Yodeller

Despite the fact that the sightseeing tour was canceled we had a great evening. It was nice meeting all the new people and spend time with them in a warm atmosphere.

I'm always a bit nervous going out there on my own. But having people around you that share the same interests makes it so much easier. There is always something to talk about. There we also few people I've met before in another events, so it was nice to catch up with them.

This is quite unique camp in a sense that there are a lot of people from both sides of the Atlantic. Not your average eurocamp where most of the people are from here. I'm sure it's pretty much the same across the other side. Nice to mix up and see different views of things. How we differ, but still how much there is common between us.

I'm looking forward to todays sessions. There seem to be many interesting topics. And after the official program we finally get to that rescheduled sightseeing tour. Hope there is no need for the plan D.

Oh, and the breakfast: it was good. Specially the self made waffles were delicious.

After only a few sessions in the morning we finally got into our sightseeing tour.

Our first stop was RÚV, the Icelandic national broadcasting service where we first got to hear how they are using Drupal to serve their content. After that we had a lunch at their cafeteria serving some traditional Icelandic fish, and rice pudding for the dessert.

First stop in the actual sightseeing tour was Þingvellir national park. The weather was still quite bad so we didn't see as much as we could. But at least we could stand between Europe and America, literally. There we also saw the original place of the parliament.

Next we headed towards the Gullfoss, the golden fall. Luckily the weather was getting a bit better so we actually got to see the waterfalls. And finally there was some coffee too.

After Gulfoss we stopped to see some geysirs on our way to a tomato farm. There we were told about the raising of tomatoes in greenhouses. After the introduction we were served some really good tomato soup from their own fresh tomatoes.

Unfortunately the weather was getting worse again so we had to leave bit early. Due to weather there were no chance to see the northern lights either last night.

Yesterday was quite a day. First I woke up in a record breaking 51cm of snow. They said that even the record for total snow cover over the whole winter has been only 55 cm in Reykjavik. So having almost that over one night is quite a lot.

Due to snow it was quite a challenge to move around so I was late from the second day of the camp. But so were others too so organizers postponed the schedule by 45 minutes. That was fine except that it meant my session would be starting at 11:45. My bus to the airport was leaving at 13:30 so basically I had to leave straight after the talk. And on top of that there was another 10 minutes delay due to coffee. Just had to run through my slides a bit faster.

Off to the airport and there I learn my flight is delayed by almost two hours, and I had a connected flight with 45 minutes of transfer time. Luckily service desk was helpful and managed to arrange me on another flight from Stockholm to Helsinki in the morning and stay at the hotel over night. I also overheard a finnish couple wondering the same so I told them what I did and they get the same arrangement done.

Finally at Arlanda airport I get my new ticket, hotel reservation and a food voucher. I hadn't eaten almost anything for the day so that last one was nice. Except all the restaurants were already closed. Only couple of bars open there at that time, so beer and chips for the supper.

Finally back home. Back to the regular rythm. Well almost, we are going to have our first AfterWork today. But after that.

The trip was nice decpite the weather and delays. Definitely something that I will remember. I managed to keep up most of my habits too, only skipped one workout and activity goal. But it wasn't easy. So much other things to do it was hard to find time for all that.

It's good to be back to the normal schedule, so there is no need to think about where could I fit all this doing. Really shows how important it is to have the schedule. Makes it so much easier.

Luckily now there is almost two months of that regular day rythm before my next trip.

This year we got this kiky-deal that requires all emloyees to do additional 24 hours of work per year. Luckily it's up to companies to agree how those 24 hours are spend. In our company it was decided that the hours would be spend on training and internal projects.

So during the year we will have 8 evenings with three hours of sessions that could be filled with trainings, presentations or workshops. We are even planning on getting some external speakers to get even broader offering.

Yesterday was our first such AfterWorks evening and I have to say it was fun. The goal of making it so that even if it wouldn't be mandatory people would come was there. Sure it was a long day, but in addition to training and hanging out with colleagues we got pizza and drinks. And of course many of us continued to the After-AfterWorks too.

It's still a stupid decision from the government but at least we made it fun.