 |
| Stanford University Campus |
It was spring 2010 and I intended to stay at Palo Alto California only for a couple of days - a quick workshop and then back to home, sweet home. Weather was nice, so I enjoyed early jogging at the Stanford campus area prior to working days. I love the beauty of Stanford parks, historic buildings, as well as academic atmosphere. Especially the monument listing the numerous Stanford Olympic medallists and world record holders impress me very much.
 |
| Stanford Olympians |
It was 14th of April 2010 and the last travel day
was supposed to start when I woke up early in the morning. My phone indicated unusual
amount of missed calls and new messages; mostly something about potential flight
problems. That did not bother me too much, because I was heading back to home
that evening. The hassle started when I entered the office. All the European
colleagues were on the phone trying to confirm their flights. That’s when I
realized that something serious has happened. The volcano called
Eyjafjallajökul had erupted in Island and the ash cloud was threatening transatlantic
flights. The hassle continued the whole working day, but nothing helped. I was
stuck to California. Only Mr K. was lucky enough to be rescheduled to an
earlier flight via Germany. However, the luck was temporary and the next morning he was back in California, because the flight returned back to San Francisco one hour after departure.
The weekend was approaching and I had already seen Palo
Alto. I booked a hotel at the Fisherman’s Wharf, drove there through the
beautiful highway number 1 and started enjoying my first visit to the San
Francisco. The weekend was hectic, but I enjoyed a lot. I was driving, running,
and walking all day long to see all the major attractions. With such an intensity
I managed to see in a weekend as much as normal tourist sees in a week, for example Golden Gate
Bridge, Golden gate park, Pier 39, Alcatraz, as well as the huge re redwood
forest at the Muir woods. Also the dining options satisfied me. I must admit
that San Francisco is one of the nicest tourist cities to visit. I look forward getting there again.
 |
| Muir Woods had bigger trees than forests in Tampere |
 |
| Favorite area for relaxed jogging |
 |
| On my way to Alcatraz. Almost like a boat trip to Viikinsaari in Tampere. |
The weekend was gone and it was time to make tactical
thinking. In order to improve our changes to get back to business in Finland, I
and my boss Mr P. decided to take a flight to New York. Our travel agent booked
us a nice hotel in New York. I was able to look at the at Times Square straight
from my window. Together with Mr P. and Ms L. we enjoyed the atmosphere of
Manhattan for a couple of days, for example the stunning Broadway musical
Jersey boys. One of my daily routines was jogging at Central park.
 |
| New York Times Square |
 |
| Jersey Boys stuff |
 |
| iPad among first ones in the world |
All that sounds like a dream vacation. However, the
trip was not all about relaxing tourism. It was actually very stressful and
exhausting. Every late evening and every early morning I made my routine call to the
travel agency in order to ask for the potential flights back to Finland. My shortest waiting time for those daily calls was 70 minutes, thus shortening every night about three hours. Persistency was finally rewarded when I was one of the first ones flying back to Finland
after the situation normalized. Thinking afterwards it felt like an unnecessary
panic. I should have enjoyed the tourist days and wait for someone to call me back to Finland. I was really exhausted, but happy when I
returned back to home.
 |
| Sunny bridge leading to Golden Gate Bridge |
Lessons learnt:
Don’t worry, be happy.
Take it easy - There are things that you simply cannot
impact anyway.
No comments:
Post a Comment