Arriving at Helsinki-Vantaa airport - Cockpit view

This is the view that pilots and aircrews are able to see when they are approaching the Helsinki-Vantaa airport.

I have arrived many times to Helsinki by plane, but I have, naturally, never been able to see the landing from this point of view.

Actually this video is quite calming; the approach and landing in a good weather, like in this video, seems to be "easy". For me, it seems to be more nerve wrecking to sit in the back of the plane, just trusting the pilot to land the plane safely, than actually landing the plane.  (Of course I am not able to land a plane, and I know that pilots are trained professionals... :) )

This video shows that in a good weather, the landing process is almost soothing experience. I think I will be more relaxed next time when I am taking a trip by a plane.

Talented Finnish YouTube personality

Have you seen the video where a Finnish girl talks different languages, but the words are gibberish? Well I have embedded it here for your convenience.

The girl in the video is extremely talented (and pretty) Sara, who became an internet celebrity in only few days. Her video (embedded in this post) gathered 1 million views in one day only, and just after three days the video had over 3 million views. Currently the number of views is 8,803,519 and rising...

Sara works as a cashier in a small town supermarket and is totally overwhelmed from the sudden attention she has got. She has been contacted from all over the world and she has received job offers, interview requests (for example Ellen DeGeneres has been shown some interest) etc. Joseph Gordon-Levitt has posted about her video in his Facebook wall. She has also already appeared in Finnish TV, just 10 days after her video went viral.

Check out also her other videos!

 

Breathtaking time lapse video from northern Finland

Finnish photographer Henri Luoma has made a breathtaking time lapse video from the northern Finland. There is no other video that displays the cold full moon winter nights, starry sky and Northern Lights as beautifully as this video.

Congratulations to Henri for making such an amazing video! I am eager to see more of his time lapse videos in the future.

Visit Henri's homepage at http://www.hlp.fi/ .

Note: The video is shot and uploaded to YouTube in 1080 HD, so you might want to select the best quality for this video masterpiece.

Animated fruits are singing christmas songs - tv advertisements

These two television advertisements for the Christmas season are created for the Finnish soft drink and beer producer Hartwall, promoting the soft drink brand Jaffa. The original artwork has been created by a famous Finnish graphic designer Erik Bruun. The advertisements are following the designer's original style for the same soft drink brand, from the 50's and 60's.


 

In this advertisement, the fruits are singing the Finnish Christmas song "Sylvian joululaulu" (Sylvia's Christmas song). The song lyrics are based on the poem "Sylvias hälsning från Sicilien" from 1853, by a Finnish writer Zacharias Topelius (1818-1898).

The poem is written in Swedish, but the most loved version of this song has been made from the Finnish translation done in 1918. The composition is made by Karl Collan (1828-1871).

The song has been selected in the 1960's and again in the year 2002 as the most beautiful Christmas song.

This song is a slightly happier "No onkos tullut joulu" (Well, is it Christmas), it is from a poem by a Finnish writer J. H. Erkko (1849-1906). The melody for this song is traditional Finnish melody.

Links:

Erik Bruun - http://www.bruundesign.com/tuotteet.html?id=1/
Jaffa - http://www.jaffa.fi/
Hartwall - http://www.hartwall.fi/en

Funny slow motion advertisement

This is a television advertisement for Finnish "seven eleven" type of convenience store, Siwa.


What the man says, freely translated:
 "Uhh... Trip to the grocery store. Perfect opening hours. 2000 most loved products in Finland. Gorgeous snack bites. Beautiful parcel services. Stunning customers. Dazzling staff... and perfect atmosphere. Oh yeah... Siwa - that slightly superior grocery store. "

Aarre magazine

Here is the TV spot for the Aarre magazine.

Embedding is disabled, so here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMEVKUajG6g

When I saw the ad first time, I was really interested in the product it was about to sell. I was expecting the product to be some kind of food or perhaps some cleaning agent. To my surprise, it was an advertisement for a magazine, and the magazine is about forests!

The Aarre magazine covers wide range of topics from the leisure use of the forests to the business benefits. The Finnish word "aarre" means "treasure" in English.

You should know that Finland is covered with forests: the forests cover at least 70% of the land.  Finland's forests cover larger area than the whole country of Italy or the United Kingdom. One out of five Finnish citizens owns at least some area of forest. When divided for the people, Finland, along with the neighbor country Sweden, have the largest forests in Europe.


Links:
Aarre magazine
The Finnish Forest Research Institute - Metla (videos inside!)
Wikipedia - List_of_countries_by_forest_area

Modern Finnish sauna

The old Finnish sauna tradition has evolved along with the urban lifestyle. Check out how the modern Finnish saunas look like today!

http://www.iltalehti.fi/sisustus/201303210142931_sz.shtml


For more information about the sauna and the sauna tradition, watch the great video below.