Day 3 @ FOSDEM 2023
Time to pack up. Had to wonder how am I going to reach the airport again. Next time, I'm going with Brussels Airport as flight destination.
Monday, 6th of February. Took great breakfast in the hotel again, took shower, done work until I had to check out. It was quite sunny this day as far I remember. Went to the metro, took single trip ticket and went with right metro train. When I got out of the train, went up the stairs to get to the exit validation area, only the one that was available was the one for people with extra bags or things. The person in front of me managed to pass through without problems. Now, on my turn, I entered, pressed the button for validation and presented the ticket. Here's the goddamn fucking surprise. The ticket is validated on display, but the exit door does not budge. It's literally not opening. To make things worse, I kept getting a mix of announcer voice templates asking me to put a card and that I could exit. I repeated this about 5 to 10 times, but doors didn't budge. No one else was nearby. After looking around, I've found assistance button. I pressed it once, but nothing happened because it says that you need to hold it for few seconds to start a call. Held it for few seconds and got someone on the line. They started to speak french. In panic, I say "Parlez vous anglais?" (Do you speak English?), and they replied "Non". FUCK. I had to improvise. They tried to ask me what do you need help with? I've said "Non sortie" (No exit). They asked about the ticket in this case. I've said it's "validé" as the screen also keeps saying it's still valid, even though it was reporting I've already validated the ticket. They managed to open the door while I was trying to explain. I said "Thanks" in English accidentally while I was trying to exit quickly, but it closed too early. They opened it again for me and then I've said "Merci" (thanks in French) and got out of it. Can't get better than that.
Finally, I got out of south station and went to the shuttle bus station. The first bus was full when I got there, but second one was ready at this point. Took the bus and took some rest. Though, at this time I've seen that someone was playing videos of an earthquake in Turkey. I wasn't fully aware of it until I checked local news and noticed how terrifying it was. I've read some information about it, and then left that for later as I don't want to wreck my mood for the rest of the day. Along with that, I didn't want to put some pressure to the guy next to me for reading more about it. During the trip, radio played the news so we ended up getting the information about the earthquake in French. After one hour of trip, I've reached Charleroi airport. I looked around to find entrance. When I found it, it looked very odd. Large room with single line through to exit. There was a small pole with message saying "No turning back". Not something I would expect for an entrance. Went through without any issues. Now, I had to prepare myself for few things. First of all, I had some food leftovers from yesterday so I've started consuming it all before it gets confiscated by security when I go through. During that time, I've also started doing some work. I also had to took a bathroom. Goddamn place requires you to pay 50 cents and you would get a voucher for buying things, but it was out of paper so no voucher either. However, the bathroom was very nice and clean, though.
After that, I was trying to prepare for the online meeting outside while trying to figure out where it's the most silent enough that wouldn't cause a lot of noise. After that, I went through the security and while I was trying to put all things on boxes for scanning, I got my toothpaste confiscated because it was a 125ml container. Got screwed up, but at least I've used most of it and it was a cheap one. Finally, the waiting area. I did get few souvenirs for the sake of it. I was doubting to get atomium souvenir, but the damn thing is like 30-60€ with note that some of them looked a bit defective, so I took a pass on that and got a mug, picture stand and small glass shot. After that, I've spent some time working. I was hungry again, so I've got Whopper with onion rings. While eating, I've noticed that departures board shows that we should reach border control. Fuck, I rushed to eat the whole Whopper and onion rings to the point I nearly choked myself. Not the smartest idea. After rushed meal, I rushed to the border control room and went through. From there, I've waited for some time until it was time to board. While I was getting in the line, I've noticed a pound sterling coin on the floor. I assume it fell from the guy behind me so I've asked him if he uses pound sterling and confirmed it was his. After that, we went to board the plane and I managed to get some nice view from outside while looking at the lights at the ground. Somehow, return trip felt much faster for me.
Once we landed, had to go to the airport bus. In addition, it was much colder in Zagreb than in Brussels. Went through usual border control and reached depart entrance area. It was already near midnight and the last train I had available was already gone. I had to improvise by calling a friend in Zagreb to stayover until next morning. Took the local bus that was luckily still waiting for passengers. I did reach the city at this point, but I was on the eastern side of the town and I had to reach western side. I walked a bit until I checked if there were any trams that still go the way I needed. One came after about 15 minutes. I rushed in and managed to get some heat. It was really cold outside. I was given a pass for buying a ticket as it was quite late already. After few minutes, I reached my friend's place, did a bit more chitchat about the trip and went to bed. Next morning, I did another farewell with my friend and went to the central train station to get a ticket (for free due to living in an area affected by earthquake in 2020) and finally reached home. It was freezing inside so I had to fire up the furnace, do the work as usual and finally off to bed. That's all for the final day of my trip.