﻿The world's happiest people live in Finland, according to many surveys. So let's take a look
at Helsinki, the capital, to find out what's going on here. Why are these people so happy?
The Finns will say it's more a matter of being content, being satisfied with their lives rather
than giddy ha-ha happy all the time, and that's because their society functions
very well. The economy is strong, the educational levels are very high,
there is a decent level of economic equality, and the society provides services such as
health and medical and retirement, and cleaning up the cities and maintaining the infrastructure,
that makes everything work beautifully together. So, the residents are very happy about all
of that. Of course, they do pay high taxes, but generally have a trust in the government
and feel like the money is being pretty well spent on the society. Another reason why their
life is good is the city is a beautiful place. It has lovely buildings. It's nicely designed,
plenty of sidewalk cafés and outdoor activities for those warm summer months, good streets,
lots of bicycle paths, pedestrian areas with enough urban density to provide those walkable
neighborhoods and shops and cafés nearby, but it's not crowded. Helsinki's town planners have done
such an excellent job of creating a livable city that it was praised at one time by the Harvard
Architectural Digest as the best-designed city in Europe. This is relatively small capital city,
with a bit more than 600,000 residents. But there's an underground metro system, and numerous
light rail trams running on the surface along the main street. This transit system is well-utilized
because people are not living in the suburban sprawl pattern that we often find in America.
The locals pronounce their city, Helsinki, while many in the West call it Helsinki, which is more
comfortable for Americans. But in this program, I'll go back-and-forth. Either way is fine. It was
founded relatively late by European standards, in the 17th century, and it was designated as
the capital of Finland in only 1812. The small town was initially built of wood and burned down
several times, so that nearly all of the buildings that we see today are no more than 200 years old,
relative youngsters by European standards. As a result, we do not have that typical
Old Town feeling with ancient buildings, and cobblestone lanes, and narrow winding alleyways,
or any grand monuments from the Middle Ages or the Renaissance. Instead, we have an attractive modern
city that offers the residents and the visitors much to enjoy. The nation is also quite young,
achieving its independence only in 1917 after a century of occupation by
Russia, preceded by 650 years of control by Sweden from the mid-12th-century. Finland is located
between Sweden and Russia and was often caught in the middle and devastated by the wars between
those two larger powers. Helsinki is continental Europe's most northern and remote
capital city and shares a border with Russia that's 1300 kilometers long. And we've seen in
recent times there is some concerns about that border, but everything is very safe and peaceful
in Finland, a free, independent country, enjoying one of the world's highest standards of living.
Finland is actually a huge country. It's the sixth largest in Europe, but with only 5 million people,
it's one of the least crowded nations in the world. Because of this concentrated urban center,
visitors will find that it's very easy to see the sights of Helsinki on foot,
and active pedestrian efforts will be richly rewarded with many fine discoveries. As usual,
it's always best to see a European city by walking. You can discover a lot here
in a couple of days. July is an excellent time to visit because the weather is at its best.
The city is not crowded, and hotel rates tend to drop. That's because July is the peak month for
locals to take their vacations, either at their summer cottages in the Finnish countryside,
or elsewhere in Europe, especially on the sunny beaches of the Mediterranean Sea.
Business travel also grinds to a halt in July, leaving hotels looking for customers and lowering
their rates to attract the few remaining travelers. All of the scenes in this video
were photographed during the month of July, which is when I always bring my groups to visit there.
While I tell you a bit more about Helsinki and Finland, I'll continue showing some scenes of the
city, focusing for now on Esplanade Park that most popular green space in the heart of town. During
July temperatures are quite mild, usually in the 70s, so it does not get hot, because Helsinki
is so far north, as nearly as high as Anchorage, Alaska. At the peak of summer you get 20 hours
of sunshine. There will still be plenty of locals in town for you to mingle with, if you so choose,
and you'll find that most of them are friendly and fluent in English, and they like spending time
outdoors on the streets, in the cafés and parks, enjoying that fleeting good weather.
You can imagine when there's 20 hours of sunshine in the middle of summer there's also 20 hours of
darkness in the middle of winter, so they truly enjoy taking advantage of the summers. Although
Helsinki is in a relatively remote position in northern Europe, it's easy to get here by flying,
or many people come by ship, perhaps on a cruise of Scandinavia, or you can come here on a two-hour
ferry ride from Tallin, Estonia, just across the Gulf of Finland, which is a branch of the
Baltic Sea. And from St. Petersburg, Russia, you can take a train, which we have done many times
in our trips. Surprisingly, Finland is not part of Scandinavia, nor are they related ethically to the
Slavic people of Russia, which borders them to the East. Instead, they are grouped with Scandinavia
as Nordic cultures. Somehow the Finnish language is most closely related to Hungarian,
although it's really not clear how this happened. The two main ethnic groups in the country are
Finnish and Swedish, so the country has two official languages, with many street signs labeled
with both Finnish and Swedish. But 88 percent of Helsinki natives speak Finnish as their first
language, and nearly all of them speak fluent English. You'll have no trouble communicating
with the Finnish people. Children begin their schooling in kindergarten and by age 9,
they start foreign language training with French and German currently the most popular choices.
English had been the number-one preference until Finland's entry into the European Union.
At age 13, students who speak Finnish as their first language start learning Swedish,
and vice a versa. By age 14. Most students begin learning a fourth language. Thanks partly to the
excellent education system, Finland has one of the strongest economies in the world.
Recently ranked as number-two for competitiveness
and they're in the world's top 10 for good environmental policies.
Finland is the first country in the world to prepare plans for a National Circular Economy.
Have you heard of that, Circular Economy? It's basically recycling, reusing, repairing,
lower consumption, protecting the environment from climate change, pollution,
waste and loss of biodiversity. Finland does have the highest income tax in the developed world,
averaging 57 percent, and also among the highest sales taxes, 24 percent,
but the people of the country get a lot for that money. For example, the government provides a
general introduction to Helsinki and Finland, and we have another movie that's a city tour
of Helsinki, so be sure to look for that one in our collection. We will show you the great
monument to Sibelius, the Church in the Rock, Senate Square with the great Helsinki Cathedral
and government buildings, the modern art museum of Kiasma, some fine dining at classy restaurants,
the fabulous shopping malls of town and more of the city, including downtown and
the department store, Stockman. And we will take you over to the hip Design District.
You'll find that Helsinki is an excellent place to visit. We have many more movies about Scandinavia
and the rest of Europe in our collection. Be sure to take a look. We frequently upload new movies
so please subscribe to our channel and click that little alarm bell so you'll be notified and if you
enjoyed the movie. How about thumbs up and we always welcome comments down below, or if you
have questions about the destination. Make note and we will answer them. Thanks for watching