Is she the Queen? no... she is the president of Finland

On Saturday, April 2nd, I visited the President's Palace with a friend whom I met in me dormitory.

For those who like a bit of history, I should point out a two important years and dates during the last decades. Let's go back a bit, but not that much because the land that nowadays is called Finland was nothing but just ice during the Ice Age (what is not difficult to imagine if you spend your winter here).


But not much is known (I mean myself and many people that I met during this day agreed with me) what was exactly Finland before 13 century, when most of the territory was part of the Kingdom of Sweden. So, a few centuries later and an important year that all we should know is 1809, when the Russian Empire took over this land.

To make a long story short, the Russian Empire  was already too big and what today is Finland was the Grand Principality of Finland or Grand Duchy of Finland, an autonomous are with their language, culture, religion an so on. It did not last so long and their nationalism emerged. Finally in 6th December, 1917, Finland declared Independence.

Every six years there is new election for president (maximum two terms per president). Since 2006 Mrs. Tarja Halonen is in the power. We visited the Presidential Palace (see photos), which was open at the second time in the history for visitor. It means, I have been there and so many Finns didn't ;)