Traveling offers us a chance to escape from our home and our everyday life, to live comfortably - even luxuriously - and to experience the joy of life, whether over today's fortunes, nostalgia about yesterday, or excitement over tomorrow. Sometimes it can be refreshing to just go without any special reason: look for something - anything - and be pampered and noticed - or unnoticed.

A tourist needs sleep, food, drink, and an intimate place for cleansing. Hotels, restaurants, and cafés become second homes for him. They are multicultural, communal living rooms, kitchens, and bathrooms. They are open spaces with an unreserved atmosphere, while homes are largely closed and private.

Those who travel a lot have noticed how the main streets of many European cities are starting to resemble each other, with the same shopping malls, hotel chains, restaurants, and cafés. The same international brands of cosmetics, music, clothing, beer, and television shows are available from Rome to St Petersburg, from Oslo to Lisbon. Lifestyles are homogenized and culture is globalized.

»Finnish culture in a nutshell«