Postcards from the past: remembering our travel experiences

In a new series, writers share memories of their favourite holidays. For our first week, travel editor Tom Breathnach remembers his favourite destination: Finland

Elk/moose traffic road signal on a Finnish landscape.

Skinny-dipping, a moose and Dr Eva Orsmond? They’re the iconic story reels I wasn’t quite expecting when I embarked on a trip to Finland. But then again, the Nordic nation has always been a travel enigma. 

Perennially overlooked versus its Scandinavian neighbours, Finland receives less than half the tourists of Sweden and Norway and is largely bypassed by Irish visitors — save for a few expeditions to Lapland every Christmas. However, after embarking on a road-trip through the wilds of the country in 2013, I discovered an unfiltered utopia that still ranks as my ultimate European escape.