Arriving At FOSDEM 2025

The onward journey for FOSDEM 2025 started for me on 28th January 2025 as early as 0500am Indian Standard Time. I had to take the Emirates flight EK573 from Kolkata (CCU) to Dubai (DXB) which was going to depart at around 0900am Indian Standard Time from the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport (CCU) for the first leg of the journey. As it was a couple of days after Republic Day in India, the security at the airport was tighter than usual, and hence, it was advisable to leave early. I was travelling with Sumantro Mukherjee, and we did not have to worry much about the check-in as we had booked our seats in advance. I reached the airport at around 0545am Indian Standard Time and met up with him once I was done with my check-in process at the airport before we headed into the security checking gates, followed by the immigration processing area.

Much to our pleasant surprise, we managed to get through security checking gates without much hassle, and once we were done, we headed for gate number 12 to spend some time before the boarding began. We roughly had a couple of hours to kill before the boarding process began at around 0830am Indian Standard Time, which we used to discuss the rather strange-looking Airbus Beluga that we saw at the runway. Interestingly enough, some names were called for at the boarding gates, including those of the two of us, and while I suspected that there was something wrong - I was pleasantly proven wrong with the flight crew offering us a free upgrade to the business class. It genuinely took us a while to believe the fact, and as the journey was going to be long anyway - it most definitely was a welcome change to the situation, and we were thankful for whatever led that to happen.

While Sumantro and I were previously split apart across two ends of the economy seating on the Emirates flight, we were now sitting one after the other - 9F and 10F respectively. This not only was a great appeal to comfort with which we could travel to Dubai (DXB) but also allowed us to have a chance at deboarding the flight sooner than others as the layover time in Dubai (DXB) was tight. The amazing hospitality provided by the Emirates flight crew and the ample legroom more than compensated for the lack of a window seat and as the flight took off, I got busy watching some movies on the in-flight entertainment system. The first movie I watched was Bad Boys Ride Or Die (2024) while finishing up with the boarding snacks that they provided us with. As the breakfast was served after around 90 minutes, I also watched the critically acclaimed Top Gun Maverick (2022).

Soon enough, we found ourselves landing at the Dubai International Airport (DXB), and we used the time to make it from boarding gate B10 to boarding gate B25 as soon as possible, where the next leg of the journey would start. We went through the security checking gates without any problem, and by around 0130pm Persian Gulf Standard Time, the boarding had already begun. The next leg of the journey was to be on Emirates flight EK181, which would take us from Dubai (DXB) to Brussels (BRU), and as we were heading into the boarding queue, I also checked with the other fellow folks travelling to FOSDEM 2025 from the Fedora Project and CentOS Project communities on the Fedora Chat platform. Luckily enough for us on this flight too - which was supposed to be a lot longer than the previous leg of the journey, the seats on the flight were underbooked.

While I was seated at 19K and Sumantro was seated at 20K, we had the liberty to spread our feet as the entire column of seats beside us was unoccupied. This gave me ample opportunity to catch up on some of my favourite anime shows that I have been planning to watch for a while now, including Yubisaki To Renren (2024) and Koi Wa Sekai Seifuku No Ato De (2022). With me catching some shut-eye once I was done with the lunch provided on the Emirates flight, we soon drifted close to Brussels (BRU). The visibility was severely limited outside of the window, and the turbulence was getting tougher due to the poor weather conditions at the arrival city. Once we touched down - safe and sound, we decided that it would be for the better if we prepared ourselves with some warm clothes before we deboarded from the flight and joined in on the immigration processing queue.

At around 0645pm Central European Time, we joined the rather long queue to the immigration queue, and I informed my family members about my safe arrival at the destination in the meantime. The immigration processing took quite a while once we emerged from the other end - we realized that the luggage belt delivering the checked-in luggage had stopped moving. Sumantro and I headed to the railway station at the Luchthaven Zaventem Airport (BRU) after we were done with booking a couple of tickets to Brussels Centraal, and we soon had a train on its way to Knokke arrive at Track 2 at around 0730pm Central European Time. I informed Justin W. Flory on the messaging channels used by Fedora Project and CentOS Project community members not to wait for the two of us as it would be a bit longer before we could join them for the welcome dinner.

Getting off at the Brussels Centraal station, we booked an Uber to the Moxy Brussels City Center hotel, and after some troubling confusion around the payment medium at the reception, both Sumantro and I were checked in. I got in touch with Justin briefly on a call to check with him regarding the payment medium when my credit card kept declining due to it not being activated for international transactions - I decided to have it activated using the hotel WiFi connection. It almost felt like I had run out of luck after the streak that I had with the free upgrade to business class on the first leg of the journey and having a vacant flight on the second leg of the journey, but having my wits about in the situation allowed for me get through with less hassle. I headed over to the room that was assigned to me (i.e. #610) and decided to drop our bags off before we departed for the nearest McDonald's.

At around 0845pm Central European Time, we got ourselves some takeaway from the McDonald's outlet, which was around some walkable distance away from the Moxy Brussels City Center hotel. On our way back from the hotel, we ran into Matthew Miller and Justin, who were returning from their dinner at a nearby Indian restaurant. With a bunch of hugging embraces and hands shaken, we caught up briefly on the conversations before deciding to head back to our rooms to catch up on the rest that we were due. I also met up with Luis Bazan, who was visiting FOSDEM for the first time and after a short catchup with him - I made it back to my hotel room before my takeaways went cold. The wide timezone difference posed a challenge when I was heading to bed after I was done with the dinner consumption and quick freshening, but I had to get through it anyhow.