What facts about Finland do foreigners not believe until they come to Finland?

I have always had a positive attitude towards Finland, so things I didn't want to believe are all negative things. However the question is obviously not targeting those, but instead dumb clichés. - So this is one of the unwanted: the general lack of understanding the function of criticism and instead wish for simplified fairy tales concerning any issue. Explanation due to request: 1) News. The media is certainly free, but the real issues are never being discussed, instead there are endless amounts of articles about things that don't really matter and as such can't cause a divide between people. Unfortunately I can't prove it with numbers, I only have my own experience, where I can compare to the English and Hungarian news, that I read (I read a lot) 2) Gays. There was this event couple of years ago when some prominent church leader spoke against gays and it resulted in masses of people giving up their membership. I mean this is the result of dividing things not being discussed and so when they finally come to the surface people are surprised. 3) Religion. I am an atheist and have always expressed it. Meanwhile I am often helping out a church in Finland, attending their events, being friends with them. So despite they know that I am an atheist, they never bring up the topic. I am really enjoying this, but it's really weird and very harmful in the long run. I mean this attitude is the reason for the high suicide rates, as people don't talk out things that should be talked out. 4) Jokes. With the exception of bigots, it's absolutely normal in my original country to make jokes about ourselves, to criticize our attitude and stuff. It is also absolutely enjoyable to get it from outsiders. Meanwhile in Finland I had countless experiences, that no matter how much positive I say, I am not allowed to put in one joke about something negative. The problem is that I don't get a negative response actually, so that a misunderstanding could be resolved, but eventually it comes obvious that the joke wasn't accepted. And so on...

It depends a lot where the foreigner comes from. Bet let's assume we're talking about someone from completely different region and climate: - In winter outside temperature can be -30 degrees celsius and in the summer +30 ; really green in the summertime and white snow in the wintertime (not necessarily lots of snow in the Helsinki region and southern Finland every winter) - In winter lakes and sea gets frozen and we walk on them - In winter some Finns cut hole to ice and take a short swim in icy water (for relaxation) - We enjoy hot saunas (up to 100 degrees celsius although some prefer lower or even higher temperatures) - We don't have urge to start conversations with people we don't know; we are comfortable with silence - Late fall and winter is quite dark time especially until snow falls - that can be really depressing for some people and especially to foreigners not used to that - We have lots of natural forests literally everywhere outside city centre - No matter who owns the land, we can generally walk everywhere based on law "jokamiehenoikeus" i.e everyman's right; of course some restrictions apply Anyway, I think those are some of the facts that may be difficult to believe for some foreigners - depending on their own background.

I've been to Finland alone three times, two of which were in the dead of Winter.  I have also been to various parts of Finland, including a town right on the Russian border.  I don't speak Finnish, and got my largely with English and a few friends I made along the way. Here are a few of my learnings... Finns, on a whole, drink a ton.   I have a friend up in Jyvaskyla who doesn't drink at all, but every other Finn I've met could easily drink any American under the table... Any day of the week. You can make friends in Finland.  I was always told that the Finns were a closed people unlikely to open up.  If you can crack through a Finn, you have a friend for life.   I treasure all of my friendships that I've been lucky enough to make with findings. Finns don't mind Americans.  People went out of their way to tell me that they were impressed I made it to Finland from the US.  A few of the Finns I spoke to actually were proud that their country would attract attention from an American traveler. Finland has a unique national identity.  While it embraces the fact that it's in Scandinavia, Finland is really different from the other Scandinavian countries. 

That the sun is still shining at 11pm on summer time. My now-husband, Indian guy, came to Finland in 2010 and was totally confused about the time. How on earth can it be that sunny so late? Yep, welcome to Finland!

Someone once asked me if I had ever seen a live polar bear and was really surprised when I told them there's no polar bears in Finland. And people are always shocked about the fact that we can go to sauna naked with bunch of strangers (or friends).