Oh Lordi, Lordi Finland!
We're actually now in Poland but am trying to catch up with the other countries. The countries come fast and furious once you get out of Scandinavia and it is difficult to keep up.As anyone who watched this year's Eurovision song contest knows, Finland won this year's competition. Also for those who know, Finland does not normally do well in the competition and on top of that, the group that won is unlike any other in the competiton's history.
Lordi is a hard rock group where all members are dressed completely like demons. Their song, 'Hard Rock....Hellelujah!' the outfits and the stage show was completely different from all the other entries. In a shocking vote, the people of Europe voted Lordi contest winners. Not even, the block partisan voting of the Balkan countries could stop Lordi and Finland being victorious. So with this in mind you can understand that I wasn't expecting Finland to be anything like the band representing Finland.
Truthfully Finland wasn't like the band. There were no demons or fireworks upon arrival in Turku, Finland. Simply a nice little port city on the western coast of Finland that at one time served as capital of what was then owned by the imperialist Swedes. It has a castle that was built by the Swedes to house the governor of the Finn land and it is a good place ot visit. Of course the castle is today open to public viewing and is used as a meeting and exhibition center.
While wandering through the castle we entered a room that was being used as an exhibition space celebrating different moments in Finnish history. In this room, first display case on the right, was a display celebrating Lordi winning the Eurovision song contest. For any fan of the band this would be an experience as it had the costume of the lead singer, photos, guitars and other memoribilia.
For a country that is probably as misunderstood and unknown as Finland, the Lordi victory is probably a welcome boost. Funnily enough it is also truly representative of Finns and youth culture.
On the rest of our way through Finland to Helsinki it became pretty clear that Finns appreciate their hard rock. Everywhere, young adults were dressed in hard rock style; from full on goths to long haired metal heads. The sense that I got was that this wasn't some type of passing phase of fashion but something solidified within Finnish culture.
The guys wearing Metallica or Iron Maiden t-shirts weren't wearing them ironically but with full sincerity. The women with full arm tattoes got them tattoed and not painted on. The people of Finland don't just wear hard rock....they live it!
Maybe it has something to do with the weather being so cold for most of the year and that the amount of sunlight is very little in winter, or that the food is mostly made up of meat and potatoes or the Baltic sea is so cold even on the hottest day.
Regardless, I found Finland to be the most hard-rocking country on this trip and one that was the biggest surprise.
Helsinki is a cool city with architecture that is impressive and a sense of design that is well known. We took a tour of Helsinki and saw the main sites. Most impressive was a church on a hill. It wasn't so much on a hill as in it. A competition was held to build a new church in Helsinki and the winning entry was a design that blasted a hole into the hill through solid rock. then reconstructed the hill on top of the church. The interior is very minimalist and flooded with natural light. It's different from any church I have been to.
I guess this takes me back to my point that Finland rocks in many ways. Definitely worth a visit.
posted by NV @ 8:50 am
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home