There were some moments this Christmas that are burnt into my consciousness for eternity. One was the frozen sea and the wonderful summer house of my hosts, and the other was a walk that I went on with the dogs on Christmas Day.

My host family was so kind to invite me to their celebrations. We drove about 600 km to the north, to Kalajoki, where my host mother's parents live. Kalajoki during summer is the Las Vegas of Finland. In winter, nothing is happening. It's not far enough in the north to be snow prove in December, which means that their favourite pastimes (skiing, snowmobiling, etc.) can't be guaranteed. Most Finns go to relatives or directly to Lapland. Whether you believe it or not, although at the beginning of...

Porvoo sits on the southern coast of Finland, one hour east of Helsinki. With fifty thousand inhabitants it's one of the twenty most populated cities in Finland. It's particularly attractive because it has a relatively large area of old wooden houses, an old town with a town hall and a cathedral. After Turku, it's the second oldest city in Finland. Through it flows the river Porvoonjoki, which, when I was there, was charmingly frozen and sang under the ice. Wale like sounds echoed across the...

*** I woke up one morning, and before I turned on the lights, I checked the time on my phone. There was a message: "Grandma died at two o'clock this morning after she had a brain oedema." I'm sitting in the dark. Typical for my family, emotional messages are broken down to bare facts. It takes me a while to understand what that means. I don't know what to do, so I stay where I am, mumbled into the warmth of my bed in the otherwise cold room in Vantaa, Finland. Soon, I feel wet patches on my...

On my journey I redefine luxury. The biggest is a cosy bed, and the second is time to linger. To guarantee these luxuries, I wear the comfortable bed on my back, and I take the time to stay in beautiful places. It's in big parts the reason why travelling long term is tolerable for me. In third place, is the luxury of routines. So far, I had assumed that these habits bring about the death of creativity. Here in Vantaa, however, I experience the opposite. The morning mocha coming out of the...

The sixth of December is not Nikolaus in Finland. There is only one man in a red coat: the Joulupukki, the Santa Claus. On the 6th of December, Finland celebrates the Birth of the Nation. The day on which Finland proclaimed its independence from Russia. In celebration of this day, there is a church service in Helsinki Cathedral, a reception at the Palace of the President, accompanied by a whole series of demonstrations. The many Finns, who don't have to dress up for the reception of the...

In my last weeks in Germany, a good friend had directed my attention to the independent film scene in Rovaniemi. It's a town in northern Finland, on the southern edge of Finnish Lapland, at the polar circle. Here the sun sets early and rises late during winter. Also, it's damn cold. I visited a KinoKabaret there. It's a festival that is more like a workshop, where we shoot short films. A Kino cell is a group of short film enthusiasts, who meet a few times a year to realise projects in a short...

The father of my host family is a former rally driver. If you think of car racing, get away from Formula 1 and look at what Finland has to offer: rallies. Since I have no clue about cars, races and rallies, check out the following video from the BBC's Top Gear. Let me just add; I have found no evidence that what they say in this show, isn't 100% accurate:

The snow during my first weeks in Helsinki turned the most exciting time into a pre-Christmas white dream. On the first weekend, I got to know the whole family and the small wooden chapel, which was a little further towards the village on the road. Small, red, with white gables and dark shutters, she thus corresponded to the Scandinavian style I expected in the north. It was a typical village church, with a small church choir. R., my hostess, accompanied it with her violin, and A., the eldest...

I travelled from Turku to Helsinki by train. On it, I noticed playgrounds for children. In front of each staircase leading to the lower part of the waggon was a gate to secure the children's safety. The small area in the compartment consisted of a small slide and some games. In the train I travelled with was one such compartment in each car, not like in Germany, where one, if fortunate, has access to a small glass box for three adults and two children on a train for 750 people. With each ticket...