OpenGeofiction

Contrary to the current mood (at least here in cold and Omicron-struck central Europe), I’d like to invite you for a short holiday trip; for a less cringy message, see below.

Let’s start by grabbing something to eat at a newly opened breakfast-cafe in edgy Óram’uel. From there, we can walk into the old town and join the masses of less trendy tourists posing for selfies in front of the Opera and buying cheap plastic souvenirs around the Zoésora Temple.

After wandering around the Ballet Theatre and the Museum of the Oceans at the new, modernesque harbour front, we take take the Metro Line 2, which follows the course of the oldest railway in all of Kojo, to an exquisite beach-side neighbourhood named after the two things that make it and the city great: the sun and the coast. Here, we join the high (and less-so-high) society of the city in sunbathing and swimming for a little while. Afterwards, we can take an Express bus back to our Hostel in the studenty Ōnagara neighbourhood. Every street bustles with cafes and restaurants, with little Boutiques as well as chain pharmacies. After a quick shower and nap, we are ready to head back out again.

As we walk south, the quirky vibe is replaced by a more sophisticated atmosphere in posh Thurn et Sasó. The Fóskiman Chigai-Showugan, Kojo’s most renown art museum (unless you ask people from the capital), is impressive enough from the outside, so we disdain its treasures and instead go for a picnic in the green lung of the city. Although dedicated to the Revolutionists of 1834, nowadays it is a source of tranquillity and chill for the Finkyásenians, who sometimes, between work, study, loud traffic and long summer nights, need to force themselves for a brief pause.

Further east, we find the old royal palace where the De Croix family resided, who ruled the city before said revolution. With the sun in our back we now stroll along the Kōto, where expensive jewellery, high-end restaurants and exclusive hotels allow us to imagine what our trip could be like if we weren’t on a budget.

We start discussing what our options are for later tonight. Someone suggests heading to Hikárem for a couple of cheap cocktails at the beach and maybe some mainstream chart party later. Our pocket guide recommends Rόng’yeda, a more peripheral but very in-and-coming area to the north-west, to check out the cool Indy bars there and keep our eyes and ears open for the weekly techno raves in the industrial area next to the highway. A little more laid-back but no less entertaining option would be going for close-by Kaerí, the biggest hotspot of the city’s vibrant LGBT*-scene. But in the end, we let a promoter from the street convince us otherwise. An hour later we find ourselves on a not too small, yet intimate vessel on the Shimjur, where we sip a beer while watching the old town on one and the uptight Dóman-neighbourhood on the other side sparkling through the warm night.

Now as you can see, I’m not exactly born a poet. However I hope I managed to animate some of you to browse through Finkyáse, perhaps even the many parts I cannot come up with creative story-telling to include them into this short trip. The impetus to write this diary entry is that the city now feels “finished” to me, something I can otherwise only say about Arákkanai and Tinglyū. Obviously it is not “finished” in the sense that it is mapped to a level of detail found on well-mapped areas in OSM or OGF; but the mapping is detailed enough for me, as the creator, to feel like I was able to give every neighbourhood its own story and character. Whether I am able to get these ideas across to you as a spectator is something I would really like to hear you guys’ feedback on - the mapping part, not the novel-writing, obviously ;).

If you are interested in some more background information about the city, the old wiki still has the city’s diary entry up and running. Especially the public transportation network and the city’s history is explained in more detail there. Feel free to let me know what images the city evokes in you; is it different from my write-up above? What areas are you unsure about? How do you think I can further improve my mapping? Looking forward to hearing from some of you.