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 Mainland
Scandinavia's most culturally isolated and least understood country,
Finland has been independent only since 1917, having been ruled for
hundreds of years by first the Swedes and then the Tsarist Russians.
Much of its history involves a struggle for recognition and survival,
and it's not surprising that modern-day Finns have a well-developed
sense of their own culture, manifest in the widely popular Golden Age
paintings of Gallen-Kallela and others, the music of Sibelius, the
National Romantic style of architecture, and the deeply ingrained values
of rural life.
Finland is mostly flat and punctuated by huge forests and lakes, but has
wide regional variations. The South contains the least dramatic scenery,
but the capital, Helsinki, more than compensates, with its brilliant
architecture and superb collections of national history and art.
Stretching from the Russian border in the east to the industrial city of
Tampere, the vast waters of the Lake Region provide a natural means of
transport for the timber industry - indeed, water here is a more common
sight than land. Towns lie on narrow ridges between lakes, giving even
major manufacturing centres green and easily accessible surrounds. North
of here, Finland ranges from the flat western coast of Ostrobothnia to
the thickly forested heartland of Kainuu and gradually rising fells of
Lapland, Finland's most alluring terrain and home to the Sami, the semi-nomadic
reindeer herders found all over northern Scandinavia
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