I decided to call this day ‘Day 0’ because most of it was taken by going to GUADEC instead of being on conference.
I had to wake up at 5:20 and get first train at 6:25 (Częstochowa -> Katowice). When I arrived at station I found out that there is one more train at 6:20 so I took it as this gave me few extra minutes in Katowice to catch bus to airport.
After 50 minutes in bus I got to airport. It was full of people waiting for my flight — Wizzair to London Stansted. Queue was moving quite fast and I spent time talking with one guy about embedded devices (do not remember for which company he works — something with WiFi and long range comes to mind). After boarding we got first surprise — Wizzair do not number plane seats so first on plane == better choice (and we were last ones :( — so no talk during flight). Then plane captain gave us another bad information — flight was delayed due to local ‘rush hours’ in air ;( Finally we started — with over 40 minutes delay so I was not be able to catch train from Standsted Airport to Birmingham New Street at 12:25.
Flight was ok — standard problem with lack of space for legs and some turbulations during landing. And I finally ended reading a book — Robert Ludlum ‘Covert One’ which I read for over 6 months.
There was a funny part with my passport — on the photo I look like terrorist (which I am not) so I decided to show passport in Poland and my ID at Britain to avoid any extra questions.
After coming to airport I took my laggage and bought train tickets (as I will go back very early there was no discounted tickets for it so buying tickets in advance was the same as buying Standard Return Ticket) and (as I had over hour to spend) took a look at airport’s terminal. I found Rynair desks so will not have to do it on Thursday, got something to eat/drink and returned to -1 level to catch the train.
British trains… nearly no space for legs like in Airbus 320 and one interesting difference between Polish trains — space for luggage. Instead of solid rack where you can put everything you have to put it on special rack right after you enter wagon (because overhead racks are designed only for small items). Before that trip I read and heard that British trains are slow and unreliable but that one is going quite fast.
Now it is time to shutdown laptop as battery in my D400 gives me less then 40 minutes of work (with backlight set to lowest readable). After GUADEC I will know do I need to buy a new one or can I live without it.
Finally I got to Birmingham and take a walk to hotel. It took me about one hour to go that one mile because I got lost few times. Too many streets without any names…
During evening there was OpenEmbedded meeting when we discussed many things which should improve our project.
It was busy day…