I have come to an point in my life where I don’t know what I want to do next. I have nice job and an education but that’s not something that I am tempted to do rest of my life. There is so much that this world could offer to me and I feel like it’s time to change the scenery. At the same time I love my country and I love living in Helsinki.
I just read a blog post from Jenny where she listed pros and cons about life in Boston. As a nosy person, I loved reading it. So why not steal the idea heheh? Now or never would be the best time to do a similar post. For myself but also for you who wonder what it’s like to live in Helsinki.
Quick run down of Helsinki
Helsinki is the capital and largest city of Finland but compared to the other world we are teeny tiny. Here you get to discover all seasons, spring and autumn are really beautiful, breezy and colorful here. In winter we’ve got way too much snow and when summer comes everyone basically lives on outdoors because the warmth lasts only few weeks. Also something that’s worth mentioning is that we are the homeland of santa claus. He doesn’t live in Helsinki but I just wanted to put that out there okay..
Cons of Helsinki
People
Finns in certain are not big small talkers, we like to just mind our own business. We avoid eye contact with everyone as much as we can and in public transports we prefer standing than sitting down next to someone we don’t know. People in Helsinki aren’t always the nicest, we just really like to keep our distance. But if you travel to the northern Finland you will find more hospitable people.
Living here is expensive
The apartments are really expensive here. You need to work your butt off to find an proper apartment, and even more difficult is to find an apartment that actually matches it’s price.
Food culture is kind of stuck
Some people really enjoy eating in restaurants but I prefer taking the food with me as I go. In Helsinki you really need to dig deep to find proper take away places. We don’t have stalls and small food places around the city where you can just grab some lunch with you and keep going.
It takes ages for bands and artists to come here
As a music lover, this really bothers me. Even though we are the capital of Finland, really small amount of well known bands and artists tour here. If we want to go and see some big names around the world we need to travel abroad, most likely to Sweden.
Pros of Helsinki
Nature and the sea
We got lots and lots of nature here. No matter where you go, you will always find a forest where to run away if everything gets too much (wink wink). Also half of the Helsinki is kind of surrounded by the sea, which is nice variation from forests.
The size
I love that Helsinki is not too big or too small. The distances between places aren’t too long so it doesn’t take forever to get from one place to another. Also Helsinki isn’t too crowded. There are still lot of people here so it feels lively but you don’t get lost in a huge crowd of busy people.
It’s really easy to move around Helsinki
We’ve really good public transports here, they will get you wherever you want whenever you want. Also because the average Finns use public transports we don’t need to worry about the traffic here. Of course there is traffic but not anything huge where you need to stand still with your car for ages.
Endless amount of cute coffee/brunch places
When you first come to Helsinki you will just see these huge brands that everyone has around the world like Starbucks, Subway and Vapiano. But if you know where to look you will discover cosy and aesthetically pleasing coffee places with delicious menus.
High level education
Helsinki affords you really good opportunities to study on different levels (university, university of applied sciences, vocational school). Also everything is tuition free here for everyone.
After all Helsinki is a really good place to be but I really crave a life in big city with busy people. Please share your thoughts about the place where you live, I would love to hear what it’s like in other countries and cities!!
xoxo
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