Angry Birds .. they are everywhere

In December 2009 Finnish company Rovio from Espoo (nowadays Rovio Entertainment Ltd.) released a video game for the iPhone called Angry Birds (AB). The success of this game is enormous. It has since been downloaded so far over 1 billion times worldwide. There were created many versions and special editions of the game, but the birds became successfull not only as a game. The characters are extremely popular and used for the TV shows and animations. There is "Angry Birds land" in Särkänniemi amusement park in Tampere and "Angry Birds Activity Parks" arranged by Holiday Club).
The AB character playing hockey was the official mascot of the 2012 Ice Hockey World Championships. The Angry Birds brand market has grown like crazy over just few years and it looks like spreading the brand image still goes ahead.
I will list here only the products I have come across in Finland: there are Angry Birds board games, books, puzzles, playing cards, various kinds of toys (plush, plastic, rubber), clothes, rucksacks, bags, school accessories, belts, caps, bedclothes, towels, mugs, plates, shampoos, soaps, table-cloths, serviettes, party costumes and masks, helmets, sledges, sweets: candies, chocolates, chewing gum, lollipops (link to Fazer's AB offer) ... and Angry Birds advent calendars.
Angry Birds-branded soda drinks (offered in four flavours) got in Finland more consumers than Cola and Pepsi last year. Helsinki OP Bank has in offer credit cards with pictures of the Angry Birds characters. Finland’s leading coffee company Paulig has introduced the Angry Birds coffees (Early Bird and Explosive Espresso).
I decided to write about the Angry Birds' phenomenon after seeying the Angry Birds doughnuts in the corner grocery store ... 
(Here's link to a web page with the Angry Birds Inspired products)

National symbols of Finland

I was thinking about the Finnish coat of arms - a crowned lion holding a sword. Why lion in Finland? I have just checked that it was created in the 1580's after King of Sweden John III became "Grand Duke of Finland" and the lion became linked with the grand-ducal coat of arms. While looking for these information I came across the other symbols of Finland. Quite a lot of the more or less official ones, take a look:
Finland's national flag: a blue Nordic cross on a white background,
national anthem: Maamme (eng. “Our Land”),
national epic: Kalevala,
writer: Aleksis Kivi,
poet: Johan Ludvig Runeberg,
composer: Jean Sibelius,
animal: Brown Bear (fin. ruskeakarhu),
bird: Whooper Swan (fin. laulujoutsen), (displayed on the Finnish 1euro coin),
fish: European perch /fin. ahven),
tree: Silver Birch (fin. rauduskoivu),  
flower: Lily of the Valley (fin. kielo),
fruit: cloudberry (fin. lakka, hilla, valokki or suomuurain),
stone: granite (fin. granitti),
insect!: seven-spot ladybird (fin. seitsenpistepirkko). It is also symbol of the Finnish Swedish People's Party, 
musical instrument: the Kantele, 
horse: Finnhorse (fin. suomenhevonen), dog: Finnish spitz (fin. suomenpystykorva), 
and the last but not the least ... a national personification of Finland is The Maiden of Finland
(fin. Suomi-neito). Below: Suomi-neito on the picture from 1906, and the famous painting by 
Eetu Istoby, Hyökkäys (eng. Attack) presenting Suomi-neito fighting with the Russian eagle. Painting comes from 1899, time of Russification in Finland.

in the middle of April

This is my 10th winter in Finland and on the basis of my observations I can say, that there was not extremely much of snow this year, but temperatures were too low too melt it. It is just cold all the time.
I went to Espoo today (unfortunately without camera) and I saw few persons walking on the ice on the bay. I would say it was risky. Temperatures are not enough low to keep the ice strong anymore. Daytime temperatures are over zero.
In the pictures: Koivukylä, Vantaa
in the middle of April ...

about golden hand, green thumb and the redheaded women

There are people who can repair anything, and to make a wooden table, build a summer cottage, connect electricity, whatever. In English such person is called 'handyman' or 'jack-of -all-trades', in Poland we have phrase 'golden hand'. I used this term to describe someone in Finland and no one knew what I meant. I was sure it was international saying. In Finland 'handyman' is called 'repsikka' and 'jokapaikan höylä'. So I checked what kind of similar sayings are in use in Finland.
First what came to my mind was 'a green thumb' (vihreä peukalo), what I heard also in English in version of the green fingers or a thumb. If someone has a green thumb it means that he has talent for growing plants and flowers. I do not have a green thumb and when I put seeds into soil, I get few straws of sth in few weeks. Our neighbour has a green thumb and gets amazing flowers on his balcony every summer (for example 2m high sunflower last year despite his balcony gets less sunlight than our).
I have found most popular English colour idioms here. Part of them seems to be international like the green light, to be green with envy, black sheep.
Here's few Finnish sayings that include colour, which I found interesting:  

- harmaa aine literally 'grey substance' (software) term for knowledge and skills, refers to the brain's grey matter, (brain cells).

- mustasukkainen means literally 'in black socks' and this is not idiomatic but the main word for 'jealous'. There is another Finnish word containing 'black' (musta) for being jealous: 'mustankipeä'. 
I wonder why black?

There is popular saying, that forest is Finland's green gold (metsä vihreä kulta). Writing in a nutshell: the three-quarters of the land area is forest, forestry and forest industries have crucial importance for Finnish economy. (more on this subject in English I found here and here)

Continuing with colors ... 
There is Finnish saying that redheaded women do not go to heaven (punatukkaiset naiset eivät pääse taivaaseen). 
I have been thinking where this came from, there some articles in internet. Most of the hypotheses about this saying is combined with redheads' reputation of being a fiery-tempered.
.

Flag days in Finland ... and few words about Mikael Agricola

There are many days in year when I see Finnish national flags flown from the public buildings and at the numerous flag poles around. There is one flag pole in our yard, and it seems like every week I see the flag there. Today also. I have just checked how many flag days are in Finland and I got this:
By law, the Finnish flag must be flown from public buildings on the following days:
February 28, day of Kalevala and Day of Finnish culture, May 1, Vappu, Second Sunday in May, Mother's Day, June 4, birthday of C.G.E.Mannerheim, also Day of the Finnish Defence Forces, Saturday between June 20 and 26 June - Midsummer Day - Juhannus, and Day of the Finnish Flag, December 6, Independence Day, + Days when Finland holds elections or a referendum, and the day the President of Finland is inaugurated.  
Days when flying the flag is an established custom:
February 5, birthday of J.L.Runeberg, March 19, birthday of Minna Canth, Day of Equality,  
April 9: on this day Mikael Agricola died and Elias Lönnrot was born, and today Finland celebrates the Day of the Finnish language.
April 27, National War Veterans' Day, May 9, Europe Day, May 12, Day of the Finnish Identity, Third Sunday in May, memorial day for the war dead of the Finnish Civil War and World War II.
July 6, Eino Leino Day, and day to celebrate poetry and summer, October 10, birthday of Aleksis Kivi and Day of Finnish literature, October 24, Day of the United Nations, November 6, Day of the Swedish Identity, Second Sunday in November, Father's Day, 8 December, birthday of Jean Sibelius and Day of Finnish music.
So today there is Day of the Finnish language. Mikael Agricola - 'father of the Finnish written language' died 456 years ago. He was incredibly intelligent, pre-eminent and hardworking man.
I would like to write few words about him.
He was born in Pernaja (Pernå). He was very gifted and eager to learn, and already as a young boy he was sent to the Latin school in Viipuri (Vyborg). He continued studying in Turku (Åbo) and in Wittenberg in Germany. He was i.a. student of Erasmus of Rotterdam and Martin Luther.
In 1554 Agricola became the bishop of  Turku. In only 3 years! he translated the New Testament into Finnish and wrote the prayer book and hymns for the Finland's Church. This work was a basis of the Finnish orthography and spelling. He published nine books of altogether ca. 2400 pages
- in only 10 years. He died suddenly in 1557.
HERE's good link to detailed Agricola's biography in English.

so we have April

Yes, we have. I attach a photo taken from our kitchen today. The flowers fit to the month, and pay attention to the multi-coloured sun rays above!
I would like to see different middle of the picture of course but spring is obviously coming no matter the snow. It just feels in the air.
This year the whole Europe experiences very cold spring. In Germany March this year was the coldest since 1883. Storks were on their way to Belarus as always in March after wintering in the South but this year they came back to Israel to wait for the warmer weather. The Polish storks seem to be more persistent - most of them already came back but many of them are weak. They have problem to get food as there is still much snow and cold temperatures. Problem with finding food have also bears and badgers who have already woken up from hibernation.
So this year also Poland and the other European countries experienced the 'White Easter'.
Hope it will repay with a beautiful long summer:-)

fot.1 me, fot.2 Patrick PLEUL/PAP/DPA

Happy Easter! ... greetings from the ice-floe

I wrote about celebrating Easter in Finland in the last year post Easter, Midsummer and Christmas traditions in Finland, so I will not go on with being surprised at the Easter witches today. 
Few days ago I was making pre-Easter cleanup and I came across Easter postcard which I got from mother-in-law few years ago. I kept it because it amused me. It shows two chickens flowing on an ice-floe on a river. The ice-floe during Easter time seemed to me amusing and unrealistic few years ago but not anymore. Now I know it is every year reality:-)
BUT this year in Poland there is also snow right now! Incredible! I do not remember snow in Poland during Easter. Never. In late March there used to be already flowers and green grass everywhere. 
Despite snowy scenery let's still enjoy this special season, 
I wish everyone Happy Easter and the real warm, green and sunny spring coming soon! 

spring season has come (only according to lunar calendar so far)

Eh, I was late ... The March equinox when night and day are nearly exactly the same length of 12 hours marks the first day of spring. It occurs between March 19 - 21, this year it was yesterday on March 20. So according to calendar, there is already spring! But looking at the temperatures and amount of snow, instead of the spring I can seen a lot of frustration around. 
People used to enjoy a bit warmer weather in the end of March. No one expects flowers in March in Finland, but daily temperatures below -10'C are hard to tolerate. 
Yesterday my sons spent half evening defrosting potting soil (kept on balcony) to grow our Easter grass.
3 and 2 years ago there was much more snow than now, but it was not so cold. I send picture of our block of flats from 20 March 2010, look at the amount of the snow layers ... there was much snow that year still in April and a bit in late May as well, especially in shaded areas, ditches and forests. Hopefuly this year will surprise us again - with sudden hot long summer!

frosty March again - part 2

I read in today 'Metro' newspaper that the bears in Helsinki ZOO have already woken from winter sleep! This news made me smile a mile wide. Reading this I was riding metro passing Kalasatama and suddenly I noticed a man fishing under ice in the middle of snowy bay. 
My good feeling caused by the awoken bears came back to the normal level in one second. 
But I hope that the bears' instinct was right and the weather forecasts predicting heavy frosts in March are wrong:-) 
I managed to take a quick photo, the quality is not good but I send it anyhow. 

frosty March again

I noticed that every single year here in Finland I naively expect spring in March.
This year was the same. Last week was so promising, sunny, with temperature close to 0'C and suddenly on the last Sunday morning there was -17'C. I checked up the weather forecasts and all of them inform about upcoming frosts and major snowfalls in later March. Temperatures in North Karelia and North Savo dropped last weekend to -30'C, and the weather forecasts foreshadow even -40'C this winter. We'll see ...
The photo below shows the snow dragon from our yard. According to my friend this is rather Loch Ness monster. No matter its name, I did not expect to see it in March still in its top condition.

Jesus tape saves!, wife carrying and the blue moment

The longer I live in Finland the more Finnish language I learn and more surprising phrases 
I encounter. I will mention few ... 
Sininen hetki  - the blue moment. It is name for a winter light phenomenon just before sundown, when the sky has a light bluish color.
Karhunkieli - bear's tongue. One day I heard some woman strongly recommending 
'a bear's tongue' to another women during shop conversation about kitchen cleaning. It is abrasive cloth to scrub, scratch and scrape tough stains. The real bear's tongue can be really abrasive, 
I don't know. I wonder who came up with this name?
Eukonkanto/akankanto - wife carrying:-) is a sport(!) first originated in Finland. The idea is the obstacle race of male competitors carrying their female teammates. Wife Carrying World Championships are held annually in Sonkajärvi. The official track is 253.5 meters long, has two dry and one water obstacles. The minimum weight of the carried wife is 49kg and age over 17y.
Jeesusteippi can be translated literally as a Jesus tape. 
It is a silver duct tape, a duck tape or a roadie tape - all phrases in use. 
There is also Finnish saying: 'Jeesusteippi pelastaa' what means 'Jesus tape saves'. I have seen few people on the street in t-shirts with this phrase printed. The tape earned its name from countless number of its usage.
In the English language it has also names: riggers' tape, hurricane tape and 100-mph tape, due to its military usage. It was used during the Vietnam War to repair or balance helicopter rotor blades. Duct tape was also used in emergency situations during spaceflights, 
i.a. it saved lives of the Apollo 13 crew during their famous flight to the moon.
So I think this tape truly deserves its Finnish name version - a Jesus tape:-).  
(photo from http://www.sahkoautot.fi/forum/t-62358)

Below beautiful photo of the blue moment (photo from here) 

I will add here more peculiar words or phrases when I hear the new ones.

The Vasa Museum in Stockholm ... Vasa-laivan Museo

While trip to Stockholm I recommend visiting the Vasa Museum. It's really worth seeing, the Vasa ship is soooo huge and impressive. The 69 meter-long warship Vasa sank on its maiden voyage in the middle of Stockholm in 1628, and was salvaged 333 years later in 1961.  
(http://www.visitstockholm.com)

Stockholm in winter - daily cruises from Helsinki to Stockholm

 

Today blog's 'Swedish edition' as we went to Stockholm for one day.
Actually for ca.6h. We went by Viking Line, but the same cruises arranges Tallink Silja Line. The whole cruise lasts ca.40h. Departures are daily around 17pm from Helsinki, next day is for visiting the city and way back around 17pm as well.
Information in English is available on the ferries companies' websites altogether with possibility of booking and buying tickets online.
Below are some of my pictures from beautiful Stockholm in winter: (only on the second photo Silja Line is leaving Helsinki)

 

Finnish ice swimming - Avantouinti

I was going through my Helsinki photos from last week when I noticed right in the middle of one picture a man walking just in shorts. I did not notice him while taking the picture (otherwise I would take more;-) I think the man was enough far away to be unrecognizable in this photo, so I insert it in the blog. It is good reason to write about the ice swimming (in Finnish: avantouinti).
It is really popular in Finland. I remember I saw people from some 'Walrus Club' or sth like that swimming outside during winter on the Polish news. It was subject to show on the news! and in Finland this is a common thing to do.
There are many places in Finland arranged for swimming in the ice-holes. I heard that the best ones are located close to sauna, cause the best feeling is to jump into the ice cold water straight after going to the sauna. It looks like the man on the photo did not need a sauna, he has just 'enjoyed' swimming in the ice-cold sea ...

Winter and fat biking in Finland

Cycling in Finland is very popular. People of all ages ride bicycles regardless of the weather conditions. Many people bike everyday to work, school, shops, for sport or recreation.
You can see the bike racks in front of the shops, offices, schools, in yards etc. There are numerous cycle paths in most of the cities and villages. For the bicycle tourists Finland offers beautiful cycle routes for the bicycle touring.
Long and often snowy, harsh Finnish winters lasting from about November to April are any problem neither. During winter I still see many people on the bikes every day (even though less than in the summer).
Few days ago Finnish TV Yle news presented so called 'fat biking' (paksupyöräily) as especially good for winter conditions. The wide 'fat' tires keep bicycle more stable and make riding softer on the snow.

Petri "Shimaani" Nuutinen brought the first fat bike to Finland. I found information in internet about 50 fat tire bikes in Finland, but on this year TV news it was said, that there are already few hundreds. So the number is clearly increasing. The very first fat bikes came from Alaska. They look fun, I wonder how does it feel to ride such a bike. I do ride bicycle in winter, but sometimes it is more struggling than riding or I am forced to walk for some more snowy part of the road.
Photo1 from Global Fat bike day finland Photo2 from fat-bike.com (Fatbiking in Finland)

Suomenlinna seashore in winter

... and here are my photos taken from Viking Line heading for Stockholm.
There was amazing sunset and I would like to share some pictures of Suomenlinna. 
Leaving Helsinki behind ...

 Suomennlina Sea Fortress:

(here's link to my last year post with photos of Suomenlinna dungeons)

Helsinki Cathedral in winter

The Helsinki Cathedral (Helsingin tuomiokirkko). I took these photos from tram about 5pm.