Here's the deal. My wife has gone to Finland a couple of times for work. The once parent company (before the big GE buyout) is located there. She is going again in mid May. This time, she's only going with one other co-worker and she's a young, single, self-sufficient loaner type. My wife asked me if I wanted to go this time. It would only cost one $800 plane ticket. Hotel is paid for and I have to eat anyway regardless of where I'm located.

The flip side? I would then only have one week of vacation left for the entire year. And at some point (this year I hope) I will have to make a trip to NorCal to pick up the 914.

Whaddya think?

Where'e Timo? I would have to visit him and check out his beautiful six conversion.

You should totally go. I have regretted it every time I have not travelled when I have had the opportunity.

Most companies I have worked for will allow me to take unpaid leave beyond the amount of vacation time they allot - so there is usually that as a fall back measure if your official vacation time isn't enough.

If the trip is in August - you could go see the Finnish leg of the FIA World Rally Championship.

Thanks fiid. That's where I'm leaning. I just realized that I haven't used my personal floaters this year yet either. So I would still have 9 days PTO even if we extend this trip to use an entire week. And these jags around here would never let me out of here on unpaid time off.

My 90 year old Grandma told me that her fondest memories that whe will remember forever are the trips her and my Grandpa made to Germany. She said, "Go. Do it while you're young."

you really should go and make extra time to cross over from finland to st. petersburg, russia. I really want to do that trip.

Finland is very nice, definitely go. also swing by st. petersburg (as vortex mentioned) and estonia while you're there -- these are each "quick" 1-2 day trips from Helsinki.

St. Petersburg is awesome! I've been there and it is right next to Finland. Definetly check out the Hermitage museam if you can.

It's a great opportunity, but... she will most likely be working every day, so you're on your own until the evening. And while you've been playing all day, she may not want to. Something to think about.

What's to think about? Opportunity doesn't always knock loudly, but I think the door is splitting this time.
Or I suppose you could sit home and wait for a better offer.

Hell yes you fool!
Monique and I spend out spare time planning the next vacation. We are going to Crete in August and more time in Amsterdam too. Hopefully I will see Ya-Roon, graphic guru, again.
You have to travel while you can still get around, who wants to wait until they are 75 yrs old.
Plus this sounds like a good time spent with the wife.

Geoff

Ok, who is the wise guy editing my posts! Ya-roonie, graphic goonie, knock it off!!!

Go. [*]

It's not quite like a vacation but my SO and I have done the shared-company trip a couple of times. It worked out quite well. For the price of an air ticket, you live and eat pretty well, and have the days to rummage around while the worker is working. If the timing works, adding a day on at one end or the other can steal a free vacation day.

kim.

* Caveate: those of us of Finnish extraction are required to say that.

edit: how do you put a square bracket inline?
edit: let's try! [ ]

Whats wrong with that?



All right, I get the point. It was her idea fer cryin out loud. She already said that we could do some things after she finished up with work. I don't think the work there will be too taxing. And she's been a couple of times already, so she already has some idea for us in the evenings.

Shar's employer kind of dictates the schedule. We would leave on a Saturday, not arrive until Sunday late afternoon (with the time difference), and we were originally supposed to leave Thursday a.m., so there isn't a lot of time. We want to extend it through Friday. After Thursday night, we're entirely on our own dime and it will take into Saturday to get home.

I definitely have my eye on St. Petersburg. It's number one on my list. We're planning on an overnight boat trip (cabin and everything) Thursday night over to Stockholm and then fly out late Friday from there.


And I just found that elusive birth certificate for the passport application. Woohoo!

Thanks guys! I think you talked me into it.

ginter, the gintman, gintmeister, ginterola...,

what happened?

You need to go......i went to Ireland a few years ago for a Guinness trip, i mean business trip and i proposed the same deal for my wife...she declined and now regrets it since the chances of me getting sent back over there on the companies dime is pretty damn slim......

tons of fun driving on the "wrong" side

I haven't had the time to look into you guy's gig yet, so I don't know if this is a legit question or not Sean.


Thanks Mikey. I'm all in as long as the 2 week passport expedite actually only takes 2 weeks.

Hey you guys that have been to St. Petersberg, I've heard it's a PITA to get in there. Any tips?

Use the other week of vacation and visit Sweden while you're at it!

...or just stay an extra week in Finland!

Go, You Fool!

Hell fly to Holland and go visit the Red Light District whoops, I mean Ya-roon.

Its a short flight to Finland from Holland.

Can't do it. We only have five days as it is, and Shar has to work three of them. She doesn't have any more vacation either as she just started in this jump a couple of years ago.

Hello !! Here I am and all I can say is, Welcome !!!!!

I didnt have time to read all the messages, but when are you coming ?? Was it in mid May ?? That sound good.

It is no problem to visit in Estonia or in Tallinn from Helsinki. It takes about 2 hours if you take the hydrofoil. If that is not fast enough you can take a helicopter. Then it takes only about 20 minutes to fly there. You can leave from Helsinki in one morning and come back in the same day evening. BTDT many times.

You can send PM to me if you like to discuss and know more about Helsinki. I can help you here and we can go and meat couple of othet 914 guy here.

Helsinki and Finland is very easy place for tourists and mid May is very good time to visit here. Most of finnish talk and understand some english and we are usually very helpful here. So, I am sure there is no reason why not to come here. Welcome !!!

Timo! Good to hear from you. I'll send email tonight.

I wore my 914 6 denim shirt for my passport photos.

Thanks LB (otherwise known as Rusty).

St Petersburg is home to the Hermitage art museum. If you spend 1 minute looking at every peice they have there, it will take you several years to finish.

An ex-girlfriend of mine spent a lot of time in St P. and the place sounded pretty awesome - so if you do have the opportunity to head over there - it would be time well spent. It has some REALLY interesting history.

(Russia's leaders are/were even more outrageous than ours!)

Also - whenever you travel, it's worth doing a lot of research ahead of time to figure out what your options are once you're there - there are some things you may need to book in advance, etc etc.

I don't know bugger all about Finland, other than a friend of mine being from there, and they all have cell phones - otherwise I would make more useful recommendations and comments.

Fiid.

ginter, the gintman, gintmeister, ginterola...,

For every day that you spend in Finland, you have one less vacation day to work on the 914, or come to swap meets, or make marathon runs to California for BBQ and parts.

Life's a tradeoff.

Besides, Finland is full of those darned foreigners, just like Iraq. Okay, not *just* like Iraq, but... you know whut I mean.

-LB (otherwise known as Rusty)

Yup. It's all a matter of perspective. I suppose I can tolerate some foreigners for 5-6 days. We're not talkin months (year?) like you're doing, in an arm pit.

You only go around once. Hoping to see Timo beauty. Is there a corner of the world that doesn't have a 914 around somewhere? You even managed to find a 993 in Iraq. Seen any teeners?

I'm goin. Can't wait. I'm even going to buy a new digi-cam. I need somethig smaller.

Thanks for the info fiid. Doing Research goes without saying. I'm trying to get into Russia after all. I'm still looking for people with actual experience getting into Russia from Finland. Some of my wife's co-workers have said that it's difficult. One of my co-workers is from the St, Petersburg area and he says that Fins have no trouble (he says part of the area used to belong to them, no surprise there huh?), but foreigners (like me) do. Bit he has no personal experience in recent years and of course it's quite a different experience for him as he is Russian.

Mike, Nathan, any hinys here? It sounds like you guys have actually done it.

I've done a bit of travelling. Call the Russian embassy and tell them you want to do some sight-seeing as a tourist, and you want to enter from Finland. You can save yourself some heartache and some $$) by getting a visa in advance, if they offer one. Visas purchased in advance are typically cheaper than right at the border.

You got a passport, brother?

-Rusty

Thanks LB (otherwise known as Rusty). I'll check into the visa. Anton (Russian co-worker, this guy's a riot and the sharpest Unix guy I've ever met) said the same thing yesterday.

Got photos yesterday and I'm off to apply for the passport this morning. Expedited is only supposed to take two weeks.

AAAh come on post a pic of your passport photo! We need some humor on the BBS.
You need to brush up on your arm waving and charades skills so when you go somewhere where no one speaks any English you can get by. haha its great fun! When we travel Monique has gotten alot of laughs outta watching me try to order food or buy stuff. Me with minimum foreign language skills but good at charades. Nothing like being lost in a country where you cant read the street signs and standing there shouting" Anyone speak English? I am lost"

Geoff

My passport photo looks like every other ID mugshot I take. I refuse to smile for ID photos. My wife gets lots of mileage out of it. Damn shame the 914 6 logo on my shirt isn't in the pic.

Haha, now you have to wear that shirt everywhere otherwise they won't recognise you when you cross borders.


Geoff

Hey Timo! I'll shoot you an email when we get plans finalized. I'm going to skip St. Petersburg this time. We'll only be in Finland for 3.5 days, and my wife will be working most of that. After the experience visiting this time, I'll be better able to plan that trip for the next trip. I do hope to make it over to Estonia.

The flight out fro Denver is to London and then on to Helsinki. It looks like we're going to go ahead and fly back to London and spend a couple of days there before returning home.

Man, I can't wait.

OK. Let me know when you are coming here. I can reserve your ticets to Estonia here or at least I would like to share you some information about the different companys and ships. Some of them are not as good as others.

I think it is good idea to skip the St.Petersburg. I am sure it is nice town, but.... And, I am sure you will have a lot of seeing here in Helsinki.