Bon Jour/ Ola/ Hello

Bon Jour/Ola/Hello, I am back from my European gallivanting!

I had a fab time in Paris and Seville(Sevilla officially in Spanish). It is good to be back though and great to see the boys again.

Jane near the Eiffel Tower

It was truly WONDERFUL to see all the Ubuntu folks (freaks?) again, as well as some new faces. I would list them but I know I'll forget someone crucial so really it was great to see EVERYONE, and especially to bump into random Ubuntu people in the streets of Seville. Will Seville ever be the same again?

Here's a sample of the gang. (Enough IQ to power a small country...)

It is still the best group of people ever, and more intellectual (and comedic) stimulation than you'll ever get. Ubunteros rock ;) I really really miss working with Ubuntu and Edubuntu - I was having dreams (literally dreaming while I was sleeping as well as day-light fantasies) of being asked to rejoin the team. It would be so awesome if that ever happened...sigh.

Anyway Richard is doing a great job with Edubuntu (of course Oliver continues to pour his heart and soul into the development) and it really seems to be taking off now. YAY. The first UES (Ubuntu Education Summit) preceded the regular UDS (developer) and was well received.

Still I got to sit in on some of the sessions and got to play with both an Intel Classmate PC and an OLPC. Both were cool to play with, and the jury is out as to which will do better. I personally liked the Classmate more - it is more like a 'real' PC and is more intuitive. Quinn saw a picture of the OLPC though and really reacted to it. So we'll have to get him to test both and then see...

Here's some proof:

- Martijn's pic of me with OLPC -

- Phillip's pic of me with the Classmate PC -

Er, no now I can't find it, so here's one proving I was there instead...
Note the wearing of an obligitary 'cool' geeky t-shirt ;P

Ok geek raving over...

The photos I took are on my flickr account: here.

There are more photos of Seville, UES and UDS etc below:
- Pics from Jonathan Carter here.
- David Trask's Pics are here.
- Martijn's Pics are here.
- Jono Bacon's Pics are here.
-Juan (JuanJe)'s pics are here.

Right so after that digression we are back to the holiday...
It's taking me a while to get to writing about it...

OMG it is FRIKKEN EXPENSIVE there!
Think R60 for a coffee & R150 for a pizza in Paris. And R35 for my Chocolate Crepe from a pavement stall. And similar prices in Seville but slightly cheaper... Beer is cheaper than coke and so 'when in Rome' and all that, we drank lots of beer like the locals do.

We ended up eating ham, and cheese on rolls from grocery shops mostly and after 5 days I finally HAD to have some fruit and spent something like R30+ on ONE orange and a small yoghurt.

We spent 2 nights in Paris - in a very budget (15Euros each per night! including breakfast - a baguette roll with butter & jam and coffee) Youth Hostel. It was dingy but really fun though. We walked all over Paris, from Notre Dame winding our way past Parliamentary Buildings and the Sorbonne and on the the Eiffel Tower and then on to The Arc De Triomphe, down the Champs Elysees and on towards the Louvre. That night we walked along the Seine at Sunset and then all around (and in) Sacre Coeur Cathedral too. It is really beautiful.

Walking on a bridge over the Seine at Sunset.

We also found some performance artists in the streets, a lovely week-end organic market and a piazza (what's that called in France?) complete with fountain and people dancing to French accordion music. It felt really authentically Parisian.

Then we went to Seville, which is a really beautiful picturesque and old styled town. The people are dressed really stylish there (colourful patent leather stilettos are IN people - though how they walk with them on cobbled streets I'll never know!?). The babies and toddlers are strangely dressed like children from bygone times... weird. Like suits and long socks and buckled shoes. It was like being in the 20s, 40s or 60s or something...

We stayed for 2 nights in a local hotel right near the centre of town (+- 70 Euros per night) - no coffee or breakfast or anything. It was ok, but the old grumpy totally non-English speaking guy at the front desk started off amusing and then got just plain annoying. Silly man. He refused to get a taxi for us when we left and made us run in the rain with all our luggage.

We then moved on to the official conference hotel - which luckily we were not paying for at something like 500 Euros per night! YIKES! That of course had a full spread for breakfast.

Al Andalus Hotel Sevilla

So I am back now all travelled out and having totally over indulged in food and drink, but I think it was worth it... back to gym tom...er some time or other...

There are some great pictures of Seville and specifically the Real Alcazar (Royal Alcazar Castle) here and here.