In pursuit of happiness from Delhi to Helsinki…

Do you often go through that all too familiar feeling of wanting to disappear into a new world in the hope that you come back home with a renewed zest for life? Pretty sure I am not the exception here when it comes to the vexatious urge to crush the mundane and dash out of all the meh-ness. Every single time I want to travel around the world for an experience that will jolt me out of all the existential whining, I find myself zeroing in on traveller, storyteller, chef, journalist, philosopher, ethnographer, documentarian and kind-of-anarchist (phew!), Anthony Bourdain’s recommendations and lived adventures. And that’s how I landed on Episode 6, Season 8 of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, finding myself awestruck by the hardiness Finland had to offer in 2012. Fast-forward to a little over a decade later, the ‘Land of a Thousand Lakes’ between September-October had vistas unlike I’d ever seen before (from a distance) and a happiness index which seemed all too promising.

Everything that I had been craving!

The Nordic country already had a piece of my heart as I devoured its cinema and books ahead of my travels, with director Aki Kaurismaki’s Fallen Leaves offering a charming, yet very humane insight into love in Helsinki. What was now left was getting to the Finnish capital on a non-stop nine-and-a-half hour Finnair flight that left no room for the Delhi dose of drudgery. Ahem…you can’t really complain when you are travelling business class with meals that invigorate all your senses and ensure you are fully served and rested once you land on the other side. It’s also another thing that while on travel-mode to a new place, I will be the first to be up at the crack of dawn, ready to be the sponge bob who maxes out the day as much as I can!

All that expansiveness I had seen on my lazy desktop came to life almost half an hour before our descent—emerald green and turquoise blue waters home to the archipelago of Helsinki which consists of more than 300 islands—making it the perfect place to be cast away. 

After checking into Marski by Scandic at Helsinki, directly opposite Stockmann (one of the oldest and largest department stores in the city), despite the bone chilling breeze, I headed out to experience what has been second nature to the Finns: their sauna culture. For someone not used to stripping down to bare basics in a public sauna, steamrolled (literally and metamorphically) all of this can be slightly unnerving. However, since the root cause of this trip found its origin in shunning the regular, I attempted the cold plunge in the Baltic sea, ‘cause, why not? When every nerve ending in my body had been sufficiently numbed into submission at Loyly (the public sauna), strangely enough, I came out of it feeling incredibly upbeat and quite chuffed with myself. Post a light dinner at Shelter (restaurant at the Katajanokka harbor) an unusual soup made out of chilled almond with marinated zucchini and radish, and the star of the evening, ‘archipelago’ bread or ‘Malt’ named after the island it originated from…the walk back to the hotel was particularly dreamy…with me hoping that the not-so-far-away northern lights of Lapland would bless me with a visitation.

The next day was parked aside for taking in the minimal, yet impactful design and architecture Finns were known for…given their beautiful Art Nouveau houses from the early 19th century. While I had booked my lunch at Little Finlandia, enroute, I was awestruck by Oodi Helsinki Central Library, a spatial centrally located melting pot that was an urban oasis of art and culture. Socially egalitarian, it was open to everyone and an entrepreneurs or creatives dream hub. Want to cut an album? Book a recording room for free in advance! Want to start a t-shirt business? Sure, find a date the printing machine is available and allow yourself the luxury to dream! So easy, so simple, and so incredibly inclusive, no wonder Finns were a happy lot.

Even though tram, train, and bus connectivity makes sure the city never stops moving, you’ll rarely find a street completely empty. And just when I wanted to have a little peace and quiet, the sweet appeal of learning to forage for mushrooms and berries got the better of me. With Helsinki home to not one but seven Michelin-starred restaurants, I had to pay a visit to the talk of the town—Spis—where chef Pauli Hakala (giving Carmen from The Bear vibe) treated me to a robust 15-course menu. Made with love and incredible respect for the local produce, my two favourites had to be the delicately pickled Herring with some watercress, lingonberry, chives and horseradish cream along with the mouth-watering parfait to end on the sweetest note. 

Don’t even think of leaving the city without going to Amos Rex Contemporary Art Museum. It’s here where you’ll be teleported to a symphony of artistic temperaments with space and time melting to take you through an audio-visual experience unlike any other. Big win was the souvenir shop that lets you take a piece of incredible artwork home.

They say in order to meet yourself, you must meet the wild in its raw, unadulterated form—kind of like bathing in the forest green for a soul baring experience. Far from the madding crowd, in the forests of Espoo I took the plunge at Nuuksio National Park, while later making my way to straight-out-of-a-folkore, the very otherworldly Reindeer Park. Meeting the wide-eyed deer species with shedding antlers forced my fellow traveler who was scoffing down ‘Reindeer steak’ as if it was the only way he could attain any form of salvation, skipping his preferred feast for the rest of the trip. 

Living a life of high contrasts as I wrapped up the day with a contemporary bistro dig-in back in the city at Lucy in the Sky, I started to understand how pursuing happiness was as much of a choice as pursuing pain. Even though the day had been quite packed and I was averaging easily 20K steps a day, the freedom I felt in taking in all of Helsinki and now Espoo without fear or judgement was liberating.

Going for a sauna followed by swim at Hotel Hanaholmen by the lake, was a life I could get used to, not for a few in-between days, but kind of, for life. 

I was excited about a major bucket list check-off before I returned home to Delhi—the chopper ride to ‘The Baro’ (an ecologically built, high-end archipelago hotel in the Barosund region of Inkoo) that stood waiting to sweep me off my feet. 

Champagne toasts raised, I and my fellow passengers were ready to take off on the Helsinki Citycopter to my last pit stop. 

Smooth, cool, and very relaxed, flying above the canvas of myriad shades of deep blue, unaffected by the commotion around, watching the sun go down in a blaze of glory, almost looking straight at me (or so it seemed), I sat transfixed, smiling. Sure, there was that packed to the capacity work inbox forcing me to jolt out of this state of perma-bliss on return, but just this, the stealing of quiet moments, was worth living and loving life.

Twenty minutes later, I found myself ready and changed for my last supper at ‘The Berg’ at ‘The Baro’, before vowing to return to have a shared experience with the people I love. It’s little wonder that the average life expectancy for Finland in 2024 is 82.63 years according to macrotrends.net and for us women, according to Statista, as of 2023, it was 84.19 years. 

Now if that doesn’t make a strong case for the Finnish way of life that’s humane, urbane, and deeply mindful, little can.

Images: Courtesy the properties

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