Finns are no-nonsense walkers. Tonight I was walking home from the grocery store and I thought I was walking pretty fast. I come from a family of no-nonsense walkers, after all. But I got passed, several times! The other day I had a tour of a building on campus I'm going to be teaching in and it was almost a struggle for me to keep up with the woman showing me around. A struggle! It's almost like there is only one walking speed here: speedwalk.
Compare this to the UAE. Emiratis saunter. They never speedwalk. I don't know if it's because of the heat or what, but I could see it both ways. My strategy there was to walk fast even though it expended more energy because the faster you walk, the faster you can get out of the heat (and into some AC). But the locals seem to try the other tactic of walking from A to B at a very leisurely pace so as to conserve energy in extreme temperatures.
So if you come to Finland and someone offers to show you around town on foot, put on some running shoes, because you'll need them.
