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Comment by aj-4 | Hacker News Reader

I found Finland to be incredibly orderly and utopic as well.

Dystopic for some. I studied in Finland and learned Finnish. I could have settled down there after uni, but I didn't. It is a perfect country if you can accept an ordinary working life with your 6 weeks of holiday per year, but it is almost as if people are intentionally prevented from bohemianism by the high cost of living and the insistence on long-term flat rental contracts. It is very rare to meet Finns who spend half of the year working and half of the year traveling. I returned to Eastern Europe and in spite of the lower salaries here, I feel like I can achieve a much better work/life balance than in Finland.

Do you like delicious artisanal beers or aged whiskies from around the world? Tough luck, alcohol in Finland is sold only by a state monopoly that chooses only a narrow range of products to offer and with very high taxes to discourage purchase (because historically Nordic males imbibed large quanties of pure liquor).

no, if bohemianism and cheap beer are your priorities I don't imagine it would be.

as far as a place to raise a family, be a part of a community, general quality of life, it fits.

if it was always summer there, i'd be there no question.

You mention cheap beer, but you can actually get that in Finland. Lapin Kulta or Karhu, available from supermarkets because they are under whatever alcohol limit, are very cheap. On any weekend night you can see people young and old in city streets getting drunk on this (or on something brought over from Estonia). I was actually shocked the first time I saw all this public drunkenness; it did not live up to Finland's reputation for order. No, I meant good beer for degustation purposes being available and at an affordable price.

That Finland is a good place to raise a family has its dark side. Every time I go back to Finland I am annoyed by children being allowed in places they wouldn't be tolerated in other countries. The fancy new Helsinki central library gives adult patrons no barriers against all the noise from the children's section.

But as for "being part of a community", there is a big problem with loneliness in Finland. There are few opportunities to truly connect with other people after uni or the army. Religious observance is extremely low in Finland now, but apparently nothing ever replaced the parish church as a hub to actually interact with your local community. Few people living in blocks know their neighbours, and many feel that it would be a faux pas to even speak to those neighbours.

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