Helsinki via Frankfurt

We spent the weekend traveling to Helsinki to attend Steven's conference on inborn errors of metabolism (SSIEM 2026, look it up if you dare.) I'm just along for the ride.

Yes, it takes two days to get to Helsinki from SFO, covering (loosely) 6,000 miles. We traveled via Lufthansa on a 747, with all instructions in both German and English, excellent food and very attentive flight attendants. And while we had those lay flat seats, I didn't get a wink of sleep, just some closed eye time with some minor air turbulence. Leaving Saturday afternoon, we arrived in Frankfurt on Sunday morning. I was surprised to see so much English everywhere. Ads, English. Signs, English. German was an afterthought, in smaller print. It was as if I'd never left the U.S. of A. (As we had just watched Tom Hanks's series on WWII, I cogitated on the changes in Germany in the 80 years since the end of WW2, where a German airport's prominent language is now English.)

After a two hour flight (with an excellent tartine and assorted European chocolates) we arrived in the lush green and wet land of Finland at 5 p.m. local time. The Helsinki (HEL) airport immediately calmed me. It's full of natural wood and birdsong is piped in, even in the bathrooms. As you exit, a dog gently barking is heard over the loudspeakers. I looked around for that cute dog before I clued in! Again, suprisingly calming. Our flight to Helsinki was mostly occupied by a Finnish girls basketball team. This is my first time hearing Finnish. I couldn't place it. Probably because it's not an "Indo-European" language. It is closer to Hungarian, but not really. But don't worry about me, almost all Finns speak impeccable English (again, I'm thankful to speak the world's "lingua franca.") Most signs here are in Finnish, Swedish and English. Swedish is Finland's second official langauge. Over the centuries, it's been occupied by both the Swedes and the Russians, as it's wedged between them. Finland did not officially gain independence until December 1917 and become it's own country. Despite all this turmoil, Finland has been ranked the happiest country on earth, consistently, for many years. (By contrast, the USA is #23.) I aim to get a sense of why that may be as I explore Finland's capital city this week.