By the time you all read this, I will probably be driving up to
Google Image Result 1 for “Finnish people”. I am a huge fan of this lady!
San Pedro (which is near Long Beach, which is near Anaheim, which is near Los Angeles, which is… LOS ANGELES) to catch a ferry for a 3-and-a-half-day trip to the lovely Catalina Island, where I’ll be frolicking and having tons of fun with 7 other med school classmates. One of the dudes (and it’ll be 8 of us dudes) decided to call it “Lord of the Flies,” which doesn’t bode well for our chances at survival. Luckily, your pal Dave has a strong jab and a mean right cross, so he’ll be delivering a formidable 1-2 punch if it comes to fisticuffs.
I’ll be absent for a few days, and wanted to leave you with a fond memory in case I get burned in a pile of sticks and conch shells, and then was struck by some inspiration…
Google Images Result 2 for “Finnish People”. What if these weren’t tiny shirts, but actually very tall women? We will never know the truth.
So Herra Arto (that’s how you say “Mister Arto” in Finnish) is in the land of Fins (and Finns) and the internet has been known to freeze there. Oh no!
Google Images Result 3 for “Finnish People.” Wearing crazy stuff on one’s head seems to be a trend.
That made me wonder, if there’s a whole language of funny-sounding words (for example, the Finnish word for tree is puu – which sounds exactly like you’d think), are there funny-sounding town and city names?
My all-time favorite is Espoo (pronounced ess-poe), because they had a basketball team named the Honka Espoo Playboys! A player from that team even got drafted into the NBA about a decade ago.
But there are other good ones:
Kristiinankaupunki
Uusikaarlepyy
Nokia (where the future telecommunications company was founded in 1865 as a pulp mill).
Uusikaupunki (punki is a great way to end a town name)
What a fun language! But don’t just leave it up to me… check out some of the other fun ones in this helpful Wikipedia list, and let me know which were your faves. I promise I’ll check the comments again if when I return from the island!
The Blog of Funny Names 
Catalina with a bunch of dudes with a Tolkien warning? Are you sure you were Bjorn for this sort of thing, King Dave? I recall that tiny bar in the port of Arcadia that may have a beverage or two that you may enjoy, my friend. My dear wife Karen and I had several there before we had to get back on the tether boat to the big cruise ship. You with your extended timetable, though, would be more able to Finnish any conversations with interesting tourists you encounter.
Or maybe the itty bitty city is called Avalon now that I’m thinking about it. Arcadia is the big park up higher?
Yep! We went to Two Harbors, which is the isthmus where the real camping occurs. Avalon is a lot more “resort-esque” and we tried to spend as little cash as possible!
Thrifty students. 🙂
The best thing is I survived, but sadly I didn’t make it to the bar in Avalon. We had plenty of beverages nonetheless – a giant cooler of Kirkland Lite beer, and made some “Gatoritas” (Gatorade margaritas with a really nice reposado tequila) then pulled out the blended scotch for the final evening. An amazing time was had!!! We met some cool tourists for sure, and had tons and tons of fun!
Welcome home, King Dave, a better man for the experience from the sounds of it. 🙂
Those Finnish names may be funny, and those snow blondes may have sturdy midriffs, but what really gets me are the hats, man!
I want those hats!!!
Yes! My favorite thing about Finland used to be Arto, but now it’s hats! (Don’t tell him this, or post it anywhere he’d be able to access it, like on a blog or something 😉 )
Hi, Dave! I’m out and on the road. I heard on the news someone was attacked by a bison on Catalina Island so I followed up the story and was relieved to see it was not you! But keep an eye out for rampaging bison anyway!
Hey! I heard that! (slightly behind schedule).
That looks worse than a crown of thorns, but I suppose it’s protected her face for nearly 80 yrs, so that’s good. As far as towns, I like Pietarsaari, because it sounds like an apology, and its Swedish name is Jakobstad, which sounds like Jacob’s Dad, and I hear he’s pretty cool.
Arto’s mom is named Sari, so on the rare occasion I make a “Your mom” joke to Arto, I always look at him very earnestly and say “Sorry”.
Your observation about Jakobstad has now gotten the song “Stacy’s Mom” by Fountains of Wayne stuck in my head. That’s a blast from the past… harkens back to my high school upperclassman days!
Ha! Like Jakob’s Dad has got it going on? Now that will be in MY head!
i would just be smiling everytime i said i was from a city that ended with ‘punki or poo.’ i’ll bet no one is ever depressed there, you can’t avoid smiling.
Maybe that’s why Finland is one of the world’s happiest countries…. Great point Beth!
Sorry, Peaches. I can’t believe I called you by the wrong name!
Those hats will be coming soon to a Paris fashion runway this fall, I’m just sure of it. Who wouldn’t want those hats!?!
Exactly! I really want one! Now! Right now!!!!
I was hoping this post would never Finnish.