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Eurovision / Music / Europe / → All Tags

Is Eurovision A Big Neighbors Scam?

Greetings to all who spent last night watching the usual odd servings of how-could-they-ever-think-they'd-win finalists in the Eurovision Song Contest. From Germany's jazzed up Roger Cicero explaining how women rule the world to Ukraine's weirdly-dressed-up song, "Dancing Lasha Tumbai," which curiously was the favorite to win.

When it came down to judging time--Europeans can call or text to vote for anyone except for their own nation--it was even more apparent than normal that the more neighbors you have, the more votes you get. Even when a tiny country gives you a top vote, you get the same number of points as if the whole of Germany or France vote for you. Poor old England got nearly no votes (their entry's quality was questionable too, but that goes for nearly all of them), and former eastern bloc countries with plenty of small neighbors did well. And the winner? A (we personally think) not particularly stunning song from Serbian singer Marija. Media explosions about votes from neighbors has reached higher levels than ever this year, so maybe a new voting system is on the cards for Eurovision 2008 in Belgrade.

[Photo: flickrwegian]

Related Stories:
· Eurovision: Need Good Neighbours [Times UK]
· Eurovision Song-O-Mat Rocks Our World [Jaunted]

Tourism Boards / Sports / Wife Carrying / → All Tags

Finnish Tourist Board Will Use Wife-Carrying to Lure You In

Fearing that the Santa connection appeals only to children, and the Finnair panda connection is, well, too unrealistic for anyone over 3' tall, Finland's tourist board will now entice you to visit by touting its many strange festivals and contests. Events such as the World Cell Phone Throwing Championships and Wife Carrying World Championships are how Finns celebrate summer and the sunlight it provides.

Additional events include air guitar, a Sex Festival, and a wintertime contest, the peculiar "topless winter jogging" (for which we haven't been able to find any additional information). Also, in case you were wondering, 2007 "might be the best year for sauna competition ever." Judging from the pictures on the Sauna World Championships website, we'd say no year might be the best year for sauna competition.

Related Stories:
· Carry your wife and throw your phone! [Visit Finland]

Hotels / Strange Things / → All Tags

Live Your Prisonbreak Fantasy in Finland

As long as we're on the Helsinki tip, we should fill you in on a wacky new hotel opening in Finland's capital city. The Best Western Premier Hotel Katajanokka is scheduled to open in May, but that's only half the story.

The hotel bills itself quite nicely, if we do say so:

Hotel Katajanokka is architecturally unique and surrounded by a beautiful park. It has 106 rooms as well as restaurant services, conference facilities, and an idyllic summer terrace.

What they've left out of the description is that until 2002, the 19th century building was a prison. We hear that there will be fewer rooms than there were cells, so things will be a little more spacious. But will there be bars on the windows?

Related Stories:
· WiFi Wednesday: Nerdy Public Transportation Edition [Jaunted]

WiFi / Free WiFi / Public Transportation / → All Tags

WiFi Wednesday: Nerdy Public Transportation Edition

After that big bus-and-subway lovefest, we've turned our eye to WiFi-friendly public transit. Helsinki City Transport is leading the charge with newly installed LANs onboard select city buses and trams.

Now, we're just as sketched out as the next metro rider when we see someone clacking away on, say, the New York subway. But something about Scandinavia--and especially Finland--has us thinking connecting on the tram is A-OK.

Look for the "WLAN - avoin internet" sign at the front of an arriving tram or bus to make sure it's got the interwebs hook-up. If you're stuck on a carriage that doesn't yet have the service, avail yourself to some of the other plentiful public places in Helsinki with free WiFi: the city-center office of the Helsinki City Tourist & Convention Bureau is a good place to start.

[Photo: LHOON]

Related Stories:
· Helsinki City Transport [Official Site]
· Free WiFi coverage [Jaunted]
· Public Transportation Love-Hate [Jaunted]

Websites / Museums / → All Tags

Simple Pleasure: Finland Museum Finder

The site design itself is pretty uninspiring, but this online directory of Finnish museums is still a neat tool. It'll help you locate the museum of your dreams with in Finland, thus bypassing the Lonely Planet (but not the blogs, of course) and bringing you straight to the source. Locations stretch well beyond Helsinki, but as far as pronounceability goes, it's all downhill from there. A low-tech little map on every page will point out where in Finland the town and museum are.

Treasures listed include the Finnish glass museum, where you can seek out the "booze hounds" (glass alcohol containers) pictured above. Then there's the Alvar Aalto museum in Jyväskylä, dedicated to the famous Finnish architect. And finally, the Kierikki Stone Age Center, whose website urges you to "Close your eyes -- imagine you are clothed in animal skins and furs. The fresh sea breeze carries the scent of grilling meat and a hint of smoke from the nearby campfire." Done!

Related Stories:
· Museums.fi [Official Site]

Airlines / Advertising / → All Tags

Finnair's Creepy Panda

There's some universal law of being that makes baby pandas pretty much irresistable. That law, however, does not extend to fake pandas, and thus Finnair is out of luck. The airline's new ad campaign revolves around a terrifying animated panda.

While we enjoy Finnair's explanation of why the panda should be so gosh-darn endearing, the attempted coaxing has so far not soothed the burn to our brains brought on by the little guy. Apparently, Finnair's extensive route network and new business class will make you as happy as an endangered bobbleheaded cartoon.

We'd look as psyched to be alive as this guy does in economy, too, if we were three feet tall.

Related Stories:
· Commercial [Finnair]

Eurovision / Music / Live Music / Contests / → All Tags

We Want Eurovision Tickets!

Ever thought you might need to get in contact with an organization called Lippupalvelu? Believe it or not, this is simply the Ticket Service of Finland, and you definitely need them if you want to head to 2007's Eurovision Song Contest. The events kick off in May.

You couldn't have forgotten last year's winners, Finnish band Lordi (in fact they could still be featuring in your nightmares). Knowing that these kind of surprises await us these days at Eurovision, who wouldn't be rushing to get tickets? Phone sales start December 10, and tickets will be available over the internet from December 12 at a mystery website--either they're just not publicizing it yet or the webmaster at Lippupalvelu hasn't got his act together. Perhaps he's still trying to spell the domain name correctly.

[Photo: cote]

Related Stories:
· Eurovision Tickets On Sale [Visit Finland]
· Coming Soon: Eurovision Action Figures [Jaunted]
· Nightmares of European Children [Jaunted]

Santa Claus / Finland / Christmas / → All Tags

Lessons in Santa

Remember how Finland claims to be home to the real Santa? Now Finnish airline Finnair is taking the point one step further and providing the world with training on being a substitute Santa--since poor Santa is so busy he often can't do more than "drop the presents...and go straight on to the next house."

Wanna be Santa too? Finnair's online School of Santa--proudly brought to you by the Official Airline of Santa Claus--gives you six lessons in "The Do's and Don'ts of How to be the Perfect Santa." From what sounds like the obvious first step of entering via the chimney (they suggest you use the door instead), through letting the children sing carols intead of torturing them with your own voice, and to not playing Santa at the wrong times of year, these handy instructional videos will have you Ho, ho, ho-ing your way into children's hearts the world over. Not that Finnair doesn't sneak in a fair slab of advertising too. All in keeping with the Christmas spirit of caring, sharing and commercialism, of course.

[Photo: BrockLi]

Related Stories:
· The School of Santa [Finnair]
· Will the Real Santa Please Stand Up? [Jaunted]

Amazing-Race-10 / Amazing Race Maps / Helsinki / Finland / Madagascar / → All Tags

Amazing Race 10: Ridin' Dirty in Finland

Click Here To Go Straight To Chasing Racers Map


Chasing Racers is back, with a brand new Amazing Race 10 mashup. This map will update the morning after every new episode. Send along tips, rumors, gossip, locations and spoilers to our map editors, become a member and comment on the stories below, and add to the Jaunted-Flickr photo pool to get in on the fray. Enjoy.

After Dave and Mary's long-overdue exit last week, the Amazing Race is shaping up to be quite a contest, but we don't remember Dave and Mary dying, did they? Two teams were acting as if the Kentucky power couple had passed away and end up dedicating their race "in memory of Dave & Mary". The remaining "live" teams leave steamy Madagascar for Finland, will Lyn and Karlyn's alliance with the Cho Brothers keep them in the race? Will Rob and Kimberly keep saying "bro" and "dude" with abandon? Will Tyler and James be able to tackle the muddy obstacle course or will they be left in the muck? We sort out all the dirty details after the jump.

more ›

Tourism Boards / Finland / Christmas Travel / Santa Claus / → All Tags

Next Up: Finland Gives Santa a Blog

Not only does the Finnish Tourist Board want you to spend Christmas in Finland, but they also won't stop until you submit yourself to Santa and place your beating heart in his hands. While we're all for the magic of believing in Santa--he's real, it is not like 5-year olds are cruising tourism web sites in search of the big man's official web site. Yet the Finns are taking Santa's existence very very seriously:

Why does the real Santa Claus live in Finland? You can meet him on any day of the year, without any charge, only in Finland. Santa Claus' own animal, the reindeer, lives in Finland.

Good to know!

Santa Claus, Lady Santa and the elves have time to relax in summer. This is when a lucky wanderer can see them angling or picking berries on the fells of Lapland. Sometimes Santa Claus has time for his favourite hobby, gold panning. He and his companions also go to the sauna and dare sometimes to dive into ice-cold lakewater after the intense heat of the sauna.

Santa digs the sauna? You don't say. We wonder if he ever visits New York. There's a fabulous gym in midtown we'd like to recommend to him.

The welfare of all animals is close to Santa's heart, not only that of his own reindeer. For instance, in the zoological park in Ranua, Christmas is always celebrated by the animals, too, and all the arctic animals of the zoo participate in the festivities from the lemmings to the lynxes. The bears, though, hibernate during the Yuletide season and cannot unfortunately take part in the Christmas party.

Does that mean Santa takes to his lemmings like Hollywood starlets to their yorkies? Someone get US Weekly on line 2; we smell a photo op.

Lest that not be enough for you, the Board also wants you to know that Santa has an internet television channel and private reindeer-herding territories in Lapland. Come on now...all that, and he doesn't have a blog yet?

[Photo: bcostin]

Related Stories:
· Finland and Santa Claus [VisitFinland.com]

Finland / Lapland / nature / → All Tags

Foxy Lights in Finland

With September zooming up at us fast, aurora season in Finland is starting to warm up. With the impressive statistic that the Northern Lights are visible four out of five nights from northern Lapland (providing it's not too cloudy), it seems like the place to be. Even better is the fact that the Finnish have a much cooler name for this bewitching phenomenon: revontulet. Wait a minute, we know it doesn't sound instantly cool, but the resaons behind it is: Literally translated, it means "foxfire", and a Sami legend tells of:

the tail of a fox running along snow-covered fells strikes the snow drifts, sending a trail of sparks into the sky

Aw, how sweet. More importantly if you do camp out in Lapland waiting for the foxy lights, make sure you do it in a hotel with a good wake-up service. When the lights appear, they'll call you in your room and you don't have to take the (albeit low at 20%) chance that you'll be staring up in the sky, cold and seeing nothing.

[Image via tjerkb/Flickr]

Related stories:
Lapping Up Knowledge in Lapland [Jaunted]
Finland's Vibrant Capital [Scotsman]

Lapland / tourist attractions / → All Tags

Will the Real Santa Please Stand Up?

A Google search for Santa's Village pops up residences in New Hampshire, Illinois, California and Ontario, but everybody knows that the authentic Santa lives in Lapland. To be precise, the real Santa's Village is right on the Arctic Circle, just north of Rovaniemi, Finland.

Here you can post a letter from Santa's Post Office (and see the stacks of letters he's received from kids across the world, some using the most unlikely of addresses), stock up on Christmas presents and Santa paraphernalia, and even meet the bearded man himself. The nice thing is that a chat with Santa about your Christmas wishes is free. That's why we're sure he's the real Santa. Northern Finland might be a long way from most people's homes, but when you figure Santa goes to all the effort to travel the whole world delivering presents every year, one trip to Finland in your lifetime isn't all that much to ask. Just make sure you choose a year when you've been a good girl or boy.

[Image via sauwai/Flickr]

Related stories:
Rovaniemi Webcam Lure [LA Times]
Lawsuits Close Santa's Village [Chicago Tribune]
Lapping Up Knowledge [Jaunted]