Haha :D all of these are pretty true. Nice that you like this place. I kinda hate this place sometimes.

Yeah, you told me. Mainly because of the drunks, right?

Yep. There's just something about drinking that bothers me. I used to drink but I've been completely sober for over almost 1.5 years now. Drinking isn't mainly the problem since I'm fine with my friends drinking and I like to hang around with them even when they drink but there are limits to it. If you drink alot and be a complete ass by glorifying alcohol in someway. that bothers me.

• Interesting ability to succeed in car racing.
• A famous designer worldwide known for being the first article of the encyclopædia, since we all see his name on the spine every time we dust the shelves.

Just kidding. :) Now seriously, it would be too long to tell. I think any educated person knows that Finland has given many notable figures to the Western Culture, and everybody should be able to mention at least a few important names in Music (e.g. Jean Sibelius), Literature (Mika Waltari), Cinema (Aki Kaurismäki), Architecture and Design (yes, Alvar Aalto, now seriously), etc...

I know the country has one of the highest social educational levels in the World, a strong economy, it adopted the euro currency (contrary to Sweden and Denmark), etc...

Thanks to all who shared more interesting thoughts and associations with Norway :D

Very few actually. There were a lot more of them in the 90s!

Thanks, and I agree! We have a lot of national pride tied up in our explorers and about salmon, there's no argument. It's a helluva fish!

Tove Jansson, vodka, depressed people with knives, lakes, demo groups (like Future Crew), saunas where you slap eachother's bums with twigs ..

Those are the first few things pop into my mind. I was a big fan of the Moomin series when I was a kid and some of my mod tracker idols (like Skaven and Purple Motion) came from the finnish demo scene. Saunas are awesome, even with spanking included I figure, and as someone who lives in a cold country and who's also lived in the high arctic, I can't understand why we don't build more saunas. I should add that our feeling that you guys are depressed has a lot to do with your language. Norwegian may be the most melodic of the scandinavian languages and finnish must be a strong contender for the least melodic. That often makes you seem a little down mood-wise from here.

The knives comment is from a series of jokes I've heard from fins about fins. In one joke, there's a scenario where a road is blocked by a huge rock and the joke is about how different peoples deal with this problem. I think the fins reaction in the joke is to get drunk and stab the rock with their knives. :p:

Sort of depends what you mean by educated :D.
I only know Sibelius...

It's a nice bot, this one. Can we keep him?

I have two weeks to sort this out, so I desperately need some help from the forum's English users.

I have to make a couple of lengthy trips, either by train or by coach, but don't have a lot of knowledge about the transport.

For example, I'm trying to find train fares, and am only seeing tickets from London to Manchester at 100 pounds, which is not even close to within budget. I don't know if I'm simply on the wrong sites, or if it is genuine highway robbery.

Some advice and some links to sites to book train or bus tickets would be helpful, as well as your knowledge about costs.

I'm starting to panic now. Thank you.

I dont know if this is too late a response now but here goes.

What do you mean by lengthy trips? Trains are beyond robbery, unless you book them well in advance. It's always worth a look but I wouldn't expect any cheap fares. However, you could look at buses and coaches instead.

Try Megabus.

If anybody wants visitation dibs, now would be the time to call them.