DESUCON 2017 - THERE AND BACK AGAIN
start from the beginning:
My journey to Lahti started on Friday morning, 4:50 to be exact. So far, every time I'm going to an event,
the night before the travelling my body is somehow restless and doesn't want to fall asleep. It's only
when the journey begins (in this case: when I got onto the train) that my body relaxes and allows me to
sleep calmly. So I was dozing off the first few hours of the total 9 hours I spent on the train that day. One
of the downsides about living in northern Finland are these long distances. I'm pretty used to them by
now though, and spending only a few hours in a train feels almost like a blink of an eye.
Going to Lahti, I had to change the train twice. Not too bad if you don't have a huge, heavy backpack and
suitcase accompanied by a bundle of different sticks (that are going to work as a rack for my t-shirts).
Only the few stairs and a couple of hundred meters I needed to carry that stuff on that day and I could
feel it on my biceps (and shoulders) the next day.
What really saved me on Friday though, was the person that I happened to sit next to on the last train I
took. I had had enough of my relatively quiet train trip and started a conversation with her. Very soon
we found out we were both heading to Desucon and that she had a friend in Lahti who had a car.
"Would it be possible for your friend to take me to Sibelius hall once we arrive?" A simple question got a
positive answer after a quick phone call. And so I didn't have to sweat and suffer walking in a hot
weather, nor pay expensive Finnish taxi prices. I'm super-grateful for the help those two offered to me!
They totally saved my life there, thank you!
Even though I know I haven't been travelling that much in my life yet, all these little trips have made it
so easy for me to go talk to strangers and ask for help. The response has always been positive and I've
learned that naturally most people do want to help and are nice and friendly.
Pictures above: My table before and after my "treatment".
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Since my main focus is to take as many products with me as possible, I can only take a minimum amount of items for my own personal use. Luckily, the weather was very warm during the three days of Desucon and so I needed very little space for my clothes. However, floor was going to serve me as my bed once more so I needed to take a sleeping bag and mattress with me. The mattress however was ridiculously small and thin, almost like nothing, but I couldn't have carried anything bigger. Luckily, the people sharing the room with me had fluffy covers on their beds and they let me use them as an emergency mattress. So, at the end I had my pitiful little almost-non-existent mattress accompanied by 8 layers of
soft blanket and to me it was true luxury!
My luxurious bed.
On Saturday morning (at 6 am) the fire alarm went off in the hotel I was staying at. The guests (at least most of them) gathered outside the hotel to wait for the firefighters to check the building. It turned out there had indeed been a tiny fire somewhere there, but nothing to be worried about. We got return to our rooms after about 20 minutes.
About Desucon itself I don't have a lot to say, except that it was amazing. Several times I was so overwhelmed by the people coming to my table that I had to remind myself to breathe and take it easy. I even got two new commissions there and oh, I'm so excited to get to work on them (will start the first one next week!) and show the results to the clients and to all the other people out there. I was so full of energy and excitement during the sales hours that in the evenings I basically just collapsed onto my luxurious bed after eating my traditional after-event-meal: meatballs and smashed potatoes. I have no idea why I'm craving for this food after the sales days, I don't usually eat red meat (or potatoes) at all. But for some reason in those moments the craving is irresistible.Finally, I'm not going to bother you with any further details about my train trip back to Rovaniemi (which took 12 and a half hours), just know that I was exhausted when I finally closed my own apartment door behind me about 7:40 in Monday morning. After a quick breakfast I happily collapsed onto my bed.
Despite this trip taking all my energy both physically and mentally so that I needed several days to recover, just that you know, I'd do it again anytime.
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