[pypy-dev] Pycon sprint - some logistics

[Jacob Hallén]

Here are some loose notes for the Pycon sprint. Please send me comments on 
things you want to know and things I may have missed mentioning.

The following people are known to come:

Jacob Hallén
Anders Chrigström
Samuele Pedroni
All 3 are booked on SAS, 
GOT-CPH-IAD 18 March leaving 07:20, arriving 15:20
BWI-KEF-CPH-GOT, leaving 25 March 20:15, arriving 26 March 15:05
IAD=Washington Dulles
BWI=Baltimore International Airport
KEF=Keflavik International Airport
 
Holger Krekel
Armin Rigo
Christian Tismer

Bea During

These people will not attend:

Adrien Di Mascio
Ludovic Aubry
Michael Hudson

Attendance status of the following people is not yet known:

Laura Creighton
DFKI representative

Anders Lehmann
Alex Martelli

Travel

Special offers from KLM and Lufthansa have ended. SAS has a special
offer that terminates 2005-02-28. Jacob, Samuele and Anders are booked
on this one. Many dates are already blotted out, so book quickly if you
want to use this offer.

Transit IAD-Washington DC:

Public bus:
$3.00 (exact fare required)
Runs once every hour. Leaves Dulles at XX.30 - XX.40,
depending on hour of the day and weekday. Afternoon of
18 march, it will be XX.40.
This bus has no special luggage racks, so many people with
luggage is a problem.
Take the bus to Roslyn, where you can walk to Key Bridge Hotel and
Iwo Jima. You can also take the Metro to any place in DC.

Washington Flyer Coach:
$8.00
About twice per hour. XX.15 and XX.45. Goes to West Falls Church Metro
Station, from where you can take the metro to Roslyn, or any other
place in DC.

Taxi:
$45-50 plus tip

Hotels:
Currently our first choice is Best Western Key Bridge Hotel.
This is situated close to Roslyn, which is a Metro station 2 stops from
the conference venue. There is a late night store at the Metro and the
hotel is clean, simple and relatively cheap.

Second choice is Iwo Jima, which is a little further from Roslyn,
but still a rather short walk away.

We are waiting for people to rspond to Lauras inquiries about a youth
hostel, but we should time out on this in a few days.

Transit:
Washington DC has a nicely working subway system. You buy a pre-paid
ticket for some amount of cash. I suggest putting $10 on the card from
the start.  You insert your card in the gate when entering a station
and you do the same when leaving. Depending on how far you have
travelled and if it rush-hour or not, the machine will deduct what the
fare is.

Water:
American tap water tastes like swimming-pool. Buy bottled water. The store
just outside Roslyn (by the stop for the airport bus) carries water. Buy
the gallon bottles of the cheapest brand.

Food:
There are many food options by the conference venue. On the ground
floor and in the basement of the conference building, there is a
selection of fast-food. It is cheap and it is garbage. However, it is
probably not quite as bad as the conference lunches.

If you leave the conference building and go up to Pensylvania
Ave. Turn left and go half a block. There is a chinese fast-food place
that actually does good food.

There is a good sushi restaurant about 4 blocks away from the conference
venue. Cross Pensylvania Ave. Turn directly right and go 3 blocks down
the street.

Just across the street from the conference venue is a mall with
restaurants.  There is a place that does sandwiches, which are rather
good, but quite expensive. There is also Kinkeads in the mall, which
is considered to be the #1 gourmet restaurant in DC. They actually
have decent food, and compared to quality, this is not all that
expensive.

Finally, way out on the edge of town is a really nice Japanese restaurant.
Very good sushi and very good Japanese dishes in general. It is located on
McArthur Boulevard.

Time off:
If you have any time off in daytime, the Smithsonian Institutions are
just a few Metro stops away. They are all for free, so you can simply
slip in for an hour and look at their collections. Air&Space Museum is
a must for everyone. The National Gallery is strongly recommended by
me. Natural History and Ethnographics are probably interesting for
some.
The Whitehouse, The Congress, the Library of Congress and the Supreme
court are also in the neighbourhood, as are the war memorials and a bunch
of other stuff.

Things to bring:
- Beamer - they usually have some, but not enough to go around
- Printer - they don't have any of those
- Tea and cofee production equipment (110 Volts) - this is a problem
- Plug converters - 240 Volts whatever you have -> Mickey Mouse voltage
- Ear plugs - you may end up sleeping close to the ice machine, or
  the hotel elevator, or they may decide to hack up the concrete
  pavement next to your hotel.

Network access usually works very well. This year they seem to be
fully wireless.

Other details:
You must have a machine readable passport to be allowed into the US.
They will take your picture and your finger prints on entry to the
country.