoo to Helsinki here in Finland it costs me 4 euros each way... And it's a ten minute train ride. Seriously?
2) It's a strange phenomena, but I was more more efficient in Tallinn than I ever have been in Helsinki. Though I was there for only a weekend, I always managed to get everywhere I needed to be without much trouble. For example, I needed to find a Stockmanns. So I went to the city center (where naturally it would be) and asked someone if they could point me in the right direction. The reply I got- "Umm yeah it's about 300 meters away. You go left and then right." First of all, I have no concept of the metric system. Secondly, thats not super vague or anything. But using my finely-tuned instincts, I managed to find the Stockmanns and all was well. I also was able to roam the city for hours on end and always found my way back to Virge's apartment. Unfortunately, all sense of sufficiency was stripped from me the moment I arrived back in Helsinki and couldn't manage to get on the correct bus home. Needless to say, I wasn't happy with Finland and am still bitter about the ordeal.
Those are just a couple things that annoy me, but I could certainly think of more. Although I think this is just home-sickness talking and I'd rather not risk offending any of my Finnish friends in the process. Finland I love you! Sometimes it's just a bit of a strained relationship.
Finland is indeed a very expensive place - I don't like that about Finland either. And especially the food!! And Finland gets on my nerves very often too. But you have to remember that Estonia is a much much poorer country than Finland. The real Estonian countryside looks horrible (of course not everything but), people are very poor, the roads are in a bad shape, the public transportation isn't so good and new as in Finland, the health care system and school system are better in Finland etc. The taxes are so much higher in Finland than in Estonia and so are the paychecks too. The difference between the salaries in Finland and in Estonia are amazing!!
ReplyDeleteSo I just want to help your frustration by saying that there's always a different side in everything :) And Estonia isn't nearly as cheap as it used to be.. The people there are really struggling because the prices are going up. Well that's a problem in the whole world but anyway. I don't know if this helped at all haha :D
and ps. do you know about the history of Estonia? When it was under USSR (nowadays Russia)? Well, there you can find the reasons why Finland is more developed than Estonia..