Happy holidays
For the sixth year in a row, Finland has been ranked the happiest country in the world. The UN’S World Happiness report placed it top for wellness, generosity and freedom, pipping its Nordic neighbours Denmark and Iceland.
News of Finland’s six-year streak of contented bliss prompted me to want to learn how to “do life” from the masters.
Who doesn’t want to live better, feel more fulfilled, enjoy being in the moment?
One of Finland’s unique philosophies is its “jokamiehen oikeudet”, or “everyman’s rights”.
It means that those living in or visiting the country have the freedom to roam the countryside, to forage and to fish – which certainly sounds like a recipe for happiness to me.
The first stop on my journey to find my inner Finn was the country’s oldest city Turku which, for three years, was its capital before being usurped by Helsinki in 1812.
More than 200 years on from its golden age it is having a renaissance as Finland’s food capital, with dozens of new restaurants, bars and breweries, along with a host of passionate food producers in its century-old market.
There are also the untamed wilds of Turku’s archipelago of around 20,000 islands, connected by bridges, roads and free ferries, giving you a chance to get lost in the landscape and breathe in some pure, clean Finnish air.
For a classic stay in Turku, book in at the Scandic Hamburger Börs hotel, which has been welcoming guests in the market square for more than 130 years. Up on the ninth floor is a gorgeous rooftop bar with outdoor terrace. Try the cocktails adorned with cloudberries – a Finnish superfood.
For dinner, I recommend Smör, a cosy Nordic fine-dining affair in former vaults on the banks of the flower-lined Aura River.
Maximum taste, minimum waste is the food philosophy here and I opted for the €89 tasting menu featuring grated deer heart and grilled catfish, and traditional archipelago bread – a dense rye with malted grain. If you want to sample a variety of food specialities produced by locals, visit the historic Turku indoor market, which is crammed with butchers, bakeries, cheese and fish counters, cafes and restaurants.
Swing by Herkkunuotta to taste smoked haddock, a Finnish classic. Then sweeten things up with homemade desserts drizzled with chocolate at the award-winning
Piece of Cake cafe. These alone will bring happiness to your heart.
Chef Sami Tallberg is Finland’s answer to Hugh Fearnleywhittingstall, both having made a career out of cooking up wonderful dishes from foraged ingredients.
I met Sami for lunch at his restaurant Sami Tallberg x FDS. Following Finland’s ethos of everyman’s rights, dishes here are inspired by seasonal wild food – nature’s supermarket, as he calls it – with surprising taste combinations.
Get your vitamin boost with a colourful starter of Brussels sprouts with salted beets and wild mushrooms, followed by celeriac schnitzel, lentils and sea truffle. A
15-minute walk from the centre of town, a new foodie district is emerging in the most unlikely surroundings.
Set on Kakolanmäki Hill, Kakola Prison opened in the mid-1800s, housing some of the country’s most notorious criminals. Closed in 2007, the building stood empty for a decade before the launch of Kakolanruusu restaurant, specialising in open-fire cooking. Go large with its €79 sharing “big feast”, or a la carte for tasty morsels like buckwheat blinis and deer carpaccio.
While you’re there, pop into Kakola Brewing Company and quench your thirst with catchily named brews such as a raspberry sour ale called Wow, a stout named Loud, and a dry-hopped saison called Fun. Frukt Coffee Roasters there also does outstanding coffee.
Next, we took a ride out to
Finland’s oldest city is having a renaissance as its food capital
Isabelle Bates finds out how to enjoy life from start to Finnish
Hirvensalo island to meet Helja, one of a group of residents who offer home visits to tourists to share their way of life – a lesson in Finnish happiness, so to speak.
Friendly Helja welcomed our small group into her home, Villa Mare. For the next two hours she relayed her passion for food, while giving us a class in gingerbread making, then told us to simply enjoy the landscape and soak up the silence. I could’ve stood there quietly staring out to sea for ever.
My two-centre trip took me back to Finland’s capital, Helsinki, where I’d flown in from Heathrow.
Perhaps easier to harness happiness in the Turku islands, would city life hold the same appeal?
While Finns love the simple things, they also like a bit of decadence and the Solo Sokos Hotel Torni (The Tower) is something very special. Head and shoulders above the city skyline, the art nouveau-style abode was Finland’s tallest building when it opened in 1931.
Climb the tight spiral staircase to the Ateljee roof bar, which doubles as an art gallery for Finnish artists, or pull up a stool at the rather lovely round American-style cocktail bar. Ideal for city-breakers, there’s a shopping mall 30 seconds from reception, it’s five minutes from the main train station, and Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art and the harbourside Market Square are a 15-minute walk away.
Keen to continue my trip through Finland’s delicious dining options, I had dinner at restaurant Skörd, where the menu is bursting with wild herbs, hand-picked berries, roots, mushrooms, game, fish, and ecologically farmed lamb. All supplied by Finnish producers, you certainly won’t find peppers and avocados from the other side of the world here. The Glass, meanwhile, is a laidback restaurant and rum bar next to the new K1 exhibition space of the Finnish Museum of Photography, at the basement floor of Kämp Galleria shopping mall. Great for lunch, its Nordic menu features Borscht soup and stuffed quail with bacon and marsala
sauce. You can imagine a restaurant going by the name of Ego being cold and haughty, with dishes so complicated it would only attract a certain style of diner. Don’t let the name put you off – this place, on Korkeavuorenkatu street, is friendly and sociable with a list of Finnish favourites you can’t resist ordering, such as a potato pancake with creme fraiche and beef tartare. After eating my way across the city, it was time to sample that noble Finnish pastime – the sauna. Sweating it out in a steam-filled wooden box is surely the direct route to serenity, right? I took Tram 6 to Eiranranta to spend an afternoon at Loyly, a futuristic-looking
sauna and restaurant occupying a stretch of Helsinki waterfront.
Visitors can opt for the traditional wood-smoked sauna experience, which brings a calm atmosphere. Saunas here are mixed, seating up to around 20 people, so you’ll be among friends! The vibe is chilled and hushed.
The best way to wake yourself up after all that heat is a dunk in the Baltic Sea. Not for the faint-hearted, psyching yourself up for this requires nerves of steel.
But the mental buzz and physical tingle you’ll feel afterwards is worth the icy shock and you’ll finish off feeling, well, a lot more Finnish!