Arriving At FOSDEM 2024

My onward travel to Brussels, Belgium to visit CHAOSScon EU24, CentOS Connect 2024 and FOSDEM 2024 began on 31st January 2024 at 0400 am Indian Standard Time. I barely slept around four hours but decided to call the taxi driver after getting myself ready. Amidst the power outage that happened as a result of a heavy downpour in Kolkata, the taxi soon arrived and my maternal uncle accompanied me to the Dum Dum International Airport (CCU). On the way to the destination, I checked with Sumantro Mukherjee who was to depart from Salt Lake, Kolkata to see if they had reached the airport yet as I would be travelling with them. It took no longer than fifteen minutes for me to get to the airport due to the light early morning traffic. Interestingly enough, one of the flight receptionists at the Emirates booth remarked that I loved travelling to Germany when they were checking me in using my passport. Once I got my boarding passes and went through the security checks, I met up with Sumantro Mukherjee and his wife, Saheli Das Mukherjee on the other side.

Our flights were supposed to depart at 0900 am Indian Standard Time so we had some time to kill in a nearby lounge. Just like in my previous travels, none of my debit cards or credit cards work for the lounge access and Sumantro Mukherjee helped me out with one of his. Once through, we decided to get ourselves some food while catching up with each other after meeting during GNOME Asia 2023. At around 0800 am Indian Standard Time, we left for the boarding queue and after letting my family know about my departure - I took my seat. Thankfully, Sumantro Mukherjee and Saheli Das Mukherjee were able to obtain adjacent seats and while I was not seated near them, I was blissfully assigned a window seat. Beside my seat 19A, I had a newlywed Bengali bride who was heading off to Dubai to pay a surprise visit to her husband who worked there. As she was travelling for the first time, I helped her on multiple occasions. While munching on the breakfast served, I decided to watch some movies.

After watching Barbie (2023) and Retribution (2023) using the Emirates in-flight entertainment system named iCE, I noticed that the flight was nearing Dubai International Airport (DXB). I helped the passenger seated beside me to click photos and record videos from the window on the way down. As I was one of the first ones to deboard the aeroplane, I waited on Sumantro Mukherjee and Saheli Das Mukherjee while connecting to the airport WiFi station on my phone. Owing to the short layover of around 75 minutes, we were glad to find that the next flight was departing from the same terminal. Once we were through the security checks again, Sumantro Mukherjee and Saheli Das Mukherjee went off the explore the Dubai Duty Free stores while I headed towards the designated gate for the next flight. I clicked some photographs and communicated with my relatives about my safe arrival at the first layover destination in the waiting area. Soon enough, the flight boarding announcement was made and I called Sumantro Mukherjee for him to hurry up before the boarding gates closed.

This time around, I was assigned the window seat 18K while Sumantro Mukherjee and Saheli Das Mukherjee were assigned farther seats 41B and 41C. Only the aisle seat in my row was occupied by a lady while the middle seat was empty. Once the flight took off, we were served our lunch meals consisting of pasta and chicken meatballs. To stay out of boredom, I decided to watch Kill Bill Volume 1 (2003) and Kill Bill Volume 2 (2004) on the Emirates in-flight entertainment system. As I saw the sunset out of the window and the temperatures were falling, I was served Margherita Pizza and chocolate brownie with apple juice. After the flight landed at the Brussels-Zaventem Airport (BRU), I waited for Sumantro Mukherjee and Saheli Das Mukherjee as I was yet again one of the first ones to get off the aeroplane. I turned my mobile data on to let my family and friends know about my safe arrival to the final destination. Both of them soon joined me and together, we started walking towards the airport arrival immigration counter while checking for transportation options towards the hotel.

At the immigration desk during processing, I was asked a weird question that felt like a double entendre. I was asked if I was a "seaman" or not - which was perplexing because neither my passport nor my boarding pass gave them that idea. The chuckling of the adjacent immigration officer confirmed my suspicion of it being crude conduct, but I decided not to make an issue out of it. This was followed by the usual questions related to the purpose of my visit and the chosen date of my departure. When the three of us were through the immigration process, I discussed with Sumantro Mukherjee and Saheli Das Mukherjee what did not look like a good experience for someone just entering the country. With our luggage picked up from the conveyor belts, we started heading downstairs to the train station where we began having problems with our mobile data connection. As the two of them and I were residing in separate hotels and it was getting darker outside at around 0700 pm Central European Standard Time, we had to be very sure that we boarded the correct train that took us where we wanted to go.

With Sumantro Mukherjee's help, I was able to book myself a ticket to Brussels Noord station while they got tickets for Grand Saint Peters station. I was residing in the DoubleTree by Hilton hotel with my Red Hat Community Platform Engineering teammates while they were staying at the Moxy Brussels City Center. After clicking some selfies on the train, I got off and started walking towards the hotel which was around 750 meters from the station. I paused midway to put on my hoodie as it was getting colder by the passing minute and turned off data saver mode on my phone to fix the glitching navigation. Thankfully, my manager Julia Bley had the receptionist informed about my arrival so the check-in went smoothly to the point that I was not even asked to show identity proof. At around 0800 pm Central European Standard Time, I was in my hotel room and I decided to skip the dinner after having a heavy meal on the flight. As I, unfortunately, could not make it to the community welcome dinner in time, I decided to focus on working on my presentation and catching up on some sleep.