I haven’t written about my travels here yet because I planned to wait until I bought a laptop to upload and edit pictures on, but now that I have one, I discover that the network here is really locked down, so I’ll just write something, and upload pictures later.
#PHP meet in Hammersmith, London
Others have posted the group picture so rather than copying that over here, I’ll write a little of my impression of the people I met.
Andy/Sir-millar: The host of the meet, in my mind “the Russian” since he looks very much like a Russian coworker. Has a nice roof, and a not-so-nice security guard that chase you off it.
Steve: He worried early on in the meet about whether I’d understand his “not exactly the Queen’s” English, which at the time wasn’t a problem. As the evening progressed I less and less understood him. Whether the problem was me getting tired or not is hard to determine, but lets just say that me thinking of him as “the stoner” is sticking.
Alex/Newbie: He was already “the guy with the scooter” (which I after a while learned wasn’t really a scooter) when I arrived. A cheerful and a tad hyper fellow. Tied a garland made from some bottle label to the lightbulb in the room we were sitting in, which had to be hastilly torn down when Andy’s girlfriend turned the lights on.
Matt/Kloopy: I remember him only as “the owl”, as he started hooting like one at “nighttime” when we were playing werewolf. Insisted he was trying for pidgeon-sounds.
Karl/the_angry_angel: I can’t help but think of him as a East-European terrorist, due to his name, his looks.
Hannah/Er00: Girl. Redhead! Really does wears a bell around her neck, and she makes cat-like sounds when tickled. Clearly the most interesting person at the meet.
Ashley: “The other girl”. Part of the laptop duo, as she and Keith got stuck on IRC after the games of werewolf died off.
Keith: Other half of the laptop duo. Don’t remember much else of this guy.
Gus/Webvictim: Least memorable guy at the meet award.
Ros: The outsider. Andy’s girlfriend. Got stuck with us geeks when her original plans were cancelled. Smart, pretty, and tolerant of geekery; lucky Andy!
Sorely missed: Theory and Hotwire, let me know when you drop by Norway 
The rest of London
Fairly uneventful. Was really exhausted after lots of stress at work lately+the travel, and took a few days merely relaxing, walking around with a camera taking pictures of what I felt like. Went and saw Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty’s theatre (great), missed seeing Les Miserables (sucked, but I’ll be back to see it), and saw Oceans 13 (for £12.5, finally found something that’s more expensive in London than in Oslo!), got some pictures of Buckingham Palace, London Bridge etc.
Train to Praha
Missed my 7am Eurostar train by an inch, and had to wait a few hours at Waterloo station. Switched at Lille, France, for a regular train onward to Bruxelles. Bruxelles was suck. No internet cafés at all, no McDonalds, no Burger King, finally found a Subways. (Yeah yeah groan about the fastfood, but when I’m travelling and hungry, I fall back on the chains I know rather than explore or experiment.) Caught a train to Frankfurt (my thoughts were something like “finally back to civilization!” after the Bruxelles experience), where I stressed out over the ticket office just closing (at 10 pm!) and the night train to Praha having mandatory reservation. On the train from Lille to Bruxelles the conductor had threatened to fine me since I didn’t have a reservation, so I was naturally worried. No need to worry though, as here there were no problem paying onboard. Went for a seat rather than couchette, thinking I could save the money and sleep just as well. Regretted that, as the seats were hard plastic and not comfortable to sleep on at all, even if I did have the whole compartment to myself, and I found out when I arrived that the price difference was just 0.50 euro…
Praha
Heat! 30+ degrees even if it was cloudy. First impression is a pretty seedy train station, including an internet cafe with cubicles with curtains so you can close them off entirely… I fully expected to hear rubbing and grunting sounds from the cubicle next to me while I looked for information on the metro system… Once I actually got on the metro the impression changed though. It’s all clean and maintained, and the rest of the city was very nice. Downtown shopping area is huge, I walked for ages down one street, and crossed others like it several times. Finally bought a laptop (a neat little Sony thing that fits in my backpack), and discovered that prices on computer equipment is actually comparable to Norway or London (and, I assume, the rest of the world, which stands to reason.) Today I walked all over the “lesser town” and got very nice pictures of all of Praha from the excellent view at St. Vitus, a massive gothic cathedral inside Praha castle. Ate at a Italian restaurant, where two bottles of water cost more than the meal! (All together it came to about 500 Czech koruna, or about £12, still a bargain.) I climbed up to Petrin Hill, which made my walk a total 150 meters in elevation distance, before heading back down towards the metro and the hostel. Arriving at the bottom by the station, I notice it getting a bit stuffy, and dark clouds are gliding in from one direction, while the rest of the sky is clear and blue. I hurry down the station and take the metro to where the hostel is, and when I get out from the station, it’s like I’m in another country entirely. Massive horizontal rain (flooding the indoors station area), lightning strikes seconds apart, and then huge hail. I sit it out inside the station building as people pile up from the metro. 15 minutes later the hail and rain stops, the station personell get out squeegees to get rid of the water like this was a daily occurance, and before I can complete the five minute walk to the hostel, the sun is back out. Freaky weather, just as I complete book four of the “weather warden” scifi/fantasy series (recommended if you like contemporary “attitude heroinne” scifi/fantasy ala Rachel Caine, Kim Harrison or Laurell K Hamilton (pre-vamp-porn)). Tomorrow I’m checking out and heading for Budapest, a city I already know and love, but have no pictures of (which will be corrected.)
