Well, Helsinki is quite good place to be at the moment. Clean, neat little city and in the autumn, we see all nice colours from nature, because we have lot of parks and trees in the city. No smog or acid rain here, you have +50km visibility in clear weather. If you want to visit here, choose summer time or middle of the winter.
Do you ever get far North enough to see the fluorescent skies? I can't even imagine.
Also just thinking about the 50 or more dark days without sun and the 70 some-odd days without the dark. They say it takes a strong mind to get through that shit.
I am fascinated by "Sisu" ~ I wish I had some of that. I know that it relates more to the Cold War when the Russians kept pushing and pushing, but the Finns still have to maintain a very strong mentality to stay there.
I am going to Brno to visit friends and then I would like to make my way to Helsinki (actually "Kallio")