A conference at Cyprus, and a presentation too? At least the place is warmer than the last one, and I’ve never been to Cyprus. Too bad the flights are murder, since there are no direct flights this time of the year. So I get to transfer at Vienna.
After a delayed flight from Helsinki, some frantic running at Vienna to catch the connecting flight (which is delayed too, naturally) I’m finally at Larnaca. And its warm! +25! Cool. Too bad I get to wait for the bus at the airport. Thanks Star Alliance, guaranteed to be late, EVERY TIME (one reason I prefer One World flights, they’re on time). The Austrian Airlines have a decent service though, but vegetarian food is only available in business class (and we government wage-slaves don’t do business class).
Anyway, after a cold beer, a short nap and some sunbathing I finally get to the bus, switch to a taxi and find the conference hotel, conveniently located VERY far from Lemesos (Limassol) centre. But the venue is very nice! A 5 star hotel with gym, beach, pool and whatnot.
Funnily enough, since I’m late I only manage one workshop before the official ”corruption” dinner / social event. A few glasses of local wine make mandatory Greek (or Cypriot?) dance spectacle bearable and I have a long discussion with some colleagues who actually have quite interesting ideas. And get totally jealous after hearing what kind of budgets the guys working in Qatar have for their digital cultural heritage sector. I guess oil and gas have other benefits too…
The program for next couple of days alternates between presentations, gym, sunbathing and sea/pool. Not a bad way to ”work”. The hotel is really good though I have to admit I’m not used to pampering. Too bad my hotel room has windows facing the heavily congested beach road and I forgot the ear plugs. But the really irritating minus is I don’t have time to check any local museums or historical sites.
My own presentation does not go too well. I suppose the ideas are either a bit too ”new” or I just couldn’t convey the obvious benefits clearly enough to the audience. Apparently our project is a bit too far out and large scale co-operation is a strange idea. Oh well, at least we get a publication out of this. Some Greek/Cypriot presentations are a bit irritating though, since as far as I am concerned not a single one goes by without them mentioning the bad Turkish (on the other side of the island) who destroyed such and such cultural heritage. Bother. And I’m also quite sure there are no Turkish participants in the conference either. IMHO mixing politics and (digital) cultural heritage is usually a bad idea. Granted, back home I’ve heard plenty of whining about lost artifacts at the former Finnish Karelia too but the difference is, it is not very public (to my knowledge, that is).
Three days go by quickly though I’m not convinced by the quality of presentations. For some organisations the location of the conference seems to be more important than the content and mysteriously, there are always a lot of local representatives present at EU funded conferences in these nice hotels (did someone say corruption?). And after I find out that a ”very famous Finnish philosopher” (yes, Mr. Saarinen it is) uses the very same hotel for biannual philosophy ”energizing” seminars I’m suddenly quite glad to be going home. Back to the cold. Away from the +25 and sun. Damn…
The return trip is uneventful if one does not count the fact that Star Alliance flights are delayed/late, again. And since Cyprus is not yet part of the Schengen area the Vienna security checks are quite ridiculous. So, I’m finally back home a bit before 1 AM, its cold and raining, and I still have time for one at Rytmi.
No reindeer yet, but I spotted a few lamb. Below average conference content but great hotel and absolutely fantastic weather. And I got to swim!