HappyDays – Week ThirtyNine
Arrived back in Amsterdam from Buenos Aires, only to quickly go camping at WHY2025 with the family.
Taking a moment on the plane to Copenhagen (and back!) to write and catch up. Have been burning the candle at both ends and missing connecting with friends. Hope everyone had a good summer and if you’re in the states, a good Labor Day long weekend. My work trip to Copenhagen this week was quick and good and Internet Archive Europe made great connections at the Royal Danish Library… more on that later.
August 4 – Day 268
On the plane from Buenos Aires to Amsterdam, as I got settled into our seats, I heard “Betty?” and turned to see Mauricio from Wikimedia Argentina sitting the next row over. He and Andrea and Patricio were on their way to Wikimania 2025 in Nairobi. What a wonderful surprise and funny coincidence with having our flight cancelled. We took the time to take photos at the airport in Amsterdam and then went our separate ways. Next year, Wikimania will be in Paris - hopefully we can all meet up there.
We made our way to the taxi pickup area and made our way home. Pica was happy to see us and we were very happy to be home. I fell asleep pretty much immediately and Pica curled up next to me, happy to snuggle.
August 5 – Day 269
Being back home involved a fair bit of unpacking and laundry and reconnecting with everything (lots of Archive work to catch up on) and preparing for our next trip at the end of the week. We were happy to put things in their places - including this beautiful “Penguino” that Aunt Silvia had made and painted for us with both the Netherlands and Argentine flag.
August 6 – Day 270
Spent the day at home working, but was super happy to see this last wisteria bloom on our entryway. Definitely brings a smile to one’s face. Together, Santi and I made a lot of empanadas to take on our next trip.
August 7 – Day 271
We went from unpacking to packing as we all were going to WHY2025 - What Hackers Yearn. It’s a camping festival full of technologists and clever folk thinking about the current state of technology and the future. Originally Santi bought tickets to go for work and I would stay home and David would go off to his summer camp a bit later. Then it was suggested that I go for work too and I said yes, but needed to figure out child-care and then I was told “Bring him!”. So off we all go. :)
We have never gone camping before, so we went to Decathlon (think big sports shopping warehouse) and bought some supplies, and borrowed others from friends and got everything ready to pack the car to the gills.
August 8 – Day 272
Off we went - hoping to leave by 8, but didn’t get out the door until 9:30 or so. We arrived and got all our bags to the “Family Zone” where we had registered an area called “Tres empanadas”. We luckily found a spot in the village that we had registered, but arrived so late that others had set up in the space. After we got set up, we ate some of our empanadas for lunch as we had them prepared from earlier. Super handy not to have to think about also preparing lunch while we worked together to make the family tent and get everything set up.
We then did some more organizing, setting up and resting! After a bit, we then went on a “scavenger hunt” with other families to take photos of our kids in different “villages” where they had different fun things that we had to discover. This was a great way to discover the whole festival and see what was on offer by the different villages and have the experience gamified to make it fun.
As we were wandering around, we ran into bitnapper who works with the Internet Archive and lives in Europe. We also ran into friends who we didn’t know would be there, including Rabble who I hadn’t seen in person in donkey’s years. We met an Argentine because he was drinking yerba mate and got to know each other over the five days.
We went to bed fairly early but there was a lot of music from the other end of the campsite (including a Metallica cover band) and the music carried over, but did a good job of stopping at 11 pm.
August 9 – Day 273
Saturday was a full day with David and also work networking and attending different lectures.
Santi and David found the Arcade that had been set up by the Home Computer Museum which was really incredible. They had the original machines set up and running the original software, not emulations. The large tent was filled with children and adults alike having a blast playing original games from the 80s and 90s on old computers.
That evening we all explored the festival into the night and stayed up until midnight, watching flamethrowers do their thing, dancing at the silent discos, and exploring the festival by night. I think it is definitely something David will remember for a good long while.
August 10 – Day 274
Sunday was a long day. Woke up early as David and I had a full day of driving ahead of us.
David was going to his weeklong gaming summer camp. I needed to drive 200km to drop him off and then 200km to get back. But it worked and I got back to WHY2025 by around 5pm. Then we were child-free for the rest of the time, so unencumbered to explore, volunteer and network without worrying about taking care of our son. We had a total of five nights and six days of “freedom” after drop off, but only two more days at the Hacker camp. But we got to network and attend lectures easily and to stay out and see various concerts - the “Symphony of Fire” being quite the highlight. They make music with Tesla coils and fire bursts with different tones; truly impressive, weird, and fun.
Here is one of the Symphony of Fire’s videos. There are more to explore on their website for a bit of fun.
What a week plus Bea, All sounds so good and fun for you all. And you and Santi had grown-up time too. Sort of reminds me of 'camp' Labour day weekend. MXM