Katia and I returned to Finland last weekend. Katia wanted to see the frozen sea, and I wanted to see my friends again.
The low-cost trip from home to Stansted to Tampere to Helsinki by car, plane and bus was awful. I’ve only ever had a worse travel experience, and that was the return trip 4 days later – Tampere’s airport is a right shithole and it’s Terminal 2 should be closed on health and safety, as well as security grounds, immediately. Catalan “winter dancing” competitors’ passports should be summarily revoked as well.
The rest of the trip was very good indeed: the hotel was very nice -except for the Nordic countries’ epidemic mishandling of breakfast, which just can’t be avoided. We got a lot done in the little time available, from signing out of the embassy’s record for a second time to visiting every shop in Helsinki’s grand-sounding Design District, from going out clubbing to enjoying the local cuisine at Lappi, Helsinki’s oldest traditional Lappish restaurant and one never to disappoint.
We got back Sunday after Midnight completely exhausted but also completely content with the trip.
Monday was back to work, back to wrestling with issues in an effort to keep the site running and wondering when we’ll be able to afford to innovate and bring real value to the business. Sometimes working on the Internet space feels a bit like going through security at Tampere’s airport.
