Well, I'm sure everyone is interested in reading about my first trip overseas. OK, well not everyone, but I know that there are at least a few people that are interested ;)
I'm putting up my pictures over in the new TechEd Barcelona 2006 picture gallery. I only have a couple pictures up there, as I didn't have much time yet for the touristy stuff, yet. So, lets go thru the past couple days. I'll probably ramble a bit, but I'm trying to get this out as quickly as possible. The flight out was packed. When I checked in online, it looked empty, but it seems as though there was a tour group that booked all those "empty" seats, and just hadn't reserved any seats. So, what I though was an empty row turned out to be filled. Hmm, I think from now on, when I want to increase the odds that I'll have an empty middle seat, I'll pick a row that already has one person in it. This way, I'll have a better chance. The thought here is that if there are 2 people traveling together, they will first try to sit together, which means that any 2 adjacent seats will be filled before any other seats. Also, don't pick the emergency rows if you really want an empty middle seat. People looking for extra leg room will always fill that row, and they are not usually the smallest people, so those rows tend to be cramped. You may have more room if the middle seat is empty, and the odds of that happening in the emergency row is slim to none, so pick another row. Oh, and if you really want to get specific info on the benefits/problems of a seat, check out SeatGuru before picking your seat. I didn't get much sleep on the flight, so I was pretty tired by the time I got to the airport. Passing thru customs was realtively easy, and only about 1/2 hour wait. I picked up the Microsoft supplies shuttle from the airport, and got my first view of Barcelona. I don't know exactly what I was expecting, but it wasn't a very pretty view, with lots of construction, and graffiti. The conference center seems to be new, but nowhere near in size to Orlando, or Boston.
Once I got checked into the conference, that is where things got interesting. Seems as though in Europe TechEd does not offer a private bus system, like they do in the States, but relies on the public transportation system. So, I had to figure out how to get from the conference center to my hotel via the Barcelona Metro. Which has now caused me to create a new rule for going to conferences. If I can't stay at a hotel within walking distance to the hotel, there has to be a private busing system, otherwise, I'm probably not going to attend the conference. Usually, I like to stay at the speakers hotel, because most of my friends are there, and it is usually a nice modern (aka American styled) hotel. Since this conference was paid for by winning the Extensibility contest, I really didn't have a choice on the hotel, as they picked it. So, my hotel is in the old town district (Rambla section), which is about a 40 minute commute via the metro, and requires a minimum of 2 different metro lines (3 lines if you want to get really close to the hotel). I was worried about 2 things, not knowing the language, and security of the metro. I was pleasantly surprise at how well marked the metro stations are. They lines are color coordinated (so it is easy to tell what line you are on, and most stations (well, all subway stations, but not the tram, aka light rail stations) have great big maps of just that line, and for that direction right above the waiting area for the subway. This makes it very easy to know which direction that side of the station is heading. Plus, they have plenty of signs to direct you when you are changing lines. So, I picked up the tram (the street level light rail system) just outside of the conference center, and took it about 6 stops to the metro (subway) line. From the tram station I had to look around a bit to find the entrance to the metro, and then make sure I was headed in the correct direction. From this line, I could take it about 4 stops and either get out of the metro and walk about 1/2 mile, or pick up another line, and take it one stop, so I elected to continue on the metro. It was quite a walk underground to the other line, but it was well marked. Oh, another cool thing about the metro, at each station, there are digital clocks indicating the time until the next train, so you always know how long you have to wait.
I get off the metro and walk out into a large, wide tree line avernue. There is a pedestraion are in the middle of the street, filled with people, shops, pan handlers, and performers. After stumbling thru asking directions to the hotel (about 5 block walk), I was able to find the hotel. One the map, it looks like Rambla is a main street, with lots of smaller streets off of it, but in reality, the smaller streets are not much more that alleyways, with just enough room for sidewalks, and a single lane of traffic (see the pictures to get a better idea). My first impress was that in NYC, would never venture down one of these alleys, as they look like a great place to get jumped, and walking down the alley for my hotel (Hotel Gaudi), didn't improve that stiuation. Definitely not something that I would normally do, but hey, there were plenty of other people in the alley, so how bad could it be? The Hotel Gaudi may have advertised that it was recently revovated, but I think recently is a relative term (in this case, meaning it was renovated in the last 50 years). If you wanted to go to Barcelona, and be in the old city, and get a feel for it, well Hotel Gaudi may be fine, but I've figured out that a 3 start rating in Europe equates to a hotel similar to Motel 6, in the edgier side of town.
So, I check into the hotel, and take one of the oldest elavators I've ever been in, to my floor, and check out my "room". There is a bed (not much bigger than something I'd buy for my cats to sleep in), a desk, a bathroom, and something that sort of passes for air conditioning. There is no alarm clock, and a nice 10 inche TV. Hmm, my home for the week, and it is nowhere near the conference center. But I'm beat. I need to get some sleep, but I want to go and get a SIM card for my new GSM phone, so I decide to venture into the streets of Rambla. It took a while, but I finally found a place where I could get a SIM card for my phone. But, for some reason I couldn't get it to work, and the kind shop owner tried his best, but it wouldn't pick finding the local network. The one thing I learned from the stroll, was that a lot of people in this area seem to know a little English, and really try to help. which makes it a little easier to get around down here. Another was that the neighborhood is known for its peep shows and prositutes. The prostitures aren't so noticably during the day, but the night, well we will get to that part of the story.
So, I couldn't get the cell phone to work, so I decided to pick up a phone card, so I could make a call to home from the hotel. I get back to the hotel, and for whatever reason, I couldn't get the card to let me dial the US. Yes, I use 1 (the US country code), but I ever time I tried to dial home, I would get an error message. So, I decided to just call home from the hotel phone. Then I decided to take a nap, so that I would be able to go to the Ask The Experts meeting and the MVP party. I woke up after a couple hours, and then tried to figure out the metro to get back to the conference center. It wasn't totally painless, but with only a couple small missteps I made it back to the conf center. I wamt to my meeting, and then search around a bit for the MVP dinner. Dinner was over at about 10:30PM, and I had to figure out the metro again. I was getting better, but it still is a bit of a challenge. The walk back from the metro stop to the hotel (5 blocks) I was approach by at least 5 different girls looking to "show me a good time". I did my best to fain ignorrance and just kept walking. Turns out that this neighborhood really deserves its reputation.
By Day 2, the metro is becoming easier, but it is still a pain, since it is still a trek between the conference center and the hotel. I volunteered to work the Architecture Ask The Experts area, and today, I was scheduled to work a couple hours. While working their I was finally got to me Udi Dahan. Immediately, I realized that getting to meet up and talk with Udi, was going to be my highlight of this conference, and make it worth it. Yeah, I didn't have to pay for this conference, but it still does have its cost, in other expenses and time, of which time is my most expensive resource. We need more people in the Microsoft world that are willing to challenge the way we develop systems, and Udi is a great example of this. I also got to meet up with Don Smith, Christain Weyer, and some of the Visual Studio SDK team. Oh, while plugged into the hard wire lan, my power converter started to smell funny, and then fried, so I had to go out and try to find a replacement. It turns out that the bricks for the laptops can handle 220 volt, and all I needed was an plug adapter, and not a power converter, which there were plenty of places that had adapter. Yet another good thing to know, I traveled back to the hotel to get changed and get the adapter, and then head back to the conference center for the vendot party. The vendor party is nothing like the vendor parties at either TechEd or PDC. The food was almost nonexistant, and the choice of beer was Amstel or nothing (I was hoping for a local beer). I hooked up with Jerry (who is also staying at my hotel), and we decided to split the party early and go grab dinner back near the hotel. We walked around a bit, stopped in a Tapas bar for a drink, and thought about ordering dinner, but thought better of it, and wound up at this great fst fodd style Turkish restaurant. I got what is basically a giro at home, but man, that was one of the best giros I've had, and they had some local beer. In bed by midnight, and then got back up at 7 for the triip back to the conference cetner for day 3.