Travel Season

[Labster]

For my job, summer is conference season, so I get to do a lot of traveling.  I'm heading off tomorrow for a week for a week in Pittsburgh, which is not terribly exciting.  At least it will be an escape from the June Gloom.

But as an American, the European conferences are more exciting.  In late July and early August, I'll be heading to Amsterdam, Prague, and Riga for various programming related groups.  It helps that half of my coworkers live in Europe, and my boss is part-owner of the company and likes writing off travel to Europe.  Last year I visited Scotland, which was pretty amazing, but I'm a little apprehensive about places where people speak less English (not including NL obviously).

Anyone here going somewhere interesting this summer?  Anyone interested it meeting up somewhere for a drink or something?

[hazard]

You are going to Amsterdam during late July/early August?

Don't expect to do a lot of tourist things. It'll be crowded like you wouldn't believe. Going off-season would be much wiser. Also, expect it to be wet and fairly warm, or tropical temperatures and high risk of high humidity.

[robkelk]

... but I'm a little apprehensive about places where people speak less English (not including NL obviously).

They speak English in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Anyone here going somewhere interesting this summer?  Anyone interested it meeting up somewhere for a drink or something?

I have a week booked in Quebec City...

[DHBirr]

... but I'm a little apprehensive about places where people speak less English (not including NL obviously).

They speak English in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Anyone here going somewhere interesting this summer?  Anyone interested it meeting up somewhere for a drink or something?

I have a week booked in Quebec City...

They speak French in Quebec.  [Two can play the missing-the-point game.]
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Children, don’t talk to strangers.  Strangers don’t want to hear it.

[robkelk]

No, they don't. They speak Quebecois. Anybody from Paris will tell you that isn't French.

[Labster]

Tabarnak, guys.

I'm not really going to be a tourist in Amsterdam, this time anyway. My company has a new office there, and I have a good friend in Rotterdam, which is very close. (In the sense that people from Australia and the North American West use "close".)

The peak tourism season is a thing. My trip takes me rather close to Italy, but it will just be too busy to be enjoyable. But since I've been writing, I have an inner Akari Mizunashi that really really wants to go to Venezia. And it's so hard telling her no. Logically though, her Neo-Venezia is not overloaded with tourists, so it doesn't help me write the mood.

I guess I must be some kind of "method" writer. When I stumbled into the Venice room at the Getty Museum, my heart started racing. And I'm pretty sure that it's not my core personality having that reaction.

[Rajvik]

I go nowhere, i get to see nothing, not for another four years or so

[hazard]

Going by 9292.nl/en (the Dutch public transport guide website, also available in English) minimum travel time from Rotterdam Central Station to Amsterdam Central Station is at minimum something like 40 minutes, and more like a full hour at minimum. Depending on the exact routes of course you would add quite some time due to needing to transfer to different busses, trams and trains. Dutch public transport is generally pretty reliable and cheap, if you don't have a car available and are going to travel a fair bit you should consider an anonymous or disposable public transport card for ease of use. There's a link here describing the particulars of that.

Going by car you should expect to take at least as long. And if there's traffic, it's going to take a lot longer.

Also, Dutch fuel is expensive, you can end up paying the equivalent of 2 dollars per liter of gasoline, or about 9 dollars per gallon. Seriously, consider using public transport, it's a bit of a hastle but it's really cheap if you aren't staying long and are only going to be in the major cities.

[robkelk]

Anyone here going somewhere interesting this summer?  Anyone interested it meeting up somewhere for a drink or something?

I have a week booked in Quebec City...

Not next week (visiting anywhere in Quebec between Jour St-Jean-Baptiste and Canada Day without a lot of advance planning is a no-go), but the week after next. Which means I'll be getting back just after Bob starts his usually-scheduled vacation.

[robkelk]

I go nowhere, i get to see nothing, not for another four years or so

Not even someplace else in Florida?

[Bob Schroeck]

Speaking of Florida, Peg and I will be heading down to our home timeshare in Jensen Beach, near Port St. Lucie, come October.

That's in addition to our traditional week in Long Beach Island, which this year starts on July 6.

We may even do a third week somewhere at some point, but we're not certain about that yet.

[Labster]

I'm finishing up my time in Pittsburgh, at a hotel across the street from the Steel Building.  It's hard to describe these cons.  In the day, it's a mass of talks and new ideas and keeping up with work and hacking in the hallways.  I got to translate English into English loanword for our Japanese guests.  And at night, it's social events and board games into the wee hours.  It's not that I want to go home tomorrow, but I think we all could really use the sleep.

[Rajvik]

I go nowhere, i get to see nothing, not for another four years or so

Not even someplace else in Florida?

No, between work and having to be home to take care of animals because my sister works over the road, I'm kinda stranded in the local three counties and need to be home each night.

[Star Ranger4]

Not anytime soon. Next trip I have planned will be Star Trek the Cruise IV in March of 2020

[Norgarth]

Not anytime soon.  Next trip I have planned will be  Star Trek the Cruise IV in March of 2020

Well, at least you can confident that one will 'voyage home'.

[Star Ranger4]

*SNORT*

OWIE OWIE OWIE MY POOR NOSE!!!

[Wiregeek]

yeah, travel season.

So far I've been to Ketchikan, Kodiak, Kotzebue, a gold mine nearish Bethel, Fairbanks, Kenai, Soldotna, Palmer, Wasilla, Anchorage, Homer...

I'm expecting Juneau, Seward, Cordova, Sand Point, Barrow. I'm really not looking forward to Barrow, it's a filthy cesspit, from which nothing of value derives or is present.

That being said, if someone's going to be in Alaska, let me know and I'll stand you a lunch and a beer.

[robkelk]

Too many restaurants in old Quebec City. I'm not going to get the chance to ask if these folks use real hobbits.

[robkelk]

Too many restaurants in old Quebec City. I'm not going to get the chance to ask if these folks use real hobbits.

These folks do not use real Jedi Masters.

[Dartz]

I already regret taking all my holidays in October rather than splitting them. All my holidays are booked into one solid block. I got no more to take.

It just makes the intervening few months harder. All booked for months and still months to go.

[robkelk]

At least you'll get to take a vacation while the rest of us are working.

[robkelk]

I'm home from vacation. To no air conditioning (by design), and an apartment that's been closed for a week.

Windows are now open.

I suppose I should get the photos off the camera... but that can wait.

[Mamorien]

My kindly gray-haired mother has informed me that we are getting my dad to Michigan for his 80th birthday (Tuesday fortnight) even if it kills her and him both (a prospect I can't definitively rule out, particularly where he's concerned). The plan is to leave central PA on the 17th, arrive at the lake house on the 19th (in time for my brother's birthday, which falls on Armstrong Day), leave there on the 24th, and presumably get home on the 26th.

[Mamorien]

My kindly gray-haired mother has informed me that we are getting my dad to Michigan for his 80th birthday (Tuesday fortnight) even if it kills her and him both (a prospect I can't definitively rule out, particularly where he's concerned). The plan is to leave central PA on the 17th, arrive at the lake house on the 19th (in time for my brother's birthday, which falls on Armstrong Day), leave there on the 24th, and presumably get home on the 26th.

Apparently, my announcing my plans in two separate places (here and the official milliways_bar Discord) was enough to call the attention of the diminutive deities (may they break their collective leg). This morning, my dad woke up with pains in his chest and his left arm, in consequich of whence he spent roughly 8am-4:30pm inclusive in hospital. He has a follow-up appointment on Friday, before which we cannot launch.

[Labster]

At least it will be an escape from the June Gloom.

I'm finally going to Europe tomorrow.  First stop, Amsterdam, where it will be in the upper 90s/upper 30s and humid.  Maybe I should have just saved some money and went to Texas instead, sheesh.

So the schedule looks like this:

Wednesday - sleep in Amsterdam
Thursday to Sunday - Amsterdam: working a couple of days and sleeping a bit more, possibly Summer Carnival in Rotterdam.
Sunday 28 to Thursday 1 - vacation time in Prague
Friday 2 to Monday 5 - work conference in Prague
Tuesday 6 to Friday 9 - programming conference in Riga
Saturday 10 to Monday 12 - tourism in Riga
Monday night 12 to Tuesday 13 - overnight ferry to Stockholm
Tuesday 13 to Thursday 15 - tourism in Stockholm
Friday 16 - return from Amsterdam


In theory, I could have shoved a day of Worldcon into this at the end, but by that time I think I'll ready to be home.  If anyone's going to be around these areas, I'd love to say hi.