Category: travel

And Actually, I Am Traveling Since Saturday!

I departed from ORD on Saturday afternoon, and it was one of my most uneventful journeys, even though it was on American Airlines, and not in the early morning.

To my surprise, both departures and arrivals were on time. The service in Business Class was as it should be, unlike the last time, and the food in the Heathrow lounge was excellent.

The only thing that went unplanned was that my attempt to buy a new fall jacket in Helsinki was unsuccessful. I love the one I bought several years ago, but I wore it up to the holes in the pockets and on the seams, so I wanted something “almost like that one.” It turned out, however, that fashion changed, and fitted waterproof jackets no longer exist— only the puffy ones.

I pulled out my super-comact-foldable one, which I kept in a drawer “just in case” – it worked perfectly today, but I still want to take something home.

One of Helsinki’s shopping centers with flying flower baskets 🙂

On Monday, I went to my co-working space (my UK co-worker was traveling earlier, and I wanted to make sure we had some coverage). I noticed the kids corner there, and I do not think it was there before!

I was able to work the whole day. Boris came there with my luggage at 5:30, and we headed to the airport. The flight to Riga was less than an hour, and by 9:45, we were in our hotel room.

The window view in the morning:

And then the actual work started!

Going Back

This time, my trip to Finland was “without extras”: I was traveling without checked luggage, and I didn’t have time for any shopping!

I wanted to get something for my girls from the Moomin Museum, and even this little bit barely fit into my carry-on. The conference closed on Friday at 1 PM, and we were home by 4-30. I immediately started re-packing: I will be back in three weeks, and I realized I could leave some of the things I won’t need at home, but will need when we go to Riga. Now that I am thinking about it, I realize I could leave a lot of warmer clothes there – it’s still summer in Chicago!

I had a business class ticket from Helsinki to London, and an Economy Premium ticket from London to Chicago. However, this one was upgraded to business class at the last moment, allowing me to enjoy a couple of hours of good sleep and very productive working time on both flights and in the lounges. I was really surprised with how much I was able to accomplish on the way back – usually it’s not the case.

I reworked my ADBIS tutorial to fit into a meetup presentation, which I will give at Northwestern next week, and I have started working on my Riga presentation. Additionally, I caught up on most of my non-personal emails and finally published a professional blog post, which I had planned to write for almost a month but never got to.

(There was no way for me to eat everywhere the food was offered on that trip, so I picked the best from each place :))

Helsinki Finnair Lounge
Helsinki- London lunch
A cinacmon bun on that flight: I would never refuse that one 🙂
The Emerald Longe in Heathrow – the above flight was delayed, but there was no security wait, so I had a chance to stop at that one. I do not recall seeing this horse floor lamp before, but I might have forgotten
Ater British Airways upgraded me to the business class, they found my low -calories meal request

(And they forgot to give me coffee before arrival, but that was not a big deal – they were busy serving the First Class :))

Life Is Better With Cinnamon Buns!

Moomin Museum

Tampere has the only Moomin Museum in the world, and it happens to be in the same building where our conference lunches were served (and adjacent to our hotel building, so we could walk there, staying inside). I loved it! I hope that I will be able to take Nadia and Kira there!

I took a lot of pictures there, so for those who want to see them all, I made a separate album – enjoy!

The museum has a separate room for each of the Moomin books, exhibiting original illustrations by Tove Jansson and the Moomin house!

Moomin Library with books on two dozen languages!

Afterwards, I took the pictures of everything in thr museum store, and send them to Anna so that she and the girls could choose what they want, and then I had to pack it into my carry-on, which was not an easy task, especially because I am also bringing back mine and Boris’s Moomin cookie jars :).

Tampere City Hall Reception

Tampere City Hall visit was an absolutely new experience for me, and I wish I took more pictures! The best part was that we could walk arond the whole building, not just a reception hall. Imagine you visit a museum, and you are allowed to sit on all of these beautiful chairs, and come close to these timy wooden tables, and touch the cabinets and vases, and feel it all like a liveable space!

As for the reception itself, the information about it was misleading. The conference program said that we will have this city walk, which will end with the “event” in the city hall. Boris, who should have some visibility into the details said that “there should be food”.

The event started at 7 PM, and all guests were offered champaign flutes upon arriving the the reception hall, and then there were individual plates with four pieces of appetizers (I didn’t realized that I should have taken picture of them, because I thought there will be something else, but that was it :)). The Mayor of Tampere greeted the conference and delivered a short speech about the importance of data technologies, etc; then the trio of musicians was performing something with people keeping talking, and that was it. My point is that they didn’t have to feed us, but the event ended at 8:30 PM, and it was nine by the time we reached the hotel, and it was too late to look for any other food (the hotel kitchen closes at 9 PM, and I didn’t want to go out and wait anywhere for anything ).

I survived, because Boris saved an apple for me, and because we had hot chocolate packs in the room, and I didn’t really need that much, but it was definitely a planning problem 😂.

Continue reading “Tampere City Hall Reception” →

Tampere

The ADBIS conference is taking place at the Tampere University, and that’s my first time visiting Tampere. The conference itself is sort of uneventful, and I also had to spend a lot of time still doing some work, because there were always some issues. And it’s cold. Very cold. Way colder than I expected, because the wind makes it feel fifteen degrees lower than it is.

Yesterday, we had a walking tour before the reception, and I think this hour-long walk finally made me sick. I am not exactly sick, but I feel like I am about to get sick, which is even worse. That’s just to explain why I am thinking slowly and not posting about the trip.

Let me try to fix it now.

A mirror in our hotel elevator
The gym – thankfully, 24-hour for real!
The gift to the conference attendees
The swinging chairs in the University foyer
The opening of the conference

On the first day, it was so cold and windy that we decided to stay inside (the hotel is just across the street from the University), and we had dinner at the hotel.

On the second day, there was no choice other than joining this walking tour, which, now I am convinced, made me sick. However, I took some nice pictures 🙂

The city was incorporated in the 1770s (I forgot the exact date), and the old buildings we saw were mostly factory buildings, which are now repurposed for some entertainment venues

Finally, we reached the City Hall, and I will show the reception pictures in a separate post.

Seen In Helsinki

Partially obscured, because I was in a hurry and didn’t want anyone seeing me taking pictures of the bathroom, but I still wanted to take a picture of a gender-neutral parent changing a diaper 🙂 .

Two-level bike parking at the train station
And yet anothe ice cream!
Lindonberry season – I got a box in the store, and ate it with rahka, and there is still some left – I will take it ho

On Monday, I worked at Valo again (the staff is saying “Nice to see you again :)).

And in addition to breakfast and lunch, they now have afternoon coffee:)

And finally, here is a mystery photo of the day – any guesses where I took it?

Air Travel

I already reported that for the last two times, I entered the US without showing my passport, just by y picture taken. This time was the first time that I left the US without showing my passport, just with the picture taken. 🙃

Also, first time not only leaving the shoes on, but also not taking the liquids out. Almost Europe 😂.

Minor distruption. Boarding at ORD started earlier than scheduled, and it was not announced neither in the app nor at the monitors in the AA lounge, so when I reached the gate, they were already boarding group nine! And granted, they said there is no more room on the aircraft for the carry on, and they are checking in my lugguage all the way to Helsinki. And that was precisely what I wanted to avoid: I didn’t want my luggage to make a connection at the JFK. For some reason, I’ve heard the unproportionally large number of the lost luggage stories from the JFK! A funny story: the AA issued me an upgrade to the first class when I was already seated. However, this seat was by the window, so I said I will stay at my sale seat – it was close enough the the exit. But you know what – if they would upgrade me 20 minutes earlier, I won’t have to check-in my carry on!

Fortunately, I had an AirTag in the luggage, so I knew it arrived to JFK, but there was no way to tell whether it was transfered, especially because our aircraft was sitting in a departure queue for over an hour, and my connection became short. Only when I looked at my phone upon landing in Vantaa and saw the luggage AirTag there, I could breath easy :). I didn’t have time to go to the Emerald lounge at JFK, so that’s for the next time. The other good part was that for the long flight, I was in the first row of Economy Premium, so I could use the half-reclined seats to the fullest, and actually got some sleep.

Anyway, all those distruptions were minor, and I made it to Helsinki in time, and so did my luggage!

One More Piece From Portland

The place where you work on a project does matter: you should have good coffee and good food. Chocolate is a bonus 🙂

In the morning, J and I worked at the Umbria Cafe, which had great cappuccino and espresso, and macarons as an extra bonus 🙂

In the afternoon, finding a coffeeshop became challenging: all of them were closing at 3 or 4 PM, and we didn’t like the dessert selection in those that were open. Finally, we came across a Chocolate House, which had everything!

They had chocolate-everything! Beverages with chocolate, pastries with chocolate, just chocolate in all shapes and forms!

This chocolate and espresso beverage was heavenly!
I went back to purchase more twice. When, on the second time, I asked for “regular coffee, the owner gave me a mini-french press and an hourglass and asked me to wait till the sand falls through before pressing 🙂

Getting Around In Portland

It was fast and convenient to get to and from the airport. The train stops just outside the terminal, and the ride cost me $2.80, with a total ride duration of about 45 minutes and a nice walk to the hotel.

To be fair, I should say that the Blue Line in Chicago will also take you to the airport from the Loop in about 45-50, so it’s mostly just me living in the wrong place :). On Friday, I left for the airport earlier to try to get there without Uber. I did, and the Red Line worked great, but with the connection and the Blue Line being generally slower, it totaled 1 hour and 50 minutes .