Saw a docu yesterday, from Helsinki. Due to the special conditions regarding Sunshine in summer, and weeks of darkness in winter, Helsinki simply shuts down during summer holidays. I couldn'T believe what I saw. empty streets in the centre. no cars, no pedestrians. No shops open. Public services limited to 20%, or shut down. Hospitals running with 50% or less capacity, all non-emergency operation being delayed until after holiday season. Over 80% of the inhabitants they said are leaving Helsinki during summer vacation, leaving behind a ghost town. Ministers rotate through offices and replace their colleagues, sometime holding three offices at once, until their colleagues are back and the former placeholders are leaving. Police is gone for the most, the government as well. People head into the forest and live a simple life there, without comfort and luxury and the iterms and services of civilization, focussing on mastering life in the essential way, focussing on sauna (of course), family and friends, and community. they have very small wooden huts, what does not mind them, since all their life takes place outside anyway.
First I thought this is queer. Then I got warm over it. And next I realised that I like the idea and the eccentricity behind it as well. Becasue it is not eccentricity, but healthy reason of the kind you do not see in modern civilisation anymore. If I ever should travel again and move north, Finland will be the place I must see - if for no othr reason than to applaude these strange aborigines!
