The sun also rises...

  • 2010-03-27
  • Helsinki Times

"Helsinki is a pathetic, eastern European small town," somebody stated on the wall in one of the Ladies toilets at the Helsinki University. One could dispute the "pathetic" and "small" claims but there is hardly an argument against the "eastern". One could be a stickler and add a "north" to it. But that's all.

As much as we Finns identify ourselves on a polit-psychological level with the west or sometimes with the north, when it comes to time zones there is no other way of viewing our place. We are in the east. At least in European terms. As it literally shows, 24° 56′ 0″ E speaks for itself. When the Iron Curtain came down, the formerly known "eastern" European countries experienced an upgrade to Central European status. Finland remained ...

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