Jiri Kupiaien has less than two months to go to the gaming industry conference organized on the west coast of the United States.
Jiri Kupiainen (left) and a colleague photographed last year at Berlin’s main train station. JIRI KUPIAIEN’S HOME ALBUM
– Apparently the group goes to a bar in Kanaria to ask who is sailing in the right direction. That’s really the plan now.
That’s what he says Jiri Kupiainenwho wants to hitchhike across the Atlantic.
The destination of the game industry entrepreneur and his colleague is a conference in San Francisco at the end of March.
Kupiainen presented at the conference about reducing emissions in the gaming industry. Once there, they are also supposed to announce a non-profit organization that focuses on the emission calculation of gaming.
– Earlier in my life, I’ve pretty much used up airplane seats. Before the pandemic, I became aware that the emissions of flying are shockingly high.
So flying to the conference was out of the question.
Originally, the plans were to travel aboard a cargo ship. Kupiainen says that the shipping companies that previously offered passenger services announced at the beginning of the year that they could no longer cross the Atlantic.
– The original plan turned out to be impossible, and this is the next best option, says Kupiainen.
Port of Las Palmas photographed in November 2018. Mostphotos
Berlin to Las Palmas
The journey starts on Wednesday from Kupiainen’s hometown, Berlin.
Kupiainen and his colleagues first travel by bus to Paris and from there on to Madrid. From Madrid, a train takes them to the south coast to Huelva. There is a ferry change in Huelva. They will arrive in Las Palmas on Sunday of this week.
– Experienced sailing acquaintances have said that people typically prepare for a trip across the Atlantic in Las Palmas. We’ll be there at least until the middle of next week.
If you can’t find a ride in Las Palmas, Kupiainen and his colleague might try their luck in Tenerife.
Kupiainen says that he hitchhiked in Europe when he was younger. However, he has never hitchhiked at sea. Previous sailing experiences are also from childhood years.
Kupiainen only heard about sailboat lifting a while ago on Linkedin, where acquaintances told him about social media groups where you can look for a ride and crew. At the same time, he also heard about the option of marching to a bar in Canaria and asking who is heading across the Atlantic.
Enough questions
Kupiainen admits that there are many uncertainties associated with the trip.
– One of the big question marks is what kind of captain worries about traffic jams.
The second is the time of hitchhiking.
– Now is not the best season anymore. A month or two earlier, the conditions would certainly have been better. When I looked at Shipfinder (an application that shows the locations of ships), yes, there seemed to be quite a lot of boats crossing the Atlantic.
Kupiainen is not too worried about the weather and sailing. Rather, he is excited about how traveling in a small boat with strangers would go.
– There are pills for seasickness. What’s more exciting is what happens when you’ve been stuck in a small boat for three weeks and other people’s comments start to bother you, or my comments start to bother others.
Then there is also the possibility that Kupiainen and his colleagues get to the Caribbean on a sailboat, but too late to make it to the conference on the west coast of the United States. From the Bahamas, you would still have to take a ferry to Miami and from there continue overland to San Francisco.
– There are enough questions for the next couple of months.
The story continues after the picture.
The destination of Jiri Kupiainen and his colleagues is the game industry conference to be held in San Francisco. Mostphotos
Presentation remotely
Kupiainen considers it possible that they knock on the doors of sailboats in the Canary Islands for a week or two without getting a ride across the Atlantic.
– It may be that there is no ride or it may take too long, in which case we will come back by milk train.
Even in that case, Kupiainen won’t go flying. A backup option is to contact the conference organizers and agree on holding the presentation remotely.
Kupiainen hopes that the plan to hitchhike across the Atlantic will spark discussion, regardless of whether it succeeds.
– If the hitchhiking is successful, we will hopefully get a lively discussion about what sustainable tourism is. If it doesn’t work out, hopefully there will be a discussion about whether it even makes sense to travel to the other side of the world to do business.