"Roro, what on earth is this?" asked Flat Stanley.
"Well," I replied. "That's an abstract statue that is supposed to represent 100 years of Finnish democracy."
"Oh," said Flat Stanley. Then he thought for a minute and asked, "What's democracy?"
"What it means is that the people of Finland are able to vote on what their government does. Just like in the United States where we have a President and senators and mayors who have been elected by regular people. And just like we celebrate our democracy on the 4th of July, the Finns celebrate theirs, too."
"Okay. So what did they have before democracy?" asked Flat Stanley.
"For over 450 years, the Swedish (to the west) ruled over Finland. Then between 1809 and 1917, Finland was a part of Russia (to the east). In 1919, they elected their first president and that's when they had democracy," I told him. "Let's look at some of the important people in Finnish history."
"Here is Alexander II of Russia who many Finns liked because he brought them a step closer to independence from Russia," I told Flat Stanley.
"Hmmm. He looks important," said Flat Stanley.
"And here is Pehr Evind Svinhufvud who was a key figure in the announcement of Finland's declaration of independence on December 6, 1917."
"He looks kind of mean," declared Flat Stanley.
"And here we have Baron Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim – part of the Swedish nobles in Russian run Finland. He was in the Russian army and then fought against it when Finland was at war with the Soviet union 30 years after they had declared their independence...."
"Um, Roro. When was Finland under the rule of bears?" asked Flat Stanley.
I replied, "Not all statues are about politics. Some are just fun. Like this one."
"That’s a moose!" squealed Flat Stanley. "What about this one with a mermaid?"
"Exactly!"
"And this seal," said Flat Stanley with a laugh. "Look he’s spitting water at me!!!"
"But some are kind of scary," said Flat Stanley. "Like this lion."
Flat Stanley was really getting the hang of finding fun statues.
"Look at this one, Roro. It has a REAL bird on it!!!"
"What about this one?" asked Flat Stanley.
"Um, that’s not a statue. It’s just a rock," I told him.
"Oh," Flat Stanley replied. Then he looked around and found something else. "This one is really colorful."
"Watch out, Flat Stanley. He’s not a statue, he’s a person!" I yelled.
"Woah! That was close," said Flat Stanley, out of breath from running away from the statue that wasn't a statue. After all that running, Flat Stanley and I were hungry. We went to a café and had some lunch.
"I like sitting in cafes for lunch," announced Flat Stanley. "Can we do this some more?"
I told him, "Sure, one place that has a lot of cafes is Paris and we’re going there! In fact, let’s go look at a statue that was made in Paris and then transported here."
"Wow," said Flat Stanley. "She’s pretty. I can’t wait to go to Paris and see pretty statues there."