Last Saturday I became father to a baby girl - in addition to our 2½year old son.

Those of you who are my former collagues from MySQL, you know about the generous Scandinavian 5 week vacations. (Which in MySQL were practiced globally.) I have decided that now is a good time for me to enjoy another Scandinavian perk: long paternity leave. I will be home with the rest of the family until approximately next February :-)

This blog post is just to list links and tips on getting home to Finland.

First leg: getting to anywhere in Europe

Being stuck in San Fransisco, my first problem has been to get just anywhere closer to home. Taking a boat from America to Europe takes from 6-15 days and is not significantly cheaper than flying. So the best bet is just to fly to Europe.

A friend just emailed some suggestions what to do while stuck in SF:

20+ campfires on Ocean Beach
-------------------------------------------------
A fun thing to do any Friday or Saturday night after about 8pm until
after midnight is go to Ocean Beach where hundreds of people make 20+
campfires (folks are friendly -- just walk up and introduce yourself
and join some group's campfire or walk between many -- bring some beer
or snacks to share if you want to).  This beach is at the intersection
of Great Highway and Fulton street, San Francisco

If you are a MySQL conference attendee who cannot get back home to Europe, you can find other fellow MySQLrs at this page on MySQL forge. Please use it as a central hub to organize gettogethers like dinners. Or why not take the opportunity for a hackathon?

As for myself, my BA flight is canceled and there is no way to even rebook (160 minute waiting line to call BA). I will have my travel agent rebook the flight on Monday European business hours. Until then, I'm stuck indefinitely in California.