I checked the closets in our hotel room in Athens three times, and each time, I found something I had forgotten! First, it was one of the DRW t-shirts, then my Kamala Harris t-shirt, and then – one of the Postgres t-shirts I purchased at the conference.
Only when we were back in Helsinki did I realize that I had forgotten a DRW reversible umbrella! It was my favorite one, and I had been waiting forever for it to appear in our gear store, and now I had forgotten it! And I didn’t even need it in Athens; I just left it in the luggage, took it out, and forgot!
Also, I forgot my DRW light hoody in Boris’ apartment, but at least this one is not lost forever, and will come to me in three weeks!
We had almost no time to do anything except for the conference since October 22 afternoon, especially because Boris doesn’t see anything in the dark, and my night vision is also far from perfect. We ventured out during the day just once when there was a last-minute speaker’s cancellation, and we visited the archeological site of the Zuess Temple.
The most impressive thing about the temple is it’s former size. I know it’s had to imagine how a size can be impressive when the temple itself is not there, but it was!
I complained about “once again, no sign and no explanation of what it is, and Boris said that usually it helps when you start reading outlous. I told him that there is no way I would understand because there was no separation between words and no punctuation, but when I started to read out loud, it actually helped!There is a large map pf the public baths where they say where was the warm water, and the cold water, and where was a changing room,.
And we went to Plaka a couple of times, ones in the dark – for the late night ice cream :), but only after we figured out the way at the daylight.
The night Plaka looked fantastic, and I knew it was a sacrifice on Boris’ part because he does not like to be in places like this, and I usually enjoy it. However, I ended up not buying anything there. When I checked out the sandals, they said they do not carry wide width – never, and I didn’t want to purchase any silver there because it’s hard to check the quality. Also, how many silver rings can one person have?!
Summary. When we decided that we would go to the PgConf.EU, regardless of whether any of my talks will be accepted, I thought it would be a mini-vacation, and it was not. And it’s not because the conference was crowded and there were many talks to attend and many conversations I wanted to be a part of, but also because there were multiple things I worried about all the time. Most of them were community-related, some personal, like when I saw a text message from mom’s caregiver who was supposed to be there during the physical therapist visit that she couldn’t come, and others that I do not want to talk about right now.
I used Valo Work for the whole week, and each day, I loved it more. Both Thursday and Friday, I went there earlier so that I could work out and then have breakfast. Breakfasts were amazing, even better than lunches.
Not pictured: they had overnight oats, and I decided just to try a spoonful, and it turned out that they had fresh (I guess, defrosted, but tasted like fresh) wild blueberries! Absolutely fantastic. Also not pictured: a huge selection of cold cuts and cheese, and nuts/dried fruit/you name it.
Here is a picture I promised last time:
Don’t you love these sitting spots on the stairs?! And electric outlets everywhere. This area is open to everyone, and there are many other sitting areas, like this one:
I kept discovering new amenities of my private office; on Thursday, I found that each office has a fridge 🙂
Although my office rent time was technically from 9 AM to 5 PM, my key worked when I would come at 7-30, so I could leave my things there and go to the gym, and then to breakfast, and then actually start working at 9 AM. I will definitely do it again next time I am there!
Hettie's Reflections 