Did you know that Angry Birds comes from Finland? I definitely didn’t until I arrived and saw Angry Birds stuffed animals, t-shirts, chewing gum and even soda for sale almost everywhere. Finns are not only proud of their contribution to addictive iphone games, they are major customers.
Rovio, the company that developed Angry Birds, comes from Espoo, Finland’s second biggest city, but you can find Angry Birds related paraphernalia all over the country, from specialty shops at the airport to Angry Bird Activity Parks spread around the nation.
I was lucky enough to be in Saariselka for the grand opening of the newest Angry Bird activity park.
Designed for kids, not adults, it’s basically a giant play ground warehouse with some awesome Angry Birds related activities. There were also computer stations set up around the room where you could play actual angry birds. A series of Xbox Kinects lined one wall for non- Rovio related dance and sports games.
Although made for kids, all ages are welcome at the park where you are even encouraged to participate. It’s an excellent way to kill an hour or two somewhere warm and dry. I also learned an interesting Angry Birds trivia fact: the concept for the game was inspired by the world wide panic surrounding avian flu (birds) and swine flu (pigs). Not sure what that has to do with hurling things at other things, but it sure is fun!
I visited Inari as a guest of Visit Finland and Northern Lapland Tourism.
