CAPITAL HELSINKI - POPULATION 5.2 MILLION - AREA 338,145 SQ KM -OFFICIAL LANGUAGE FINNISH
Happy 200th birthday Finland! 2009 marks the bicentenary of the country becoming an autonomous region, and celebrations are planned. But it's the land rather than the history that's the real draw. The number of visitors to sparkling, sleigh-crossed Lapland alone has tripled in less than a decade - motivating the creation in 2008 of an Elf Academy (syllabus: storytelling, cookie making) to speedily train up extra helpers for famous resident Santa. Lesser known (but no less magical) wilderness abounds for non-believers: hit the 20,000 islands of the Turku archipelago, or the Hiidenportti National Park, a wonderland of ancient forests stalked by bears and wolves.
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