Us and the Kiddos: Finland Date Night

To date, Finland's food has been the most surprising in a GOOD way. I expected a lot of fish and salted this or that, and honestly, there's plenty of that, but so much more. I don't eat seafood, AT ALL, so whenever we get to a country that it's hard to find a recipe for anything but seafood....we're out. Which is unfortunate because Louis loves the stuff- well shrimp, lobster, shell fish mostly. Not a huge fan of fish, but he can straight get down on a fish sandwich or fish'n'chips. Sometimes I cave and make it anyways, but I even hate the way it smells, so it's pretty rare.

Anyways, on with Finland.......

So this flag is indeed a white flag with a blue cross on it. The image just bleeds nicely into the white background.

Finland is a Northern European nation bordering Sweden, Norway and Russia. Its capital, Helsinki, occupies a peninsula and surrounding islands in the Baltic Sea. Helsinki is home to the 18th-century sea fortress Suomenlinna, the fashionable Design District and diverse museums. The Northern Lights can be seen from the country's Arctic Lapland province, a vast wilderness with national parks and ski resorts.

Capital: Helsinki

Population: 5.482 million (2015) World Bank

Currency: Euro

Capital and largest city: Helsinki; 60°10′N 024°56′E / 60.167°N 24.933°E

Official languages: Finnish, Swedish

FUN FACTS ABOUT FINLAND:

Further cementing the nation’s wonderfully off-beat sense of humour, Finland has an annual Day for Failure every October 13th. Started in 2010, the ceremony celebrates bad news and ill-fortune as a way of learning for the future. Better luck next time, losers!
It’s affectionately referred to as the Land of a Thousand Lakes, but that number doesn’t even come close. There are a whopping 187,888 lakes within the territory of Finland – the most of any country in the world. If you’re more comfortable roaming around by foot, there’s a total of 179,888 Finnish islands to explore.
They have some of the world’s strangest sports

When it comes to eccentric past-times, Finland is a gold trophy winner.

Strangest of all is the Wife Carrying World Championship. Taking place in Sonkajärvi every July, the extreme obstacle course event has carried over to an international phenomenon, with couples from Denmark, Hong Kong to Australia and beyond travelling to the country to take part. It’s an odd way to spend a honeymoon, but we’re not ones to judge.

Other esoteric sports that host their annual world championships in Finland include mosquito hunting, mobile phone throwing, swamp football, rubber boot throwing and the Air Guitar World Championship.
Finland is surprisingly pioneering for a small nation of 5 million. Other Finnish-born inventions include the rescue toboggan, the heart-rate monitor, salty liquorice (‘Salmiakki’), the Linux OS, ice skates, Angry Birds, the Molotov cocktail, the SMS and, of course, the sauna, which also happens to be the most used Finnish word outside of the mother country.
Unsurprisingly, Finland has world’s highest annual consumption of milk per capita – around 1 litre per person every day – making the Finns’ choppers coffee stained, but mighty strong. Weird considering that a 17% of Finns are lactose intolerant.
Are you fast and furious and mega rich? Then you better not get caught zooming through Finland. The cost of traffic and speed violations is calculated by the offending driver’s annual income. One unfortunate, mega rich speed demon was once fined 200,000 euros for a single speeding offense.
Icy and industrial, perhaps it’s no wonder that Finland has the most heavy metal bands per capita. World-famous acts like Children of Bodom, Nightwish and Eurovision Song Contest winners Lordi all hail from Finland, and are all able to channel their nation’s dark and wild nature within their music.
Finland has been ranked number 1 in the world for education.
In Finland, they have ‘National Sleepy Head Day’, where the last person in a family to wake up is thrown into a lake or the sea by the rest of the family.
The capital of Finland, Helsinki has a four-times-a-year event called Restaurant Day. The occasion offers anyone the opportunity to set up a restaurant, cafe, or bar, for just one day, without having to apply for official permits – as long as alcohol is not on the drinks list.
In 2005, the Italian Prime Minister, Berlusconi, insulted Finnish cuisine and joked that Finns ate “marinated reindeer”. In 2008, Finland won an international pizza contest, beating Italy. The name of the winning pizza was “Pizza Berlusconi “which was made of smoked reindeer.
During the Winter War, Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov said the soviet planes over Finland were not bombers but humanitarian food drops. The Finns responded by naming their improvised explosives Molotov Cocktails, “A drink to go with the food.”
Finland is one of the only two countries in the world that have earned a medal at every Olympic game since 1908
Every year, Finland increases in surface area by about 7 square kilometers because it is rebounding from the weight of ice-age glaciers and rising out of the sea.
There is a prison in Finland where the only thing keeping the inmates in is a yellow picket fence.
In 1944, the USSR began a massive air attack on the city of Helsinki to force Finland to leave the war. Finns used fires and searchlights to trick Soviet bombers into dropping bombs outside the city. Russian diplomats were surprised to find an intact Helsinki after the war.
Finnish babies sleep in cardboard boxes. The government offers expectant mothers a maternity starter kit or a cash grant. 95% opt for the kit which includes a cardboard box that doubles as a crib. It has helped Finland achieve one of the world’s lowest infant mortality rates
A ‘Desire Path’ is the worn track that multiple people mark on grass or other surfaces because it’s the most easily navigated route between places. In Finland, desire paths made by footprints in the snow in winter are used to design purpose-built pathways.
Finland ranks 7th in the “Good Country Index”, a system for assessing how much each country contributes to humanity. It takes into account contributions with regard to science, technology, culture, peace, security, climate and prosperity.
The border between Finland and Sweden crosses through a small island in an unusual way because back in 1885 the Finns accidentally built a lighthouse on the Swedish side of the island.
The Sami people of Northern Finland have a unit of measurement called the ‘poronkusema’ – the distance a reindeer can walk before needing to urinate.
Reindeer herders in Finland paint their reindeer’s antlers with reflective paint to cut down on deer-car collisions.
Finland’s current president was in Thailand during the 2004 tsunami. He survived by climbing up a utility pole with his son.
Finland’s nuclear waste bunker Onkalo is built to last intact until the year 102,120. Work began in the year 2004 and it will be closed in the 2120s. This bunker will probably be one of the last remains of humankind on Earth
The word ‘Third World’ has little to do with how poor a country is. Sweden and Finland are also considered to be the Third World countries.
Finland was the first country in the world to offer a master’s degree in future studies, and its government is required by law to produce an official review of the future every four years.

For dinner we had these Finnish meatpies. Very delicious. Pastry was tender and flaky and the filling, while simple was flavorful.

Sima, a Finnish fermented lemonade, Finnish dilled cucumbers and a Finnish macaroni and cheese that contains ground beef.

These buns are traditionally eaten on Shrove Tuesday, or Mardi Gras as we like to call it here in the States. It is a cardamom bun with a homemade strawberry jam and whipped cream filling. They were absolutely heavenly, and the cardamom sent them over the top.