Matthew Comber recently moved from England to Finland with his wife, his two sons and two cats. He lives in Joensuu where he co-runs an online holiday-cottage rental business.

I heard a lot of cliched talk about Finland before I moved here. Back in England I was subjected to various lectures from friends and colleagues, covering such topics as, “It’s really cold and dark there”, “Finns are really quiet” or the especially irritating, “I hope you like pickled herring!”

Well, I’ve lived in Finland a few months now, so do those old cliches match the reality of Finnish life?

It seems that my old pals in England had a point about the cold and darkness. When we moved here, we came by ship, arriving in Helsinki harbour in the early hours of a crispy-cold winter morning. We were woken early that day by the disconcerting sound of our ship breaking through a crust of ice on the Baltic. As long as I live I’ll never forget the morning that my wife and I gazed out of a ship’s window at an ice-covered sea. The icy water looked so beautiful in the dawn, but it must have been deadly cold. Later, when we were off the ship, we drove through the frozen countryside to reach the town that would be our new home. When we arrived, we found our garden was buried by snow a metre deep. It was late afternoon, very dark and the temperature outside was a face-numbing –20o C. I was glad I’d packed my winter leggings!

As the next few weeks passed, I wondered if the warmer weather and lighter evenings would ever arrive, but my wife assured me that they would. She was right (as usual) and, come May, the weather turned. What followed was a wonderful summer, filled with long, sunny cloudless days. All through June and July the sun never seemed to fully set and we could enjoy the gloriously sunlit garden late at night. The summer here is such a magical time.

So, I can tell them back in England that Finland isn’t just cold and dark, but what can I say about the Finns being quiet?

Again, those old pals of mine had a point. To my English ears, the Finns can seem quiet, especially in public. If I walk into a crowded waiting room for example, I usually find these places to be oddly silent, almost as if I had walked into a sacred place of quiet contemplation rather than a busy workplace. In such places, I feel the need to talk in a low whisper, because to make any sort of noise would be a terrible faux pas! As a newcomer, this takes some getting used to.

Thankfully, I’ve discovered that the silent waiting-room scenario isn’t fully representative of Finnish social behaviour. I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the number of people who have been overwhelmingly kind, friendly and really rather chatty! When you move to a new country, it means a lot when the locals make you feel welcome.

So far, I’ve found life in Finland is living up to the cliches, but the cliches only tell half the story. As for the pickled herring, I love it!