Feeling Fine in Finland

When I first started drafting out the plot of my book, Driving me Wild, I knew that if I had to have my Heroine fly somewhere in the world to put her out of her comfort zone and let her try something a little bit daring and new. There are so many beautiful destinations and a handful of cities I’ve been lucky enough to visit in my travels, but I thought I’d give a bit of a boost to one of my favorite places to visit, and send my Heroine to Helsinki, Finland.

If you’re like me, and you like a bit of crisp, cold weather, exploring the outdoors, and Baltic sea breezes, Helsinki is a great choice to visit. It’s got all of the beautiful architecture, history, good food, and interesting excursions as many popular (and more crowded) destinations.

Finland’s official languages are Finnish and Swedish, but those two languages aren’t even in the same language family. Thankfully, if you’re a bit rusty on Finnish, pretty much everyone there speaks English to some degree. (But learning a few words is a polite thing to do! Hei is Hello, and Thank You is Kiitos.)
Finns love coffee. If you are a coffee fiend you will be in great company here. Coffee shops, both independent as well as chains, are ubiquitous, so you’ll get your fix.
Finns also love a kind of salty, strong black licorice, which is a must-try (even if you don’t love it!) Take a bag or two home with you to either perplex your co-workers or gain serious Finn street cred if you happen to work with one.
Finland is great for introverts. The national temperament tends to be reserved, but friendly.
If you travel north from Helsinki, you can even get to the arctic circle! A town called Rovaniemi offers the chance to float in a lake in an insulated wetsuit in midwinter just to watch the northern lights. Where else can you do that?? It also happens be the home of Santa, so jot that down.
Finland is also a great travel destination for families. As the home of Angry Birds, you can take your kids to an Angry Birds themed playground, where they can slide, swing, bounce, jump, and climb until they pass out.

Hopefully, if you choose to fly to Helsinki, it won’t be because a billionaire forgets his keys in your car and asks you to bring them to him because nobody else will. But whatever way you get there, Helsinki is a great place to visit!

Pick up Driving Me Wild by Mia Carter today!

I never in a million years thought that finding a lost pair of keys would lead to adventure.

All my life, I’ve been perfectly average. Compared to the rest of my high-achieving, type-A family, it feels impossible to stand out. While I’d love to make my big artistic dreams happen, I’m kind of stuck, thanks to a bunch of lame things like “affordable rent” and “keeping the internet on.” Dreaming doesn’t pay the bills. Freelance design work and part-time rideshare driving does. And it’s nice, for the most part. Finding a passenger’s thumb drive usually means reporting, returning, yay-hurrah-good-job-me. Except this time.

This time, I put the thumb drive in my computer. Hey, I’m just trying to be helpful! Suddenly a chat window pops up and the owner of the drive is bribing me to fly halfway across the world. Today. Turns out he’s the super hot fare I haven’t been able to stop thinking about…who just so happens to be Logan Weiss—the crazy-hot 29-year-old billionaire known as “the most eligible bachelor in tech”. What the hell am I even doing?

Mia Carter lives in the beautiful Pacific Northwest and spends her days enjoying nature, travel, knitting up unraveled plot threads, and playing video games.