MSX CRUISE 2019 - The Experience

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THE MSX CRUISE EXPERIENCE :)
written by Bas Kornalijnslijper

Monday 11-3-2019
Early in the morning I took the train form Hoorn (NL) to Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. Because it was vey windy the departure of the plane was delayed. I had a good flight with a nice lunch and after 2,5 hours flight I arrived at a snow-white Helsinki in Finland. Mika Tähti (the organizer of the MSX Cruise 2019) and Arno van Heerde (NL) picked me up from the airport. We go by commuter train to the hotel and dropped off my luggage in the room where Arno was staying.
After that Mika showed us some nice places in the very cold Helsinki, we found a place to drink beer and we talked about a lot of things, like MSX.
Also Onno Geerdink (NL) arrived this evening and we met him in an exclusive hotel-restaurant in the center of Helsinki to eat an original Finnish meal: Reindeer. It was really nice, but expensive. We drunk some beers and other nice drinks. After dinner Onno stayed in the hotel-restaurant, Mika went back to his home and Arno and I went back to our hotel.

Tuesday 12-3-2019
After a nice sleep Arno and I went to a restaurant to have a nice Finnish breakfast. I paid it for Arno, because it was his 45th birthday. We did some walking in the city and did some shopping. We had a nice lunch with cake for Arno’s birthday. After that we went to Mika’s MSX studio and had some fun and conversations.
After picking up our luggage frim the hotel it was time now to go to the boat terminal to get our boarding tickets. There Arno and I met all other MSX freaks: Ville Akko (Fi), Tero Yli-Koski (Fi), Pasi Kettunen (Fi), Rami Al Nairab (UAE), Abdullah Alswaikh (UAE), Tanel Raja (Est), Timo Nyyrikki Soilamaa (Fi), Max Vilkki (Fi), Juha Pekka Jokela (Fi), Onno Geerdink (NL) and Mika Täthi (Fi). So, a total of 13 MSX users went on cruise.

After boarding the size of the cruise ship was impressive. It contained shops, restaurants, casino, swimming pools, bars, Karaoke bar, nightclubs and so on. So, everybody had to go to their designated cabin and it was very nice in one cabin with 3 MSX cruise persons you never had met before. Tanel, one of my roommates, brought some special alcoholic drinks with him from Estonia; we felt young again. The boat left the harbor of Helsinki around 17:30 hours.
Around 18:00 hours it was time to have dinner. It was really amazing how many people went to the restaurant and how much food and drinks there were available. At the dinner table there was finally some time to get familiar with each other, but soon it felt we known each other for many years.
In the evening we went to the bar to drink together. ‘Kippis’ is cheers in Finnish. I did a small talk and told that it is Arno’s 45th birthday. We collected some money and bought a present for Arno. To celebrate, Arno bought us some drinks. Later in the evening we went to the arcade room and played some games. Around midnight we went to our cabins and in one cabin we played some MSX-games, like Tetris, of course with some drinks.

Wednesday 13-3-2019
We started with a big breakfast and right after that we went to the meeting room for our MSX-meeting. The boat docked at Stockholm. Everybody sets up his computer and directly we could swap or sell parts and games. Everybody got a few minutes to introduce themselves. There were also some presentations from Tero about MSX Music devices and one from Arno about a Video Game Music re-arrangement from the ‘Metal Gear 2 Solid Snake’ intro, composing music, synthesizer basics, FM-synthesis and oscilloscope views of the FM-PAC and SCC). Rami and Abdullah were demonstrating Arabic MSX-software and Arabic MSX-hardware. There was a One-Chip MSX, a Korean MSX, some Scandinavian Spectravideo computers, some Russian MSX computers and I had brought some little things with me like extensions, parts and cables. We had a lot of fun the whole day, lots of conversations and discussions.
I left the boat for a few hours when it arrived in Stockholm to go the city center. I met there with some old friends that I didn’t see for 26 years and had a nice Swedish lunch with them.

After the meeting it was time for a Finnish sauna, a hot tub and after that a dinner. It was a perfect experience again. The boat left Stockholm and went back to Helsinki. We had a very nice evening; we did some shopping, did some drinking in a bar and went to the nightclub.

Thursday 14-3-2019
We started with a nice breakfast again and we packed all our stuff. Unfortunately, it was time to leave the boat. Almost everybody went home. Arno went for a few days to Tallinn in Estonia. He also visited Tanel’s place. I went with Rami and Abdullah to see some places in Helsinki. We also met some homeless girls in the city and had a nice conversation with them. Later that day we went with a friend of Rami and Abdullah to the Helsinki’s Bagdad Café to get a nice Lunch. The end of the trip came nearby. It was time to go the airport. At the airport I bought some small souvenirs for my wife and children, had a nice beer of €11, and took the plane to The Netherlands.

Friday 15-3-2019
I was very tired, but these days were great. I think everybody wanted to go back and do it again.
Maybe next year, at another place…

Thank you Mika Täthi for making this real.

Cheers,
Bas Kornalijnslijper, The Netherlands