You need to be well prepared if you want to stay almost isolated for a week in a cabin. If someone is thinking about living this experience (it’s highly recommendable), here are some tips and curiosities if your next destination is Finland.
There is a huge hypermarket chain, similar to Carrefour or Auchan. It’s called Prisma, and every large town has at least one of these in the surroundings.The smallest towns have other supermarket chains: K-Market and Citymarket, which are smaller and, therefore they have less variety of products.
You can also find much smaller shops like this one the photo:
If you ask somebody you’ll be told that if you have to buy a lot of things the best choice is to go to your closest Prisma, where you’ll get better prices and you’ll find bigger packages. Regarding the prices, there is a big range depending on the products you compare, but in general the prices are more expensive than in Spain.
The hypermarkets have some oddities, like the “slot machines” that you can find at the corridors in the entrance. It was really shocking to us, to see so much gambling. These machines were used all the time by people of all ages.
Of course, we also received public spirit lessons at the hypermarkets: parking places for the disabled people right in front of the entrance, free wheelchairs for whoever that needs it (they are by the shopping carts) and banks to rest inside the shops.
On the other hand, shops like these, and even the small grocery stores, don’t have licence to sell high alcohol beverages (only beer and cider are allowed). If you want stronger drinks you’ll have to go to your Alko store, where you’ll find wines and liquors. It’s surprising the variety of wines from all over the world they have. They are a bit more expensive than in Spain, but there’s not much difference.
In Finland are produced some berry wines, but they are very sweet and more appropriate to drink as a dessert or appetizer, not for match any food.
And remember: every plastic and glass packaging from the Finnish companies are recyclable, and you get paid for taking them to the collecting point. It doesn’t matter where you have bought them (Prisma, Alko, a bar or somewhere else): there are collecting points at Prisma and Alko shops, where you can get some good money.
Some interesting links: