HELSINKI was like a giant freezer, with strong winds blowing snow around. The outside temperature of minus 27 degrees Celsius pierced the skin. All modes of transportation, cars, bicycles and even buses were parked on the side of the streets, motionless. Yachts and large icebreakers docked at the rim of the Baltic Sea in the Finnish capital were surrounded by a 40-centimeter layer of ice.

Despite the cold outside, however, a warm feeling was grow