Alexey Smirnov's blog

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It is sometimes surprising that life takes very unexpected turns. In the beginning of this summer I was spending time at my home considering a number of ideas for independent research projects. Then suddenly I received an invitation to visit Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) in Hsinchu, Taiwan. I got very excited and accepted the offer immediately.

So now I have arrived to Taiwan. To me it looks a lot like California – arriving to Taipei was similar to that in San Francisco with its multi-storied system of roads. Then a taxi driver picked me up and we went on a highway to Hsinchu, Taiwaneese equivalent of Silicon Valley. The road looked a lot like 101, California main highway because of the palm trees on the sides of the road and hills on the horizon.

Many people are saying that weather here is a bit hot, but to me it feels quite comfortable and familiar because it is similar to that in Stony Brook – hot and humid. Also there is AC in the buildings so most of the time you don’t feel heat at all.

ITRI was built in 1970s. It looks like they were trying to outperform the best campuses of Silicon Valley as the level of comfort here is above any expectation. For example, just across the guest house (hotel) there is a swimming pool 50 m in length, with steam sauna, electric sauna, and 20 jacuzzi baths! I think only Google could match that level of luxury. The guest house is also quite a fancy place – there is a pond with gold fish in it! Looks very nice.

The people are very friendly and helpful. Even if the person does not speak English (s)he will always try to explain with gestures or will lead you to someone who speaks English. The penetration of English language here is quite minimal – most of the signs in the shops are written in Chinese. This only encourages me to learn Chinese, I actually started learning it when I was preparing for the trip in Russia and I think it is a lot of fun to learn the characters because often they resemble the words they are intended to express. Guessing the meaning of a character is like recognizing objects in a painting.

Another funny things that I noticed soon upon arrival was how local people navigate the roads. They use scooters – small motorcycles. Often, they line up and occupy the whole lane of a road. To me it looks like presidential escort as I was riding in a minivan surrounded by motorcyclists.

However, when we were approaching Hsinchu a tropical storm began. Lots of water was pouring on the roads. When the rain was over it turned out that puddles were still there. When a car drives through the puddle a fountain of water emerges and the water goes to other cars. But imagine what happens to those who drive scooters. The water pours on them like a shower! Oh dear! Just think of it – you are driving your scooter and then quite unexpectedly you get a cold shower!

On Sunday I was exploring the neighborhood of ITRI. I found out that campus is surrounded by a concrete wall. There are security guards at the front gate. It is funny how the institute protects its employees and its research achievements. Within half-hour walking distance to the left and right there are a few stores where you can get food and basic supplies and even carpets and furniture. Then there are a few restaurants. I have eaten tasty dumplings in one of them. There are a number of houses along the road. They are quite small, typically 2-storey buildings. However, there are bigger houses right behind them, hiding from a noisy road. It looks funny that when you walk along the road you think you are in a village (small houses) but when you look on the side streets you think it is a big city (10-storey buildings).

The food here is really delicious. It is a lot different from our traditional notion of Chinese food (what is offered for example in the US and in Europe). A typical dish here consists of rice (white), vegetables, mushrooms, meat, and fried eggs. On the other hand, people eat here noodles in cups which you prepare for yourself by adding hot water. I have spotted a few vending machines with this food. I guess it is traditional habit to eat this fast food. It is funny to see this food near luxury buildings on ITRI campus. I am trying to imagine taking jacuzzi bath with a pack of noodles in a cup.

Today is the first day in the office. I had a number of meetings and got an ITRI badge. I found out that I can use it as a credit card in cafeteria. In the end of each month the bill will come. I guess I will have lots of fun here!

I have visited Moscow last week to do some business. Luckily I got things done at half past 10 in the morning and had plenty of time to enjoy Moscow attractions.

I have visited Christ the Savior Cathedral which happened quite randomly. I walked into a tourist booth and found out that a guided tour to the top of the church was just beginning. Because of the stunning view that opens from there I decided to join the tour. Taking pictures from above was free of charge and I used my iPhone to take pictures and Microsoft ICE to build a 360-degree panorama. Here it is:

In fact, the guided tour began inside the Cathedral with an explanation of the wall paintings. They are amazing! The name of the artist who painted many of those is Nikolay Muhin. The Cathedral contains many interesting icons and remnants of Saints. Then we used the elevator to get to the roof and enjoyed views of Moscow. Then we went down to the ground floor and visited a museum also located in the Cathedral. A number of old icons are located there.

Then I went to a museum of Ilya Glazunov located next to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Earlier I have read his book that describes life of his family over the last two centuries (19th and 20th) and how events in Russia were tightly intervened with lives of his relatives and his own. The museum is absolutely fantastic. It has four floors and many halls. Sometimes it seems that many people worked on those paintings, not just one person because they are dedicated to various themes: from Russian history to works of Dostoevsky to more or less modern art that depicts events in Russia in late 1980s.

I have bought a photocopy of this wonderful painting. After visiting the museum I went back to the railway station and left Moscow on an afternoon train to Nizhny Novgorod. I went in a sitting cabin which had 6 chairs but only 2 people were there so our trip was quite comfortable.

Also, in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior I bought a few books including life of Sergey Radonezhski. I want to read them but only after I finish reading History of Serafimo-Diveevsky monastery, an amazing book that describes life of Serafim Sarovsky and related events. Overall, it seems to me that Moscow is looking a lot more like Russian-Orthodox capital because of various events and exhibitions dedicated to Russian history and culture. I enjoyed my trip to Moscow.

In August lots of forest fires were burning in Russia. Luckily, I spent this time in countryside far away from any fires. But to begin with, here is a video that describes the situation. Basically, this is what it looked like in our region of Nizhny Novgorod even though I guess the video was shot in south of Russia.

On July 29th I went with my parents to a summer camp at Vetluga river, approximately 150 km north-east of Nizhny Novgorod. Because it felt extremely hot in the city because of the heat wave that stayed in Russia for 3 months, it felt very refreshing in the camp. We have enjoyed our stay in the wooden houses during those two weeks when people in cities and certain villages suffered a lot. Every morning we were swimming in a lake and then after breakfast in Vetluga. Road trips were another activity that we enjoyed.

The summer camp is situated near Varnavino, a small town nowadays which was a monastery in 1600s. St. Varnava has founded this monastery. I guess it was rich and joyful area before October revolution. But then lots of destruction happened and people fled away. What is remaining nowadays are either ruins or stones which are put in place of destroyed churches.

It is quite unusual that despite the wide-scale efforts to restore old churches and monasteries in Russia, there are still lots of ruins in this particular area. I guess this is because it is quite far away from the center of our region and not too many people are living there nowadays. However, this area looks so beautiful that it is possible to justify restoring the destroyed buildings, for example to attract more tourists. There are lots of abandoned homes in the villages, there are also lots of homes that were acquired as summer homes of people living in cities. To me it seems that life there has not recovered yet after Big Bang of the revolution, almost 100 years after it happened. I don’t have the pictures of abandoned country-side life there but it looks very impressive and makes you think of those people, their lives, and what happened to them.

We have visited Svetloyar lake which is famous for its invisible Kitezh town. The story goes that there was a beautiful town 1000 years ago. However, it has collapsed into the lake to prevent its capture when Mongols have approached it during their conquest of Russia. There are a number of theories nowadays of how the lake was shaped, from volcano to meteorite strike to who knows what.

The people’s belief is that you have to walk three times around the lake praying to get your sins forgiven. In other words, this remote place is deeply connected to our history and culture. But we have not walked around the lake, instead we were only swimming there. Also, there are a number of trails out there going to the burial site of three monks respected for their saint lives. Also there is a stone which the saying goes has a footprint of St. Virgin Mary.

There is a village Vladimirskoe next to the lake. It has beautiful museum where local craftsmen are building beautiful things. I have noticed that this whole area of north-east of our region is abundant with crasftsmen – for exapmle Khohloma in Semenov, ceramics in Svetloyar, etc. To me this culture looks like traces of old civillization that we have so little evidence of nowadays. We can only come more often and try to learn more. It is because of the significance of this area that great Rimsky-Korsakov has written opera dedicated to this area.

A couple of weeks ago we have visited my cousin’s family in Semyonov, a small town in the north of our region. My cousin moved there after he got married.

Semyonov is known for its craftsmen. The whole northen area of the region hosts Khohloma painters in numerous villages. The idea behind Khohloma is to show the abundance of forests and fields of this part of Russia, various kinds of grass, flowers, and birds that are living here. However, Khohloma is known to exist in other parts of Russia as well but this medieval craft has survived only in this remote area. It is well known that the forests at the north of our region were home to various kinds of religious groups that separated from the official church during the reformation of 17th century.

Semyonov is known for its museum of Khohloma. The museum as well as Khohloma shop are located in a two-storied building. The earliest works in the museum are related to 19 century which is not necessarily very old. But the most impressive part of the museum is not Khohloma history but rather Khohloma present. There is one room in which every piece of furniture is painted in Khohloma. It looks gorgeous!

We have also visited cultural and church fair that was happening in Semyonov. A number of monasteries and religious organizations were taking part in it, including even representatives of Old Believers. Btw., there are still lots of Old believers in Semyonov, a very rare branch of Orthodox Church elsewhere. One of the most interesting parts of the fair was where they were selling books. I have noticed that last Tzar’s family is attracting lots of people, new books are published quite often. The attention to the Family grew when their remnants were found in Siberia in 1990s and then transferred to Saint-Petersburgh, even though their authenticity is still questionable. The books related to the Family that are published nowadays deal with historical evidence of various people who got to know them. I was more interested in the books that deal with Church directrly. I bought the following books: life of Patriarh Kirill, history of Diveevo Monastery, and Old Russian architecture.

As usual, I read a few chapters from each book only to tease myself. I will read the books after finishing few other books which I am reading now. I will also remember the amazing craft of Khohloma. In the museum we were told that it is possible to order anything we have seen. I wish I could get that wonderful Throne!

A few days ago I went to Oulu, a city in the north of Finland to attend Linux Symposium which was featuring Bjarne Stroustrup, the inventor of C++.

I left Helsinki on Monday night and arrived to Oulu at 7:30 AM on the overnight train. It was so-o-o co-o-old in Oulu! We did not have such freezing temperatures during the whole winter in Helsinki. On that early spring day it was -20 centigrade. Because the train arrived early initially I planned to walk to the Oulu University which is located approximately 5km from the train station. I actually walked there but I froze like I have not frozen for a long time already. What was surprising to me was that local people were walking and even riding bikes normally. Apparently, they got used to such temperatures. In Finland there is a special word sisu which means persistence and stubbornness in a good sense of the word. Now I know that the city of Oulu is the city of sisu – sisu students, sisu workers, sisu everybody.

I barely had time to warm up in the university lobby before the conference began. It had a keynote speech dedicated to the looming C++ 0x standard as well as two tracks: business and technical. Before the conference I have spent lots of time studying the agenda trying to decide which track I want to go to. But there were interesting talks in both tracks. So I needed to remember the order in which I would visit the tracks. It turned out that there is a simple algorithm which tells you which track to go at any moment of time. The idea is that it is best to always switch the tracks, for example if you are listening to a talk in the technical track now then the next interesting talk is in the business track. So I followed this algorithm and I enjoyed every talk that I attended.

But the first was the keynote. Bjarne is a great speaker! He was describing his work in the standardization committee and the features that were selected in the new C++ 0x standard. He said that name of this new standard comes from the year in which they wanted to get it approved – anytime before year 2010, but at this moment the standard is in the Final Draft phase which means that it will get approved in year 2012 probably.

Bjarne pointed out several criteria that they used when selecting features for the standard. Basically, keep it simple was the main criterion. Any extra functionality should go to a library. Keep the run-time as small as possible. One of the goals was to make it possible to use C++ as the first language during teaching in a college. It is an ambitious goal as most of US universities are using Java as the first language. New set of features for writing parallel programs was described. Mostly, it was related to locks, semaphores, etc. and avoiding deadlocks and other problems, as well as inter-process communication. To me it sounds like a pretty low-level stuff. After his presentation I asked whether the committee thinks they’ve chosen the right level of abstraction. Nowadays there are a few interesting parallel programming frameworks such as Map-Reduce and transactional memory. Bjarne said that it is too early to standardize any of those which is probably true.

The funny thing is that the committee does not necessarily accept the features that Bjarne proposes even though he is the inventor of C++. For example, he was trying to get lexical_cast into the standard which is basically string tokenizer. But the committee voted against him because of possible problems with locale. On the picture above Bjarne is trying to persuade the audience that lexical_cast is a cool feature.

Here are the notes from a few other talks:

Sami Paihonen. Implementing cross-platform UI

The core of cross-platform UI is UI style.
Lots of research. Empty screen is the best place to start.
6 design principles: avoid clutter. Too many things on the screen. Two hands is not mobile usage.
IPhone open-source contacts has a better UI than official app.
UI style defines core UI identity
Smoothness and stability are most important. Steven Frei blog.
blog: dizzyhorizon.com

Mikko Välimäki, Tuxera. Open source and IP licensing

This is the guy who won Espoo half-marathon!

Tuxera – is company doing filesystems on non-Windows systems
GNU GPL – free of charge to everyone.
Is it possible to use Android UI on another hardware? Apple is suing HTC for Patent infringement.
Jonathan Schwartz blog. Bill asks royalty for every download of OO b/c of patent infringement.
Microsoft sued TomTom over usage of FAT file system.
Mixed, dual-licensed, open & proprietary models will win.

Alexander Bezprozvanny. Traditional vs agile/open source

different roles that a person takes in multiple team in agile.
key differences in OSS projects: no project managers. Project leaders are models.
Healthy community is the key.
Definition of healthy community, various paths that a project might take depending on how developers interact with users. Nice diagram.

Examples:

1) Too late means never. Affix and bluez bluetooth stacks. Commercial vs. open-source. A company that missed release.

2) High admission price: OpenBSD community. A success at a high price.

3) OSS contribution from software company: bureaucratic barrier too high. Disclaimer of rights is difficult to explain to management.

4) Maemo case: combining proprietary and OSS SW.

Ari Jaaksi’s speach and consequences in his blog.

I have completed a long trip. But not using skates or skies or just bare feet. I went on a short trip to Russia for a number of personal reasons.

It is funny that a plane ticket costs less than train ticket nowadays. So I left Saturday morning on a Finnair flight to Moscow. I arrived at 1PM and went to pick up a car that I booked at Sixt. I was driving an almost new Ford Focus and I liked it a lot. The weather in Moscow was quite nice, around -10 centigrade and clear. But I had to spend lots of time in a traffic jam near Moscow. In total, it takes 12 hours to get from Helsinki to my home town Dzerzhinsk out of which I have to spend 4 hours or 1/3 of the time in a traffic jam.

I was surprised to find out that the highway is in a good shape and quite clean. But the surrounding areas look a bit deserted. Obviously, the financial downturn had a negative impact on Russian economy. It just occurred to me that in Russia there is no network of restaurants located along a road. There are smaller cafes here and there but they do not belong to a single owner. For example, in Europe there are lots of McDonalds along major highways, they are easy to spot because of their masts up in the sky.

I arrived to my home at around 8PM. On Sunday we were visiting various relatives and supermarkets where I got a few history books:

Then on Monday at 3AM I drove back to Sheremetyevo airport. It was a chilly morning with temperatures around -20 centigrade. There were a few police patrols near Moscow but I was lucky to not get caught because I had plenty of time and thus was driving slowly. Another funny thing was that when I got to the final stretch of my journey a snowstorm began. It would increase my travel time dramatically if I got into a snowstorm at least half an hour earlier. After I dropped off the car I realized that flights will get delayed because of the snowstorm. It was partially true because the boarding delay was only half an hour and then we spent another hour on a tarmac.

I arrived back to Helsinki at 2PM and went straight to office. Then I did a bit of coding and went home later than usual. However, on Tuesday I left office as usual only to fall asleep at 6PM. I slept a whopping 12 hours and woke up 6AM Wednesday and finally unpacked my luggage.

Last Saturday I visited Himos with a colleague of mine. This year winter started not very early. In fact, in November it was much warmer than usual, approximately +5 centigrade. But in December the chilly weather began with lots and lots of snow. During the last couple of years there was almost no snow during Christmas and New Year in Helsinki. I remember that when I arrived at Senate Square to celebrate the coming year 2009 it was cold but there was absolutely no snow.

This year we have already gone through a number of snow storms. In fact, a few of them lasted for quite long, a day or so. As a result I would say now there is over 1 meter of snow in Helsinki which makes it look like a real winter.

Because of that Himos opened very early this year. As I enjoyed it so much during the previous winter this year I decided to go there as soon as it opens. However, their web site was saying that only 1 black hill will become available on the first day, the other hills were blue and green, an easier level of difficulty. Fortunately, I had a colleague from work called Evgeni who have not skied before, thus I spent a fair amount of time teaching him how to ski. In fact, last winter I was teaching another guy and in the end of the season he was skiing black hills quite easily. During my career as a downhill skiing coach this is the third guy who is discovering downhill skiing with me. Should I open my training courses?

The difference from the previous year is that these days I live in Helsinki. From Tampere it was quite easy to get to Himos on a bus. It left at 8 AM from the central bus station and after a couple of hours was arriving to Himos right at its opening time. However, I had to wake up at 6 AM because I was living far from the bus station. It is a bit of inconvenience to wake up that early on Saturday.

Helsinki is located even farther from Himos than Tampere. One option was to take a train to Tampere and then a bus to Himos. But then I would have to wake up at 4 AM which is a heroic effort. Thus I thought of renting a car. On Friday I was researching the price of various rentals and on average it was 80 Euros for a day which was quite expensive. But I was lucky to find EasyRent whose price was only 44 Euros, twice as low as competitors. Their garage opens at 9AM on Saturday thus I had plenty of time to sleep.

However, I woke up at 5 AM in the morning on Saturday. In anticipation of a great day at Himos I could sleep no more. Thus after rotating in my bed for a while I went to EasyRent and picked up the car at quater to 9. I met with Evgeni near Kallio Church where the garage is located and went straight to Gustav Vasa highway that goes to Lahti. The way to Lahti is only 1/3 of the total distance. Upon arriving there we had to take route 24 to Jamsa which is not even a highway but just a out-of-town road with 1 lane each way and 80 km/h speed limit. However, I still enjoyed this 2-hour stretch because we had interesting conversations as well as nice surroundings. We even dropped at one hotel located 5km off the road. It was a big village house which nowdays is used as a hotel and a restaurant. There we got a total of 6 sandwitches as well as coffee for only 15 Euros. Food at countryside is very cheap.

We arrived at Himos at half past noon. One reason is that we were looking for a gas station for quite a long time. It is funny that there are very few of those on Helsinki-Lahti highway. Also we spent half an hour during our coffee break. Compared to travelling from Tampere it takes longer to get to Himos from Helsinki but on the other hand you do not have to wake up that early. Also it is possible to stay at Himos longer whereas the bus to Tampere leaves at 4PM when lots of people are still skiing during twilight hours.

We left Himos at 6PM because it was quite chilly. But upon arrival to Helsinki area we had fun trying to find Evgeni’s appartment in Espoo. This district is quite tricky to navigate. Evgeni was using his GPS but because of road work at one moment we almost left Espoo for Helsinki but fortunately after taking the last exit I found out that we still were in Espoo. After navigating through this beautiful town for a hour or so I arrived at my home at Vuorimiehenkatu in Helsinki where I was very lucky to park my car. I was so tired that I decided not to go to garage immediately, instead I went there on Sunday morning.

Overall, great trip. It is actually cheaper to rent a car to go to Himos if you share the car. And of course it offers a great amount of flexibility – you can stay at Himos as long as you want. With more snow falling nowdays I expect that Himos open every slope it has. I am looking forward to going there againg after that!

This weekend I have attended Pablo Picasso exhibition in Helsinki Ateneum national gallery. This exhibition came from Picasso museum in Paris. Thus it represents only a part of what Picasso has created during his lifetime. It is funny that he was born in year 81 as well, thus I was able to see what he has been doing in my age. Quite impressive work, I would say. In other words, I liked his early works very much.

But his cubist works are also interesting. In ahoter ten years Picasso turned to a more classical style. There are lots of portraits with unusual color. It is an interesting exercise to try to interpret the meaning of each color of the face. But Picasso’s later works reveal the greatness of his talent. They are truly masterpieces.

After spending a couple of hours at the exhibition I went to the bookstore on the first floor in the same building. It is an amazing place. There are so many books on art of various kind – Egyptian art, Greek, European, and Russian art. There are lots of books in English. As I liked the exhibition so much I have bought a few art books.

Overall, great exhibition and I feel very lucky that it is located a 10-minute walk from the apartment in which I am staying at the moment. I wish I could spend more time at this wonderful exhibition.

I have visited Tallinn soon after I moved to Helsinki. One reason behind it was the following story. When I was a student at Stony Brook University on Long Island there was a village of Port Jefferson next to Stony Brook. Its main attraction were big ferries going to the other shore of Long Island Sound, a town called Bridgeport. I was planning on taking this boat trip every weekend after I arrived to Stony Brook. But there was always something else to do. And during the four years while I stayed on Long Island I have never made this trip! This is why I jumped on the boat to Tallinn the next day after I arrived to Helsinki.

But last weekend we went to Tallinn again, this time there were four of us, colleagues from work. On Saturday morning Helsinki is very quiet. There are people walking on the streets with their dogs, but otherwise people tend to stay in their houses. Thus, it seemed that going out is not what people of Helsinki like to do on their weekends. But when I arrived to the ferry terminal on Saturday morning and saw a huge crowed going to Tallinn I realized that life here is totally different. Thousands of people were going to Tallinn in order to get cheaper goods and drinks. It was very funny to march through the long tunnel that connects the terminal with the boat in a fast pace. It looked as if everybody was going to work again on Saturday because people were quite busy with their bags in which they would pack their goods later during the day. It was not a tourist trip but a shopping tour.

In Tallinn I tried karing – one of the things that I always wanted to try out. It was quite interesting. Karting offers lots of choice between driving safely but slowly or taking risk at every turn but with a possibility of spinning. We have participated in the whole race weekend which included practice, qualification, and the actual race. I won the pole position! I was the first during the race but in the last lap I was overtaken. Overall, I finished third but I showed the best time during the race as well.

The day was rainy thus we did not explore the city much. But otherwise the trip was a lot of fun. We have been travelling on Tallink Star/Superstar boats. They are very nice and cheap. The roundtrip ticket was only 30 Euros. On our way back we went to a lounge in the back of the ship that had couches. Thus with the least expensive tickets that we had it was possible to sleep on a couch! The Tallink boats make it worth taking a trip themselves.

Besides visiting the conference I tried to spend a lot of time exploring the city and its magnificent museums.

Last time I was in Amsterdam in 2000 and that was actually the first time I was abroad. But during these years I had to travel a lot, I spent a number of years in New York as well as in Finland. Before arriving to Amsterdam I was mentally comparing it with Venice because of its canals. But after walking in the city I think it more resembles New York. It is well known that New York was earlier called New Amsterdam. The similarity is in the narrow buildings that can go as high as 5 floors but their width is 3 windows.

Another interesting detail is that in Amsterdam there are lots of bikes, a lot more than in Helsinki. The number of bikes is greater than the number of cars and there are probably more bikes than people.

On Saturday afternoon I went to the hotel and checked in. As soon as you enter the hotel’s door there is a huge staircase going up and up a couple of floors. There is a turn only at the end of the third floor. Fortunately, the window of my room was going to the inner court, not to a busy street in the center. I was surprised that the court looks so quiet and a bit rural.

Then I went to Rembrandt’s house. In this museum there are lots of paintings of his predecessors on the first floor. But the most interesting part of that museum is a collection of Rembrandt’s etchings. Works of his pupils and followers are also available. Unfortunately, his paintings are not present in this museums as I expected. The gorgeous Night Watch is located in another museum in Amsterdam which I did not have time to visit.

After visiting Rembrandt’s house I went to Russian museum called Hermitage. It is a division of Russian main museum in Saint-Petersburg. In fact, it opened only this summer and now it occupies a huge 3-storied building which was earlier a nursing house. In this museum it is possible to see the items of Russian Tzar court including portraits of Tzars and their wives. The museum also explains a connection between Russian Royal family and that of Netherlands. It turns out that their connections are pretty intertwined.

On Sunday I went to van Gogh museum. There was a huge line of people trying to get the tickets. It was either because it was Sunday or because van Gogh is very popular. In other museums I did not see any lines at all. But after I got my ticket and went through the security check I realized that I was in this museum when I visited Amsterdam on previous occasion. I actually did not remember where I was back then. But I definitely enjoyed visiting van Gogh museum once again. His paintings are so interesting…

Overall, I spent two absolutely fantastic days in Amsterdam! I visited a great conference and a number of gorgeous museums! Amsterdam has so much to offer. I had to go to the airport earlier on Sunday because of the track repair. In fact, I had to take a bus to the airport. But then the plane arrived on time to Helsinki and at 1AM I was already at home. Nice trip, I have got a few souvenirs and lots of nice memories!