When I was booking a night at this hotel, I checked whether they had a fitness center. The website said they didn’t have one onsite, but the guests could use a 24-hour fitness center just one block away. With that, I packed my gym clothes and decided to bike instead of working out on Friday morning.
When I arrived and checked into the hotel, I asked about the fitness center, and they said: Well, it’s not really a 24-hour, it’s just the name. I asked when they open in the morning, and they said: 5:30. It was later than I would normally go, but it sort of worked for me, so I planned to go down at 5:20 and get the pass.
After some wandering around, I found the fitness center, but it was locked. There was no sign on the door, but when I peeked inside, I saw that the blackboard said that they are open from 5:30 to 10 PM on weekdays and from 8 AM to 8 PM on Saturdays and Sundays. 🤷🏻♀️
I am about to leave Portland without having seen much, but I’ve had an exceptionally productive workday. Several months ago, J (my peer from Scotland) and I submitted a talk proposal to the FOSSY conference in Portland. The proposal was not accepted, and I moved on with my life.
Then, about three weeks ago, I received a message from J: Could you come to Portland so that we could work on our project? The project meant our talk on the same topic, which was accepted to another conference, which I will be unable to attend. J will be presenting for both of us, but I wanted to participate in the PowerPoint preparation. In addition, our proposal for a community event at PG Conf EU was accepted, and we needed to create an event plan. I didn’t know he was coming, because I knew our talk had not been accepted. He told me that his other talk was, so he was coming. I regret not knowing about it earlier, as I had just recently made plans to visit my friend Lena in Ann Arbor, so I said “no.” But two weeks ago, Lena informed me about her home situation, and we agreed that it would be better for me not to visit now. I immediately thought that in that case, I could go to Portland. I made this trip very minimalistic because I couldn’t waste workdays, and I had things to do at home (and I wouldn’t have any free weekends until October).
If you want to see a crazy person who spends their own time and money to fly for one day to the other side of the country just to work with somebody on a project – that’s me! Fortunately, the conference hotel was very reasonably priced, and I also found that I had $300 credit with American Airlines from last summer when we had to cancel our flight to DC, which was more than half the price of that ticket.
On Friday, I departed from ORD at noon, arrived in Portland at 2:30 PM local time, and still had time to attend the last two sessions at the conference and listen to J’s talk. We agreed on our working sessions’ schedule, and spent most of Saturday working, with interruptions for meals and coffee, and then I left for the airport, where I am now sitting, waiting for my red-eye flight.
My last day in Helsinki was marked by a massive thunderstorm, so I wasn’t even able to take a picture of myself on the rock (my other traditional picture, which I was not able to take). In fact, it was probably the worst day of the whole vacation, weather-wise.
I was packing until the “one after last” minute, and we made it to the airport technically on time, but later than I planned. The airport was super-crowded (but we knew that would be the case). What I didn’t expect was a substantial line to the Priority desk (I was checking in one luggage). Fortunately, I am not just a Priority but Platinum, so I could go to another line with just two people in front of me.
The security check was fast and without issues. The passport control was new: there was a separate line for US, UK, Japan, and some other passports. They scanned the passports and took pictures, and after that, the border control officer still looked at me and my passport.
But the most interesting thing was arrival: same as in April, nobody asked for my passport! They just took a picture of me, and said it was good, and I am good to go. I think that they somehow match the picture taken before departure with arrival pictures, but that’s just a guess. Overall, all quiet, no lines, no crowds, no nothing.
I wouldn’t think about it, but Boris pointed it out, and I thought I should mention it: note the difference between the sign indicating the pedestrian side of the path in Tallinn and in Helsinki:
The rest of my time in Helsinki was spent biking with Boris and supporting the Finnish economy by shopping for chocolate, marmalade, and both kids’ and adults’ clothes. Also, I was still doing tons of conference-related things, and I also had to dial in to work several times. One might argue that I should have disconnected entirely, but I was afraid that if I left things as they were, there would be too many things to fix when I returned, and it would take way longer.
Unfortunately, it was raining almost every day, and between the rains and the necessity to do some community work, the bike rides were less frequent and shorter than they would be otherwise. Also, I didn’t have a chance to go to Soumenlinna. The good thing is that I finally broke Boris’s resistance to going to the Regatta, and in addition to my going there alone on the first day, we went there twice together, including today.
They called it a reindeer pie, but I would say it was a reindeer quiche. In any case, delicious!
Also, we witnessed something really special: two Asian ladies trying a cinnamon bun and a blueberry pie with vanilla sauce for the first time! They asked to sit at our table, since it started raining again, and it was pretty crowded inside the Regatta. And when I saw (and head :)) their reaction at the first bite, I asked them whether it was their first time, and they confirmed. I told them that Regatta was the perfect place to do it for the first time!
The last post about our visit to Tallinn, which is about “everything else.” No matter how many new places we visited, Tallinn is all about walking its streets. As I mentioned, we started at the “back” of Kadriorg:
We are unsure when these canals appeared or, rather, were restored, but based on the time the palace was built, they should have been included into the original park design.We saw many playgrounds like this with old tree pieces used for artwork (or playground amenities) Boris said that there was a swimming pool at this place, and that’s where he learned to swim.A 20th-century Methodist ChurchAn advertisement in Russian to apply for industrial and agricultural jobs in Estonia, Finland and SwedenFreedom SquareA view from the top of the hillWe like this small cafe in Baker’s Passage, but that was the first time we tried something other than the cakes, and it was a mixed experience. The salmon quiche, which I tried, was mediocre. Boris somehow figured out that what they named ‘pancakes” were indeed crepes, so he had more luck.“In case you do not know who the master is here!”Coffee with Vana Tallinn and raspberry-pistachio cake at the Maiasmokk CafeThe House of Blackheads Brotherhood- we learned a lot about them in the City Museum
I love that more and more city towers are being restored and used as exhibition spaces. We had already visited many of these new museums, and the next one on our list was the one opened in the Kiek-in-de-Kok (Peek into the kitchen) tower. Museum information can be found here.
There are tons of kids’/family activities offered in this museum, and the museum itself is way more than a fortification museum, although a large portion of it is about war and weapons.
We visit Tallinn at least twice a year, but most times, we walk the familiar routes. This time, we agreed to do something different, at least partially.
I neglected to mention earlier that when we visited Zoya, she told us that her village was a part of the Soviet Union for eleven years after the WWII: the Soviet Union leased a big chunk of land for it’s Navy base, and there were actual border control crossing points, and when a passenger train had to pass through this territory, the windows would be boarded for that stretch. She also explained how pretty much everything had to be restored when the Soviet Union abandoned the lease. In Tallinn, Boris wanted to explore one area which he said was closed when he was a child, for a similar reason: it was a Soviet navy base. That being said, when we disembarked, we turned in a direction opposite to how we normally walk from the terminal to the city center.
St. Barbara is the patron saint of miners, and there is a local legend about three miners who were led out of the mine by St. Barbara, and how one of them founded this church. The first church on that site dates back to the 14th century, but it has undergone continuous evolution and renovation, with subsequent rebuilding. The miners were exposed to multiple risks, including losing their way in the mines, being suffocated, falling into the cracks, and so on. And even without accidents, their health would deteriorate rapidly due to exposure to hazardous gases, high moisture, insufficient light, and other factors. The miners worked every day except Sunday, with no time off. It would take them about an hour and a half to get down to the mine, then they worked for six or seven hours, and it took them another hour and a half to get on the surface. With a life like this, they definitely needed the church full of light!
Traces of 14th century frescos on the wallsA tw0-key lock15th-century iron storage door“A reminder to be uncorruptable” 🙂 A picture of King Wenceslaus II giving the royal mining code Ius regale montanorum to the miners. This was a legal document that specified all administrative as well as technical terms and conditions necessary for the operation of mines.The Bible of Martin Tishnov, 1489Hand-written Hymn Book, 1470-1530, both Czech and Latin songsThe view from the museum balcony
Hettie's Reflections 