22nd Chaos Communications Congress, Berlin

22C3: Private Investigations

This was my first real excursion to mainland Europe alone. 27th December 2005 until ... 3rd January 2006? I can't even remember how long I spent there. This was my first trip to Germany, and the first to a real hacker conference. Ah ,where to start? This was definitely one of my favourite trips for numerous reasons. Not only was it a chance to see a new country and a different culture, but a chance to finally meet a lot of people whom I had only known online for many many years. I met Seth and Peter, two of my good friends, for the first time in person.

Partying with Keith and Jen in c-base

Upon arrival I managed to get lost while wandering the streets of Berlin late in the evening, eventually finding my hostel after enquiring about its location from a hotel across the street. The place where I was staying was pretty swish, with a friendly proprietor and large yet cheap rooms. Plus it's a boat on a river, so how can you go wrong? In order to get to the hostel you also had to walk through the decaying remnants of the old Berlin wall which was rather liberally splattered with graffiti. Being December, there was also ample snow and the river was rather frozen for a large amount of the time. It made for a pleasant window view.

Peter and I

The actual event, 22C3, was varied and interesting. The place was saturated with intelligent, likeable folk - a nice contrast to my hometown - and there was a steady stream of talks to keep one busy. Alexanderplatz, where the Berliner Congress Centre was located, was a hub of transport and thus it was incredibly easy to travel to and from the conference. The place looked rather eerie when covered with a thick layer of snow, yet was always rather busy especially with the influx of nerds and their toys.

New Year in Berlin... I highly recommend it. Ample fireworks if you are into that sort of thing, good company and a friendly atmosphere, with plenty to do. I don't recall an awful lot of the surrounding nights, except that they were rather alcohol-lubricated and involved trips to c-base and the marvellous Ambulance Bar. Unfortunately, I had not yet acquired a decent camera so I have no real photographic documentation of the trip. :(

Needless to say though, Berlin was quite excellent. I didn't really get to do too much of the touristy thing, but saw the Brandenburg Gate and a few other bits scattered around. A pleasant city to visit, and one that I would have probably coped living in.