Arriving At Flock To Fedora 2026

My onwards journey began at around 0600pm Indian Standard Time on 12th June 2026 when I departed for the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport (CCU) in Kolkata. After my longstanding troubles with the travel agency, I was able to rebook the previously cancelled connecting flight from Dubai (DXB) to Prague (PRG). When I thought that I was finally out of the woods, my backpack was weighed at the Emirates desk for the first time. While my check-in luggage was well under the weight limit of 25 kilograms, my backpack ended up weighing a little more than 7 kilograms. Upon my declining to move my electronics into the check-in luggage, as that would have ended up being a safety hazard, I was finally able to make it to the immigration gates at around 0700pm Indian Standard Time.

Although the Fast Track Immigration Trusted Travellers' Programme would have helped me cut through the moderately occupied passenger queue, I decided to join the manual queue anyway as the digital kiosk wanted me to have my biometric entries registered in advance. Imagine having to verify your identity after doing so multiple times with the passport verification and visa registration! After a quick discussion about the requirements with the immigration staff, I was able to breeze through the security checks quite swiftly. With the first leg of my onwards journey, Emirates EK0573, departing at around 0900pm Indian Standard Time, I had about an hour before boarding began. To my surprise, it did start early at around 0750pm Indian Standard Time after I was done chatting with my family members.

Given that I had a dreadfully arduous eight-hour layover period ahead of me at Dubai International Airport (DXB), I initially planned on catching some sleep on the flight itself. Amidst munching on the served dinner and watching Oshi No Ko (2023), I had limited success with resting my eyes as the onwards flight moved closer to the first stop. As there was no hurry to make it to the next flight, I went for one of the twin seats at the very end of the aircraft, 50K. Chatting with my fellow passenger and dozing off right after, I did not realize how quickly the five hours passed, and I found myself landing at Dubai International Airport (DXB) at around 12:00am Gulf Standard Time. Unfortunately, my first flight did not land directly at the terminal gates and, hence, we had to board the transit bus instead.

It took around 30 to 40 minutes for the buses to get us to Terminal 3, and after a rather uneventful security check, I was back indoors. The time it took to get to the terminal gates helped me realize just how massive the area was - or conversely, just how slowly our transit bus was moving. I did not have any complaints as I had nothing to do for the eight-hour-long wait before my second leg kicked off. While I initially planned on getting myself a sleeping pod, I eventually decided to find myself a reclining area to sleep in near the silent area of Gate B26. After building rudimentary security for my travelling backpack so that I would get tugged awake in the rare occurrence of someone attempting to pull it away from me, I decided to try catching up on some sleep. Of course, you know just how it must have gone...

Those eight hours felt like eternity as I kept zoning in and out of my sleep state while the night grew darker and colder with the passing of time. In retrospect, I should have carried some warm clothing, which I ended up skipping this time because the summer season had me confused. But it felt a whole lot safer amidst a bunch of travellers struggling to catch some sleep, rather than being somewhere alone. The moment I was just about to catch some shut eye, I was nudged awake by a helpful person who thought I was waiting for the flight to Delhi departing at around 0355am Gulf Standard Time. While they apologized after I told them about my situation, I thanked them for their well-intentioned, caring gesture towards ensuring that their (potentially possible) fellow passenger was not left behind.

After about an hour of trying to sleep again, I eventually gave up on my attempts at around 0630am Gulf Standard Time and instead decided to browse the Dubai Duty Free Stores. As my flight was departing from Gate B31, that would mean that I could also slowly start moving towards the departure gate too. I also wanted to get something for my family and friends from there because I would be unable to do so on my way back with a layover of just 90 minutes. Using the public WiFi at the international airport behind a secure VPN allowed me to connect with my brother over a WhatsApp call. After making a couple of purchases for the house warming, I finally made it to the departure gate, where I could simply get to the second flight without queuing as the boarding had already begun by that time.

This time around too, I had to board a transit bus that took us from the terminal gates to Emirates EK0139, and even that took long. That explained to me why the boarding had begun sooner, as they had to compensate for the travelling time to the actual flight as well. Seated at 44K, I had a small talk with a fellow traveller from the Philippines while I tried to plug my work laptop into the power outlets. I also noticed a lot of travellers from East Asia flying into Prague, which was mostly an interesting observation to make. After multiple failed attempts at getting some power to my work laptop—even after using the plug converters offered by the flight stewardesses—I eventually had to stow it into my travelling backpack. That meant that I had to discover other ways to keep myself occupied for the next seven hours!

I knew that sleep had become quite the exorbitant affair at that point, and while I clearly needed some, there was no way in which I could have gotten it given just how the timezone shift had affected my internal biology. I continued chatting with the (rather overprepared) Philippines traveller, who had a full-blown travelling kit, all while continuing to watch Oshi No Ko (2023). Just like the fellow passenger from the first flight, I helped her with some pictures from the airplane window too. When it came to the meals, I intentionally kept it lightweight and strictly avoided alcoholic liquor to ensure that I was well hydrated. In between keeping myself entertained and zoning out of consciousness, I soon found myself nearing Václav Havel Airport Prague (PRG) at around 0100pm Central European Summer Time.

With zero transit buses to catch, as we landed directly at the arrival gates, I left for the automated immigration registration kiosks after bidding my fellow passengers farewell. There were manual checks too, which got expedited due to the presence of these automated border check kiosks, and I was able to pass through the massive queue in just about 20 minutes or so. As I observed that the passengers from East Asia were struggling with the language choices, I decided to stay back a little to help them pick the correct language using nothing but gestures to connect. While I initially planned on purchasing a Czech Republic SIM card from there, I decided to get to the hotel first because it had been 24 hours since I had left home, and some rest after checking in would do wonders in helping my body recover.

Using Uber's automated digital kiosk to book a rented cab and the public WiFi for authorization purposes, I was finally able to get to the Ibis Praha Mala Strana hotel by about 0200pm Central European Summer Time. This was the same hotel where I stayed the last time too, and it was just convenient to stay at a location which was barely a couple of minutes away from the event venue. I got in touch with the likes of Michal Konecny and Tomáš Hrčka after checking into Room 401, all while checking in with the likes of Kevin Fenzi and Justin Wheeler. One of the first things I worked on as I waited for Michal and Tomáš to become available was ensuring that the staging Fedora Badges deployment was working correctly, as I wanted to use that as an apparatus for experiments in the workshop the next day.

I witnessed my plans of getting some rest turn to blazing ashes before my eyes as I stepped out to meet Michal, who had just checked in at around 0300pm Central European Summer Time. We moved on to have a late lunch at an Asian restaurant in the Nový Smíchov Shopping Centre's food court, all while catching up after almost a year since meeting in person. Surprisingly enough, we ran into Aoife Moloney when we went downstairs into the TESCo supermarket to purchase some cold drinks. As Michal purchased some cookies to share during the International Candy Swap Event, I kept an eye out for SIM cards to purchase. I was lucky to find a Vodafone kiosk right after exiting TESCo, and I ended up getting one without even having to share my personal details or passport information, for that matter.

With my connectivity restored, Michal and I quickly visited the hotel to drop our things before heading out to the event venue. While the event venue had remained the same from the previous year, the institution got renamed from Vienna House Andel Prague to OREA Hotel Andel Prague due to the management change. Much akin to a corridor conversation during FOSDEM events, the two of us met up with Hristo Marinov, whom we caught up with before running into Emma Kidney at the same place too. Amidst the talks about Forgejo Runners for Fedora Atomic and heading to Brno for DevConf.CZ 2026, our circle became bigger with the joining of Lenka Segura and Tomáš. As I wanted to join Tomáš to prepare for the Fedora Forge interactive workshop the next day, I quickly left for the conference venue.

While there was nothing significant to be done at the event venue on that day as the event was starting the next day, going there definitely gifted us Clement Verna, with whom I was meeting again after almost three years. Leaving Hristo to have a chat with him after a swift introduction to the Fedora CoreOS team members, Michal and I ran into Daniel Mellado and Fernando Fernandez Mancera at an adjacent cafeteria. Since I could not visit the FOSDEM 2026 event, I was meeting them again after almost a year as well since the previous Flock event. After a quick chat with Kacper Skrzyński, the two of us went into a nearby bookstore as Michal wanted to redeem a discount coupon while buying two volumes of the Chainsaw Man (2018) manga at around 0500pm Central European Summer Time.

Coincidentally enough, we met up with Tomáš again at the Anděl crossing and, with Michal heading back to the hotel, Tomáš and I moved through Nový Smíchov Shopping Centre to make our way into the green hills behind it. With just how tucked in it was behind the low-height concrete structures, it was surprising how he knew about the location in the first place. Visiting a densely vegetated park area also reminded me of us doing the same thing about a year back, although that was a different location and we had more folks around. The peaceful ambience of the green zone allowed us to work on the workshop preparations all while catching up on our conversations. Even though I initially planned on demonstrating the private issues feature, I ultimately ended up scrapping it in favor of more interaction.

Tomáš' initial dining plans with the Fedora Quality team members did not come to fruition as they seemed to have gone for food already. After some more visits to the Nový Smíchov Shopping Centre to purchase some mineral water, the two of us headed over to a nearby quaint Vietnamese-themed restaurant called Old Hanoi at around 0700pm Central European Summer Time. With some delicious bites after the dry meat I had on the incoming flight, and even more fun conversations, this felt like the right way to kick off the next three days of community celebrations at Flock To Fedora 2026. I had already been running on fumes while being awake for almost over 30 hours by that time, so I decided to call it a day a little early at around 0830pm Central European Summer Time to get some well-deserved rest.