198: How I Ran Out of Countries* by Gunnar Garfors

Author:Gunnar Garfors [Garfors, Gunnar]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: traveling, everywhere, globetrotting, ultimate bucket list, all countries in the world, every country, how to visit every country, least visited countries in the world, visiting random people
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Finland

At 23:33 we walked across the border to Tornio in Finland. Where the time was 00:33. It was already January 1, 2000 and we had avoided the transition to 2000. By walking into the only country in the world where they drink more coffee than in Norway. 10 vs 12 kilos per person. Iceland and Denmark are number three and four, Sweden number six. Only the Netherlands splits up the five Nordic countries when it comes to the black beverage.

We continued the celebration “East of Sweden” with loads of stupidly drunk Finns. There is something about these Finnish jokes. There is some reality in them, something I had confirmed by Jørn Jensen. My colleague has a Bachelor’s Degree in jokes.

“The jokes about Finns are different than other types of jokes as there is an element of truth in them. We find a familiarity in the jokes about drunken Pirka, based on stereotypes. The point is that the stereotype about Finns matches the joke. We do on the other hand not seriously believe that Swedes are stupid, but we believe that Finns are fast to pull their knife out. It doesn’t say anything about real life, but the stereotype is aligned to the joke,” Jørn explained.

You would think that he knew a few good ones, having a degree in jokes. He tells the odd great story, but also some awfully bad ones. He was President of WorldDMB, the organization that maintains the digital radio standard of DAB, for four years, and we have attended a fair amount of dinners together. That means that I have heard some of his jokes way too many times. Jørn is over 20 years older than me, but still young at heart. We have traveled a lot together the last few years, and we have indulged in amazing food and drinks here and there. Jørn has the memory of an elephant when it comes to good European restaurants, something I have often benefited from.

Back in Finland our celebration was not like that of the locals. We had met quite a few people on the bridge, walking the other direction. They did the economy version of the Concorde party in order to celebrate the transit to 2000 twice.

It didn’t look like they would remember either of them.

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