Two Opening Days with a Stopover in Kraków
Opening Day is a special event in Denver. The night before, it feels like the whole city is alive in anticipation of the big event. On Opening Day, it's typically a gorgeous spring day and serves as a great kickoff to baseball season. This year, we decided to take things up a notch and hit two opening days instead of one. The dates just happened to line up so we could go to the Rockies Home Opener on April 1st, fly to Kraków for the 33rd Degree Conference and make it back to Boston for the Red Sox Home Opener. Since Trish's brother lives near Boston, and I have good friends there, it sounded like the perfect vacation. To make a crazy vacation schedule even crazier, Trish and I moved in together the day before it all started. With moving and trying to finish my basement sauna before we left, we've definitely had a hectic few weeks.
After attending the Rockies Home Opener and having a great time with friends, we got to bed early and woke up on Saturday for our flight to Kraków. It was a 2 o'clock flight, so we got lots of sleep and then proceeded to thoroughly enjoy our flight when we upgraded to Business Class from Chicago to Munich. Business Class is the way to travel internationally. We arrived just after noon on Sunday and spent the afternoon exploring Kraków's Old Town and trying to stay awake. The weather was beautiful and it seemed like it might've been the warmest day of the year.
On Monday, we spent more time in the center of Kraków, wandering through the Main Market Square, Wawel Castle and the very cool Dragon's Den. We had lunch outside, again enjoying the great weather and some local beers. We were surprised to find that kamikaze shots are served in groups of four, rather than just one like it's done in the US. That evening, we enjoyed an excellent Italian dinner at Aqua e Wino.
On Tuesday, we headed to Aushwitz. This was a very sobering experience, but I'm glad we did it. It made me wonder if this type of thing could happen again, only to realize that it has. That evening, we sipped on martinis at the Metropolitan.
On Wednesday, I delivered my talk on Comparing JVM Web Frameworks. You can download the PDF or view the presentation on Slideshare if you're interested. The conference itself had a spectacular schedule and speaker lineup, so I was a little disappointed I didn't attend any sessions. We did make it to the ZeroTurnaround Party that night and had a lot of fun talking to Grzegorz, Martijn and Anton.
We woke up Thursday and headed to the airport for our flight back to the US. We landed in Boston at 6:30 pm and headed to my friend Chris's house in Concord. You might remember Chris from my first game at Fenway Park. Friday, we joined other friends, hopped on the train and headed to Yawkey Way for a beer before the game. Our seats were in the bleachers, but we had a fantastic time watching the Red Sox win their first game of the year.
We went to another game on Saturday with Trish's brother and a friend of his. We then proceeded to spend a relaxing Lazy Sunday with his family before flying back Monday morning.
Thanks to all our friends who participated in the opening day festivities as well as to Grzegorz Duda for inviting me to speak at 33rd Degree. We had a blast!
If you'd like to see more pictures from this adventure, please see Two Opening Days with a Stopover in Kraków on Flickr.