Tag: prague

Prague Postgres User Group And Some Walking Around

Time in Prague was 80% professional, and just a little bit of walking around. The meetup was fun because I had an opportunity to present my Security talk (which is rarely accepted), and Boris gave his temporal aggregates talk, which he would never give otherwise. Meetup pictures:

City pictures:

The neogogthic fountain
The 13th centure church
The motorized butterflies

Prague

We spent the last two days in Prague. My good friend and colleague from Prague called for potential presenters for the Prague Postgres User Group, and I figured out I can do it as a part of my vacation, because how can I stay away from Postgres for ten days! Looked like it all would work well, and we could spend one extra day in Prague. Boris suggested we could go to the Kutna Hora to see the Silver Mines – he visited it many years ago, and the tripp was planned. When it turned out that the meetup needed one more speaker, I suggested that Boris give a talk as well, so it became even better!

Everything worked as expected, except that somehow I developed a very brief but intense cold, just for one day, when I needed it the least!

I booked a suite in Charles Bridge Palace Hotel through AAPR. I started using their booking system a couple of years ago (yes, I am eligible for their benefits for several years) and realized I can find some really good deals even in Tallinn! That was yet another “boutique” hotel in my life, and the “palace” part was very pronounced 🙂

The hotel entrance
The ground floor hallway
The overpass connects different parts of the building
The sitting room of our suite
The window view – daytime
The window view – evening
The third floor hallway (by our suite)
The only problem with breakfast was that it opened very late – at 7:30. Usually, we are among the first for breakfast, and there is no rush around the buffet, but in this hotel, half of the guests were down there by the opening time.

We used Welcome Pickup for all our transportation because of a lack of time, even though the public transportation in Prague is more than decent. The only reason I mention it now is that our driver provided us with a lot of solicited and unsolicited information, and one of the things he was talking about was the closeness of the Czechs and Germans, specifically regarding their respective cousins. Overall, I had a better impression of the Czech cousin this time around, but Boris and I agree on the German aspect: very good meat dishes and very bad coffee 🙂 (well, you can say “not strong enough”, but honestly, even cappuccino was somehow “mild”)

Prague Dev Day

On Monday evening, I flew to Prague to deliver training at the Prague PostgreSQL Developer Day. I used my full-size (10 hours long) PostgreSQL Query Optimization Training, cut out about 1/3 of it, and updated it with the examples from the book’s second edition. The preparation took way longer than I expected when I submitted this training proposal, but I am happy with the result.

It was a super-short visit to Prague; I barely was outside. I upgraded both my flights to business class because I have nine European upgrades, and I can only use them on Finnair flights. There were only two business class passengers besides me on the way there, and I was the only one on the way back 🙂

Salmon lasagna – I don’t know what Italians would think about it, but I liked it!
I chose the Grand Hotel International due to it’s proximity to the venue, but to be completely honest, it didn’t impress me, although I understand it’s historical significance.
At the entrance of the Department if Information Technologies where the event tool place
And if you are wondering – yes, there were only two female participants out of twenty-five
Together with one of the event organizers, Gulcin Jelinek

Pictures From Prague December 14

Another night of walking around the city (and no, I didn’t miss December 13, I just never left the hotel on that day!)

Prague Christmas Market

My co-presenter just sent me the pictures she took in Prague the day before the conference started. We prepared our presentation without meeting each other in person, so we wanted to spend some time getting to know each other. Her husband accompanied her at the conference as well, so the four of us went to dinner and then walked to the Charles Bridge and to the Christmas Market. And yes, she is that much taller than me!

Pictures From Prague December 12

In view of today’s tragedy in Prague, I was unsure whether I wanted to keep posting happy pictures of the city, but decided to go ahead.

December 12 was the only day when we had a chance to see the city in daylight. We met my friends who moved to Prague from Moscow and since the weather was perfect, decided to spend all the time we had wondering around.

Old Railway Station building
A Flying Deer 🙂
Continue reading “Pictures From Prague December 12” →

Pictures From Prague: December 11

Prague at Christmas time is amazing, and even though we barely had any time to spare, we went to the old town several times, mostly in the dark, but that was even more stunning!

In the first post with Prague pictures, I show the ones that I took on Monday, December 11, the day we had just arrived. Almost immediately after arrival, we went to dinner with my co-presenter and her husband. After dinner, we walked from Hrad down to the Vltava River and crossed the Charles Bridge. Now, I continue from there – most of the pictures are from the Christmas market.

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Random Facts About Staying In Prague

As I mentioned, I didn’t have time to post about anything because I hardly missed a session at the conference, and I was busy talking to people during the “hallway sessions,” and also, I was participating in the after-hours events every day. This is going to be probably the only non-conference-related post.

In the airport:

  • First time ever, I saw a separate exit line for business class travelers (which was very convenient)
  • The most unusual buffet in the business class lounge (photo below at (*))
  • Extremely unclear marking of the check-in desks (and wrong information sent in the check-in email)
  • First time for a very long time: very unfriendly, almost rude check-in desk personnel
  • A good surprise: duty-free shops open at 5 AM! I didn’t even plan on purchasing anything in the airport due to my super-early departure

In the hotel:

  • It is gigantic! Almost uncomfortably gigantic
  • Gigantic food court for breakfast. What was interesting is that they do not even check your room number and whether that is the first time that day you enter. And I do not think it is even possible to check
  • The fitness center is not inside the hotel but in the mall located in the same building, and thereby, it does not open until 7 AM, which was a problem for me (I didn’t have enough time before the sessions started). The fitness center is also gigantic and always busy! And they offer personal trainers, and I actually saw people training with somebody (I am not sure how useful it is to train with somebody who does not know you, but whatever)
  • These days huge problem for me: no makeup applying mirror in the bathroom, so applying makeup was “the best guess”.

In the city:

  • There is still the same insane number of tourists as I saw during my first visit, even very late at night.
  • There are plenty of public bathrooms (sigh).
  • Very few homeless people, if any.
  • Everything is at least twice cheaper than in Chicago.
  • Sometimes, I would run into a “socialist-style” service

(*)The airport lounge buffet:

Overall: a conference in December is a bad idea!

The Conference Is In Progress, And I Don’t Have Time For Anything Else!

At the Speaker’s Dinner- there are way more women in Postgres these days!

Prague At Night

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