Dylan Schiemann

I’m bored of writing only 140 characters at a time, as I feel like I’m losing my focus. So, without further ado, I’m going to start blogging again.

Some random observations about Thailand:

Lots of scam artists, but mostly nice people
The Bangkok Marriott Spa and Resort is amazing, but not the real Thailand (it has Benihana and Trader Vic’s after all
7-Eleven is more common here than anything else. I guess gas stations killed that in the US, but it’s also common in Japan, Norway, [...]

We were of course in Praha for Djangocon, so we attended some lightning talks on May 5th, 2009:

And Tobias gave a talk on Dojango:

Djangocon has a nice, authentic, no-frills vibe that makes it a great conference.
Praha has great food, as long as you enjoy goulash! I also was exposed to Becherovka (bitters). Praha [...]

Ok, I’m almost a year behind on my blog posts about my trip, so it’s time to wrap it up already!
On May 4th, 2009, I took the train from Berlin to Prague to attend Djangocon.
I had an early departure from the Berlin Hauptbahnhopf:

It’s pretty cool seeing signs for trains that will continue on [...]

On May 3rd (day 35 of my trip around the world earlier this year), I received a whirlwind tour of Berlin from Wolfram’s cousin Martin:

Martin grew up in East Germany, so I received a humorous, biased perspective of how much better East Berlin is/was than the west.
The first thing of note was the dichotomy of [...]

Given the large amount of traveling I have done the past few years, friends are surprised that I generally avoid British Airways when flying to London, even if it means a connection on the east coast, a few extra hours of travel, and a slightly diminished quality of in-flight service between first class service on [...]

On April 30th, I flew from Amsterdam to Munich. Unfortunately, This meant missing the bulk of the Queen’s Day festivities and the million or more people crowding in the city. That said, I’m part German and Irish, and I was excited to start exploring my ancestral roots!
The lounge in Amsterdam was pretty lacking [...]

On April 24th, I walked a few kilometers around Sydney and across the Harbour Bridge towards McMahons Point, the location of Greg Wilkins’ boat. I had some great views of the harbour and other parts of Sydney.

Greg and a friend share a nice sailboat, and after a few months of repairs, they were ready [...]

On April 23rd, I walked around Sydney some more, and then had lunch with Pamela Fox whom I met at Web ‘09 and a few members of the Google Maps team at Google Sydney. They have a great location with a nice harbour-side view.

After lunch, I walked around Darling Harbour which contains a sea [...]

On April 22nd, I woke up really early and caught up on some work. Today was my primary day for seeing some of the more touristy sights of Sydney. In walking around town, I did something I almost never do: shop. And I don’t mean the Apple Store with the longest Genius [...]