Departing From FOSDEM 2025

The number of hotels having early check-out times and late check-in times has been increasing for quite a while now, which made it important for Sumantro Mukherjee and me to check at the reception desk before we retired the previous night. Thankfully, Moxy Brussels City Center had a check-out time of 1200pm Central European Time which meant that we roughly had some time to go around the place before we had to leave for Luchthaven Brussel Aéroport de Bruxelles (BRU). As my flight was scheduled to depart at around 0300pm Central European Time, I decided to sleep in until 0700am Central European Time to catch up on some sleep. While Sumantro and I wanted to make some last minute purchases, it would not be until 1000am Central European Time that the outlets would open.

I briefly checked with Greg Sutcliffe on chat who left early for the Luchthaven Brussel Aéroport de Bruxelles (BRU) and all I had to do was to work on packing my stuff inside my luggage trolley. The spring balance gifted by my brother was of great help in ensuring that my check-in luggage was within the allowed maximum limit of 30 kilograms. I checked with Sumantro as well in the meantime, who had a flight departing at around the same time as mine was, but he was travelling ahead to Seville, Spain for the Fedora Council F2F Hackfest 2025. At around 0900am Central European Time, Sumantro and I shared some breakfast at the reception area while discussing what the travel plans were looking like for me with the relatively small layover that I had in Dubai International Airport (DXB) at night.

At around 0945am Central European Time, we visited a couple of outlets including those from Kiko Milano and Primark to purchase some goodies for the family. As the outlets were not opened yet, we took a detour into a supermarket where I bought a bunch of snacks and chocolates before attempting to visit the Kiko Milano outlet again. After a swift round of purchases of cosmetics - thanks to Sumantro's expert experience in this regard that he acquired after his marriage - we made it back to our hotel rooms at around 1045am Central European Time to squeeze the remaining purchases into the luggage trolley. I wanted to keep my backpack as vacant as possible to open up the possibility of purchasing things from the duty-free airport stores and also to ensure that I could rush when I needed to.

My luggage case surprisingly weighed a little over 20 kilograms after all the squeezing and rolling of merchandise that I had to do to fit things in. On our way down to the reception area, Sumantro also made a quick use of my spring balance to see just how heavy his luggage trolley ended up being. The one funny thing that I could recall was us not being able to redeem the welcome drink coupon right until the checkout time. Even then, I decided to get myself a bottle of packaged drinking water that would most likely end up being useful in the forward journey. On our way out, we came across Mike Nolan and Matthew Miller who were also checking themselves out to catch their early conveyance to either back home or to their next destination to the Fedora Council F2F Hackfest 2025 in Seville, Spain.

The Uber cab that Sumantro had booked had arrived by 1115am Central European Time and we were soon on our way to the Luchthaven Brussel Aéroport de Bruxelles (BRU). The relatively uneventful ride got us to the destination in little time and the two of us got to meet up with Chris who was lounging around in an airport cafe. As Sumantro's flight had not shown up on the schedule as it was going to depart at around 0400pm Central European Time, I decided to get myself checked into my Emirates flight. While going through the check-in queue, I also met up with Saptak Sengupta who was coincidentally travelling on the same flight back to Dubai International Airport (DXB). Once I was through with the process, Sumantro and I decided to visit a WH Smith duty free store for some purchases.

After bidding farewell to Sumantro and Chris, Saptak and I headed towards the security checking area. In the relatively crowded queue leading up to the security checking area, Saptak was briefly held back for an additional group of checks while I breezed through the station just fine. The packed queue made it into the queue for immigration, which thankfully processed a lot quicker as all the immigration stations were active. We decided to explore the duty-free stores beyond the immigration junction independently and rendezvous later at the designated gate for departure, i.e. B31, when we're through. Saptak departed after purchasing Belgian liquors and snacks, while I stayed back a little bit longer to indulge in purchasing a bunch of Belgian chocolates and snacks from the duty free stores.

It was hilarious to find vending machines selling packaged drinking water bottles right beyond the security checking area, when we were asked to dispose of all the water that we were carrying with ourselves. I decided to spend an exorbitant 3.20E for a 500ml water bottle and that seemed to be a better alternative than staying parched until I ended up boarding the flight at around 0250pm Central European Time. While the flight announcements were made, I decided to encumber myself a bit more by transferring the purchases from the hand luggage over to the backpack. Saptak and I soon made it into the flight and I was pleasantly surprised to realize that a cheerful elderly couple that I was helping out beforehand from behind the queue happened to be the ones seated on my row of seats in the flight.

Due to the friendly elderly couple seated beside me, the flight did not end up being a boring snoozefest and we had a bunch of conversation on a variety of topics ranging from culture, religion, movies, veganism and much more. I also took the opportunity to watch a recent movie starring Brad Pitt and George Clooney named Wolfs (2024) in the in-flight entertainment system. As the layover at the Dubai International Airport (DXB) was as short as sixty minutes, I checked with the stewards to see if I could be moved ahead for a quicker deboarding but to no avail. Thankfully, all the interesting conversations paired with an action comedy movie and some great meal by Emirates made the flight feel a lot shorter than before I knew it, our flight started drifting into the Dubai International Airport (DXB).

Wishing the elderly couple a happy forward journey to Thailand, they helped me get through the flight corridor swiftly, but the disaster struck when I realized that our flight had landed somewhere in the middle of the airfield. As the airspace was occupied to the brim, we had to take a bus to Terminal 3 of Dubai International Airport (DXB) which would take us as long as thirty minutes. It was at around 1230am Gulf Standard Time that I was finally able to make it to Terminal 3, so I had to rush through the airport to make it to the connections. I was grateful to see that the security checking process went through without a hitch. After bidding farewell to Saptak, whom I got to see briefly at the security checking area, I headed upstairs to the designated departure gate B27 where EK570 was departing from.

The bus ride to Terminal 3 and the walk to gate B27 retroactively felt physically draining due to me being encumbered under my backpack's weight. Within the next fifteen minutes or so, I was finally through the check-in gates and found myself a seat as I waited for the boarding to be announced. The hustle and bustle of Dubai International Airport (DXB) kept going regardless of how late it was in the day. After pushing through a crowd of people standing aimlessly beside the queue while not belonging to the announced zone, I joined the boarding queue as soon as my zone was called. As I finally got myself to my assigned window seat, a fellow passenger requested a seating change to accommodate a family, which I unfortunately had to decline given the circumstances around the seat payment.

While the person was able to get a replacement, I had to suffer through the flight as the baby kept wailing and kicking around the place. My noise cancellation headphones helped me finish off the Training Day (2001) movie starring Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke. Thankfully, this was a much shorter flight to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport (CCU) and while accommodating the family's gradual deboarding - I ended up being one of the last folks to exit the flight. I had a brief meeting with Soumyadeep Ghosh from the Ubuntu Community who helped with the FOSDEM 2025 Distributions Devroom at the immigration queue and the luggage belt. After getting my luggage trolley, I caught a taxi back to Madhyamgram at around 0930am Indian Standard Time, thus concluding the trip.