Most of what one needs to know about Finland is easily summed up in just a few lines:
Wintersun: From August to May, the Finnish night lasts twenty-five hours.
Vodka: It's kept on ice in the freezer, and the traditional Finnish breakfast is a half liter of it accompanied by a piece of smoked fish.
Reindeer: They're quick to bite, have a greasy coat, and the whole country is rotten with them.
Linus Torvalds: This king of Linuxland keeps a harem of "virtual" wives and commands a geek army.
Saunas: The Finns sweat out their vodka-and-fish breakfasts at lunchtime saunas with the boss.
Sexy: Finnish law requires all citizens to be lanky sexpots, with shimmering hair and perfect teeth.
Suicide: Finland has Europe's highest suicide rate — but after death Finns transmigrate into even newer, sexier bodies.

But a little knowledge is a dangerous thing (unless you are Thomas Kohnstamm — in which case it's a book deal), so the king of Finland ordered sexy shock troops to invade Berlin to stage the Helsinkiss Festival, celebrating all that is good and clean and Finnish. Through the first week of May (when they must return North to greet the first rays of the Finnish sun), Berlin will play host to over fifty artists, musicians, dancers, and other happening creative types who have traveled south from Suomi. If you're craving a bit of that sweet Finnish love, here's a pocket guide to the events. Once you're inside, find the tallest, sexiest FinBody in the house and declare "Minae rakastan sinua, olkaa hyvä ja antakaa kala!" (I love you, please give me fish!)

In the latest political sex scandal to hit headlines, Finland's Foreign Minister has been sacked for his bad behavior. Ilkka Kanerva was fired yesterday after Finnish media outlets published excerpts from over 200 suggestive text messages the politician had sent an erotic dancer. Over four decades his junior, the leader of the Scandinavian Dolls dance troupe, Johanna Tukiainen (pictured here), sold the text messages to the gossip magazine Hymy back in March. This comes three years after Kanerva, while deputy speaker of the parliament, received an "official rebuke" for "bombarding two models with text messages." While Finland has in the past been patient with politician's infidelities, "Kanerva's texting has proved his undoing because it has raised the hackles of Finland's long suffering women." Another one bites the dust. [Spiegel]

Finland has a new idea as to how to keep its couples together, and they're calling it a "love vacation." A member of the country's parliament, Tommy Tabermann (a.k.a. the dude with the fro), suggests seven-day long vacation as a way in which lovers can rediscover or further their connection "both on an erotic and emotional level," and subsequently ideally do their part to contribute to the country's declining population. But where does that put vacation-starved singles? [

It’s sticky-hot, I’m maintaining a healthy sunburn from 1.5 hours outside a day, the AC is cranking, my hands are blistered from too many BBQ mis-grabs and the multiplex is full of big-bad blockbusters.

Feels like summer.

And as of this Thursday, June 21st, at 2:06 EDT, it is Summer. Or if you’re in the Southern Hemisphere, it’s Winter. Time of the Solstice.

People throw the word Solstice around like a frisbee, but I’m not sure if many folks know what it really means, or where it comes from. Something to do with the sun…A time of change, a seasonal change. The time marking the beginning of a season. Possibly coined by the Druids?

Solstice is actually Latin for the time the sun stands still. According to Wikipedia, “A solstice occurs twice a year, whenever Earth’s axis tilts the most toward or away from the Sun, causing the Sun to be farthest north or south at noon…(On) the solstice the Sun stands still in declination, that is, its movement north or south is minimal.”

And while most believe that solstice marks the beginning of summer (or winter), some European cultures (and Wiccans – unclear where the Druids stand on this one) proclaim Solstice as midsummer, or Litha, celebrated with bacchanalian nature festivals each and every June 24th. So if you find yourself in the Finnish countryside this weekend and folks are building bonfires the size of barns, you’ll know it’s not just for you.

Traveling equals palate-cleansing in this weekend’s headlines.

Foodie Travel
– “A Culinary Odyssey, on a Path Blazed by Orwell” (Myanmar) (NYT)
– “Copenhagen Dining: Beyond Danishes” (Washington Post)
– “A pizza tour of New York” (Times of London)
– “Four classic food adventures” (Times of London)
– “Cookery courses around the world” (Times of London)
– “Paris on a plate” (Times of London)
– “Helsinki’s bounty” (Times of London)

Also:
BC’s Revamped Ski Town
– “Refreshing Fernie” (Globe and Mail)

Camping California’s Coast
– “California Coasting” (NYT)

Chiang Mai
– “Dazzling, dizzying Chiang Mai” (LA Times)

Disney World in One Day
– “It’s A Ginormous World After All” (SF Chronicle)

Gujarat’s Beach Island
– “Love me Diu” (Sydney Morning Herald)

San Francisco
– “Lombard Street, San Francisco, Begins to Shine” (NYT)

Utah Skiing
– “Utah’s Epic Ride” (NYT)

In this weekend’s travel pages: traveling in Japan, last-chance winter fun, and urban travel in a new crop of destinations.

Japan
– “A Mountain of Tranquility Near Tokyo’s Frenzy” (NYT)
– “Island-hopping mad in Japan” (Times of London)

Enjoying the Last of Winter
– “The Cold Show in Fairbanks, Alaska” (NYT)
– “How to Enjoy a Nordic Ritual at Any Age” (NYT)
– “Learning to snowboard at Mountain High & Bear Mountain” (LA Times)

Urban Travel
– “Bogotá: 100 Percent Colombian” (SF Chronicle)
– “Food? Art? History? It’s all in Lyon” (Chicago Tribune)
– “Instant weekend: Bucharest” (Times of London)

(image via ruudb0y’s photostream)

There’s a free-roving “World Bests” meme on the loose this week. Thus far it’s attached itself to subway systems, waterfront cities, and cab rides in international destinations. Find all the detailed info below, if you crave to know where you can hail a ride from a 1950’s convertible with tailfins, which city’s main square “reaches out like an octopus, drawing people toward it—both from the city streets and from the waterborne routes of the bay” (says the Project for Public Spaces), and what city has a metro system that includes a monorail.

– World’s Best Taxi Rides (Forbes)
– Great Waterfronts of the World (Project for Public Spaces)
– Top 11 Underground Transit Systems (Virgin Vacations)

– Tagged: Subway
– Tagged: Taxis
– Tagged: Harbor

People-watching is one of the best parts of urban travel – seeing how global fashion trends get filtered through regional style, or what unique brand of sartorial crazy the locals have dreamt up. Of course, if you can’t make it to the style capitals yourself, you can always rely on the pathological need of the fashionable to be photographed, and to have a chance to illuminate the details of their outfits in print and online. To judge from the diabolically-named site Hel Looks (the Hel stands for Helsinki), the Finns are giving the Japanese of Fruits, and the “Look Book” New Yorkers a run for their money in the street fashion department. There are 46 pages of style mavens, batty grandmas, and androgynous fashion weirdos to sift through – demonstrating some serious dedication to the art of the street parade. The photographers behind the site have even rounded up a broad slice of their work into a museum exhibition, now on view in Copenhagen. (via Gridskipper)

Readers’ “Best-Of” Lists:
– “2006: how was it for you?” (Guardian)
– “FOLLOW THE READER: THE AMERICAS” (SF Chronicle)

Around the World
– “Flying faster than Jules Verne” (LA Times)

Bangladesh
– “Lured by the Beach Side of a Beleaguered Land in Bangladesh” (LA Times)

Finding Santa in Finland
– “The road to Santaland” (Times of London)

Pennsylvania
– “Just Don’t Call It the Poconos” (NYT)

Nicaragua
– “Fit for Man and Beast” (Washington Post)

St. Moritz
– “Sybaritic St. Moritz” (NYT)

Thailand: Cheap and Chain-Store Free
– “Thailand without Tescos” (Times of London)

Vienna
– “Vienna from a new angle” (LA Times)

That’s what economists Ray Fisman and Edward Miguel did. In what The Undercover Economist author Tim Harford called “a flash of inspiration,” Fisman and Miguel decided to see which countries’ diplomats at the United Nations in New York racked up the most parking tickets. They reasoned that, because diplomatic immunity put the diplomats in a consequence-free environment, it would be a great experiment to measure personal morality on a country-by-country basis.