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 .

24-hour Fitness, Oregon Style

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. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Portland, Oregon

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.

Time and money well spent!

Flying Back

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.

Gender Disbalance

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 Vacation

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!

On The Streets Of Tallinn

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.

An advertisement in Russian to apply for industrial and agricultural jobs in Estonia, Finland and Sweden

We 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 Cafe

The House of Blackheads Brotherhood- we learned a lot about them in the City Museum

And that’s it about this last visit!

Tallinn: 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.