Yahoo! Open Hack London 2009 – Travel
Hackday
Well, I suppose I should start out with the same thing I started everything I typed over the weekend with. #openhacklondon.
[This is basically an intro, and my journey down. The interesting stuff is coming in tomorrow's post]
I decided to sign up for Yahoo! Hackday a few weeks ago after a few people in #geekup said they were going to be there. It was free, and the train wasn't too much. Plus, it was a great opportunity to go and meet some more like-minded people.
And so, my OpenHackLondon (OHL) experience started at about 3am on Saturday 9th May, 2009. I'd decided not to sleep, and to nap on the way down to London as my train was at 5.05am. I was checking everything was in order for my trip down, as I'd be a long way from home - about 175 miles, infact.. Unfortunately, I realised my 18-25 railcard had expired , and needed it to get to London. Fortunately, the ticket desk is open 24h and I was able to get another one. Not what most people were doing at 4:30am Saturday morning, but it worked for me.
Then there was the train journey down, with Leeds geekup making up a considerable number of people in the carriage. There was myself, Caius, Dom, Barry and Jon (and maybe Tim? I'm not sure). We were sat on IRC (via the train's wifi, via Sweden) chatting away on the way down as we all had reserved seats. I didn't get chance to have a nap.
But, that's enough of the boring travel arrangements, time to talk about what happened when we got there! After a slight mixup in the underground (Dom kept trying to take us north again!), and aided by Google Maps on (one of 5) of the iphones in our possession we made our way to Convent Garden to the Congress Centre where the event was being held. A fellow hacker joined us on our way, and chatted to us about what we were hoping to build. However, when we got there it was a bit early and we weren't allowed in - but the other guy was. It turned out, we'd been talking to Chris Heilmann, YQL extraordinaire.
To a coffee shop around the corner! We arrived, carrying all our laptops and supplies for the next two days with us. The guy who was opening up saw us and gave us an apprehensive "...yes" when we asked if he was open. After some coffee, tea, and hacking the Radisson's wifi (a story for another time), it was time to head back to OHL.
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