Parkour alive and well in the land of ice and snow.

It’s 11:00 am on an icy autumn morning when I meet up with Joona Saloranta, Winston Spennert and the boys from Parkourkeskus in the car park of Helsinki’s Pasila Railway Station. The sun is shining and in the distance Valtteri Luomanaho, a 16-year-old local parkour prodigy, lands a 540 spinning back flip off a concrete parking bollard in the centre of the parking lot.

WHILE some of us find the idea of a visit outside the confines of Helsinki’s Kehä 1 intimidating, apparently a trip to Mars is not out of the question for a sizeable chunk of the world’s population.

Recent news has it that Dutch engineer and entrepreneur Bas Lansdorp seeks to establish a permanent base on Mars. Fair enough. Hoping to scrape together the necessary 6 billion US dollars, he proposes that this mission take off in 2022.

Handball has little tradition in Finland, but the interest in the sport is increasing steadily. Two dedicated handball enthusiasts are paving the road for the sport in Central Finland.

WHEN thinking about Finland and sports, people usually come up with ice hockey, motor sports and ski jumping, which is hardly surprising, when taking a look at the success Finnish sportsmen and women have achieved in these respective sports.

A closer look at the hipster subculture.

IT’S OFFICIAL: Helsinki is now officially one of the world’s coolest hipster locations. Eclectic haircuts, clothes and thick-rimmed glasses have become more of a familiar sight on the streets of the city, with plenty of hipster-oriented venues and events taking place throughout the year.

But who exactly is a hipster? Although it is wise not to generalise too much, as every member of a subculture has different habits and taste, it still possible to try and list the things hipsters have in common.

Flow Festival Pushes the Boundaries Attendance at the four-day event reached a total of 61,500 visitors. Bold, new ideas were tested this year, including a move to renewable energy sources and a redesign of the festival area layout, with the intention of reducing congestion. It is questionable how well the later concept functioned, as the area seemed to lack the harmony of previous year’s models. But when it came to the program, Flow pulled out all the stops this year.