First day in Finland

Thursday, 3 July 2008

Update! See comments.

7h15 Ja tenim 20 mosquits esperant per entrar dins es bany.

That is the first annotation of the day. However, time is not actually correct. I’ve had a little discussion with Marga this morning about it, while I was preparing breakfast:

- Quina hora és?
- Són les 8 menos 3.
- Eh… No Xesc, que són les 7!
- No, jo tenc les 8h.

Ummm… Strange. On her clock and mobile it was 8 o’clock, but on my mobile it was 7. I didn’t change anything. But wait. Perhaps… Oh, I have a Finland GSM provider. Let me check. Oh, and I have the feature Auto-Timezone enabled. So, it’s 8 o’clock, but in Finland. We wake up just one hour before. Marga hates me. Toni, fortunately, is still sleeping. He will kill us if we wake him. After preparing breakfast for later and having a coffee, I go outside to walk into the sun.

I go along the riverside. There is a wonderful weather outside. I take several pictures. Everybody is still sleeping. I only find one man working on his tractor, cutting the grass, and another man looking at the river. After visiting the watermill, I return to our cottage. I find Marga on the way. We agree on waking up our friend. Time to have breakfast and leave.

(*) see comments for additional incident (in Catalan)

At 11h36, we are only at 25km from Rovaniemi. After 3 coffees I’m fully awake, but I’m hungry. I’m aiming at the leftovers of Stroganof chicken from yesterday. When we arrive to the first big city of our trip, Marga goes to the touristic office, to get some info and maps to continue our route. As it takes long, I don’t hesitate in having a second breakfast.

Marga returns with a bag full of propaganda, camping guides and maps. She looks very happy. She explains to us that there are only 2 camping sites in our way, and to be careful with the reindeers and mooses. The girl from the tourist office was very enthusiast. Prospects are even in Spanish! We decide to buy some stuff in a supermarket, and then continue to Napapiiri, where we’ll cross the Arctic Circle. Tonight we have to celebrate it!

Napapiiri is the city where Santa Claus has his Post Office. It is also a very touristic place, with all the souvenir shops you can imagine (and more). I buy some little presents for my nieces, and then we have our photo session. We take pictures crossing the parallel, with Sami tents, in front of the Santa Claus office… We behave like real tourists. I send a postcard to my mum and nieces,hoping that it will arrive. The stamp is a bit strange, without any currency on it. When I ask, the same stamp is valid on the whole world. Well, I try. We’ll see if it arrives.

After walking around the village once more, they let me take the car. It’s really hot inside, so we openwide the windows for a while. I ask myself why I brought a wool pullover to the Arctic. We haven’t seen any snow yet.

At lunch time, we have a little incident. We go through a small road to a “supposed” lake with fishing facilities, and we end up in some private houses. I want to go back, but they insist in going further. Due to my indecision, I stop. But the wheels are trapped in “serradís”, so the car is unable to move. Glups! Hopefully, our expert driver is able to move it. We have to push hard, though. Yuppie!

No more incidents, until we cross some animals in the road. At that time I was sleeping in the car. When I turn my head, I see them. Two reindeers are walking on the road. They don’t seem to be afraid by our presence. They simply keep on walking. Amazing.

We arrive at Leviletho apartments, our sleeping place, pretty soon. It’s only 18h30 (local time). Levi is a ski resort, and now is practically empty. That would perhaps explain why we get such a bargain. We pay 55 euro for a complete apartment with kitchen, bedroom, fireplace, dining room, bathroom, and a small entrance. When we see the kitchen and dining room we are already surprised. It’s completely equipped, We have a TV, video recorder, radio, oven, fridge with freezer, vitroceramic fire, water boiler, bread toaster, more than 20 dishes and glasses, knifes, forks, pans of all sizes… In addition, everything is of high quality. I’m amazed they are renting this apartment to us. We are even more satisfied when we enter the bathroom. There is a washing machine, so we can finally wash our clothes, and there is a sauna! Inside the bathroom! Wow! Of course, we have also a drying machine. Did I already tell you that we have a dishwasher?

After installing our things and killing a dozen of mosquitoes, we go outside for a tour. We go again to the supermarket to do some more shopping. We only need washing powder, but when we are inside, we start looking for all corridors. They have everything. Toni starts losing his patience:

- Que no hem de partir? O voleu passar es dia dins es super? Quins dos!

Our tour is quick. We see a lot of small apartments all along the place. I guess it becomes crowded in winter. We also stop nearby a lake, but I return quickly to the car. Argh! Mosquitoes are really agressive here. Even Marga and Toni start hitting themselves. Now I understand why the rent was so cheap. We decide to go back home and prepare a nice meal.

We cut paprika in long pieces and put them in the oven. Then we boil potatoes and cook the onions with the reindeer meat. We also prepare a small salad. To drink, a glass of local beer. We finally crossed the arctic, and we found a wonderful house! Both events deserve a celebration! After dinner, we have a relaxing private sauna, and we “suam com a porcs” (sweat like porks).

Our midnight group photo gets a bit spoiled by the presence of those infamous insects. What he f***? Are they never sleeping?

Going back to our chalet, we found a couple of seniors looking for a hotel, at midnight! We guide them to the city, where we hope they can find some room available.

Esto es todo, amigos!

Map

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Liant-la al Evoswitch Datacenter

Friday morning I went, together with JW and Ole, to install a new server for our TOPdesk SaaS. It cost us more time to enter the datacenter than actually mount the server. In fact, I broke the brand new digital system for security access (something called SAR).

En Xesc ja l’ha tornat a liar!

There is a machine that takes a picture of your face, and then 3 fingertip scans of your right index finger and then 3 more of the left one. Afterwards, it will ask you to scan your passport. Helaas, it works only with Dutch passports, not with the rest. Thus, when I put my Spanish ID card in the scanner, it didn’t work, and when I reverse it… Well, then I crashed the system. The usual message appeared:

Este programa ha realizado una operación no válida y se cerrará.

When we closed the window with the error message, something similar to the following appeared in the screen:

Buiten dienst (out of service).

As you can imagine, I could not stop laughing. I did not laugh externally, of course, but inside me I was amazed. How can this happen? Again! Unfortunately, we could not take any photo. The woman in charge of the reception was not very surprised, so perhaps I was not the first one. Then we switch to the traditional (and more reliable) method. We wrote our names, ID number and signature in a sheet of paper. However, we could not open any door, because you have to use your finger to do that, if the digital system works.

Apart this incident, the datacenter is amazing. There are a lot of power generators, and a long list of “rules” to maintain security. The server rooms are plenty of racks. Each one is protected with a lock, so only the customer is able to install there a server or manipulate the network cables. Is like on the sci-fi films. Super!

Later on, at the borrel, I found a follower of Richard Stallman. I’m not alone! I also talked with other people, played at the babyfoot, drank beer, played at the Wii (I was the first to use the Wii Play game!) … until one o’clock, and I still left people behind! :-O

Gullvik to Haparanda

Wednesday, 2 July 2008

8h10
Aixecar-se costa… “Cinc minutets més”, me demanen.
El sol ha sortit i xapa roques.

We leave the camping and go directly to the supermarket. We need to get some food. We buy a special bread, kind of toasted one, very tasty to use for breakfast. We also buy some fruits, vegetables, and reindeer meat. Neither chips nor chocolate are allowed. Only “real” food. After our purchase of survival, we fill the fuel deposit completely, just to avoid any incident. We drive on small roads for a while. Then, we switch to the E-4. We should perhaps write somewhere how many kms are we making every day. When we pass by Umea, the counter indicates 1820km. I save that info on my diary. Nobody talks in the car. Marga is concentrated driving, and Toni is looking at the map. Tux is sitting with me on the rear. Both have our seatbelts fastened, and look through to the window. I guess we are all a bit tired.

Today, there is nothing special to visit. We just have to go as far as possible. I think we can arrive to Lulea, but we’ll try to arrive to Haparanda, on the border with Finland. On the way, we see a Fjäll Raven factory. I can’t resist stopping to take a picture. “Ja que hi som”, we get out of the car and visit the outlet store. My wonderful trousers are even more expensive than in Holland. Wow. We return to the car before we get in the shopping mood. We also stop at a place with a wood tower, from where you have a nice view over the woods and lakes. However, it’s shaking with the wind. Wow. It’s also starting to rain, so we have to run to the car.

We have lunch near the sea. After coffee, the usual group photo session follows. We make several stops to relax our legs. One in a place with a BBQ, life jacket and a floating dock, where we play karate for a while, as if we were children. I enjoy these moments, just like a kid will do.

Another stop takes place in a village (whose name I don’t remember), where a car and motorbike exhibition is taking place. All cars and bikes are extremely well entertained. Cadillac, Imperial, Renault 4TL, Harley Davidson… It’s a pleasure to look at them, and take pictures!

Later on, we stop at a service area for a quick “berenar des capvespre”. There is a WC. I’m curious, so I take a look. It’s clean, and there is even soap and a mirror! We look at some maps. We are close to our destination. Tux is happy.

Marga, as our public relations person, makes her usual call to the closest camping. The price is a bit more expensive than usual, but we’ll have a shower inside the cottage! Yuppie! In addition, the camping is situated near a river rapids, in Kukkolaforsen. Everyday we have a better place to sleep. That’s cool.

We find the camping after a failed attempt. We arrive to the most touristic camping we have ever been. I think there are even hotel beds. There is a bar/restaurant, and a souvenirs shop by the reception. No question, of course, to eat in the restaurant. That will be a sacrilege to the “torrente” spirit. Not even a visit to the bar is allowed. When the friendly receptionist asks us whether we want breakfast, we say “No, thanks” all together. I think it’s clear that we will spend here only what it’s indispensable, not more. She tell us that we can also use the sauna. For free, she adds with a wink. Wow, sauna!

After the check-in, we park our car in front of our super cottage, and go quickly to make a tour of the place. Stop. Before going out, perhaps we should use that anti-mosquitoes lotion we have. Yes, indeed. The rapids are really spectacular, but mosquitoes also are. Despite the lotion, they attack us without compassion.

However, Kukkolaforsen is so special that we accept the burden. During our tour, we have seen some men half-naked drinking beer and taking a warm bath in those wooden barrels. Is that the sauna they have promised us? There are also antique wooden saunas, but none is running. We go to reception again and ask.

- No, that is for people that have ordered it. Your sauna is in the common area. You can use it, but you can lock the door. It’s there (indicating the place on the map).
- Ah, OK, Thanks again!

We go there, but it’s crowded, so we decide to have dinner first and then go to the sauna. No wooden barrels for us. Going to the cottage, we see, scattered on the grass, pieces of the Kubb game Toni told me about some days before. They teach me how to play. It’s very easy and amusing. Yet the mosquitoes attack us again. We abandon the game, but I get the idea of playing during our annual summer camp in Sa Costera.

Marga prepares a delicious Strogonof chicken with rice, and a salad with Brie cheese and cherry tomatoes. Everything is very tasty, but we have to leave some for tomorrow. We are (or at least I am) full. After dinner comes, as usual, our midnight photo and midnight bath in cold water. Tonight, we also enjoy a midnight sauna. Now (while I’m writing this), I don’t remember what came first, if the sauna or the swimming. The only think I remember are mosquitoes. Call me mosquito-paranoid if you want, but it’s not funny to be the whole day hitting yourself to kill them. Some of them contained a big load of blood. From who?

Back to the cottage, we face ourselves with an important decision: we cannot do everything we were planning to do. We should decide whether we go to Kiruna, in the middle-North of Sweden, and from there to Trömso (Norway), or if we go to Rovaniemi (Finland) and North through Lapland to Norway. We want to see Santa Claus village, and pass through Lapland to see some Sami people. But we also want to see Kiruna, a city that will be relocated soon. It’s currently over iron ore mines, and there is a danger of falling down. It’s difficult to take a decision, and more at this untimely hour, but we finally agree on …

(more in next chapter!)

Last note of the day

1h45 No me deixen escriure…

Map

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Best friends

Aspect Ratio Crop and Free Rotation tools from Digikam have been my best friends during today’s photo edition. I saved a lot of pictures from being thrown away.

Au, bona nit!

Vacances de Nadal amb AirBerlin

Cercant el bitllet de les vacances d’agost, resulta que he trobat una oferta de AirBerlin. Ja tenc vol per les vacances de Nadal! Apuntau:

AMS PMI 24.12.08 10:40 13:00 AB9264
PMI AMS 11.01.09 19:45 22:25 AB9265

Tenint en compte lo cars que se posen els vols en arribar el mes de desembre, no m’ho he repensat dos pics. A més (aprofit per fer una mica de propaganda):

• Me donaran un caramelet, una beguda i un sandvitx (cutre, però un sandvitx al cap i a la fi) gratis!.
• He pagat sense targeta de crèdit, directament des del meu compte de banca holandès.
• Novetat! Podré fer el check-in i reserva de seient online.
• Els horaris estan bé. Bé, per ser francs, el vol de la tornada és una mica tard, però mirat pel costat bo, podrem fer el típic dinar de familia sense estressar-nos.
• Puc facturar 20Kg (si vull) sense pagar extra. Aquesta és una de les coses que no m’agraden de Ryanair. Has d’anar més viu que una centella si no vols que te clavin. Cada Kg de sobrepes val una fortuna!

Res, que estic més content que unes pasques. Demà me queda confirmar amb el meu “jefe” les dates del vol a Mallorca per Agost. Si tot va bé, arribaria dia 10 i me’n tornaria dia 27, passat festes de sant Bartomeu.

Au! Bona nit!

Glups! Ara mateix no sé si 19 dies seran massa. Igual m’he passat de llest… :O