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Travel 4: All Around the World Same Song

cF[Authentic] said:
I've gotta say, the new TSA Precheck Touchless has been great on this trip to the US.

I've got Global Entry, so clearing customs is easy. Except for the asinine thing the US does where you need to recheck your bag and then go through security.

But, with the new Touchless, it's just like Global Entry but for Precheck. Non-existent line, quick photo scan, and right to the normal Pre security check.

Under three minutes to clear security in Ohare and Pdx so far. Expecting the and in Seattle, too.
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yeah I went to Berlin a few weeks ago and even during the shutdown, my security wait at MSP was non-existant with this
 
Deutsche Gopher Fan said:
I was up above the arctic circle and MAN is that breathtaking in the winter.
did you enjoy a lot of salmon and/or reindeer soup?
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Enjoyed it very much- the salmon soup we only found in in Helsinki, which was odd (it was on the menu on the train, but they were out). The reindeer stew, we got all over the place- and it was really interesting (in a good way) how they used lingonberries as a spice to it. We also have moose soup- as my cousin's wife made us some for our visit to their farm (which was the farm I got my last name from).

We did go up to the north, too- as my grandmother's family came from Kuusamo- so we also added Rovaneimi. We were hoping to see some snow, but it was a kind of warm October up there. So just some rain. Still spectacular.
 
FadeToBlack&Gold said:
I had reindeer stew in Anchorage many years ago, and I thought it was great. No lingonberries in the AK version though.
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Finnish reindeer stew is small pieces of reindeer over some very smooth mashed potatoes and then a generous amount of lingonberries on top- and they are just left natural- so it adds a very nice amount of acid to balance it really nicely.

Since reindeer is a harvested meat in Finland, it's an easy ingredient to find everywhere- had reindeer steaks a few times. And I didn't feel bad even though we went to a reindeer farm (where the reindeer that were not safe to let roam around were) and got up really close to them- charming animals. But that does not offset how delicious they are.

BTW, Finnish reindeer redefine what free range is. They have zero barriers and wander all over northern Finland. But being herd animals, they just track one of two of them, and all of an owners reindeers are all together- so it's not impossible to gather them up for harvest. It was pretty funny to see warning sings on the roads showing that you could see reindeer all over northern Finland- which we did, a lot. And they do not care at all about cars- which makes them more dangerous than most animals.
 
MichVandal said:
Finnish reindeer stew is small pieces of reindeer over some very smooth mashed potatoes and then a generous amount of lingonberries on top- and they are just left natural- so it adds a very nice amount of acid to balance it really nicely.

Since reindeer is a harvested meat in Finland, it's an easy ingredient to find everywhere- had reindeer steaks a few times. And I didn't feel bad even though we went to a reindeer farm (where the reindeer that were not safe to let roam around were) and got up really close to them- charming animals. But that does not offset how delicious they are.

BTW, Finnish reindeer redefine what free range is. They have zero barriers and wander all over northern Finland. But being herd animals, they just track one of two of them, and all of an owners reindeers are all together- so it's not impossible to gather them up for harvest. It was pretty funny to see warning sings on the roads showing that you could see reindeer all over northern Finland- which we did, a lot. And they do not care at all about cars- which makes them more dangerous than most animals.
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interesting. I was much farther north than Rovaniemi, so maybe that plays a difference - but our reindeer soup was definitely pretty liquid-y. I liked it, but because of how remote we were, oftentimes the only two choices were reindeer or salmon soup.

did you hit up the market hall in helsinki? god I still think about that soup place.
 
Deutsche Gopher Fan said:
interesting. I was much farther north than Rovaniemi, so maybe that plays a difference - but our reindeer soup was definitely pretty liquid-y. I liked it, but because of how remote we were, oftentimes the only two choices were reindeer or salmon soup.

did you hit up the market hall in helsinki? god I still think about that soup place.
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First place we went. Since we finally arrived at 4am, the first meal was lunch at the market, were we got the lohi keitto ja ruiz leipa. It was a great start.
 
I was supposed to head to Spain soon, but given the state of their train system, I might just bail. My itinerary was entirely dependent on using high speed rail to get from madrid to Andalucia, and now they're talking about a strike.
 
So I work for hospitals on their EHR systems (electronic health records), specifically Epic. I spent about 20 months on a detour outside Epic where I managed Process Improvement for our central scheduling call center but I hated it and am back working as an Epic analyst. This round I'm working on the surgical suite. Which means I needed training and certifications, which happen at Epic HQ outside Madison, WI.

In January.

I got home the middle of last week from my second 8-9 day trip and jesus tapdancing christ it was cold. Look, I'm a New Englander. It's winter. It's cold. But -18 with a -40 windchill can go all the way to hell.
 
Yeah you can keep that crap thankyouverymuch.

One evening I walked to a nearby restaurant. It was only -6 which is no big deal but it was crazy windy (apparently -31 with windchill?). No thanks. No thanks. Winter sucks.
 
Also, I meant to find a screen capture of Rip Torn shouting out “Pussy boy” from Dodgeball, but forgot to include the movie title and Rip Torn’s name. When you don’t have Safe Search enabled, the results were not what I wanted at all.
 
Slap Shot said:
Sorry to hear that your plans may be derailed.

Too soon?
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I went to Spain. Specifically, Andalusia.

What an unmitigated disaster. Perhaps it's because I'm educated and have a background in climate, but I knew what was happening before most people seemed to. I was able to get one of the last seats on a bus out of Andalusia about six hours before all trains were halted. I made it to Madrid, and spent the next two days trying to calm my nervous system down before my scheduled flight home.

I've been to Spain twice, and both times, due to no one's fault, horrible things have happened. Someday, maybe, it will be different.
 
Deutsche Gopher Fan said:
I went to Spain. Specifically, Andalusia.

What an unmitigated disaster. Perhaps it's because I'm educated and have a background in climate, but I knew what was happening before most people seemed to. I was able to get one of the last seats on a bus out of Andalusia about six hours before all trains were halted. I made it to Madrid, and spent the next two days trying to calm my nervous system down before my scheduled flight home.

I've been to Spain twice, and both times, due to no one's fault, horrible things have happened. Someday, maybe, it will be different.
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Oh, wow, I had to look it up. Flooding, ay? Yikes.
 
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