Photo gallery from SWAT 2012
Fri 6 Jul 2012 by mskala Tags used: compsci, travelHere's a photo gallery (salvaged from my old gallery software in July 2020) of my trip to the Canadian Conference on Computational Geometry in Helsinki.
Muumi and Lakritsia
The licorice is fine (it's the same "Panda" brand popular back home, just with different packaging), but the "Muumi" soft drink tastes like cough syrup.
University of Helsinki (SWAT 2012 venue)
愛の橋・BRIDGE OF LOVE
松のタールのアイスクリーム・pine tar ice cream
It's quite a mild flavour, somewhat similar to "rum raisin" ice cream without the raisins, plus wood smoke.
Helsinki seems to have more Nepalese restaurants than Indian restaurants, which is interesting because I'm not sure I've ever heard of Nepalese cuisine before at all. It seems very similar to Indian. At upper right: Lapin Kulta III beer. I don't know what "Lapin Kulta" means, but unfortunately it almost certainly *doesn't* mean "Rabbit Worshippers."
and the data structure was THIS BIG!
汁バッフェイのアーティチョーク汁・artichoke soup from the "soup buffet"
I don't think much of Finnish mass-market beer, but Finland is still part of Europe and so you can get a wide range of good beers if you're paying attention, they just aren't the default. These fridges are from the pub the conference organizers went to for their after-party (to which I tagged along). Faced with such selection I was overwhelmed, and said to the barmaid "Look, I'll just have what the last guy ordered, okay?" She gave me the skeptical eyebrow and said "It is apple beer." and it sure was. Not apple cider, but beer with a strong added apple flavour something like Jones Green Apple Soda. But that was okay with me, because the point was I wanted to try something new and unfamiliar.
Thai red curry and Coca-cola. I think it was quite authentic, both from the taste and because when my sister went to Thailand she bought a CD from a street musician (of his own music, I mean, not a pirated commercial disc) and the music thereon sounded exactly like what they were playing in the restaurant. Red curry is generally the least spicy of Thai curries, and in this restaurant's menu they rated it as only "one" on scale that went up to "three"; nonetheless, it was punitively hot, and as hot as the hottest of the Nepalese dishes in the photo from a few days back. Much better than the "curry" from the "free-flow lunch" cafeteria, of which I didn't take a photo.
Vending machine refreshments from the Helsinki airport. The candy appears to be salmiakki red licorice: just like familiar North American red licorice, it's a "red candy" flavour and doesn't have the flavour that is called "licorice" at all. However, it does have an ammonium chloride bomb at the centre of each ball, because this is still Finland we're talking about. The same machine also sold a classic black salmiakki candy, evidently from the same manufacturer. Its packaging featured a very visibly male donkey with huge testicles. According to Google Translate, the name "Kummat Kummut" means "weird hummocks." The drink is (assuming I correctly read the Finnish labels on the vending-machine buttons) an espresso with sugar, and better than one might think given where it came from and that it was only 2 euros. I was trying to use up my euro coins, which are difficult to exchange.
Heathrow terminal 3. The sign says that the gates are between 10 and 20 minutes' walk from here, and in small print it's supposed to say which gate your plane will be at - but actually, instead it says the *time at which* it will tell you the gate number. That time is 15 minutes before your flight will board, and that is if it even tells you the gate number at the time it said it would, which is not necessarily the case.
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