The summertime will be in force in Finland from today,” said the tiny board near the border guard’s box at the Helsinki Vantaa airport. But summertime in the Nordic nation, when the clock is wound forward by an hour to save daylight, actually announces the arrival of spring. The change of time sign and the airport’s warm interior were in stark contrast to the dim, snowbound city that waited outside.
The feeling of being overwhelmed by something that is happening outside the realm of your senses was repeated the next morning when I was sitting at the breakfast table. From the 20 degree Celsius comfort of the restaurant, I peeked at the wallto-wall Rolling Stones poster of the older Charlie Watts, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood in the shop across the road, through the flakes of snow falling like the nature’s rock and roll.