Update: I posted images.
I have been to Solmukohta.
I’m at the airport. Internet connection for a day: 8 EUR, and it was simple to find a place to sit with an electrical outlet.
I sat down for typing this, and Bjarke and the-other-nice-Danish-guy walked past, and stopped to chat. Just when they arrived, Firefox 3 Beta 5 was released, so we discussed that. Foxmarks.com syncs bookmarks between Firefoxes on the many terminals you work at.
Random pieces: Danish joker asking banquet staff: “Is there Muumi-bacon?”. The Finnish bar was excellent.
Folks I talked to: Staffan, and his 2 Swedish friends (subjects: Swedish freeform scenarios and their publishing culture). We came up with a mini-project to make some “micro-apps” related to Knutepunkt.
Things I learnt: audiences are very co-creative.
The Friday was “lost”, due to all jeeps landing late in the day in Helsinki. Which was fine, I got to meet up with my Java consultant/roleplayer friend Verneri, have talk-lunch, and pick up Frederik. We saw some of the city, took care of some travel details out to the rural conference hotel we were heading to (read: we completely botched the bus trip).
When Tobias and Thorbiörn finally came, I’d bought return tickets for all of (unnecessarily, it would turn out), and we headed to the buses. Some nervousness was added when communication with the driver was shaky, and I’d bought too short a trip. But, after a nerve-wracking change to a bus with a zero-English-speaking driver, we got to the hotel in the forest. At night! I was elated to be there, just being in the right place. We celebrated. Me and Thorbiörn had been placed in the same room, and retired last of our gang.
Saturday, the day of our planned session, Tobias wakes up hearing Thorbiörn singing “Till havs” in the shower, and Tobias, thinking we never slept, goes “Nooo!”. He’d have to run the whole session by hisself, without support from over-celebrated friends. This confusion holds, until we come into his room, clean-shaven, showered, and raring to go – way ahead of him.
The night to Sunday was long, very long. After the banquet – which featured a steampunk robot musical/mime performance, Jiituomas becoming Jeeptuomas, and great conversation – me and Tobias sat down to finish our drinks. At some point, we’re joined by two airline hostesses – this is a costume party – who start singing Norwegian folk songs, in harmonies. Tobias knew the lyrics in English (of course). This was just like when we had a singing duel in Denmark, at Fastaval, a few years ago. Singing random weird songs like En sliten grimma is just joy. A German named Patrick (!) joined us, and was able to do The rattling bog at breakneck speed. Johnny MacEldoo was also performed at nuclear-fission tempo. Hanna Koverola joined the session a little later. Her longhaired redhead partner slept on a chair behind her. Much fun was had, until the very wee hours.
On Sunday, the closing ceremony was held in a large hall, with a speaker’s podium up front, it felt very Battlestar Galactica, in a toned-down way. Main event coordinator Hakkis held a dead-pan speech, which the crowd loved. He’s just getting better at it. He thanked folks, and also, the staff at the conference hotel. Applause was ringing. Then Hakkis left the stage, so the next Knutepunkt staff could come on-stage. They did so in a way that made me think of BSG: by chanting mystically, resembling the weird religious people from that world. To the crowd, though, the chanting was a reference to the rituals somewhat traditionally held at Norwegian Knutepunkts.