WHAT DOES FINLAND REALLY LOOK LIKE?

We’ll start in Kouvola. It’s a Finnish town, pretty much like any other, with a population of around 32,000. It sits at 60° 88’N, 26° 70’E.

The location is only significant in the sense that if one were to draw a line horizontally across the map at this point, half of the Finnish population would lie to the north, and half to the south.

Kouvola is a good starting point: the great majority of the Finnish population lives in a built-up area like this today.

Finland is one big Kouvola.

This is what Finland looks like in the early years of the 21st century. Walking along a pedestrian precinct in the centre of Kouvola, you could be in any Finnish city whatsoever, on any pedestrian precinct whatsoever: a lot of glass, a lot of steel, logos just above head height, brick-tiled walls and paving-stones.

And in the middle of all this sit some old people, talking about their ailments. They were born into a very different Finland, one that you can no longer see hide nor hair of.

But at least it’s clean and tidy. =)

More info can be found from the article here