Joel
Brit in Helsinki, Joel Willans the man behind Very Finnish Problems, the viral comedy brand reaching over 15 million people a month. His deadpan take on Nordic life has featured everywhere from The Sunday Times to Cosmopolitan, and in two bestselling books about surviving Finland with minimal frostbite and maximum sarcasm. He loves trains almost as much as he loves saunas, and waits for the day he can enjoy both…simultaneously.
Joel’s story starts under the stony gaze of Helsinki Central Station’s lamp-bearing giants, ‘Finland’s most stoic welcome committee.’ The perfect place to board a train that’s about to get even faster, with travel time between Helsinki and Turku to be reduced by 41 minutes in the future, thanks in part to €37.5 million of EU funding.
The more Finland becomes integrated in the trans-European transport network (TEN-T) the more options there will be for cross-border (and internal) travel: think arriving to Turku by train and then taking a ferry from Turku to Stockholm!
Joel enjoys a superb cappuccino. ‘As you’d expect from a country that drinks more of the dark stuff than anyone on Earth,’ he notes.
Here he is loving the massive amounts of personal space, watching forests blur by on the train ride. 18 year old residents of the EU or of countries associated with Erasmus+ can apply for a similar train experience (for free!) through #DiscoverEU!
Joel enjoys Turku, the ‘Paris of the North’ with its ‘oh la la cafés and cakes’ and the Turku Art Museum, a ‘perfectly preserved slice of Finnish art deco grandeur.’
As Joel climbs aboard his double-decker train home, he can’t help but feel like he’s boarding a space-age silent machine. Train travel already feels like ‘blissful therapy’ and Joel looks forward to riding again with the EU’s upgrades!
