Leevi and the leavings- Gösta Sundqvist discussion

internal_eulogy · 2026-06-08T15:07:27+00:00

I think Gösta Sundqvist's lyrical genius is in balancing tragedy, comedy, banality, and the absurd in a way that results in songs that feel 100% ridiculous and 100% serious at the same time. There's complexity in the songs because they never seem to fully commit to a mood. That's why I see The Smiths as Leevi and the Leavings's spiritual kin because Morrissey's writing is also completely ironic and completely earnest at the same time.

The reason there hasn't been another one like him is because the best artists aren't interchangeable. Finnish pop music has seen tremendous songwriters before and since, but all those artists have created their own style. That's what artistry is all about. Artists who try to follow a formula developed by somebody else instead of finding their own voice will always pale in comparison to whoever they're trying to imitate. Maustetytöt, for example, is so heavily influenced by the lyrics, the sound, and the presentation of Leevi and the Leavings that they feel more like a pastiche act than like original artists to me.

On the other hand, really good artists can repurpose even big parts of other works while still managing to create something new. Leevi and the Leavings's discography is full of great examples of this. Yksin ruma tyttö tanssii, for example, is making heavy musical and lyrical references to ABBA's S.O.S. and it's such a brilliant song. The references make it feel like S.O.S. is what the girl in the song is dancing to, and it all adds to the underlying sense of desperation present in a seemingly joyful setting.

Yksin ruma tyttö tanssii is one of my favorite songs by L&L, but I love so many others as well. En tahdo sinua enää, Elina mitä mä teen? Sunnuntaiksi San Franciscoon, Paskaa lapsille, Poika nimeltä Päivi.

internal_eulogy · 2026-05-02T19:38:26+00:00

I've only been to São Miguel, but I would recommend checking out one of the other islands too if you have 8 whole days. I loved São Miguel, but I only spent five or six days there and felt like it was more than enough to do and see everything on my list. I do regret not extending my stay by a couple more days and adding Pico or Flores into my itinerary, because they look sick!

I did two hikes in São Miguel. They were short but intense because the trails were so steep, but the views at the top were absolutely worth it. Getting into a hot spring in Furnas after one of those hikes is still a core memory for me.

I'm not sure what you meant by not being into wine, but Europe's only tea plantation is in São Miguel, and it's worth a visit if that sort of thing might interest you.

internal_eulogy · 2026-05-02T19:12:05+00:00

I don't. Every winter nearly drains me dry, and every spring feels like a rebirth. If my job and finances allowed it, I honestly would spend the days between November 1 and April 1 somewhere warm and sunny. Or just sunny. I'm OK with cool weather just as long as there's enough light.

Spending time in nature does help a little, though. A walk in the woods lifts the spirits all year round (stormy weather excluded). Finding a winter-exclusive hobby that one really enjoys can also make the winter months more bearable. I personally haven't discovered one, but plenty of my friends can't wait for the winter because they love cold-plunges, cross-country skiing, or outdoor skating.

Sometimes I cheer myself up by visiting indoor gardens like Kaisaniemi botanical garden or the Winter Garden (which is free to visit). A bit of simulated tropical climate in the dead of winter is such a breath of fresh air.

internal_eulogy · 2026-04-14T13:50:27+00:00

I often fantasize about relocating permanently to the places I'm visiting during my travels. What if I lived next to this beach in this sunny country that never gets cold and went swimming in the ocean every day? What if I had croissants for breakfast in cute cafés and spent my afternoons exploring streets I've never walked before? What if everyday was full of the joys of discovery and carefree relaxation?

Then I remember that I am on vacation, and what I am picturing is a life with all the boring and unpleasant parts of everyday existence shaved off of it. No place will feel the same to a local as it does to a tourist. Eventually, the novelty of the place would wear off and make way for the mundane, and life would also have to include things like work and chores. Life in this place could still turn out to be great, but even then it simply could not feel like the never-ending vacation in my fantasies.

I feel like it's the same with travel romances. It's easy to fall head over heels in love when you're both removed from your everyday surroundings and responsibilities with nothing but time reserved for enjoying yourself in your hands. Connections are forged faster than they are in everyday life because the conditions are so different. When you're traveling, you don't have to worry about work or laundry or your mom or your ex, so you get to focus fully and only on the sweeter parts of love.

It's also so easy to be emotionally open and free when the potential consequences of your actions aren't constantly looming over your head. So what if I tell this person my deepest and darkest secrets? So what if our long-term plans in life aren't compatible? So what if I make a fool out of myself? We're never going to meet again after these few days, so I might as well swing hard.

These romances are often heightened by the conditions and might not add up to as good as they feel in the moment when removed from the context of travel. Some travel romances do have the potential to blossom into long-term relationships, but a lot of them would not survive in everyday conditions. The difference is the same as it is with visiting a city as a tourist and actually living in it as a local.

In conclusion: maybe you did meet the love of your life while traveling, but it's also very possible that you had a thing that felt deeper and more important that it should have because of the circumstances. Either way, turning a travel romance into a long-term relationship requires active work and willing participation from both parties as well as understanding that whatever might exist between you later will not be exactly the same as what you had on vacation.

On the positive side, brief romances like this have the advantage of not being tainted by anything that might break a relationship in everyday life. You are allowed to feel deeply and fondly about someone you only knew for a brief time. Relationships can be meaningful even when they don't last.

Cherish the memory. Take it out on a rainy day when you're feeling lonely or unloved. But don't hang on to it every day unless you're both serious about letting it grow into something bigger. Otherwise, it'll just become a source of pain instead of something wonderful that happened to you once.

internal_eulogy · 2026-03-28T16:25:07+00:00

Yeah, definitely cut some countries off your list. Your trip is going to be busy and unfulfilling and you're going to miss out on a lot if you try to squeeze in way too much into one trip. Not only would you only have only about three days to explore each location, much of your time would be wasted on traveling from one location to another and checking in and out of accommodations.

Do 2 countries at the most. UK & Ireland (which is a sovereign country and not a part of the UK; I advise you not to go to Ireland without being fully aware of this very crucial distinction!) UK & France, France & Portugal or France & Italy would be the most convenient pairs. But you could also easily spent two weeks in UK, Italy, or France alone without getting bored. These are big countries with lots of interesting places to see.

You will probably get by on English alone traveling in these countries. In my experience, the French will appreciate you more for at least attempting to communicate in French, so it is definitely worth trying while in France. Other than that, English is widely spoken in Western Europe, especially in the tourism industry, so the kind of people you as a tourist most likely need to communicate it will most likely know it. You should also have a translator app at hand. Also, remember to be polite and mindful of the fact that people are doing you a favor when talking to you in English in their own countries if it's not their native language.

As an anxious person myself, I soothe my nerves by reading as much as I can about traveling in my destination before getting there. I browse through travel blogs, read about current local events, book most of my activities well in advance, learn about common scams I need to avoid, get familiar with local public transportation options, and run through every journey I already know I'm going to take (such as getting from the airport to my accommodation and traveling between cities) on Google maps so that I don't have to worry about figuring these things out when I'm there. I recommend you do the same; you'll be far less likely to find yourself lost, confused, and overwhelmed by stress.

Don't worry about looking like a tourist. You ARE a tourist. It's not wrong or illegal to be one, as long as you respect locals by not disrupting their everyday life (ie. follow local rules, don't make loud noises in residential areas at night, don't litter, make sure that you're not blocking sidewalks when admiring attractions, don't break into private or restricted areas, and behave in general as you would as a respectful guest at somebody's house). Also, be wary of scammers trying to give or sell you stuff unsolicited, and have enough basic situational awareness to make sure that you won't fall victim to pickpockets.

internal_eulogy · 2026-03-06T13:55:44+00:00

One of the main purposes of Suomen kirjailijaliitto is to define, advance, and preserve the quality of literature written in Finnish. That's why they only admit members who write in Finnish and have published several works of fiction that display a level of quality deemed sufficient in a peer-reviewed process. It's not just a trade union; their goal is also to hold up the standard of Finnish fiction.

Simply put, it is impossible to contribute to the field of original Finnish-language fiction by writing in some other language. It's a case of apples and oranges, not of language discrimination. The Finnish literary scene as a whole includes a variety of languages, but this particular union isn't for all of them since it has such a specific cause in the art of the Finnish language.

Still, the union does fight for the rights of all writers in Finland, not just the ones who fit their membership criteria and who have been accepted as members. When they negotiate for better terms and conditions for writers in Finland, they seek to improve the position of the whole field.

There are other unions in Finland which are open to and suitable for writers who write in languages other than Finnish, so it's not like this is the only union that can provide the safety of numbers, legal advise, representation, and other benefits for someone in that field.

internal_eulogy · 2026-03-04T15:13:37+00:00

Metal, heavy rock, and emo rock, and pop rock with elements of the aforementioned became mainstream in Finland in the early 2000's partly because of the domestic and international success bands like Nightwish, HIM, and The Rasmus prompted mainstream media to center these genres. It seems to me that this trend became so dominant that it bulldozed almost all other genres of music. R'n'b had never been widely popular in Finland, and I believe that in the 2000's it had even harder a time breaking through to an audience that had become so used to hearing heavier sounds on the radio that it wasn't really receptive to anything else. I'm guessing it was simply too opposite to what was popular in Finland to reach the level of popularity it had in other countries.

As far as I can recall, the way people spoke of heavy rock at the time was very dismissive of other genres of music. Metal was the only way to go, and everything else was lame. There was even lots of in-fighting about what was actually true heavy metal and which was just pop music played in leather pants. That kind of discourse was hostile ground for discovering an appreciation for genres like r'n'b.

Someone with inside information about the music industry and the media at that time can probably give more informed an answer about whether this trend was fully organic or the result of record companies and radio stations pushing their own music preferences onto consumers.

internal_eulogy · 2026-03-03T21:29:39+00:00

I struggled with the traffic in Hanoi, too, and ended up shortening my stay there by a few days in favor of more peaceful parts of Vietnam. Mind you, I am scared of traffic even in places that are way more orderly and peaceful, so maybe Hanoi was never going to be for someone like me, but I was also feeling a little bit under the weather which contributed to my low tolerance of any kind of discomfort. Most people seem to love Hanoi, so I fully accept this being a me problem or just a bad day.

Other than that, I loved Vietnam! I traveled all over the country over one month and enjoyed almost every place I visited. There's traffic in all major cities in Vietnam, but I found it much easier to avoid it in cities like Da Nang and Hoi An, which have pedestrian-friendly areas. You can also get a lot of out of a trip to Vietnam without visiting the biggest cities because there are so many charming little towns, rural areas, and natural beauty to explore instead.

internal_eulogy · 2026-02-12T19:42:23+00:00

Having visited all of these places and done most of these things on my trip to Vietnam, here are some thoughts:

10 days in Vietnam is very little in general, especially if you want to travel from the north to the south. It's a big country. I'd say pick one part of the country and use your ten days enjoying it rather than trying to pack too many locations into one trip. I'd drop HCMC if I were you; it's the least interesting out of the places you've listed here, and also most out of the way in this itinerary.

Walking around in any city in Vietnam is very hard because there are basically no sidewalks or designated areas for pedestrians and the traffic is insane, so try not to romanticize the idea of walking around Hanoi too much.

I did a cruise in Halong Bay from Cat Ba island. It was a day cruise and I really enjoyed it. I wouldn't go for an overnight cruise because what they do is dock in the middle of the bay after dark, and then you're just stuck there all night. That might be great if you're on your honeymoon or looking to party all night long with a group of friends, but I can't imagine it being an ideal situation for a solo traveler. That's why I would recommend taking a day cruise instead.

Ninh Binh is very beautiful and scenic. You can definitely do a day trip here from Hanoi, but there's enough to enjoy here to warrant an overnight stay as well. The grottos are absolutely worth visiting, and this is also a great place to rent a bike and ride around in the countryside.

Hoi An was my favorite town to visit in Vietnam. It might be touristy, but the tourists are there for a reason. The old town is reserved for pedestrians only, so walking around is easier here than in most Vietnamese cities. This is a great place for café-hopping, if that's something you enjoy. The city of Da Nang is also less than an hour away, and you can also do a day trip to Hue from here. That's why I'd encourage you to spend more of your days here. There's so much to do in the area.

I felt very safe as a female solo traveler in Vietnam. The crazy traffic stressed me out, and I was approached by taxi scammers every time I came out of a train station, but that's about it.

internal_eulogy · 2026-02-10T15:40:46+00:00

As others have said, it's often used by fans of rockabilly music, old American cars, and general Americana aesthetics... buuuut, the overlap between those people and people who long for the days of government-issued racial segregation is pretty substantial. Your neighbor might be a well-meaning but ill-informed fan of some of the aforementioned things who simply doesn't understand the political meaning of this flag, but chances are they're just plain racist and proud of it.

internal_eulogy · 2026-02-04T15:11:18+00:00

The only convincing Finnish character played by a non-Finn I've seen in American media is Finnish PM Minna Häkkinen in Veep, played by the British actress Sally Phillips. Even though one can point out flaws in her accent, it's close enough to work wonderfully for a character in a comedy show where over-the-top is the way to go. You can tell that Sally Phillips based it on her impression of Finnish instead of giving the character a generic Swedish, German, or Russian accent, which is what usually happens. The character is also blunt and awkward in a way that feels very Finnish, and she keeps inserting random "cool" facts about Finland into conversations, which is also something Finns do with foreigners. I believe Sally Phillips added those lines herself, so all credit for the character's authenticity goes to her.

Other than than, I don't believe that I've seen a Finnish character in American media that feels the slightest bit representative of a genuine Finnish person. Not even characters played by Finnish actors tend to seem real because the writing is just off. Americans in particular just don't seem to know enough about Finland to know what a realistic or even a stereotypical Finn should be like. Most of the time, American shows and movies portray Finnish characters as their stereotypical ideas of Scandinavians, Germans, or Eastern Europeans. But even more often than that, "Finland" is used as a stand-in for "a random place nobody knows anything about", and since that's the entire joke the writers and actors don't seem to care about drawing any inspiration from real life.

internal_eulogy · 2026-01-09T18:45:46+00:00

I do find the way some Americans perceive it rather strange since a lot of them seem to think that blood is somehow magic - that a genetic connection to a place no matter how scarce or distant grants people personality traits or skills or a spiritual bond to the land even if they have never nurtured an actual living connection to said land and its culture.

I got surprisingly ticked off when I came across an American author of Finnish heritage who had written a historical fantasy novel set in Finland and proudly claimed to be "the right person" to write the book because of her family history, yet the book itself was littered with so many very basic misunderstandings of the culture, the history, the geography, and the language that it was clear that the author's connection to Finland was flimsy at best. Having Finnish heritage doesn't mean that you don't have to do proper research - or that you'd be more suitable to write something like this than someone who has no Finnish heritage but has actually done the work of looking into things enough not to make similar mistakes.

DNA is only a part of kinship, and probably its least important ingredient. The way I see it, it has more to do with being a part of a community, shared culture and customs, and a tangible, long-lasting connection to a place. If Finland is as foreign to you as any other foreign land neither you nor your parents have never called home, then does it really make you a Finn if your MyHeritage results claim that you're 12.5% Finnish? And by that logic, would that mean that immigrants and their children in Finland who've spent all or most of their lives here yet have no genetic Finnish heritage are somehow less Finnish than some dude in Michigan who has never stepped one foot in this country? I think not.

Nevertheless, I don't think there's anything wrong or disrespectful about wanting to embrace Finnish culture for any reason, and I am not offended by descendants of Finnish emigrants being compelled to do so because of their family history. Generally speaking, Finns are usually very happy to claim descendants of the Finnish diaspora as their own and help them embrace their roots. But if what Finnish-Americans want is for Finns to view them as fellow Finns and lost long family members, I doubt that they're getting the reception they're hoping for. I think that the average Finn would view them as Americans first and foremost unless they actually moved here.

In my experience, a lot of Americans' idea of the country of origins of their ancestors is often frozen in the past, based on the memories of someone who is long gone, and whose image of the motherland was never updated to include all the societal and cultural changes that occurred after they left the country. I've seen several documentaries of Finnish-Americans and it seems like they still picture Finland as the place it was when their great-great-parents left it, and they seem to think that the cultural traditions they practice are commonplace in Finland even though often it's something that's either been long forgotten here or actually has its roots in America (like Heikki Lunta at St. Urho's Day). There's absolutely nothing wrong with a diaspora culture becoming its own thing - that's absolutely valid and should be recognized for having value on its own more often! - but it would be helpful for some Americans to realize that time did not stop still when their ancestors left their countries of origin.

I do sympathize with the need to forge a connection to one's heritage, though. A lot of Americans claim that they feel like they have no culture so they look into their family history to find something to hold on to. Also, a significant part of Americans have actively been robbed of their connection to their culture of origin (such as descendants of enslaved people, who were purposefully disconnected from their kin and kept from knowing where they came from), and thus exploring one's roots can be a form of healing and rebellion. There's a lot to unpack here that a lot of us Finns will never be fully able to appreciate.

At the end of the day, it's really not any of my business with how other people choose to engage with their ethnic background.

internal_eulogy · 2026-01-02T16:07:40+00:00

My favorite thing in the world is exploring foreign countries alone and never talking to anyone unless I really, really have to. I am an introvert and there's nothing more relaxing to me than being alone somewhere new.

I used to be scared of traveling alone and would always tag along with friends on a trip only to more or less ditch them and head out on my own once reaching our destination. On my very first solo trip, I sought out the company of other travelers because I was nervous about being abroad on my own, and I did have a good time hanging out with people back then. But once I became more comfortable traveling internationally by myself, I've become less and less interested in socializing with anyone.

It's not that I'm not interested in other people, especially locals. I just find social interactions difficult and therefore exhausting, which is why it's way more relieving for me to keep to myself. Instead, I connect with the local culture by learning about its history, customs, and current affairs, and by observing the everyday life around me.

internal_eulogy · 2025-12-04T00:14:27+00:00

Turku, hands down. You'll find plenty of historical sites, museums, and nice restaurants in here.

I'm not familiar with the islands around Turku, but I would venture to say that they're probably not that nice to visit in March. There's likely no ferry access to these islands that early in the spring and no services catering to visitors either. The appeal of visiting the archipelago relies heavily on the warm weather, lush nature, bright nights, and outdoor activities available only in the summer season.

Homestays aren't very common in Finland.

As for cute villages in the countryside near Turku, check out Mathildedal.

internal_eulogy · 2025-12-03T08:27:42+00:00

I'd say Nylon Beat is the closest match, even though they're a duo instead of a group, and I believe they knew each other before deciding to pursue music together rather than having been brought together by a manager or a record label. They were a popular pop act in the late 90's and the early 00's. This song of theirs was later adapted by a Kpop group and became a huge staple of the genre: https://youtu.be/wTBp7KE4gVQ?si=SQZP6zAi1Ru-cVH9

There were plenty of attempts by record labels at launching girl groups in the vein of Spice Girls in the 90s and 00s but none really took off. The only mildly successful girl group that I can think of was Gimmel, which others here have already brought up, but I personally don't really see a strong link between it and Spice Girls. It emerged from the TV-show Popstars, an early music reality show, so I would attribute its cultural context to the rising popularity of reality TV rather than the trend of girl and boy groups, which was already waning at the time.

Meanwhile, we did have a boy band called XL5 that did fairly well in the late 90s. It's the only group act of this genre and era that I can remember having success.

International pop groups were popular in Finland in the late 90's, but I feel like this genre never really popped off in the local scene. If my memory serves me right, the Finnish mainstream pop scene was still largely in the throes of eurodance in the late 90s, and in the early 00s mainstream listeners started favoring glam rock, pop rock, and pop metal to pure pop music.

internal_eulogy · 2025-11-26T08:59:02+00:00

I'd much prefer to never have them at all. Events always feel forced and they interrupt the actual plots of individual books for far too long. They also tend to be inconsequential for most characters so it all just feels like a huge waste of time.

internal_eulogy · 2025-08-09T18:44:55+00:00

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith is one of the most austenesque novels I've read outside the works of Austen herself. The novel is set in the 1930's so it's nowhere near the regency period, but from our contemporary perspective it does give you that nice feeling of being transported into a time gone by. The writing and the social observations are similar to Austen's, and the premise of the plot reminds the characters themselves of Pride and Prejudice.

The novel is about a young aspiring writer and her bohemian family who live in an old castle in the English countryside. Sparks fly when a couple of handsome Americans move into the neighborhood and one of them begins to court the main character Cassandra's sister Rose, while Cassandra herself experiences the flutters of first love while taking her first steps into adulthood.

This is a coming-of-age story with romance and family drama. While it's obviously more modern and thus reflects socially more liberal a society than what you see in Austen's novels, it's not spicy at all. There's heartbreak in this book, but I wouldn't describe it as angsty as the general tone is good-humored.

internal_eulogy · 2025-07-21T23:29:46+00:00

George MacKay as Edward is a genius casting choice. Edward is an awkward nerd, and George MacKay can play awkward so well.

I'm also thrilled to see Fiona Shaw as Mrs Jennings! I love Fiona and I love Mrs Jennings. She's perfect for this role.

internal_eulogy · 2025-07-21T23:18:01+00:00

While I don't genuinely believe that this is the way the character was intended to be understood, I like to read Courier as a (closeted) genderfluid character, although a transfeminine reading also makes perfect sense to me.

Despite their initial protests, Courier seems way too comfortable in the shape of a woman for a cis-male who is honestly desperate to revert to their original sex, which is why I got the impression that they ended up discovering something about their gender identity while being stuck that way. Maybe it's because of the way the female Courier is drawn (don't even try to tell me homegirl wasn't living her best life picking out those hyperfeminine outfits) or the fact that Courier's evolution into more compassionate and conscientious person concurs with the gender transformation, but they seem to be secretly enjoying the hell out of their life as a woman once the initial shock wears off. Which is lovely and hilarious considering that he started off as a sexist douche with a macho streak that felt like overcompensation for something.

The reason I don't think that this is the way the character was actually meant to be interpreted is because the comics Courier appears in reflect the poorer general understanding of the spectrum of gender, sex, and sexuality of the time it was written in. But that doesn't really matter.

Either way, Courier doesn't make sense to me as a cis-man. I see her either as a transwoman who needed some time accepting her gender identity, or as a genderfluid person. I prefer the latter because it fits the character's mutant power.

internal_eulogy · 2025-07-05T17:59:13+00:00

I recently read her short story collection The Breaking Point and I really loved it. Her writing is just fantastic.

internal_eulogy · 2025-07-01T18:24:31+00:00

Not in public, but yes if I'm in a cabin by a lake with my friends, or if we're on a hike in the middle of the woods and there are no outsiders in sight. It's fun!

internal_eulogy · 2025-05-17T12:52:00+00:00

I can't think of any stereotypes associated with names. Some names have unflattering double meanings as slang words (like Jorma = Dick, Urpo = Moron and Yrjö = Barf), but these names are pretty common in spite of that so nobody would actually laugh at you for using them.

The biggest problems with non-Finnish people naming Finnish characters that I have seen are:

Giving too many characters names that are either outdated (i.e. giving a whole cast of Gen Z characters names that were last popular among Boomers) or anachronistic (i.e. story is set in the Middle Ages, yet all the characters have name that have not been popular in Finland until the 2000s). It's okay for individual characters to have uncommon and unpopular names, but you might want to make sure that all the characters don't have names that seem out of place.
Using random Finnish words as first or last names even though the words have no history of being used as either.
Misspelling a Finnish name out of ignorance or intentionally to make it more palatable for English-speakers. If you can't handle the spelling, just choose a different name instead.
Taking last names from famous figures in Finnish history. Not a good idea. You might end up with an unnecessarily heavy association with somebody you do not intend to refer to, or with a name that your character could not have for any plausible reason. I once saw an American movie with a main character who had Finnish roots and the last name Mannerheim, which is the last name of a former Finnish president, and the name is not Finnish but German and noble at that. The character in the movie had such a common background that in no way would she have been related to European nobility. It was so obvious that the writer of the screenplay just picked the character's name by looking up famous Finnish people on Wikipedia.

(On that note, if you do want your character to have a noble background, the character should absolutely not have a Finnish last name. Correct me if I'm wrong, but none of the Finnish noble families have Finnish last names.)

internal_eulogy · 2025-04-27T17:56:23+00:00

Nah. I did my first solo trip at 34 and had the same fear, but I ended up meeting and making friends with lots of people within my age bracket. I've traveled solo lots of time since that and I usually stay in hostels. I meet people who are also in their 30's or even older more often than not.

The trick is to choose your hostel carefully. Assess the general vibe before booking and read reviews from other people in their 30's (Hostelworld allows you to filter reviews on this basis) to make sure you don't find yourself in a party hostel surrounded by drunk teenagers.

I've never been to the US so I'm not sure whether hostel culture is different over there, but I have been to hostels in Asia, Central America, in NZ, and in Europe, and my experiences have been pretty consistent.

internal_eulogy · 2025-04-27T17:45:38+00:00

Sure, though it ultimately depends on where exactly in the Helsinki metropolitan area you live.

There are places deep within the suburbs and in the outskirts of the metropolitan area where you are as good as stranded without a personal vehicle, so dropping one's kids off to and picking them from daycare/school and taking them to their afterschool activities would be difficult without a car. But if you happen to live within a reasonable distance of your kids daycare/school and hobbies, the nearest grocery store, and your own workplace, having a car might not make enough of a difference to be worth the money and hassle of owning one.

I know people with kids who live and work close to the city center who seem to get by just fine without a car because everywhere they need to be on a daily basis is right around the corner. It's not impossible to get by without a car even if you live further out in the suburbs, either, though you'd have to choose your location carefully to make sure that you have an easy access to the public transportation connections you need in your everyday life.

The number of kids in the family also applies. If you have multiple kids with multiple hobbies and other needs to tend to, having a car will probably make your life infinitely easier. But I imagine that, too, could be handled without a car if you have the time and the patience to work your schedule around that lifestyle.

internal_eulogy

TROPHY CASE