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WednesdayWednesday morning I woke up once again well rested and ready for the day's challenges. I took the elevator downstairs to grab some breakfast, but I was in for a minor surprise. This hotel did not really have either a proper restaurant -- just a counter to get something to eat and few small tables and chairs to wolf down the food -- nor a proper breakfast selection, not to mention about anything reminiscent of a buffet. Half the selection was not even available for breakfast, so deciding was a matter of taking a pick among a handful of choices. My choice was some kind of warm bread with cheese ham inside, with orange juice and a fruit salad. Actually everything was very good (although the bread was not Texas-size), but with all these four or five choices, it might get a bit boring to eat here for the rest of the week. I met Teemu. We walked to the car and started driving towards the work place in the warm sun-soaked weather, again assisted with trusty Miss GPS. The route was easy, basically just farther on the freeway next to our hotel, and we did not get too lost, just a few extra turns looking for the destination.
The freeway concept is quite different to what we were used to in the minuscule Finland. Four or even five lanes in one direction, huge interchanges with dozens of crisscrossing bridges about a mile high (who plans these -- or are they just random?). On both sides of the freeway there were one-way two-lane or three-lane service roads, used for exiting the freeway and accessing anything built next to it. It was also possible to drive one of these all the way instead of entering the freeway itself, a gold-nugget for the ultra-cautious drivers. Whenever there was an intersection of the freeway and a regular street, the freeway would run on a bridge over the crossing street. Under each bridge, there was also a provision for a U-turn to the service road on the other side of the freeway, before the intersection and traffic lights, so that under the bridge there would be traffic in alternating directions: going, coming, going, coming.
We parked the Mercury and walked inside. The receptionist collected our names, addresses, passport numbers, shoe sizes and spectacle strengths, gave us badges and called Kim to come fetch us to the sanctuary. After numerous hours of hard labor [sic], it was time for a little get-together, taking place in a nearby sports bar with all kinds of physical table games and a wall of TVs, affectionately known to the locals as Building 3 (buildings 1 and 2 obviously being part of the real plant). Attending to the event were Teemu, me, Andy, Kim and Nipuna. We had a few games of pool -- or whichever similar kind of balls & pockets game... I'm showing my ignorance here. Actually I showed also my lack of gaming experience, being highly successful in avoiding winning even though we played as teams. St. Patrick's day being very close, we got a pitcher of green beer to go with the game. Weird.
With a few games under the belt, having had enough of losing (apparently the winning sides were also satisfied enough), we migrated to dinner. Teemu's well-earned burger man reputation accounted for a mandatory visit to a place known for serving large burgers. Teemu had one as big as his plate; I opted for a steak instead. "Ah-may-zing!" was his favorite quote, clearly deeply awed. A Coke included unlimited refills, an unknown concept in Finland (where one glass typically costs more than the drink-as-much-as-you-can here) -- too bad the first one already was so big that even another full refill was too much to ask from the volume of my digestive organs.
Finally we were well-fed and ready for home.. er hotel. We said our see-you- tomorrows and headed back. The return trip equally easy, we were back in no time at all and parked the car amongst all the pick-up trucks in the hotel parking lot. Upstairs my key card was not anymore feeling co-operative and the lock was flashing red instead of showing green and opening. Plain ole Sesame was not helpful either and I had to go back downstairs and have the key reprogrammed. Apparently there was something funny with the system because the same happened to me another time later. On a more positive note, my lost luggage had arrived, to be found at the reception desk (I seem to recall that at least some hotel delivered the goods to my room... I might be wrong), in mint condition with the minor exception of some funny grease/gravy/whatever spilled over the suitcase exterior. Also, inside I found a probable cause for the delay -- there was a nice official slip of paper from Transportation Security Administration, apologizing for any inconvenience from luggage inspections. Apparently the officials had deemed my suitcase as a probable exemplar of a piece of luggage carrying terrorist weaponry or something else equally illicit. The room in this hotel was closer to the standard versions I was accustomed to. Not huge, no microwave oven or other food management devices except the obligatory mini bar, with plenty of empty space to sub as a small refrigerator (for the Cokes, that is -- warm Coke, yuck!). Similarly, in the normal vein, the writing desk was badly lit. I wonder if they actually plan for people to do anything at that place, there's always something wrong with it. Or maybe I'm just a tough customer.
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