The recent silence what comes to blogging can be explained paradoxically with both too much and not enough happening in my life to write about it. First it was not enough as I had (and have) a lot of studying-related things to read and do: nobody, myself included, wants to know about computational tree logics.

Then, this week, it was too much. I spent the week in Hämeenlinna, a city where I’ve lived for some 13 years of my life from elementary through high school. The reason I was there for was for work-related training. The time spent in beautiful Aulanko this week turned out to be one of the most intense and best trainings I’ve ever participated in. Working closely with lots of extraordinary people in an open, diverse & honest but yet intense atmosphere makes for one great experience.

But that’s not what I was going to write about. One evening, after wrapping up a long day, I walked from Aulanko to downtown to see what the city looks like after all these years. After walking past the castle towards downtown, I encountered pretty much what I had expected: nothing. Around 9pm, the downtown was essentially dead, except for the few people pictured here, collectively trying to fight what I think must’ve been a heavily localized gravitational phenomenon around them. Then again, large quantities of alcohol have been known to cause similary symptoms.

As there was nothing to be gained from that direction, the appropriate thing is to start heading the other way. Over there, we have more nothingness – no people, no life. What little was there, was closed except for a few bars that I really didn’t feel like entering.

It was at this point when I started feeling unnaturally happy that I live in a place where some real life can be observed (and lived) even after 9pm.

Then I came to a map of the city. I realized that I had, in about 40 minutes, walked from the top edge of the map to the bottom half of the map. I also realized that it would only take me another 30 or 40 minutes to walk where I used to live – a place which was a really long distance away from downtown two decades ago. The distance had begun to shrink quite a bit earlier, too, but being back after all the years it really hit me. Looking around me and at the map, it was fascinating to notice how places that used to be far away from each other now felt to be so intimately, almost suffocatingly close to each other. Everything fit on this one map, which one could walk from one end to the other in an hour.

In that one instant, a childhood mile became an adulthood stone’s throw.

Making my way back towards the hotel, I was awarded with an absolutely beautiful sunset with the castle perfecting the scene. I again wished I would’ve had my camera with me, but then the reflections of the sunset on the water led to reflections of other kind and I just stopped for a minute to admire it.

And then went on; with my now-short walk back to the hotel & with my current life after spending some time in the past.

And I felt happy.

(Unlike earlier promised, this post still includes a few lousy cameraphone photos, so clicking on them doesn’t do anything)