Finnish countryside

There are a lot on Finnish people in the upper peninsula of Michigan. I think that the U.P. does look a bit like Finland. Lots of lakes, birches and other mixed hardwood trees, and it is also cold.

Coffee

Finns love coffee. It's a fact that they drink the most per capita. My anecdotal evidence:

Today I had breakfast with coffee followed immediately by registration with coffee. Opening session for 1 hour followed by coffee. That takes us up to 10:30. My session lasted until noon, then lunch. Coffee anyone? Another session from 1 to 2, then coffee, a technical tour and finally the city reception (will there be coffee?)

Wired in Finland,

Eric

Speaking English "over there"

I always feel bad that I don't speak a second language. There is something very surreal about going to a conference and giving a paper, in English, to an audience where English the second (or third) language of everyone else in the room. I kept thinking either "I'd better speak really well since it's my language" or "I don't have to worry about my language skills, they are the best in the room." OK, that second one is an ugly American point of view, and I really did make an effort to speak slowly, clearly and enunciate as well as I possibly can.

Crossing the Gulf of Finland in a storm

Oof. Even on a large cruise ship size ferry it was rough crossing yesterday. The spray was hitting the windows on the front of the ship on deck 8. Up and down, up and down. It was hard to walk. The vikings must be naturals at sailing though. I saw hundreds of people eating pizza, drinking beer and generally enjoying themselves. Nobody got sick that I saw.

Dinner

The food is great. I'm pretty adventurous when it comes to eating, so I'd probably order by pointing at unknown words if I had to. Menus always have translations in the touristy areas, so no problem anyway. I had grilled salmon and rice last night, and for appetizers we had a selection of eel, herring, dried-salted-raw beef (a Georgian dish), pickles and other stuff. All good to me. I did pass when the dean of my college suggested vodka with the pickles, opting for a local beer instead.

Ferry

The smaller ferry is a bit faster and runs more often. When it runs. Today the Gulf is choppy and I was not looking forward to the ride in the small ship. My wishes were granted, it was cancelled until tomorrow. However, tomorrow morning I am to give my paper in Helsinki. I was able to switch to a larger ship on a different line. The small ferry is not in an area where taxis (takso) are available, but the helpful woman at the desk said "no problem, you can walk in 20 minutes" (I had 3 hours to kill). The reason the first ferry canceled is the waves, driven by a fierce north wind. walking around the end of the harbor in the wind at about 4C was a brisk adventure. At any rate I did arrive and am waiting for the ship to leave. Have I mentioned that wifi is free all over the place, including ferry terminals where you are a captive audience? In the US at an airport this post would cost $10 (and therefore not exist).

Breakfast in Tallin

I hate to take time to blog; I am having such an amazing time here. This morning I had pickled eel, among other things, for breakfast. Sort of like pickled herring in my opinion, which was also on the buffet. Other than that, the breads here are wonderful, the yogurt, cheese and dairy in general is terrific, and all in all I can't complain about the food.

Getting to Estonia

I left Rolla at about 7 am Saturday and Polly drove me to St. Louis. I got on the first plane of the trip at 10:20 and flew to Chicago, then to JFK. From JFK I flew over night to Helsinki, arriving at about 8:30 am local time. I also lost 8 hours in the process, so it was actually 12:30 am in Rolla where I started. Bedtime. It's hard to sleep on a plane, and it's even harder when you are trying to go to sleep at 7 pm, so I only managed about 2 hours over the course of the flight. It did not help that Finnair has these nifty screens in the back of the headrest and you GET TO CHOOSE A MOVIE. There were probably 40 movies, as many TV shows, music radio channels, albums by specific artists, games, and, 2 cameras to choose from, one pointing down and one pointing out the front of the plane. The latter was interesting on take off and landing.

Anyway, from the airport I took a bus to the center of Helsinki. I don't speak or read Finnish, but somehow I got to where I wanted to be. Just in time to watch the boat pull away from the harbor. It was OK, I hadn't planned to catch that one anyway. I walked around the harbor area a bit and then caught the noon ferry to Tallinn. It was a bit rough, but I was asleep most of the 1.5 hour trip anyway.

Note to fellow travelers following in my footsteps: If you take the Linda Line, when you get to Tallinn you are not near anything, and they will only change Euros to Estonian kroon. I only had a few Euros, not enough to exchange to get enough kroon for a takso (taxi), so I had to bargain with a taxi driver to accept dollars instead. She wanted $20 but I talked her into $10.