CCC Day 4

The intense pace is starting to take its toll, along with the promise/threat of an upcoming long train journey and NYE.

This afternoon things are starting to be packed up. Empty space and marked mats are all that's left to remind you of the awesome that stood there not long ago. I suppose by tomorrow this place will look like a ghost town, with a few residents packing up the remainders, sweeping out the remaining rubbish.

On that note, I'm not sure if it's really good cleaning staff, good mannered hackers, or just German nature, but there isn't much rubbish. The bottle drops are occasionally overflowing with returned bottles, but that's really a good thing.

But back to the content, there are still stands that show no sign of disappearing. I suppose they will sneak out later, like a thief in the middle of the night.

I plan to attend the infrastructure talk in an hour, to get an idea how they managed to pull this scale off. 

At some point I'll return to the hotel for a few hours sleep, uplift the pack, and board a train on my journey to Amsterdam.

Time: 1658h

Temperature: 5°C

Location: Rest Area, level 3, CCC, CCH, Hamburg, Germany, Earth, Sol System, Western Arm of the Milkyway Galaxy

CCC hour 2072

This conference is really amazing. Not for the talks (I'm sure they're great, but I've not been to a single one), but for everything else. The "hallway track" is the conference. The talks are there if you're bored (which you'd have to be pretty jaded to be), or if you're exhausted but want to pretend you're doing stuff.

I've met many interesting people from many places. So far I'm the only Kiwi I've met here. 

I've worked out more on how to take photos whilst respecting the rules (see previous post), so I include some more here.

Forgive me if I repeat myself as its pretty exhausting. I've spoken to people who made autonomous robots that self navigate both indoors and outdoors using a laser sweep on the front to detect and avoid obstacles. A guy who makes art out of what amounts to toilet rolls, grease paper, a TV and a camera. I've spoken to physicists about time travel and drunken a slushie drink that's basically caffeine, alcohol and tea.

I honestly can't remember everyone I've spoken to, but everyone has been awesome (well, let's ignore yesterday's rant).

A functional (at least movement wise) GLaDOS. She doesn't yet try and test people with the promise of cake, but I'm assured that is next on the agenda.

Pretty lights

A cocktail mixing robot - this thing makes cocktails - and they aren't bad. It's not quite Tom Cruise in Kokomo, but it's not a bad start.

Yes, the phone works. Yes, it's bigger on the inside.

Pixels. No really.

The Lounge last night. It's intense, and awesome.

Wow, I keep getting "interrupted" by interesting people sitting down next to me. Clearly I need to get up and keep exploring.

Also this place is like hogworts. It keeps changing. I swear there are new escalators today.

CCC

Wow, I've not written anything for a few days. So I'm in Hamburg at CCC (Chaos Communications Congress), which is one of the largest conferences of its kind in the world. They reckon it's around 12,000 attendees this year, maxing out the largest convention centre in Germany, coincidentally named CCH (and on that note - CCH is closing for renovations in 2 years, so people are scratching their heads as to where it should go).

Anyway, enough of a half-ass Wikipedia article - what am I doing here and how did I get here?

Well, from Tankavaara it was a bus trip to Ivalo (pronounced Eee-Va-Low), then a flight to Helsinki. Overnighting in Helsinki then a flight to Hamburg via Frankfurt (thanks Lufthansa). That was yesterday.

Eventually I made my way to the hotel where I'm staying for the duration of CCC, about 5 minutes walk away.

CCC is a hacker conference so in that spirit it opens each day at 11am, and goes till around 1am, though from another point of view, it just never closes till the end, with hackers here all night (please note; hackers as in people who do technology stuff, not people who break into computers).

It's pretty full on. I did almost zero research on what to expect and what I was confronted with I could not have possibly imagined. 

Here is where I normally would include lots of photos of what I've seen so far, showing a glimpse of the extravaganza of sight, but photography is a bit frowned upon. You can take photos but you must make sure everyone in the photos agrees to it. This makes wide shots somewhat difficult and the general feeling is to avoid it entirely except where the background is walls, etc.

Even the official camera crew go out of their way to avoid inadvently capturing unknowing attendees.

But a post wouldn't really be complete without at least a photo of a sandpit with a projector and a kinect; 

That's sand you can sculpt that has the contour map projected on to it.

My view from a hammock as I lie here posting this blog.

Temperature: 8°C

Location: Hammock with big ferns in it, CCH, Hamburg, Germany

Oh sheet

Europeans don't do in top sheets. It's just bottom sheet and duvet. 

That's all I wanted to say.

Location: Airport Holiday Inn, Helsinki

Temperature: -4°C

Fun

Been rather busy with lots of stuff. After Xmas dinner I sat down with the owners, and a gentleman who bore a striking resemblance to a certain recently seen figure. Marko there showed me an interesting vessel I've never seen before:

It's for sipping whiskey. To me, it looks like a whiskey bong, but that's just my imagination.

Slept in for Xmas day (remember Xmas Eve is the big day for Europe). I think this was the first day I slept in till midday. This of course meant that there was only a few hours of sunlight left.

Xmas Day evening was spent at a traditional Sami dinner with song and story in a Kota (traditional hut). This was a great experience and we had Elk for dinner (something not Reindeer!).

After that we joined a couple playing chess and shortly after were joined by one of the owners, Marko. The games went on for hours until it was Marko and me, mano-a-mano, but he had the advantage in he kept supplying me whiskey until I lost.

Today is the journey to, eventually, Hamburg. We waited for about 20 minutes for the bus outside the village  on the road. This wouldn't have been much of a problem except it was -6°C, and the snow was ankle deep. Fortunately the bus did arrive and we're now on our way to Ivalo. Wow, spoke too soon, we just had to change bus. NOW we are on our way.

Addendum: When I say the snow was ankle deep, that's what the snow was from the last fall. The snow not plowed was waist deep, but we kept out of that, mostly.

Temperature: -4°C

Location: Kakslauttanen, Lapland, Finland

Joulupukki!

He arrived!

Looking very splendid, the Finnish Santa is free of CocaCola sponsorship :-)

Xmas Dinner

Xmas Dinner has been fabulous and we were treated to a brief snow fall earlier. They really know how to put on a dinner. I'm celebrating the festive season with about 20 people.

Really couldn't have asked for a better Christmas!

Temperature: -5°C

Santa: Expected Soon

Xmas Eve Day

Most of Europe celebrate Xmas on Xmas Eve (they have no patience to wait the extra day). Today we fed Reindeer, had a delicious lunch, played with Vera's Samoyed (Dog) and had a Husky Sleigh Ride. Another guest who was here last year tells us the upcoming Xmas dinner is amazing. 

That blur of motion is Harmi, Vera's dog. She's only 1 and such an amazing dog. It's wonderful to see a Samoyed in its natural environment. http://youtu.be/M9VEdrDgBPU

http://youtu.be/-a7ij_03H7s

Here is a link to a video I captured of our sleigh ride. It's really dark because, well, it's dark outside!

This reindeer is so young she doesn't have antlers.

Another selfie! It gets dark here.

Temperature: -6°C (warm!)

Time: 1622h

Sleighs ridden: 1

Samoyeds Seen: 2 (a guest also has one)

Hours of light: approx 4, technically the sun doesn't rise at all.

Santa's on his way!

We got to feed some of Santa's Reindeer before they went to work.

One of Santa's workshops; shut up tight as he's on his way:

Temperature: -12°C

No prose, just pose

At this point either I'm doing stuff, or sleeping, so I'm writing very little prose. Yesterday was recover from flights, because the Lufthansa flight to Helsinki was delayed significantly, i didn't get to Claire's place till 1am, and we were up at 5am to get to the airport.

It got down to -21°C here this morning, but warmed up to around -16°. We went for a walk but I had to turn back as one layer of socks wasn't enough with just regular boots. I've also managed to lose socks. I have no idea how. I'll pick up some more in Munich.

Apparently we missed out on northern lights last night because we went to bed at like 5pm. It's 4pm at the moment and it's night time outside. Ironically this is almost as dark as it gets, as in a few hours to moon will have risen and it becomes lighter again. 

We're staying up late tonight (hooligans!!!) to feed the reindeer at 9pm and hopefully see the Northern Lights. 

The temperature isn't too bad with good layering, I'm certainly glad I brought the big down jacket. I still feel the cold in my feet and legs (have merino base layer, jeans and waterproof pants). My hands are generally fine in my leather gloves. Oh, and my nose. It's ready to fall off. It's hard to wear a scarf covering it without fogging my glasses. I've been told to try turtle breathing (exhale downwards).

Oh wow, I've actually written a fair bit of prose.

The look after us, booze and free coffee (the booze isn't free though).

Santa's reindeer are slowly starting to arrive. I guess they're all returning from vacation in the Bahamas.

If you squint really hard you can see snow on the ground. ;-)

Location: Tankavaara Gold Mining Village

Time: 1616h

Temperature: -18°C

Hot Chocolates Drunken: 2

Coffees Drunken: Lost Count

It's photoshopped

This place is rediculously photogenic. I'm sure this place is photoshopped. They've photoshopped real life. I've got more photos but I thought I'd throw these up.

The bus dropped us at the entrance to the place, but there was about 500m walk down the drive to the reception, that was rather cold as we hadn't changed in Ivalo into the really warm clothes.

I have lots of other photos, but they'll come soon.

Temperature: -9°C

Location: Tankavaara Gold Mining Village

Whiskey: Talisker!

Reindeer Seen: 1

Reached Ivalo

Location: Ivalo Airport

Temperature: -8°C

Stuff on the ground: Snow

Successfully reached Ivalo Airport, and we're now on the bus to Ivalo centre. 

The ride is really going now

I really don't know where to begin, but I have to say that I'm meeting some amazing people, as the photos in my previous post shows. I'm not sure where to begin to be honest.

I arrived in Munich and Line (see previous post), her partner and I all rode the train to the station near my hostel. It was also conveniently right next to one of the larger Xmas Markets in Munich, and I have to say it was pretty awesome. I'm typing this at an Airport so I can't upload some photos at the moment, but check back on this post later. (Note to self, remove this part when i upload photos).

Eventually I made it to my hostel and by then was feeling pretty tired and wet. My room mates were already in the room doing some decompression time themselves when I stepped in, said Hi, apologised and disappeared without saying much else to have a shower. Refreshed, I re-entered to discover I was bunking with an Australian (Janeta) and an Israeli (Shae), both were very cool and happily accepted me.

The evening was spent enjoying Bavarian beer and lots of conversation. I really don't know what to say, as it was so enjoyable and had so much fun, and to be honest - i don't remember some of it :-D

I shall try to do a better post next time!

Temperature: 8°C
Location: Munich Airport
Gate: 41

Brief update

So people don't think I've died, I'm having a ball of a time in Munich and been busy, so haven't had any down time to blog. More to come later.

Tag zwei

Location: Erlagen, Germany

Temperature: 7°C

Bus Driver: Searching for hidden seats

Slept well at the hostel last night, i owe that entirely to earplugs - the bar next door was still going strong when I woke at 7. Would have been fun to join them, but I needed to sleep, and have proved the reason nicely, I'm rested and was up and about at 7:30. The length of time taken from then to actually getting downstairs was taken up with trying to pack without waking my roommates who were still zonked out at 0830. 

Eventually I made my way to the Frankfurt station where I discovered Germany is big. I'm on a 6hr bus trip to Munich - 20€ vs 120€ for a 4hr train. I decided to go by bus, figuring the 2hrs isn't worth 100€. I asked the woman assisting me if the view would be worth taking the bus, I was able to convince her she should say "Yes" :-D. In retrospect I may have been overly hopeful view wise. Nothing wrong with it, but visions of castles and spectacular rivers haven't been realised.

I met Line (pronounced Lee-na (sort of, it's hard to explain)), she's German. Line has been extremely kind enough to help me find the bus (indeed she's on it too), and then translate the various announcements. We both had a laugh at Google Translates attempt to translate the announcements from the driver. Apparently "the outbound is the rear". Which was googles disturbing translation of what Line tells me was "the toilet is in the back of the bus" ........

Regrettable Line can't join me in my exploring of the Munich Xmas markets, but I'm sure I'll meet more people there who will help. The Germans appear to be helpful people.

Oh, Line spent 6 months working in NZ awhile back and told me of her first few places assisting on farms.... NZ, we really need to work on first impressions Line describes NZ as "Friendly but a little bit weird". I like the description, but I from the stories she told me, I think she was being very kind with only saying "a little bit" - lets just say riding horses through living rooms is always more than a little weird.

..

Alive

I'm alive in Frankfurt, it's been fun so far. just about to go to sleep as i think ive been awake for 16 hours or so. Once again I met a traveller who was almost as lost as me. She however was from Germany, but just didn't know the Frankfurt trains. Rather fortuitous as the train we found that was the "correct" one, had some kind of issue at the next stop, the announcer said we needed to transfer to another train, but that was only said in German. I'd have spent awhile sitting in a mostly empty train wondering what was going on, but for her. I really must try and remember peoples names. :-D

Local Time: 2155h
Temperature: 6°C
Sleep: Soon

I haven't moved

So a few hours ago, I was flying over Russia. And now I'm still flying over Russia.... Russia is big... I'm glad I'm not trying to explore Russia. I'm now in what feels like hour 26 of this 12 hour flight. It's been suggested that because I normally sleep through the long hauls, this one feels longer.

Selfie! Again!

I forgot to introduce Joy before (I think I mentioned her in the last post). I met her as we disembarked from the Auckland to Shanghai flight, and of course we banded together to find our way. She too is on this flight, somewhere.


Oh, and Joy says "Hi" to Lucas and Skylar (I told her about my niece and nephew). Speaking of which.....



Mum, Skylar, Amy....... These are PANDA bears! (To anyone else reading, inside joke I'm afraid).

Unstuck in time

I have a watch on my wrist, I think its set to Shanghai time, I have my computer clock, I can't remember what time that is, but I think it's NZ time. I have a cellphone, it might be set to Shanghai time. I have no idea what time it is. Yes, I could simply check the timezone setting on almost all of the above (my analog watch sadly doesn't sychronise with any atomic clocks).

I do remember working out I have to stay awake for this flight, as I'll be landing at 7pm Germany time, and therefore I should sync my body-clock with local time. The meaning of "local time" sort of gets muddled up when crossing so many time zones. I'm just happy the planet isn't bigger, 24 time zones is enough (actually there are way more than 24 timezones when you take into account individual counties (and even counties!)).

So I'm somewhere... I don't even know on this flight, my inflight entertainment system is folded away (I'm in a bulkhead seat) and i don't trust it anyway - we apparently took off at 386m below sea-level... The Dead Sea is 418m below sea level. But that's as deep as you get. Actually, I just unfolded the screen and it helpfully shows a picture of the Earth, and I appear to be somewhere... somewhere over Russia.... Not exactly sure where.. I'm apparently at 36,000ft... Honestly, we could be on Mars for all I really know. It's dark outside. Probably are.

Ah yes, the ramblings on inflight tiredness. I at least acknowledge that this is a stream of consciousness blog.. Ramblings, I do believe that is the name of this blog, so it seems fitting.

On the inflight experience, well, obviously Wifi works, but at a cost of 12EUR, Emirates has it beat hands down. 1 second latency, about 20Kbps. I'm actually amazed at how well the Internet works in such conditions - I'm so used to 100Mbps and sub 10ms latency to all relevant CDNs. I suspect a Skype call would be out of the question though, not so much the latency as the jitter (around 200ms).

Anyway, I'm bored, watching movies on my laptop as the inflight entertainment systems selection didn't appeal.

Time: Unknown
Location: Unknown
Temperature: Unknown
Weather: Dark
Movie: The Lost Room (2006) - Miniseries - Very much worth watching.

Shanghai Pudon Airport

My God, view out the airport,
it's the same as every other airport!

So Pudon airport is fun. There was some initial trouble finding the transfer desk for my Lufthansa flight, each airline has a different transfer desk. Initially we wandered awhile until one of the transfer counters we'd already walked past changed their overhead screen to now include Lufthansa.

Of course I met someone who is going on the same flight as me, so we together attempted to discover the desk, etc. Once there we met others who were also due to go on the same Lufthansa flight, and solidarity was formed as we queued... and queued... and queued.... to the point that even the British were getting tired of queuing.

Another Selfie!

One thing I observed, and I'm hesitant to make a broad generalisation here - I suspect it may be a cultural thing though... All the staff here tried to help, but if they didn't know the answer they appear to simply make up one that involved me going somewhere else. Directions down concourses that simply ended in walls, telling me that no one in the airport sold headphone adapters. I don't think I ever heard the phrase "Sorry, I don't know".

And yes, I lost another airline headphone adapter AGAIN. I've brought two this time.

As soon as I find a shop selling them at a reasonable price, I'm going to buy half a dozen.

It's only a few more hours until my next flight, Lufthansa to Frankfurt. I suspect that flight will have wifi :)

Oh, and one final thing.....

Yes, that says "Precious Jumbo Seafood and Freshwater Delights"

Any person who is willing to buy "Jumbo Seafood and Freshwater Delights" at an airport is a braver man that me.... Much much braver...

Withdrawal

With the advent of (relatively) inexpensive satellite Internet, I'd like to point out that I can now get internet in the jungles of Peru, but I've found myself in a twilight-zone of non Internet called "Air New Zealand" :-D

Nah, I'm not really complaining (well, not that much). 

This is my first time on a Dreamliner (787) and it's a very shiny aircraft. Without turning this isn't a 1st world problem airline review - I prefer the 777's premium economy seating - though the 787s is nothing really to complain about. 

I fell asleep very quickly (indeed I struggled to stay awake for the evening supper), I'd deliberately made it a long day for myself, so I was pretty tired. I appear to have gotten a pretty good 8hrs sleep (good for airline sleep), and the person sitting next to me appears to have been acrobatic enough (and the seats far enough apart) to climb over me without waking me. Whooo.

Time: 1000h (NZ)

Location; somewhere over Okinawa near the East China Sea

Altitude: 38,000ft

Outside Temperature: -48

Speed: 865kph (537mph)

Movies Watched: Demolition Man (it actually stands up quite well)

Paging Captain Oates

Flight may not have wifi, I'm just going to board for Shanghai and may be some time. (Bonus points if you get the post title reference).

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step

I sit here, basking in what remains of the beautiful day that Auckland has laid on for me, reminding me not so subtly what I will be missing out on. I just went through an Auckland winter, then spring, and now as the temperature is beginning to rise, I transit to the cold far north of Europe. One could almost feel sorry for me, but for the fact that I did this by design. Next time I'll do the Northern Hemisphere in the summer, and thus skip winter for a year.

I leave tonight just before midnight, and have a 12 hour flight ahead of me to Shanghai. After that will be a 7 hour layover, before heading to Frankfurt (another 12 hour flight). I do predict that within the decade, there will be suborbital passenger service from Sydney to London (or similar) that will take all of an hour or two. Till then, it's hurtling through the stratosphere in a tin can.

I'm sitting here, wondering if I've forgotten anything. Not so much that I won't have it - I can always buy almost anything I forgot - but because my pack is depressingly full, I'd rather not discover more things I should have packed.

In my defence, a large volume, and not inconsiderable weight is occupied by my fire trade goods and the suit jacket that I will be needing on the cruise (and will hopefully use elsewhere!). Unfortunately by the very nature of the my travels, my backpack will really only get fuller. My medication does take up some volume as well, but not as much as the other things.

So in a few hours, I set out to conquer the world. Lay on, Macduff!

Location: Auckland
Temperature: 19°C