Åcon, Day 1

After Ölcon (not that it was just drinking beer—the bar also ran out of champagne) we arrived safely in Mariehamn. The boat from Sweden was also just unloading passengers, so we met most of the rest of the Åcon crowd and headed for the hotel Adlon.

The registration went smoothly, and everybody pretty much seemed to park themselves at the terrace bar (the only place where you can smoke; luckily the weather was sunny if not too warm). So we had the “extremely formal” opening ceremony there, mc’d by Jukkahoo. Greetings to Eemeli (the chairman in absentia) from everyone!

The first day was very informal, with general chatting on the terrace, and spelling bee/linguistics discussion “program” going on inside. The one “real” program item was a game of Hangman, judged by the organizers. The audience seemed to appreciate the capriciousness of the judges and take the abuse in stride.

The bar was nice—and empty since people were sitting outside—but closed unfortunately early today (it being a weekday, and a public holiday to boot), but the lobby bar is still open. The pizzas were reported to be excellent.

Meeting friends, talking, drinking and generally smoffing around—a pretty good opening day, I’d say.