Back in Finland

I’m back in Finland; feeling a bit worn, but otherwise ok. Our child decided to stay in, so there was no need to come back early from the States.

After the workdays in Emeryville, I spent the weekend in Lake Tahoe area with colleagues. The whole place is really, really nice. If you are ever travelling on that part of the world, consider paying a visit to the lake, too. Tremendous mountains and other majestic scenery. I’ll try to provide more detailed travelogue later.

I had some spare time on Sunday afternoon to visit San Francisco downtown briefly. I’ve been there for ten times or so, but never before used Muni metro — now I’ve one more experience richer. I visited several shops to find something for me, Sanna or the baby; nothing was really interesting. I ventured also to SFMoMA to visit the exhibitions and permanent galleries. The exhibitions weren’t that interesting, but the permanent galleries have several works that touch me. They are worth seeing every time.

After the “shopping spree”, I had a sushi dinner with a colleague and then he drove me to the airport. I love the hospitality people show me.

The flight was once again uneventful — this is a good sign, usually eventful flights are full of undesirable events. The plane wasn’t that crowded, and the lady sitting next to me decided to venture to another row — so I had the both seats to myself. I wasn’t that tired as last time, so I was able to sleep after half an hour of flying or so. I’m quite compact, but it was still a struggle to fit in the two seats in lying position and not cut off blood circulation to any limb.

I managed somehow to get a few hours of sleep and then read a book before we landed to Munich. I bought two big bars of dark Swiss chocolate (Lindt, really excellent) before continuing reading on the gate. The plane to Finland took off late and I was back home just before midnight. After travelling almost 20 hours, I was ready to hit the bed.

This morning I could wake up in normal hours. I usually suffer from heavy jetlag after trips to US and can’t get any sleep after 3 AM. Maybe the late flight is a good option for me — better to stick to it.