Oulu, Finland

Despite OULU's role as national leader in the computing and microchip industries, the city still has sufficient remnants from the past to remind visitors of its nineteenth-century status as a world centre for tar. The black stuff was brought by river from the forests of Kainuu, and the international demand for its use in ship- and road-building helped line the pockets of Oulu's merchants. Their affluence and quest for cultural refinement made the town a vibrant centre, not only for business, but also for education and the arts. Today, a handsome series of islands, a couple of highly conspicuous old buildings and a nightlife fuelled by the university's fun-hungry students bring colour into an otherwise pallid city. Though it has its share of faceless office blocks, there's an ancient feel to Oulu, too, as seen in tumbledown wooden shacks around the intricately carved kauppahalli.