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Suomenlinna / DebSauna

Ok, so this was the “enjoy yourself” day! In the morning/afternoon, a nice trip to Suomelina, a fortress island just south of Helsinki. Very nice place, and a good opportunity to just relax, walk a bit and talk with the crowd. It was a guided trip, and I usually hate that, but this time it was quite decent, and anyway we had plenty of time for ourselves - Which we spent talking on politics in the ex-USSR republics, the EZLN in Mexico, eating the italian crew’s mortadela and accompanying spices, sleeping, making fun at those who sleep, and a nice and long etcetera. By 5PM we were back at HUT. We went for dinner (during which I listened to a worried Joachim explain a new kind of XSS-like attacks he has not seen but are theoretically quite feasible, the Cross-Site Auth (XSA) attack), then some time at the dorm, and then we went for Rantasauna - the sauna party house they have some 200m away from the dorm. It was lots of fun. And, for those that didn’t come to Helsinki, quite scaring: Imagine one little auditorium-like room with capacity for over 30 people. Some 25 people are sitting there. There are three piles of rocks at the bottom, in what would otherwise be the center stage. There is one crazy, long-haired, italian guy about to start a talk on Custom Debian Derivatives. The stones are quite hot - in fact, the room temperature is at around 100 Celsius. Everybody (men and women) is naked, and having fun just for the sake of it. 10m away from there, Wouter is working hard fixing bugs: He fixed at least two missing keys from the piano, and did his best on fixing a key that was hitting two strings. Soon after this, we had a pretty nice concert, played by several different people. Some 5 meters further away there is another sauna room - Smaller, but more traditional: Instead of the stove being heated by electricity, it is heated by burning wood. A fenomenal gas transport system keeps it airy and spares us the bother of having smoke in the room. This is a small room, maybe you can fit some 8 people confortably. People are talking about the release process. There are some berch (abedul) branches, freshly cut - Someone just takes them and starts beating himself, as if he was halfway to Chalma. Another guy then does the same - Only that after he finishes, he asks a third friend to spank him wherever he cannot reach. They later reverse their roles. Some 30 minutes later, Mako reads (outside the sauna, of course, his plans for further licenses clarification. Most of us are already outside the sauna, technically on the street, but most people are still naked - It seems to just be the natural thing here. After some more time there (we started at 19:00, it is probably about 23:30), Zobel gets some fire working - We are quite close to making a grilled meat feast - only that nobody has grillable food. Anyway, we have fire and that is good. I think it is just about enough, and head back to the dorm. On my way here, I am told I should visit room 44, the Argentinian headquarters. I get there, and there are at least six Swedish guys apparently wating for something - I then hear a desperate scream: “Please help fix this waffle overflow!” Turns out that Marga and Max prepared pancakes and waffles for everybody. In the end, a pretty nice day. Oh! And I managed to sell quite some T-shirts! (and, of course, bought Martin Krafft’s book!) PS - Tolimar: Regarding your stars issues: Things are much better in my city now, fortunately… Some 10 years ago, I asked my friend (at night, of course): Look up to the sky for three seconds, then back to me. Ok, now, tell me: Is the sky clouded or clear? And he could not answer. Blame the smog.

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