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blinry

Booked an Interrail Pass to travel to #emfcamp, a hacker camp in the UK! #emf2024

Getting excited! ๐Ÿ˜† This will be the first time I use the Channel Tunnel!

20 comments
blinry

Here I go! \o/ Will make a couple of in-between stops on my way to #emf2024!

camping_equipment.zip

A medium-sized backpack on the platform of a small train station.
blinry

Changing trains in Cologne.

Hey, if you see this in your timeline, you're Dom-scrolling! :P

Me in front of the Cologne Cathedral. Hey, is that a new hat?!
blinry

Bonjour, Bruxelles! ๐Ÿ‘‹

Just passing through, still not my final stop for today!

But having a very pleasant time so far!

Me at a platform at Brussels-Midi train station.
blinry

Made it to Lille, my first stop on this trip. ๐Ÿ‡ซ๐Ÿ‡ท

Looking forward to exploring the city tomorrow!

Me in front of the train station Lille Flandres. It has French flags on it.
A pedestrian zone with a patterned flooring and charming three-storey buildings.
blinry

Whoa, there are cafรฉs and bakeries everywhere in Lille! Had luck with the weather today, and got to admire its cobblestone streets and brick buildings.

Quite some action in the city today: I saw a wedding with a big traditional choir, and I think there was a football (?) match against Lyon.

The interior of a big church with high columns and arches.
A decorated building with many windows close to each other.
A pedestrian zone with cobblestone ground and an old storefront.
Another pedestrian zone.
blinry

Also, behind this unassuming faรงade hides a massive 10-storey book store, one of the largest in the country! If only my French was better... :/

The front of the store, called "le furet du nord". It's rather plain-looking.
A map that shows the 10 floors of the store.
A view into the book store.
blinry

Boarding the Eurostar to London! โœจ Looking forward to see all the fish!

A yellow-blue train in a station made from concrete and metal.
blinry

Didn't spot any fish, but some passengers sang about sharks! ๐Ÿฆˆ

London *also* is full of loud, drunk men today... :( I'm assuming it's sports-related โ€“ does someone know what's going on?

*quickly changes stations, gets on another train and flees*

I smile shyly into the camera. A red doppeldecker bus and a clock tower of St Pancras station are in the background.
A mob of men raising their fists. A policemen observes. Blue smoke surrounds the scene.
blinry

I'm in Oxford! Sandstone buildings, bars, and bookshops!

I did this "self-guided tour for new and prospective students", and enjoyed it a lot! It's very well-produced, and playing audio based on my location worked quite well.
ox.ac.uk/students/new/knowyour

A sandstone building โ€“ it's the exam building of Oxford University!
A circular sandstone building. It's a library for old English books.
A cluster of sandstone buildings. It's some college, I think?
A shopping steet with cute shops.
blinry replied to blinry

And look who I met! @katzazi and @leyrer! Everyone's gravitating towards #emf2024! :D

Three white people smile into the camera. One with red beard, one with grey beard, one with no beard.
blinry replied to blinry

I also visited University of Oxford's Museum of Science, which showcases a lot of scientific instruments, including some super pretty and old astrolabes!

The museum didn't do a good of explaining how to use them, though. Need to look into that later tonight, maybe! :)

A circular slide rule.
A blackboard used by Einstein.
Three astrolabes.
A 3D model hinting at a molecule structure.
blinry replied to blinry

Isn't it weird that humans and bananas *ever* shared a common ancestor?!

A model of a banana. According to the description, the last xommon ancestor shared with humans lived 1.6 billion years ago.
A diagram showing ancestry relastionships of all lifeforms.
blinry replied to blinry

Had a brilliant day in Oxford!

Visited Blackwell's Bookshop! <3 They have a giant underground room with cozy lighting, and staff that radiates their love of books!

A big room full of bookshelves and stairs.
blinry replied to blinry

Saw a dodo skeleton at the Natural History Museum!

Photo of the aforementioned dodo skeleton.
blinry replied to blinry

Found the Penrose Paving at the Mathematical Institute!

Also learned that they published most of their undergraduate lectures on YouTube: maths.ox.ac.uk/node/67930

I kneel on outside paving with stones shaped like kites and diamonds.
blinry replied to blinry

I really enjoyed my stay in Oxford, glad I came here! Such a cool and interesting place!

Tomorrow, I'll head to my final in-between stop before I go to #emf2024!

Oxford from above. There'a a protest camp in front of a round building.
My shadow falling down a flight of stairs.
Another college from above.
A water-spewing demon on a chiech spire.
blinry replied to blinry
blinry replied to blinry

I'm in Bletchley! :) Was greeted by a cat committee.

Me smiling in front of Bletchley station.
Cat 1
Cat 2
blinry replied to blinry

Visited the National Museum of Computing today. I've been to plenty of computer museums โ€“ but this one is special: Almost everything works!

You can type on an Enigma, and then see how a bombe helped decipher it. It's *loud*!!

They also have a computer from 1951, the "Witch", which still works! It had 340 bytes of RAM, could calculate five values per second, and punch them out on paper tape!

I'm typing on a typewriter-like device.
A man stands in front of a big device with many rotating wheels.
A computer as big as three big wardrobes, with many vacuum tubes.
Paper tape with punched-out holes on wheels.
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