Each passenger is provided with descriptive folders

The 10-kr. “joy flight” over Stockholm, mentioned in an earlier chapter, is a mere appetizer for this air classic to Finland and Esthonia. Your pilot taxis the big seaplane into the wind, rushes over the water, skims the wavelets with swift rat-tat-tat, rises decisively and — you're off! Over the garden city, the civilized suburbs, the lush inner skerries, the bleak outer skerries, and finally a fifteen-minute dash over the open Baltic, and then appear the myriad dots and dashes which are the outer isles of Finland.

Each passenger is provided with descriptive folders of the trip, a clear large-scale map, and (to wet flying whistles) a free bottle of mineral water. The only comfort which is denied is that of the smoking weed, for severe signs state not only Rökning Förbjuden but Tupakkaan Poltto Kielletty, which is the crisp Finnish warning against smoking.

Two and a half hours after quitting Stockholm you seem to be settling down upon a pine forest, but the plane slides just over the tree tops and settles as gracefully as a silver gull in the haven of Åbo, Finland's western port. It is but an hour thence across "The Land of Forty Thousand Lakes” (the more enthusiastic brochures say sixty thousand) to the bright capital of Finland, known in that nationalistic country as Helsinki, though its more limpid Swedish name, Helsingfors, refuses to die out.

Sidney A. Clark: Sweden on fifty dollars. 1936

It is appropriate here to present the reader with some account of Abo

It is appropriate here to present the reader with some account of Abo. "The city of Abo, pronounced Obo (the Finnish name is Turtu), contains about 14,000 inhabitants. It has four or five barracks, some of them built of wood, which in time of peace have in them from 3000 to 4000 Russians, as the Fins call all soldiers. The town is defenceless as to forts and fortifications. 

There is an old Swedish palace at the mouth of the river, called the Slott (palace or castle), now used as a prison and barrack; but it has no guns or defence except its walls, strongly grated with thick bars of iron. The low buildings in front appear much older than the two long wings. There has been a moat in front, from the river to the sea to the right; but it has little water, and resembles a large ditch. 

Behind the Slott is a bridge, half a mile long, made of piles, and connecting the island of Runsalla with the main-land. Runsalla was given by the government a few years ago to the town; it is one of the very few islands off the Finnish coast upon which the oak grows; it is divided into lots, which are sold for building villas upon; but the purchaser may not cut down an oak, even if it interferes with his view or his building, as they are reserved by the crown for shipbuilding, though they are nearly all rotten. 

Opposite Runsalla is the island of Beckholm, where large ships anchor and discharge into lighters, as there is not water enough in the river for vessels drawing more than twelve to fourteen feet. Passenger steamers proceed up to the lower bridge, though they sometimes get aground in the river when the water is low, as it is when there is an east wind."

The illustrated history of the war against Russia. 1857

What is the meaning of the barefoot women and girls in rural Finland?

 What marvels are the Finnish rural women — marvels of vitality, industry, robust interest! They seem to do all that any man can do, and then some. Cheerfully they tend the cows, feed them, milk them, clean their stalls, make cheese, make butter, care for their children, keep house; then weave, knit, read, go to school. They hold to their bosom ideals of art, learning, music, home, country. Boys bow and click their heels together. Girls modestly curtsy. Hospitality is naive, direct, neither stilted nor nervous.

What is the meaning of the barefoot women and girls in rural Finland? Is it a relic of age-old inferiority in the masculine mind? Is it an economic necessity? Why no running water in houses? Why no washing machines? Would rural sociological research mend matters any more quickly? Would statistics help? Must a country wait till a Grundtvig comes? Or a Snellman?

My drift into rural sociology : memoirs of Charles Josiah Galpin. (1938)

The market at Helsingfors

It is a showery day. Along this stone pier, nearly up to its level, now at high water, lie a hundred fishing-boats, the prow of each touching the pier. Each rude vessel is a residence and a place of business. Looking down into one dark, smoke-begrimed cabin — a junk shop and blacksmith forge in one — you see two men eating. Salt fish in one hand and hard tack in the other, these form a fisherman's lunch. These huge, dark wheels, a foot in diameter, are sometimes strung together by twine passing through a hole in the center of each. Soaked in coffee I have found them palatable, if one be hungry, but the Russian black bread is too much like asphaltum pavement a year old, both in color, density and weight. A wedge and heavy hammer would be needed to break it. The Emperor is said to have kept a block of it, cut into the form of a cube, for a paper weight. Irony, if not iron, is in it. The absence of sweets and other delicacies which ruin American teeth is a compensation for coarse food, and explains the superior integrity and beauty of the teeth of foreign peasantry. Thousands who never saw a tooth-brush have never felt a toothache.

Here are milk-boats with firkins holding a dozen gallons; butter-boats with buckets of butter, nice and yellow ; potato-boats filled with bags and boxes ; fish-boats with nameless and numberless specimens, animate and exanimate. Fish squirming in a net were weighed by steelyards. If there were too many the fish were dropped into the water bucket. Scores of stalls, covered and open, filled the square near the boats. A hundred sunburnt women sold cheap dry goods, fancy ware, or stationery. The greengrocer, the baker, and the farmer sold from their carts as well as from stands.

Edward P. Thwing: Outdoor life in Europe or sketches of seven summers abroad. 1888

The room swarmed with vermin

I had arranged for my onward passage in an office which led me to expect by its appearance and the formalities of the agent, accommodation superior to the Fürst Menchikoff; but imagine my surprise, as I groped my way on board the Abo boat, to find myself among a cargo of oxen, through which I had to work to reach the stern of the vessel. The return of daylight explained this arrangement ; and the good-humoured civility of the little skipper made his craft far more agree able than the haughty exclusiveness and artificial consequence of the Fürst Menchikoff. The vessel was as large, but was decked only fore and aft, the midship being open and appropriated entirely to the transport of cattle ; they proved to be no annoyance, and the unpretending arrangements for the passengers were enhanced by an anxiety to please. Our society was small but agreeable and friendly — a Russian general taking his young wife to Abo to meet her parents ; some other officers, a Swedish baron, a Danish general returning from a mission to St. Petersburg, and two or three students.

At no period of our passage were we really in open water, the islands thickening as we advanced; some barren rocks, and others clothed to the water's edge with fir trees; few inhabited, and those only by solitary fishermen, whose little huts gave the only indications of life. It was a beautiful day, and the waters were as a sheet of glass, showing distinctly the ripples of the numerous wild-fowl as they swam by, and the lazy plunge of the seal as it scrambled off the rocks at our approach. It was the most peaceful scene I have ever witnessed : it was Sunday, and nature was in harmony with the day of rest : the very birds seemed to possess a sense of protection ; for, unalarmed by the steam-boat, they floated on the water within gun-shot, and stood preening them selves on the rocky islets, so close that I could distinguish their varieties with my naked eye. I have made a vow to read this page of the book of nature a little closer; and if ever I have the power, I will spend a month in the spring of the year to learn a little more of these my favourites.

It was evening as we neared Abo, whose now forsaken observatory, perched high on an eminence, we had occasionally caught glimpses of in the distance ; and, after following the sinuosities of a creek imbedded in hills of rock, the town suddenly opened on our view, and we were moored alongside a vessel from Hull. It was a fragment of English ; and, notwithstanding my cosmopolitish feelings, my heart glowed and vibrated as if the chord of home had been touched, the home of my early recollections and affections, for the later ones bore no fruit of promise. Again I was a wanderer in search of shelter, and again I found it in a Society's house; but the rest I required, after the fatigue of the three previous days and exposure at night on the deck, was impossible; for the room swarmed with vermin, which sprang into activity before I lost consciousness in sleep. I passed the night on a bench in the garden, the only safe place I could have found, as the landlord told me, for the whole town is infested with these scourges of rest, beyond all belief.

Edward P. Thompson: Life in Russia; or, The discipline of despotism. 1848

Farther on, the road and the country improve

Since the peace, however, the whole of Finland has become part of the Russian Empire, and is incorporated with the Government of Wyburg. The distance between St. Petersburg and Abo is about 640 versts, and the road from the capital, as far as Wyburg, sandy, dreary, and uninteresting. Wyburg, the capital of the Government which bears its name, carries on some trade in deals, tar, and timber, but in every other respect is unworthy of notice. Farther on, the road and the country improve; and before we reach the Kymen we have to pass through Friederickshamn, where there is a garrison and a good many inhabitants, but no foreign trade. The road to the west of the Kymen is excellent as far as Abo, and the country fertile and variegated in a great degree. When this tract belonged to Sweden, it furnished Stockholm with large supplies of corn, and was considered one of the richest appendages of the Swedish Crown.

We pass through some pretty little towns, such as Louisa, Borgo, and Helsingfors. The celebrated fortress of Sveaborg lies within a mile of Helsingfors; and now that it is in the possession of the Russians, they will no doubt render it perfectly impregnable.

The accommodation generally all through Finland is very bad; and travellers would do well to have a bed in their carriage to be used in case of need, and to have moreover some cold provisions, tea and sugar.

Abo is a bishopric, and contains about 10,000 inhabi tants. It is a town of great antiquity; and in addition to a fine cathedral, they have an Academy, which was founded by Queen Christina, and formely very much resorted to. Under the Swedish Government, Abo served as a place of security for their galley fleet and sea-stores; and its situation, close to the Gulf of Bothnia, is admirably adapted for that purpose. During my short stay there, I received the kindest attentions from the celebrated Professor Porthan, for whom I had letters of introduction.

Thomas Brown: The reminiscences of an old traveller throughout different parts of Europe. 1843

Better collections of animals and exotic plants than are possessed by the combined cities of New York, Boston, and Chicago

The city of Abo, about five miles from the sea, contains a population of over 20,000 souls. It has good hotels, stores, manufacturing establishments, schools, parks, and fountains; a botanical garden, a theatre, telegraph lines, a daily newspaper, and a fine railroad depot. On either side of the river leading to the sea are numerous fine private residences having their docks, yachts, and bath houses, and surrounded by lawns and flowers, rivaling Long Branch and surpassing the approaches to the American metropolis. A New Yorker, accustomed to viewing with placid satisfaction the beauties of the shores of his city's harbor, and visiting Finland with the expectation of finding a scene of almost Arctic sterility and hyperborean frosts, soon realizes his mistake.

Helsingfors, the Capital of Finland, contains about 50,000 population, and is the principal distributing city of the country. It has many magnificent five-story stores, two theatres, a military academy, a great university, a telegraph school, an astronomical observatory, electriclights, two daily newspapers, an immense sugar refinery, one of the best hotels in Europe, and better collections of animals and exotic plants than are possessed by the combined cities of New York, Boston, and Chicago.

Demas Barnes: In search of summer breezes in northern Europe. 1887