Dear diary. (CC-BY-SA 3.0)

Extra t-shirt, check! Toothbrush, check! 60 pairs of socks, check! Friday the 3rd february was day 1 of my trip to FOSDEM with Open Source Aalborg. We’ve booked flight tickets so we can go early in the morning just to make the best out of the 4 days we’ll be staying in Brussels. 10 minutes intensive situps + 10 kilometers bike trip to the airport at 5 AM and you feel like you can do anything afterwards. At the local airport in Aalborg I met Daniel and Niklas. Much of the morning we spent just talking while flights, escalators and trains would take us to our destination. In all three years I have attended FOSDEM, it has had 500-600 events happening over the course of just one weekend. Finding and planning which talks to see and handling conflicting talks is enough of a hassle that it appears there is even an apps for it. I’m not that big of a talk goer though. I’m looking much more forward to helping in the GNOME booth, visiting booths and speaking with people I haven’t had a conversation with face-to-face for many months.

Niklas and Daniel, discussing the FOSDEM companion app (CC-BY-SA 3.0).

A trivial train ride got us from the airport to the accommodation in Etterbeek. It’s the same apartment which I also booked last year for a few of us in GNOME. The place is a very nice roof apartment at decent price and with a sweet host. Metro, Supermarket and FOSDEM venue are at convenient walking distance too. So the afternoon went by with shopping and waiting for the rest of the crew to arrive at the apartment.

Here we are, 5 members of Open Source Aalborg, ready for to go to FOSDEM (CC-BY-SA 3.0).

The day rounded off with buckwheat pancakes and beer. FOSDEM starts tomorrow at 10 and I’ll go there early to help setting up the GNOME booth. Anticipation is high!

Pancakes (CC-BY-SA 3.0)