More Impressions!

Hmm.. I never thought it would take this long to write the sequel of the previous blog. I was tied up a bit. Thought of finishing this one before my memory fades..

The next morning we started from Prague to Spicak, 4hrs journey in a Train. The journey was good especially the scenary.. If you want to take a look at how good it was, check out my album: http://picasaweb.google.com/sureshjayaram/Spicak?authkey=-bHvQ9rxsi8

The view from the my room in the hotel in spicak was awesome! Look at this picture.


After 5 days of hardcore technical sessions and discussions, we went to a resort to relax a bit. I never thought Europeans are this adventurous. It all started with the Lizard stone event (more like what we call Treasure Hunt) . We started hiking from 9am in the morning on Saturday and it continued till 8pm in the evening. It was surprising that I survived and could finish it. Almost all of us finished, even people in their mid-forties! The fun part of this event was we were supposed to find out a gem which we called "Lizard Stone" as part of the game. When we started we had no clue about where the stone is hidden. As we proceeded, we got subtle clues. As we couldn't get all the clues right, we couldn't find out the stone. But, I am happy that one of the teams found the stone. Though the event was physically tiring, it was fun. Couldn't roam around the City much since I didn't have much time while coming back. Overall, the trip was very nice - Learning + Fun + Adventure.

Initial Impressions

This time SuSE Labs Conference 2007 is happening at a mountain resort in Spicak in the sumava mountains in Czech Republic. I started on 8th Sep from India. This is the first one Iam attending after joining SuSE Labs and I am really excited about it.

As usual there was a big queue before entering Bangalore International Departures. Something has to be done to avoid people standing outside and getting drenched in rain sometimes in the airport before getting in to the International terminal. Luckily it didn't rain when we went, otherwise it would have been a pain.

When I reached the Franfurt airport and I couldn't resist comparing it with the Indian Airports.. Take at look at rail tracks inside Frankfurt airport..

Frankfurt airport is huge, it is the third largest in Europe with multiple concourses and there are mono rails between them.

Ah, forgot to mention, I watched the movie Ta Ra Rum Pum, starring Saif Ali khan - Rani Mukerjee during the flight journey. Movie was a good entertainer.

I saw this Internet access terminal in the Frankfurt airport. I was tempted to connect to Internet and check my e-mails ;-). Alas! I forgot nothing comes for free.. It was a pay-per-use Internet access terminal.
After reaching Prague, I checked in a Hotel which later I figured has chain of hotels in almost every European country. When I entered my room, this is what I saw in the TV in the room.

I thought, oh cool.. they have got a interactive TV. Later when I tried to browse the on demand movies, I figured out a fee of 450Euros will be charged if I want to use. No way I am going to pay that much to watch some crap movies ;)

In the late evening, we joined other SuSE folks, one from Austria and one from Italy, and went out for dinner. Those folks were very generous and suggested that we will have food in a Indian restaurant because it would be difficult for us to eat in any other restaurant. As usual, it was very difficult to find a vegetarian or a Indian hotel. When we finally found one, the door was closed. Despite our repeated attempts knocking the door, waving hands etc. the door wasn't opened and we were quite sure the restaurant was open because we were well ahead of the closing time. We felt very wierd and I had to convince them this is not the way restaurants in India used to respond to customers..

Watch out for more impressions...