The land of a thousand lakes

Finland

         Finland is called ''the land of a thousand lakes,'' but at last count there were 187,888 of them - more lakes in relation to a country's size than any other. Indeed, with a population of about five million, Finland has one lake for every 26 people.

          Its largest lake, Saimaa, is the fourth largest in Europe. The Finnish Lake land is the area with the most lakes in the country. The greatest concentration of islands is found in the southwest, in the Archipelago Sea between continental Finland and the main island of Å land.

FINLAND is shaped like a summer squash, with the Arctic Circle the stem, the capital of Helsinki the base, and the lake region the fleshiest part, where the country bellies out. 

Just about at Finland's center of gravity is Hankasalmi, home to my Finnish friend and traveling companion as well as our point of departure from which to tour Keski Suomi, or Middle Finland, as the lake region is called.     

The Finland of which he foretold is a highly industrialized and socially progressive nation where the per capita income is higher than that of England or France, and where education, culture, social services and health care receive by far the largest share of the national budget.

Sources: The New York Times