Dronten

Hung out for a few days in Dronten (yeah I know nobody has ever heard of it). It is a small village in the center of Holland. Pieter Joost and his girlfriend Alien (pronounced Ahleen, though we would jokingly pronounce it wrong) we nice enough to let us crash on their couch/air mattress for 2 nights before we had to head out.

The town had a little pub, we found it rather quickly (about 15 minutes after arriving) and it became a centerpiece of our time in Dronten. We were even on a first name basis with the bartender Johnny. It is quite possible that Zach and I were the first Americans to go to this pub :)

What a mug!

We hung out quite a bit and did geeky stuff including recording a podcast for devnology about Domain Driven Design which was quite fun.

Zach and PJ @ PJ’s

Erik and PJ being geeks.

PJ, Alien, and Erik

The second day Zach and I found this amazing chinese “trailer” that apparently moves daily. We got big plates of great noodles for next to nothing. We were quite sad when it was not there the next day :(

We had to drop Zach off at the train as he was flying the next day to Russia and needed to pack. We made it with 0 time to spare, he literally ran onto the train and was off.

Dronten was a very cool place, a very different feeling than the big cities, much more authentic. I managed to get some pretty cool pictures one night as the sun was setting, it was just gorgeous.

So cool!

I will have to go back to Dronten to visit again.

On Saturday PJ was nice enough to drop me off at the airport in Amsterdam. It was time to head off to Bergen!

Xebia

Zach and I hung out around the town getting rid of our hangovers on Wednesday. We found the best breakfast I had had in a long time very close to the hotel, it was truely amazing and only like 10  euros each including coffee.

Zach realized that it wasn’t actually the girl’s legs that he liked but the fact that she was wearing a short skirt… the taxi driver got quite a laugh out of this.

We boarded a train in the afternoon to head out to Hilversum Sportpark which is where Xebia is located. Pieter Joost came to pick us up but apparently there were two train stations in the town.

Travelling…

I did my Unleash Your Domain talk for the user group and it went over pretty well I think, many good questions. I also in answering a question came to a new realization about aggregate roots, they solve the global lock problem but I will write a blog post on that later. One funny part of the talk was that there was nowhere to put my laptop so I put it on the floor, took off my flip flops and used my feet to change slides. It was a great ice breaker with the audience.

Xebia also provided food for the talk … and man was it good, professionally catered, quite different than the pizza I am used to. They also provided free beer for the group after!

After the talk I saw xebia’s bookshelf. It was mostly books about  tools but there was one gem hiding at the bottom, I re-arranged it to put it in it’s proper place.

I have since talked to Xebia and hope to be heading back out there perhaps in January.

After the fun Zach and I headed out to Dronten with Pieter Joost who we would be staying with for a few days.

Rotterdam

Stayed in Rotterdam for a few days to teach a class. The train ride was quick from Amsterdam (about 2 hours). I didn’t grab a whole lot of pictures as I was only there for 2 days and was teaching but I did get a few.

 

Ride to Rotterdam

Hanging out after the course.

This was my first time teaching the class in its current state. I had taught it once before but changed drastically the format. I really like the new format of not following a schedule and allowing all of the developers to use whatever environment that they want for exercises but I have to say it is really like herding cats.

Zach came to visit me from Germany and hang out at the hotel. I hadn’t seen Zach since I moved to Vancouver and he was heading to Russia so it was quite cool.

Durgerdam and Amsterdam

Sept 11-13ish:

Left Oslo and flew to Amsterdam through Copenhagen -–Yes I remembered to take the train this time to get to the airport—.

I arriving in Amsterdam realized that there was no train that would take me near my hotel, why you ask? Well because my hotel was just south of the middle of nowhere, it was a tavern with 3 rooms about 15km outside of Amsterdam (it was a 20 euro taxi ride each way to the nearest store). Here are some pics of the tavern and the area.

 

The tavern

The town (left view)

Across the street.

 

This was actually a welcome break from the constant going that happens at all conferences. I actually had a great time here and would love to head back one day. Keep in mind though that you have to be well behaved at this tavern or they put you in this:

 

The rooms at this tavern were not numbered, instead they were animals! I got to stay in the Cow Room as you can see by the door.

It was decorated with lots of cow paraphernalia but the creepiest thing was the picture over the bed.

 

I think they put the drapes there so when you saw scary cow you had the ability to close the drapes and forget he was there.

This tavern is the only thing in Durgerdam so finding it should not be too hard and I would highly recommend it for a quiet weekend. Across the street there is a dock that you can sit and hang out on. I would recommend going when its warm though as it seems like a not so nice place in the winter. Just remember to be good or you may get a close up view of the shackles ..

Side comment: Heineken actually tastes good in Holland who would have thought. It North America.

 

On Saturday I met up with Erik Pragt and then Lucia for a while in Amsterdam at a little Irish pub.

Erik at pub.

 

On Sunday we went to Erik’s house to play some guitar hero then I jumped a train to Rotterdam as I was to be teaching a course Monday morning there…

Oslo, JavaZone

Sept 7-11: Went to JavaZone for a great conference. I flew from Hartford to Phillidelphia before heading out to Oslo, it was really weird being back in the US for the first time in a long time. My mother dropped me off in Hartford. I snapped this picture as a good bye to Les Etats Unis (notice how heavy people are? that floored me in my few days back in the US)

 

After about 7 hours of red eye excitement I landed in Oslo, I had thought that the conference started the day that I arrived but it was just the setup and after the speakers dinner. I didn’t have a hotel room so I went to an internet cafe and found a cheap hotel (650 KR <> $130USD which is extremely cheap in Norway as its common to spend $50 USD on dinner at a not so nice restaurant).

One interesting tidbit is ALWAYS take the trains in Norway. I took a taxi from the airport to downtown as I didn’t know any better, it is maybe a 20 minute ride. Price? 940kr <> $200USD ugh!

The hotel was a bit different than most US hotels, you had to put the sheets etc on the bed yourself and although it had a private bathroom most rooms shared communal bathrooms. Although a private bathroom it was far from the lap of luxury.

 

I went to the speakers dinner that night at a small bar/restaurant, there wasn’t much food more like a buffet of appetizers so perhaps it should have been called speaker’s drinks. I was jetlagged and stayed out pretty late in a delirious state hoping that some drinks would make me tired and able to sleep. Complete and utter failure.

This is the sun rising at about 5 am the next morning. I fell asleep shortly after at about 6:00. Luckily my session was not until 3pm although falling asleep at 6:00 did not help my jetlag very much, it persisted for about 2-3 days.

For my session I was talking about Domain Driven Design, always fun with Eric Evans (the creator of Domain Driven Design) in the audience. I was also speaking in the big room (about 500 people on 2 sides) for the first time at a conference. The room was quite intimidating.

You can’t really see it in the picture but the side I took it from is a mirror image of the side in the distance.

My session went pretty well, as of now I have received my reviews and I was well above average in terms of ratings (I would guess in the top 15-20%) which is always good to hear.

After my session I participated on a panel discussion on some subjects related to the topic which was fairly interesting. That night we went out again.

Out with Eric Evans (left) and Randy Stafford (right). Randy took us to dinner on Uncle Larry (Ellison’s) budget but we had already decided to eat somewhere reasonable and were too tired to switch directions and go eat somewhere else. You got lucky this time Larry but next time we are eating better!

One thing I I had to take a picture of before I left was the beer that we were drinking … I mean where else in the world can you have Ass Beer?

The rest of JavaZone was a lot of fun. I didn’t get a picture but they had a smart card operated machine that dispensed beer to “heroes” … too cool!

After JavaZone it was time to fly back to Holland. I remembered to take the train this time!

Starting the trip

Some of these posts are back posts so I am going to put dates into them as I go. I will tend to continue to do this as likely I lack internet in many places and will be writing posts while disconnected.

I left Montreal September 3rd to resume my trip after 8 months in Quebec. I met many great people in Quebec and definitely intend to return (Francois, Simon, Darrel, Alain, Sebastien, tew, Helene, et al!). Writing now in October …

Le Quebec me manque mais je me souvien!

I went by Greyhound bus from Montreal to Connecticut where I visited with my Mom for a few days before heading out to Europe. I had a great time hanging out with my baby sister Gillian for a few days (ah the life of students) but alas I had to go which will be the next post!