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As of writing this blog post, leaves are turning yellow, it gets dark after 8PM and cold winds blow throughout the day. Fall of 2026 is here. I'd like to reflect on the last few months, especially in the light of the plans I laid out almost a year ago.
Without going into too much detail, I'd like to mention that the first half of 2026 was quite stressful for me. Probably the most stressful period of my life, when looking back at it now. This had a significant impact on how I managed to maintain my social relationships, which created a very nasty feedback loop that didn't exactly help with the stress. On top of that, things were pretty hectic at work due pretty intensive (and really interesting!) projects I was involved with. We also had massive layoffs, which again, didn't really help with alleviating the stress that was already there. Luckily, that's now in the past and largely thanks to the long summer holiday, things are now looking great! No stress.
I started my holiday on June 9th with a train to Rovaniemi. Attending the Midnight Sun Film Festival was once again a great experience, and I recommend it to anyone who likes movies. In total, I saw 17 films during the five days, and gave each of them a score in a highly subjective manner:
The scores are heavily influenced by the general atmosphere and other things, such as the director being present to talk about the movie and whatnot. The scores are therefore more about the particular showing of the film, not about the films themselves. Even an objectively bad film can be a fun watch with the correct framing. One should attend these kinds of festivals with the assumption that every single showing is at least interesting in some way, the programme rarely contains "bad eggs". If I had to select a single favourite, I'd have to pick Pandora’s Box. Being able to see a silent film with an extremely competent live music performance from almost a hundred years ago is something that can't be replicated outside of these events. The entire film is available in Wikipedia, but watching it at home through a computer screen simply is not comparable to the "real" experience. That being said, the format in which the film is seen should not overshadow the fact that the story is extremely gripping even with modern standards, and holds up really well to this day.
My original plan was to set off directly from Sodankylä after the film festival, but this didn't work out this time. I didn't really manage to prepare for the hike beforehand, mostly due to not being to find the energy to do so. Due to this, I had to come back to Helsinki for a few days to prep the hike, which in hindsight was a good call. I was supposed to leave for the hike on Wednesday June 17th, but developed a fever just hours before leaving home. This forced me to postpone the hike one more day, and luckily when arriving to Rovaniemi on June 19th, I was fine. I did have to shorten the hike due to this, and leave the Kevo section to some other year.
The hike itself was a serene experience. Due to the weather and the remoteness of Muotkatunturi, I was practically alone for the entire duration of 9 hiking days. Here is a list of every single person I encountered during the hike:
Suffice to say, this really hit the spot and was an excellent remedy for the stress of the past months. The only thing I'd maybe change was the weather, but that's not really in my control anyway. It rained every day for at least a few hours, and almost every night. The benefit of hiking alone is that there is nobody to negotiate a break with, which means that during a period of rainfall, you can just sit your ass on the ground and wait for the rain to pass. On top of that, the visibility in the Lapland highlands allows you to see, how large of a rain front you're dealing with and plan accordingly.
Honestly, I'm kind of surprised how well the hike went. Each day of course had significant challenges to overcome, such as flooding rivers, running out of drinkable water, or managing to get my socks soaking wet in the middle of a swamp, but none of those were really a big hurdle to pass. In the end, hiking comes down to managing a long list of problems and other pressing issues, which need to be constantly prioritized and solved in the correct order. It is extremely satisfying to see how things just work when you manage to do this exercise correctly.
After getting back from Lapland, my original plan was to socialize with friends and you know, just hang out and enjoy the summer. Unfortunately, all the stress and pressure from the past months really caught up with me, so I had to just concentrate on myself for the entire month. In hindsight, taking long walks, reading books, listening to music and diving into some hobby projects was exactly the thing I needed to regain my composure. Stay tuned for future blog posts about the projects mentioned! ;)
The rest of this year is projected to be quite hectic at work as well, so making sure I'm getting good exercise, prioritizing sleep and sticking to other steady routines are things I'll need in the coming months.
In the near future, I'm really looking forward to attending The Linux Plumbers Conference in Prague. Maybe I'll even have time to mount a pilgrimage to Plzeň to visit the Pilsner Urquell brewery!