Aigarius Blog (Posts about travel)http://aigarius.com/categories/travel.atom2023-10-02T08:50:09ZAigars MahinovsNikolaDebconf 23 photos allhttp://aigarius.com/blog/2023/10/02/debconf23-photos/2023-10-02T08:00:00Z2023-10-02T08:00:00ZAigars Mahinovs<div><p>Two weeks have passed since <a href="https://debconf23.debconf.org/">Debconf 23</a> came to a close in Kochi, Kerala, India this year.</p>
<p>In keeping with the more relaxed nature of Debconf in India, the rest of my photos from the event were to
be published about two weeks from the end of the event. That will give me a bit more time to process them
correctly and also give all of you a chance to see these pictures with fresh eyes and stir up new
memories from the event.</p>
<p>In the end we are looking at 653 photos and one video. Several different group photos, including a return
of the pool group photo that was missing from the event since Mexico in 2006! This year was the first for
a new camera (Canon R7) and I am quite happy with the results, even if I still need to learn a lot about
this new beast. Also the gradual improvements of panorama stiching software (Hugin) ment that this year
I did not need to manually correct any face-melt events on any of the group photos. So that is cool!</p>
<p><img src="https://salsa.debian.org/debconf-team/public/share/debconf23/-/raw/main/photos/aigarius/IMG_3884_debian.jpg?inline=false" alt="DebConf 23 pool Group photo" width="1064" height="709"></p>
<p>You can find all my photos on:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/UW6zPQLNctsmkFHM9">Google Photos album</a></li>
<li><a href="https://salsa.debian.org/debconf-team/public/share/debconf23/-/tree/main/photos/aigarius">Debconf23 git-lfs share</a></li>
</ul>
<p>Also, don't forget to explore the rest of the Git LFS share content - there are very many great photos
by others this year as well!</p></div>Debconf 23 photoshttp://aigarius.com/blog/2023/09/17/debconf23-photos/2023-09-17T12:00:00Z2023-09-17T12:00:00ZAigars Mahinovs<div><p><a href="https://debconf23.debconf.org/">Debconf 23</a> is coming to a close in Kochi, Kerala, India this year.</p>
<p>And it has been my pleasure to again be here and take lots of pictures of the
event and of the surroundings. In total I took 1852 photos and walked just over 50 km between the
two venue buildings and all the rooms where action happened.</p>
<p>Today I will share with you the main group photo:</p>
<p><img src="https://salsa.debian.org/debconf-team/public/share/debconf23/-/raw/main/photos/aigarius/group/debconf23_group.jpg?inline=false" alt="DebConf 23 Group photo" width="1064" height="497"></p>
<p>You can also see it in:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/H3jegjtk7ckRYxvP9">on Google Photos</a></li>
<li><a href="https://salsa.debian.org/debconf-team/public/share/debconf23/-/blob/main/photos/aigarius/group/debconf23_group.jpg">on git-lfs</a></li>
</ul>
<p>In keeping with the more relaxed nature of Debconf in India, the rest of my photos from the event will
be published in about two weeks from now. That will give me a bit more time to process them correctly
and also give all of you a chance to see these pictures with fresh eyes and stir up new memories from
the event.</p></div>Debconf 22 photoshttp://aigarius.com/blog/2022/07/22/debconf22-photos/2022-07-22T13:54:13Z2022-07-22T13:54:13ZAigars Mahinovs<div><p>Finally after a long break, the in-person Debconf is a thing again, this time
<a href="https://debconf22.debconf.org/">Debconf 22</a> is happening in Prizren, Kosovo.</p>
<p>And it has been my pleasure to again be here and take lots of pictures of the
event and of the surroundings.</p>
<p>The photos can be found in <a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/TWc6rz1NCDQQAUuPA">this Google Photo shared album</a> and also on
<a href="https://salsa.debian.org/debconf-team/public/share/debconf22/-/tree/main/photos/aigarius_photos">this git-lfs share</a>.</p>
<p>But the main photographic delight, as always is the DebConf 22 Group Photo.
And here it is!!!</p>
<p><img src="https://salsa.debian.org/debconf-team/public/share/debconf22/-/raw/main/photos/aigarius_photos/debconf23_group_photo_small.jpg?inline=false" alt="DebConf 22 Group photo small" width="1064" height="898"></p>
<p>You can also see it in:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/pvi2T9KmcxzD2PGQ9">on Google Photos</a></li>
<li><a href="https://salsa.debian.org/debconf-team/public/share/debconf22/-/blob/main/photos/aigarius_photos/debconf23_group_photo.jpg">on git-lfs</a></li>
</ul></div>Long travel in an electric carhttp://aigarius.com/blog/2022/06/29/long-travel-in-an-electric-car/2022-06-29T18:37:13Z2022-06-29T18:37:13ZAigars Mahinovs<div><p>Since the first week of April 2022 I have (finally!) changed my company car from
a plug-in hybrid to a fully electic car. My new ride, for the next two years, is
a <a href="https://configure.bmw.de/de_DE/configid/9i8lcqn9">BMW i4 M50 in Aventurine Red metallic</a>.
An ellegant car with very deep and
memorable color, insanely powerful (544 hp/795 Nm), sub-4 second 0-100 km/h, large
84 kWh battery (80 kWh usable), charging up to 210 kW, top speed of 225 km/h
and also very efficient (which came out best in this trip) with WLTP range of 510 km
and <a href="https://ev-database.org/car/1519/BMW-i4-M50">EVDB real range of 435 km</a>. The car
also has performance tyres (Hankook Ventus S1 evo3 245/45R18 100Y XL in front and
255/45R18 103Y XL in rear all at recommended 2.5 bar) that have reduced efficiency.</p>
<p>So I wanted to document and describe how was it for me to travel ~2000 km (one way)
with this, electric, car from south of Germany to north of Latvia. I have done
this trip many times before since I live in Germany now and travel back to my
relatives in Latvia 1-2 times per year. This was the first time I made this trip in
an electric car. And as this trip includes both travelling in Germany (where BEV
infrastructure is best in the world) and across Eastern/Northen Europe, I believe
that this can be interesting to a few people out there.</p>
<p>Normally when I travelled this trip with a gasoline/diesel car I would normally drive
for two days with an intermediate stop somewhere around Warsaw with about 12 hours
of travel time in each day. This would normally include a couple bathroom stops in each
day, at least one longer lunch stop and 3-4 refueling stops on top of that. Normally
this would use at least 6 liters of fuel per 100 km on average with total usage of about
270 liters for the whole trip (or about 540€ just in fuel costs, nowadays). My
(personal) quirk is that both fuel and recharging of my (business) car <em>inside Germany</em>
is actually paid by my <a href="https://www.bmw-carit.de/en.html">employer</a>, so it is useful
for me to charge up (or fill up) at the last station in Gemany before driving on.</p>
<p>The plan for this trip was made in a similar way as when travelling with a gasoline car:
travelling as fast as possible on German Autobahn network to last chargin stop on the A4
near Görlitz, there charging up as much as reasonable and then travelling to a hotel
in Warsaw, charging there overnight and travelling north towards Ionity chargers in
Lithuania from where reaching the final target in north of Latvia should be possible.
How did this plan meet the reality?</p>
<p>Travelling inside Germany with an electric car was basically perfect. The most efficient
way would involve driving fast and hard with top speed of even 180 km/h (where possible
due to speed limits and traffic). BMW i4 is very efficient at high speeds with consumption
maxing out at 28 kWh/100km when you actually drive at this speed all the time. In real
situation in this trip we saw consumption of 20.8-22.2 kWh/100km in the first legs of the trip.
The more traffic there is, the more speed limits and roadworks, the lower is the average
speed and also the lower the consumption. With this kind of consumption we could comfortably
drive 2 hours as fast as we could and then pick any fast charger along the route and in
26 minutes at a charger (50 kWh charged total) we'd be ready to drive for another 2 hours.
This lines up very well with recommended rest stops for biological reasons (bathroom, water
or coffee, a bit of movement to get blood circulating) and very close to what I had to do
anyway with a gasoline car. With a gasoline car I had to refuel first, then park, then go to
bathroom and so on. With an electric car I can do all of that <em>while</em> the car is charging and
in the end the total time for a stop is very similar. Also not that there was a crazy heat
wave going on and temperature outside was at about 34C minimum the whole day and hitting
40C at one point of the trip, so a lot of power was used for cooling. The car has a heat pump
standard, but it still was working hard to keep us cool in the sun.</p>
<p>The car was able to plan a charging route with all the charging stops required and had all
the good options (like multiple intermediate stops) that many other cars (hi Tesla) and
mobile apps (hi Google and Apple) do <em>not</em> have yet. There are a couple bugs with charging
route and display of current route guidance, those are already fixed and will be delivered
with over the air update with July 2022 update. Another good alterantive is the ABRP (A
Better Route Planner) that was specifically designed for electric car routing along the
best route for charging. Most phone apps (like Google Maps) have no idea about your specific
electric car - it has no idea about the battery capacity, charging curve and is missing key
live data as well - what is the current consumption and remaining energy in the battery. ABRP
is different - it has data and profiles for almost all electric cars and can also be linked to
live vehicle data, either via a OBD dongle or via a new Tronity cloud service. Tronity reads
data from vehicle-specific cloud service, such as MyBMW service, saves it, tracks history and
also re-transmits it to ABRP for live navigation planning. ABRP allows for options and settings
that no car or app offers, for example, saying that you want to stop at a particular place for
an hour or until battery is charged to 90%, or saying that you have specific charging cards and
would only want to stop at chargers that support those. Both the car and the ABRP also support
alternate routes even with multiple intermediate stops. In comparison, route planning by Google
Maps or Apple Maps or Waze or even Tesla does not really come close.</p>
<p>After charging up in the last German fast charger, a more interesting part of the trip started.
In Poland the density of high performance chargers (HPC) is much lower than in Germany. There are
many chargers (west of Warsaw), but vast majority of them are (relatively) slow 50kW chargers.
And that is a difference between putting 50kWh into the car in 23-26 minutes or in 60 minutes. It
does not seem too much, but the key bit here is that for 20 minutes there is easy to find stuff
that should be done anyway, but after that you are done and you are just waiting for the car and
if that takes 4 more minutes or 40 more minutes is a big, perceptual, difference. So using
HPC is much, much preferable. So we put in the Ionity charger near Lodz as our intermediate target
and the car suggested an intermediate stop at a Greenway charger by Katy Wroclawskie. The location
is a bit weird - it has 4 charging stations with 150 kW each. The weird bits are that each station
has two CCS connectors, but only one parking place (and the connectors share power, so if two cars
were to connect, each would get half power). Also from the front of the location one can only see
two stations, the otehr two are semi-hidden around a corner. We actually missed them on the way
to Latvia and one person actually waited for the charger behind us for about 10 minutes. We only
discovered the other two stations on the way back. With slower speeds in Poland the consumption
goes down to 18 kWh/100km which translates to now up to 3 hours driving between stops.</p>
<p>At the end of the first day we drove istarting from Ulm from 9:30 in the morning until about 23:00 in the evening with
total distance of about 1100 km, 5 charging stops, starting with 92% battery, charging for
26 min (50 kWh), 33 min (57 kWh + lunch), 17 min (23 kWh), 12 min (17 kWh) and 13 min (37 kW).
In the last two chargers you can see the difference between a good and fast 150 kW charger at high
battery charge level and a <em>really</em> fast Ionity charger at low battery charge level, which makes
charging faster still.</p>
<p>Arriving to hotel with 23% of battery. Overnight the car charged from a Porsche Destination
Charger to 87% (57 kWh). That was a bit less than I would expect from a full power 11kW charger,
but good enough. Hotels should really install 11kW Type2 chargers for their guests, it is a really
significant bonus that drives more clients to you.</p>
<p>The road between Warsaw and Kaunas is the most difficult part of the trip for both driving itself
and also for charging. For driving the problem is that there <em>will</em> be a new highway going from
Warsaw to Lithuanian border, but it is actually not <em>fully</em> ready yet. So parts of the way one drives
on the new, great and wide highway and parts of the way one drives on temporary roads or on old
single lane undivided roads. And the most annoying part is navigating between parts as signs are
not always clear and the maps are either too old or too new. Some maps do not have the new roads and
others have on the roads that have not been actually build or opened to traffic yet. It's really easy
to loose ones way and take a significant detour. As far as charging goes, basically there is only
the slow 50 kW chargers between Warsaw and Kaunas (for now). We chose to charge on the last charger
in Poland, by Suwalki Kaufland. That was not a good idea - there is only one 50 kW CCS and many people
decide the same, so there can be a wait. We had to wait 17 minutes before we could charge for
30 more minutes just to get 18 kWh into the battery. Not the best use of time. On the way back we chose
a different charger in Lomza where would have a relaxed dinner while the car was charging. That
was far more relaxing and a better use of time.</p>
<p>We also tried charging at an Orlen charger that was not recommended by our car and we found out why.
Unlike <em>all</em> other chargers during our entire trip, this charger did not accept our universal BMW Charging
RFID card. Instead it demanded that we download their own Orlen app and register there. The app is only
available in some countries (and not in others) and on iPhone it is only available in Polish. That is a
bad exception to the rule and a bad example. This is also how most charging works in USA. Here in Europe
that is not normal. The normal is to use a charging card - either provided from the car maker or from
another supplier (like PlugSufring or Maingau Energy). The providers then make roaming arrangements with
all the charging networks, so the cards just work everywhere. In the end the user gets the prices and the
bills from their card provider as a single monthly bill. This also saves all any credit card charges for
the user. Having a clear, separate RFID card also means that one can easily choose how to pay for each
charging session. For example, I have a corporate RFID card that my company pays for (for charging in
Germany) and a private BMW Charging card that I am paying myself for (for charging abroad). Having the
car itself authenticate direct with the charger (like Tesla does) removes the option to choose how to pay.
Having each charge network have to use their own app or token bring too much chaos and takes too much setup.
The optimum is having one card that works everywhere and having the option to have additional card
or cards for specific purposes.</p>
<p>Reaching Ionity chargers in Lithuania is again a breath of fresh air - 20-24 minutes to charge 50 kWh is
as expected. One can charge on the first Ionity just enough to reach the next one and then on the second
charger one can charge up enough to either reach the Ionity charger in Adazi or the final target in Latvia.
There is a huge number of CSDD (Road Traffic and Safety Directorate) managed chargers all over Latvia,
but they are 50 kW chargers. Good enough for local travel, but not great for long distance trips. BMW i4
charges at over 50 kW on a HPC even at over 90% battery state of charge (SoC). This means that it is always
faster to charge up in a HPC than in a 50 kW charger, if that is at all possible. We also tested the CSDD
chargers - they worked without any issues. One could pay with the BMW Charging RFID card, one could use
the CSDD e-mobi app or token and one could also use Mobilly - an app that you can use in Latvia for
everything from parking to public transport tickets or museums or car washes.</p>
<p>We managed to reach our final destination near Aluksne with 17% range remaining after just 3 charging stops:
17+30 min (18 kWh), 24 min (48 kWh), 28 min (36 kWh). Last stop we charged to 90% which took a few extra
minutes that would have been optimal.</p>
<p>For travel around in Latvia we were charging at our target farmhouse from a normal 3 kW Schuko EU socket.
That is very slow. We charged for 33 hours and went from 17% to 94%, so not really full. That was perfectly
fine for our purposes. We easily reached Riga, drove to the sea and then back to Aluksne with 8% still
in reserve and started charging again for the next trip. If it were required to drive around more and charge
faster, we could have used the normal 3-phase 440V connection in the farmhouse to have a red CEE 16A plug
installed (same as people use for welders). BMW i4 comes standard with a new BMW Flexible Fast Charger
that has changable socket adapters. It comes by default with a Schucko connector in Europe, but for 90€
one can buy an adapter for blue CEE plug (3.7 kW) or red CEE 16A or 32A plugs (11 kW). Some public charging
stations in France actually use the blue CEE plugs instead of more common Type2 electric car charging stations.
The CEE plugs are also common in camping parking places.</p>
<p>On the way back the long distance BEV travel was already well understood and did not cause us any problem. From
our destination we could easily reach the first Ionity in Lithuania, on the Panevezhis bypass road where
in just 8 minutes we got 19 kWh and were ready to drive on to Kaunas, there a longer 32 minute stop before
the charging desert of Suwalki Gap that gave us 52 kWh to 90%. That brought us to a shopping mall in Lomzha
where we had some food and charged up 39 kWh in lazy 50 minutes. That was enough to bring us to our return hotel
for the night - Hotel 500W in Strykow by Lodz that has a 50kW charger on site, while we were having late
dinner and preparing for sleep, the car easily recharged to full (71 kWh in 95 minutes), so I just moved
it from charger to a parking spot just before going to sleep. Really easy and well flowing day.</p>
<p>Second day back went even better as we just needed an 18 minute stop at the same Katy Wroclawskie charger
as before to get 22 kWh and that was enough to get back to Germany. After that we were again flying on the
Autobahn and charging as needed, 15 min (31 kWh), 23 min (48 kWh) and 31 min (54 kWh + food). We started the
day on about 9:40 and were home at 21:40 after driving just over 1000 km on that day. So less than 12 hours
for 1000 km travelled, including all charging, bio stops, food and some traffic jams as well. Not bad.</p>
<p>Now let's take a look at all the apps and data connections that a technically minded customer can have
for their car. Architecturally the car is a network of computers by itself, but it is very secured and
normally people do not have any direct access. However, once you log in into the car with your BMW account
the car gets your profile info and preferences (seat settings, navigation favorites, ...) and the car then
also can start sending information to the BMW backend about its status. This information is then available
to the user over multiple different channels. There is no separate channel for each of those data flow.
The data only goes once to the backend and then all other communication of apps happens with the backend.</p>
<p>First of all the <a href="https://www.bmw.de/de/topics/service-zubehoer/bmw-connecteddrive/my-bmw-app.html">MyBMW app</a>.
This is the go-to for everything about the car - seeing its current status and location (when not driving),
sending commands to the car (lock, unlock, flash lights, pre-condition, ...) and also monitor and control
charging processes. You can also plan a route or destination in the app in advance and then just send it over
to the car so it already knows where to drive to when you get to the car. This can also integrate with calendar
entries, if you have locations for appointments, for example. This also shows full charging history and
allows a very easy <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1mCuXq7UPSZd5kvXFubEhCfP1uIM9P5sa/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=107099528362923100900&rtpof=true&sd=true">export of that data</a>, here I exported all charging sessions from June and then
trimmed it back to only sessions relevant to the trip and cut off some design elements to have the data more
visible.
So one can very easily see when and where we were charging, how much power we got at each spot and
(if you set prices for locations) can even show costs.</p>
<p>I've already mentioned the Tronity service and its ABRP integration, but it also saves the information that
it gets from the car and gathers that data over time. It has nice aspects, like showing the <a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/i5oS3pncsWY97gKMA">driven routes</a>
on a map, having ways to do business trip accounting and having good calendar view. Sadly it does not correctly
capture the data for <a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/Mu184AmjX5fiFfP28">charging sessions</a> (the amounts are incorrect).</p>
<p>Update: after talking to Tronity support, it looks like the bug was in the incorrect value for the usable
battery capacity for my car. They will look into getting th eright values there by default, but as a workaround
one can edit their car in their system (after at least one charging session) and directly set the expected
battery capacity (usable) in the car properties on the Tronity web portal settings.</p>
<p>One other fun way to see data from your BMW is using the <a href="https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/bmw_connected_drive/">BMW integration in Home Assistant</a>.
This brings the car as a device in your own smart home. You can read all the variables from the car current status
(and Home Asisstant makes <a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/gh9BUrXBgU66fEUK7">cute historical charts</a>) and you can even see
interesting trends, for example for <a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/RCNQdPmsFjhrJ9Ku9">remaining range</a> shows much
higher value in Latvia as its prediction is adapted to Latvian road speeds and during the trip it adapts to Polish
and then to German road speeds and thus to higher consumption and thus lower maximum predicted remaining range.
Having the car attached to the Home Assistant also allows you to attach the car to automations, both as data and event
source (like detecting when car enters the "Home" zone) and also as target, so you could flash car lights or even
unlock or lock it when certain conditions are met.</p>
<p>So, what in the end was the most important thing - cost of the trip? In total we charged up 863 kWh, so that would
normally cost one about 290€, which is close to half what this trip would have costed with a gasoline car. Out of
that 279 kWh in Germany (paid by my employer) and 154 kWh in the farmhouse (paid by our wonderful relatives :D) so
in the end the charging that I actually need to pay adds up to 430 kWh or about 150€. Typically, it took about 400€
in fuel that I had to pay to get to Latvia and back. The difference is really nice!</p>
<p>In the end I believe that there are three different ways of charging:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>incidental charging - this is wast majority of charging in the normal day-to-day life. The car gets charged when
and where it is convinient to do so along the way. If we go to a movie or a shop and there is a chance to leave
the car at a charger, then it can charge up. Works really well, does not take extra time for charging from us.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>fast charging - charging up at a HPC during optimal charging conditions - from relatively low level to no more
than 70-80% while you are still doing all the normal things one would do in a quick stop in a long travel
process: bio things, cleaning the windscreen, getting a coffee or a snack.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>necessary charging - charging from a whatever charger is available just enough to be able to reach the next
destination or the next fast charger.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>The last category is the only one that is really annoying and should be avoided at all costs. Even by shifting
your plans so that you find something else useful to do while necessary charging is happening and thus, at least
partially, shifting it over to incidental charging category. Then you are no longer just waiting for the car,
you are doing something else and the car magically is charged up again.</p>
<p>And when one does that, then travelling with an electric car becomes no more annoying than travelling with
a gasoline car. Having more breaks in a trip is a good thing and makes the trips actually easier and less
stressfull - I was more relaxed during and after this trip than during previous trips. Having the car air
conditioning always be on, even when stopped, was a godsend in the insane heat wave of 30C-38C that we were
driving trough.</p>
<p>Final stats: 4425 km driven in the trip. Average consumption: 18.7 kWh/100km. Time driving: 2 days and 3 hours.
Car regened 152 kWh. Charging stations recharged 863 kWh.</p>
<p>Questions? You can use <a href="https://www.i4talk.com/threads/personal-red-i4-m50-ownership-impressions.2229/">this i4talk forum thread</a> or <a href="https://twitter.com/aigarius/status/1542771741180788736">this Twitter thread</a> to ask them to me.</p></div>Debconf 19 photoshttp://aigarius.com/blog/2019/07/23/debconf-19-photos/2019-07-23T17:07:42Z2019-07-23T17:07:42ZAigars Mahinovs<p>The main feed for my photos from Debconf 19 in Curitiba, Brazil is currently in my <a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/ga1RmpCuTQVEem5e6">GPhoto</a> album. I will later also sync it to Debconf git share.</p>
<p>The first batch is up, but now the hardest part comes - the group photo will be happening a bit later today :)</p>
<p>Update: the group photo is ready! The smaller version is in the GPhoto album, but full version is linked from <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebConf/19/Photos">DebConf/19/Photos</a></p>
<p>Update 2: The day trip phtos are up and also the photos are in <a href="https://salsa.debian.org/debconf-team/public/share/debconf19/tree/master/photos/aigarius/">Debconf Git LFS share</a>.</p>Debconf18 group photohttp://aigarius.com/blog/2018/08/03/debconf18-group-photo/2018-08-03T05:08:07Z2018-08-03T05:08:07ZAigars Mahinovs<p>Enjoy the <a href="https://wiki.debconf.org/wiki/DebConf18/GroupPhoto">Debconf18 group photo</a> and also the rest of my <a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/rq7BKH4312VVuuMm7">photos from Debconf18</a>.</p>
<p><img alt="" height="793" src="https://wiki.debconf.org/upload/4/43/Debconf18_group_photo_small.jpg" width="1920"></p>Debconf 17 photo retrospectivehttp://aigarius.com/blog/2017/08/21/debconf-17-photo-retrospective/2017-08-21T19:08:24Z2017-08-21T19:08:24ZAigars Mahinovs<p>Debconf17 has come and gone by too fast, so we all could use a moment looing back at all the fun and serious happenings of the main event in the Debian social calendar. You can find my full photo gallery on <a href="https://goo.gl/photos/eg5ETvgtQXZQ8Jv49">Google</a>, <a href="https://flic.kr/s/aHsm23nRv5">Flickr</a> and <a href="https://annex.debconf.org//debconf-share/debconf17/photos/aigarius/">Debconf Share</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://goo.gl/photos/3iZVozJhnf3JumrA9"><img alt="Debconf 17 photo animation" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/QZS-lpB05pWYEW3aTp1MZRMf3y8hyj3iv4ZbfZhfHmbnxXhiH8xtLnrot2CGE__JgEox21rQHdyFAcFxOmaZCGM2auAPhUBSw16zEjV1oeSL_LgQ7k5rI6chVnxsR9FV44Ud49rEgNQ=w1024-h683-no" width="100%"></a></p>
<p>Make sure to check out the <a href="https://annex.debconf.org//debconf-share/debconf17/photos/aigarius/debcond17%20group%20photo.jpg">Debconf17 group photo</a> and as an extra special treat for you - enjoy the <strong><a href="https://goo.gl/photos/GLy5X7jPkR3Eubo8A">"living" Debconf17 group photo</a></strong>!</p>
<p> </p>Instrukcija lidošanaihttp://aigarius.com/blog/2016/08/21/instrukcija-lidosanai/2016-08-21T09:08:36Z2016-08-21T09:08:36ZAigars Mahinovs<p>Instrukcija lidošanai tiem, kas sen to nav darījuši :) Derēs gan Ryanair, gan AirBaltic (es pieminēšu, kur ir starpības). Instrukcija tika rakstīta pāris radiniekiem, kas sen vai nekad nav ceļojuši un pārpublicēta šeit - ja nu kādam noderēs :)</p>
<p>Pirmais solis ir biļešu iegāde. To vislabāk uzticēt pieredzējušam cilvēkam, jo nianšu tajā ir daudz. Mazliet pamanipulējot ari izlidošanas datumiem, sākuma un gala lidostām un izmēģinot dažādus maršrutus un lidsabiedrības, kā arī dažādas mājaslapas ir iespējams pamatīgi ietaupīt lidojuma izmaksās. Es parasti izmantoju 3 informācijas avotus: Google Maps, lai atrastu visas lielās pilsētas mērķa apkārtnē, lidot.lv lai atrastu maršrutus, lidojmu numurus un cenas un tad attiecīgo lidsabiedrību mājaslapas, lai pārbaudītu vai nav iespējams atrast labāku cenu tiem pašiem lidojumiem. Dažreiz viens un tas pats lidojums ir lētāks lidot.lv, citreiz airBaltic lapā. Galvenais šī processa rezultāts ir reģistrācijas numurs un lidojuma laiks.</p>
<p>Otrais solis būs kādu nedēļu pirms lidojuma - online checkin. Tad jāieiet attiecīgās kompānijas mājaslapā, Ryanair gadījumā jāiet uz Check In, izvēlās "Email", ievada reģistrācijas numuru un epastu, izskrollē cauri reklāmai par visādiem papildus pakalpojumiem un iečekojas. Airbaltic gadījumā lapa ir latviski un atbilstošais punkts ir "reģistrēties lidojumam" kur prasa reģistrācijas numuru un uzvārdu. Rezultātā tiks iegūta biļete, ko vajadzētu uzreiz arī izdrukāt.</p>
<p>Vēl pirms lidojuma derētu pārbaudīt vai telefoniem ir atļauts roaming un aizliegts roaming data. Pirmais ir lai ārkārtes gadījumā varētu sazināties ar zvaniem un īsziņām, otrais lai telefons ārzemēs nenotērē nežēlīgi dārgos ārzemju datu megabaitus.</p>
<p>SIlti iesaku lidot tikai ar rokas bagāžu - tas ir daudz vieglāk un arī lētāk. Bagāžas soma var sākt būt nodetīga, ja ceļojuma laiks ir virs vienas nedēļas, bet arī tad ir iespējams izlīdzeties mazgājot drēbes uz vietas. Katram pasažierim ir atļauta rokas bagāža - 1 soma ar izmēriem ne vairāk kā 55x40x20 cm un viena maza rokassomiņa 30x40x10 cm ar kopējo svaru zem 10kg uz cilvēku. Kārtīgi plānojot ar to vajadzētu pilnīgi pietikt nedēļai. Smago un lielo apgērbu šādos gadījumos vienkārši velk virsū un somā liek tikai vieglāko. Rezerves apavus ņemt nevajag - jāvelk tādi apavi kuros var visu nedēļu nostaigāt. Nedrīkst ņemt līdzi nekādus šķidrumus, ģēlus vai pastas. Ja ļoti vajag, tad var ņemt līdzi līdz 5 gab 100ml pudelītes tās turot caurspīdīgā plastmasas maciņā, bet tas ir papildus čakars, jo tas maciņš drošības pārbaudē jāvelk no somas laukā atsevišķai pārbaudei. Cietas uzkodas gan var ņemt droši (ja vien iepakojums nav metālisks vai stikla).</p>
<p>Lidostā būtu ieteicams būt apmēram 2 stundas pirms izlidošanas laika. Drošības pārbaude var aizņemt ap pusstundu (ja ir rinda) un durvis uz lidmašīnu tiek taisītas ciet pusstundu pirms izlidošanas. Tas ir lidostai Rīga - ārzemju lidostās drošības pārbaude var aizņemt ilgāk.</p>
<p>Tā kā online checkin in iziets, biļete izdrukāta un ir tikai rokas bagāža, tad lidostā nav nekādas vajadzības iet pie lidkompānijas lodziņa - var uzreiz iet lidmašīnas virzienā. Uz tablo atrodam vajadzīgo lidmašīnu (pēc reisa numura uz biļetes) un noskaidrojam "geita" jeb izejas numuru. Tas būs līdzīgs "B4" vai "C12". Burts norāda kurā lidostas zonā šī izeja ir. Atkarībā no burta ir jāiet vai nu uz labo vai uz kreiso drošības pārbaudes zonu, sekojot norādēm lidostā. Visticamāk būs jāiet uz kreiso pusi. Ja nav skaidrs, tad var drošības personālam parādīt biļeti un paprasīt uz kurieni jāiet.</p>
<p>Pirms drošības pārbaudes paprasīs parādīt biļeti. Pavadošie tālāk iet nedrīkst, tikai tie, kas lido. Pasi parasti neprasa, bet būtu labi to turēt pie rokas. Tad tālāk ir drošības pārbaude. Gaidot rindā var uzreiz pārlikt visas metāliskās lietas ārjakas kabatā - atslēgas, maku, rotaslietas, pulksteni, bikšu siksnu. Pienākot rindai paņem divus plastikāta traukus un noliek uz konvejera - vienā ieliek somu (ja ir maciņš ar šķidrumiem, tad tas ir jāizņem un jānoliek blakus somai), otrā ieliek virsdrēbes un jebko metālisku (ja viss metāliskais jau ir virsdrēbju kabatā, tad ir vieglāk). Drošībnieki var palūgt novilkt vēl papildus apģērbu vai arī novilkt kurpes. Šiem lūgumiem ir jāklausa bez ierunām - jebkāds konflikts šeit var ātri nozīmēt noņemšanu no reisa. Kad visas mantas ir uz konvejera, tad jānostājas pirms metāla detektora un jāpagaida kamēr drošībnieks pamāj ar roku aicinot tam iziet cauri. Ja ir palicis kas metālisks vai ir gadījies tikt nejaušajā apskatē, tad drošībnieks pateiks ko darīt. Visticamāk, palūgs apstāties turpat malā un pārbaudīs ar rokas metāldetektrou kā arī aptaustīs vai nav kas aizdomīgs noslēpts uz ķermeņa. Drošībnieku pavēlēm jāklausa. Viņi var arī palūgt atvērt somu un parādīt tās saturu. Man tas bieži gadās, jo somā ir pārāk daudz visādu vadu caur kuriem renģens slikti redz. Kad drošībnieki saka vai rāda, ka viss ir kārtībā, tad var ņemt savas mantas un somas no konvejera un doties tālāk. Tur pat ir arī krēsliņi, kur var apsēsties, lai uzvilktu atpakaļ kurpes. Virsdrēbes vilkt atpakaļ nav jēgas, labāk tās nest rokā.</p>
<p>Tad atliek vien iziet cauri lidostai līdz pareizajam iekāpšanas sektoram (izejai) kas bija norādīta uz tablo. Ik pēc pārdesmit metriem ir tādi paši tablo, kas rāda pašreizējo laiku un visus lidojumus. Vispirms pēc zīmēm atrodam pareizo burtu un tad arī pareizo izeju. Visticamāk izeja vēl būs slēgta un tur pat var būt uzrakstīts cits reiss, ja jūs tur esat pārāk agri. Izeja parasti tiek atvērta vienu stundu pirms lidojuma. Par to tiek arī skaļi paziņots lidostas skaļruņos nosaucot aviokompāniju, mērķa pilsētu un iekāpšanas sektoru. Pie katras izejas ir daudz sēdvietu, kur gaidīt. Tur pat blakus ir arī toletes, ko ir ieteicams izmantot pirms izlidošanas. Lidostā pēc drošības pārbaudes nopirkto ūdeni drīkst ņemt līdzi lidmašīnā, tas ir dārgs, bet lētāks nekā lidmašīnā.</p>
<p>Kad izeja ir atvērta, tad var doties uz to kopā ar pārējo pasažieru baru. Stjuarte pie izejas pārbaudīs biļeti un pasi. Ieteicams pasi dot vai rādīt atvērtā veidā, lai iet ātrāk.</p>
<p>Ryanair nav rezervētas sēdvietas, vienkārši jāizvēlas brīva vieta (kur nav norādīts, ka šī ir vieta par papildus maksu). Sava soma un virsdrēbes jāievieto bagāžas nodalījumā virs galvas, vēlams blakus savai sēdvietai. Ja ir paredzēts kaut kas izklaidei lidmašīnā (grāmata vai kindle) tad to labāk izņemt ārā gaidot iekāpšanu un lidmašīnā ienest jau rokās, lai nav jāmeklē pa somu, kamēr pārējie pasažieri apkārt stumdās. Šis ir arī pēdējais brīdis telefonus un citu ieslēgto elektroniku pārslēgt lidmašīnas režīmā vai izslēgt. Iesēžamies krēslā, piesprādzējamies, košļājam košļeni. Es ieteiktu iekārtoties ērti un visu lidojuma laiku vienkārši sēdēt un neatsprādzēties. Lidojuma laikā piedāvās nopirkt ēdienu un suvenīrus. Dārgi, nav tā vērts.</p>
<p>Pēc piezemēšanās nav nekur jāsteidzas. Paliekam sēdus ar piesprādzētām jostām līdz jostu zīme ir izslēgta un pat ilgāk - lai tie, kam jāskrien, lai viņi skrien. Kad lielie bari ir prom, tad var nesteidzīgāk dabūt savu somu un virsdrēbes no bagāžas virs galvas, pārbaudīt sēdekli un tā kabatu vai nekas nav aizmirsts un iet ārā no lidmašīnas. Lidostā vienkārši jāseko zīmēm uz izeju - "<a href="http://www.frommers.com/system/media_items/attachments/000/853/620/s500/8072831773_cddb03ea54_o.jpg?1403892708">Exit</a>" </p>
<p>Sagaidītājiem vislabāk ir gaidīt pie izejas no drošās zonas uz publisko zonu. Tā ir tā vieta uz kurieni "Exit" zīmes ved no lidmašīnas un tur visticamāk būs daudz sagaidītāju. Ja kaut kādā veidā izdodas tikt ārpusē un sagaidītāju neatrast, tad zvaniet uz telefonu! Pec telefona ieslēgšanas no lidmašīnas režīma vai ieslēgšanas var paiet vairākas minūtes pirms tas atradīs ārzemju signālu.</p>
<p>Veiksmi ceļojot!</p>Moving to Germanyhttp://aigarius.com/blog/2015/12/28/moving-to-germany/2015-12-28T11:12:05Z2015-12-28T11:12:05ZAigars Mahinovs<p>After a long contemplation about what I want to do with my life and just as long a negotiation, I have accepted a job offer at BMW and will be moving from Latvia to Ulm, Germany in January 2016.</p>
<p>It is going to be a big change and a big shake-up in my life, but the change should be for the better, eventually. I am going to move there using my car, loading a single car load of essential stuff and leaving the rest behind. My cat will be amond the essentials, so I have already started training him for car rides. The cat is not thrilled about it. I'll be renting out my current apartment - I wish to find someone that I know to rent to, but if noone comes up, then I'll have to give it to a renting company to rent out for me.</p>
<p>There should be little change for my online activities, but this means that I will be less available for parties in Riga for the forseable future. Wish me luck!</p>Summary of the Debconf15 road trip (part 2)http://aigarius.com/blog/2015/12/11/summary-of-the-debconf15-road-trip-part-2/2015-12-11T20:12:22Z2015-12-11T20:12:22ZAigars Mahinovs<p>At the end of the <a href="http://aigarius.com/blog/2015/12/10/summary-of-the-debconf15-road-trip/">previous part</a> of this tale of travel and cars I was being dunk around the heavy waves of the azure variety against the hard stones of the Med coast near Nice, France. The next stop was a wild card before going to Venice and so a small hotel was chosen high above a mountain lake in northern Italy. This meant that the whole day was to be spent crossing the top of Italy from Med to Alps. Italy has very nice paid motorway system that makes crossing large distances easy, but not really cheap. One larger drive cost just over 40€ alone. But there are benefits - the speed is nice (not autobahn-nice, but still) and there is also the amazing thing called <a href="https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPdAAew1Xlya2Ha-4hKxdyCHFkUSlp6OcJkw1ERarmlOiKxNFdxLdXqB4g9AgO7Ow/photo/AF1QipOv4cXfGIn34AhNMuaVv9D1WSoUrG21kwbcwxyQ?key=SHJROWp1c2xvSGFxUF92OGwxX0RHUDlnbzFVWS1n">AutoGrill</a> this looked like just a regular road-side fast food joint, but that was until we looked closer. There was a wide selection of nice salads, there was a <a href="https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPdAAew1Xlya2Ha-4hKxdyCHFkUSlp6OcJkw1ERarmlOiKxNFdxLdXqB4g9AgO7Ow/photo/AF1QipOQXxWTmbWgyCfKo3qg7Kukct4WO9NUkNbsFek0?key=SHJROWp1c2xvSGFxUF92OGwxX0RHUDlnbzFVWS1n">freshly grilled meat</a> pepared per order lots of wine by glass and a huge selection of Italian wines and pasta to buy. It was amazing. Maybe because our expectations were rather low, but it was truly good food. We saw many AutoGrills after that, even outside of Italy, but the ones outside of Italy were not as great.</p>
<p>Going back into Alps was a great idea. The views along the road were good, but the view out of our <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/Hotel+Poggio+d'Oro+Albergo+Ristorante/@45.7665051,10.0267839,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x4783df5da97d584f:0x3f8e6303c01d627f?hl=en">hotel</a> window was <a href="https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPdAAew1Xlya2Ha-4hKxdyCHFkUSlp6OcJkw1ERarmlOiKxNFdxLdXqB4g9AgO7Ow/photo/AF1QipOoFPSbf_wnVRxHJX--ae-nwzumE7UjlSl4W1SM?key=SHJROWp1c2xvSGFxUF92OGwxX0RHUDlnbzFVWS1n">just majestic</a>. Both during the day and <a href="https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPdAAew1Xlya2Ha-4hKxdyCHFkUSlp6OcJkw1ERarmlOiKxNFdxLdXqB4g9AgO7Ow/photo/AF1QipNzF57kTa-OD6MIIX_jXuAJbwqURDUjubsw9lFp?key=SHJROWp1c2xvSGFxUF92OGwxX0RHUDlnbzFVWS1n">at night</a> as well.The hotel rooms even have balconies where you can sit in the evening with a blanket, a glass of local wine and a book. And in the morning .. imagine going out into a sunny and warm morning with a full plate of fresh breakfast food in one hand and cup of coffee in another, crossing the surprisingly active mountain street and sitting down in the <a href="https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPdAAew1Xlya2Ha-4hKxdyCHFkUSlp6OcJkw1ERarmlOiKxNFdxLdXqB4g9AgO7Ow/photo/AF1QipMc-75RPyIIIjXeKStLJEDReZLfm5xRkltCiJ0u?key=SHJROWp1c2xvSGFxUF92OGwxX0RHUDlnbzFVWS1n">shade of the tent</a> pitched on an outcrop from the cliff of the mountain with the fantastic view of the amazing lake and the mountains that contain it. As you eat your morning meal an occasional Fiat is barreling by the narrow twisting road at approximately 100 kmh and others slow down to 80 kmh before taking a blind downward 60 degree turn into a diving side street that is even narrower. And you realise then and there that life is amazing and every moment matters.</p>
<p>That is the perfect mindset to have when going to Venice. Which we did. After a short drive we arrived at a very cheap "hotel" near Venice (Camping Village Jolly). It was actually a permanent camping ground. There was a swimming pool, restaurant and an administration building that is surrounded by several hundreds of permanently parked trailers. You could rent parking space for your own trailer or a tent place or you could rent a "room" which is basically one of those trailers. Each of them has 2-3 cot type beds, bathroom with a tiny shower and an air conditioning unit. It was perfectly serviceable and much cheaper than all the normal hotels in the area. It was a half an hour of walking to the train station to get to actual Venice, but that was not too bad either. The camp "bus to Venice" was not a great choice as it arrives to a segregated section of Venice where you need to use some other (expensive) transport to get to the actual city. It was a better idea to use a local regular bus route 6 to get straight to the bus station.</p>
<p>Venice is a very cool city. At first you enter it and are surrounded by thousands and thousands of tourists all running the same routes to the same places. But it only takes a few minutes to loose the crowd and dive into smaller side streets and wander away to nearly empty streets where only the locals walk around. Even with millions of tourists every year, still Venice has a lot of spaces where tourists do not go and where locals dominate the scene. There are streets with multiple restaurants where you hear no English and all the locals eat their meals and drink their wine. Some streets end in a <a href="https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPdAAew1Xlya2Ha-4hKxdyCHFkUSlp6OcJkw1ERarmlOiKxNFdxLdXqB4g9AgO7Ow/photo/AF1QipPUiQJ0uNuC6igLBExeEHaPIVuPsx5VF8vBJOTm?key=SHJROWp1c2xvSGFxUF92OGwxX0RHUDlnbzFVWS1n">dead end into a canal</a> where you can step down and check out the fishes. And the <a href="https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPdAAew1Xlya2Ha-4hKxdyCHFkUSlp6OcJkw1ERarmlOiKxNFdxLdXqB4g9AgO7Ow/photo/AF1QipMsVm3l4tU6yCqgW9DDChc1J-7WE1qJObEHsHXH?key=SHJROWp1c2xvSGFxUF92OGwxX0RHUDlnbzFVWS1n">locals</a> do love their fishes. Every street looks <a href="https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPdAAew1Xlya2Ha-4hKxdyCHFkUSlp6OcJkw1ERarmlOiKxNFdxLdXqB4g9AgO7Ow/photo/AF1QipP4m7FYpxnF2ic_lfEpuhIiAPk37uiMLq-O_8de?key=SHJROWp1c2xvSGFxUF92OGwxX0RHUDlnbzFVWS1n">amazing</a> in Venice. And the large scale architecture in between the tight old building is <a href="https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPdAAew1Xlya2Ha-4hKxdyCHFkUSlp6OcJkw1ERarmlOiKxNFdxLdXqB4g9AgO7Ow/photo/AF1QipNp05DJBO5ILq5RDb6uq9aW5FaDEkRecsfA8rh4?key=SHJROWp1c2xvSGFxUF92OGwxX0RHUDlnbzFVWS1n">astonishing</a> in the way it stands out. And every house could be a ancient <a href="https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPdAAew1Xlya2Ha-4hKxdyCHFkUSlp6OcJkw1ERarmlOiKxNFdxLdXqB4g9AgO7Ow/photo/AF1QipMXPzK6xLjeUsEzkxdxaDB2VqiFmgZdOtv_Bsso?key=SHJROWp1c2xvSGFxUF92OGwxX0RHUDlnbzFVWS1n">castle</a> of a wealthy family. The touristy places look very <a href="https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPdAAew1Xlya2Ha-4hKxdyCHFkUSlp6OcJkw1ERarmlOiKxNFdxLdXqB4g9AgO7Ow/photo/AF1QipNiEgITSkOqi1InvXhoAzUWWPqoPFmiZsDi1HVv?key=SHJROWp1c2xvSGFxUF92OGwxX0RHUDlnbzFVWS1n">impressive</a>, but other places look <a href="https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPdAAew1Xlya2Ha-4hKxdyCHFkUSlp6OcJkw1ERarmlOiKxNFdxLdXqB4g9AgO7Ow/photo/AF1QipNVImbm_L6zilggcBou9TvvsXvt1-pgCBPSJTn0?key=SHJROWp1c2xvSGFxUF92OGwxX0RHUDlnbzFVWS1n">even better</a> with a bit of a look. And there are no hawkers of the shiny flying things in the less touristy places. You can even chill in one of many tiny parks where locals come together to chill, play with their dogs and drink more wine. Venice was also the place where we had the most amazing meal of the trip. There was a restoraunt that was so popular that it had tables outside, but not just outside, they had tables right by the <a href="https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPdAAew1Xlya2Ha-4hKxdyCHFkUSlp6OcJkw1ERarmlOiKxNFdxLdXqB4g9AgO7Ow/photo/AF1QipM_8QVzBeWsBd9mv3U6GoRqFN3VmVJm3YtWfGhN?key=SHJROWp1c2xvSGFxUF92OGwxX0RHUDlnbzFVWS1n">edge of the canal</a>. You could literally not move one of the chairs back with the risk of falling into the water. A docking boat actually reached for an anchor point that was between the chair legs. But the <a href="https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPdAAew1Xlya2Ha-4hKxdyCHFkUSlp6OcJkw1ERarmlOiKxNFdxLdXqB4g9AgO7Ow/photo/AF1QipP1W-E-VDA4_fGeu9su_o6m1gHlLm64tFleBd5j?key=SHJROWp1c2xvSGFxUF92OGwxX0RHUDlnbzFVWS1n">food</a> was amazing with some great house wine as well. We spent two full days in Venice. It was just scratching the surface not even entering any buildings really, but the place still left a very strong impression of an ancient and content power on me. A fun stat that I remember from a "No Reservacions" episode about Venice was that, despite being a huge tourist attraction, people living in Venice make just as much money from logistics and fishing as from tourism. It is not a one trick town and it shows in places where tourists don't go.</p>
<p>After Venice started the return part of the trip. The plan here was simple - go a *long* distance every day with minimal stops for food and sleep. It was a bit tiresome, but it was not too hard on me. When you have cruise control and some music loaded into your phone the hours and the kilometers just <a href="https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPdAAew1Xlya2Ha-4hKxdyCHFkUSlp6OcJkw1ERarmlOiKxNFdxLdXqB4g9AgO7Ow/photo/AF1QipMcSJtdU8bPX99kIxiqh6LYPtC4lk-pMcsG1FaP?key=SHJROWp1c2xvSGFxUF92OGwxX0RHUDlnbzFVWS1n">melt</a> away on the great highways of Italy, Austria, Slovakia and Poland. The days melded together in my mind, so I had to use Google Location History to reconstruct them. Crossing the <a href="https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPdAAew1Xlya2Ha-4hKxdyCHFkUSlp6OcJkw1ERarmlOiKxNFdxLdXqB4g9AgO7Ow/photo/AF1QipNp3UxFyUL3ldA5vZY-EmRhvkc1PQuCjRghit3E?key=SHJROWp1c2xvSGFxUF92OGwxX0RHUDlnbzFVWS1n">Alps</a> via highways is fast and easy, but not really much fun. Both Austria and Slovakia required me to buy and stick into the window a vignette sticker to be able to drive on their roads. The stickers cost less than what I paid for the roads on the vignette-less Italy, so that was actually a welcome change at this point. In one day of driving I went from Venice to Vienna. Surprisingly the Vienna was the place where we had the best sushi of the trip. They had amazing melt-on-your-tongue tuna and the rise was best I've had outside of Japan. Vienna also was the place where we saw this nice, if <a href="https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPdAAew1Xlya2Ha-4hKxdyCHFkUSlp6OcJkw1ERarmlOiKxNFdxLdXqB4g9AgO7Ow/photo/AF1QipNGl6kquXbOmM82821e7lbW1CF30cjvZUaBl1sn?key=SHJROWp1c2xvSGFxUF92OGwxX0RHUDlnbzFVWS1n">expensive piece of art</a>. It also had an exhibition at the time about the fate of the Eastern Europe in the Soviet hands with the texts and photos from Poland, Baltics and Ukraine. The information was accurate and the emotional impact was quite nice to see.</p>
<p>The next day the trip home continued with another long stretch from Vienna to Lodz in Poland. This leg was not a long as it could be because someone in the car had not been to IKEA before and I simply had to enlighten the poor individual about the health and mental benefits of swedish meatballs while also picking up a few trinkets for home. It was amazing as always. IKEA is a house of fun and fantasy. Well maybe that was just the trip fatigue talking from hours of sitting that a walk through a colorful showroom with all kinds of funky almost-useful stuff was a refreshing change. Polish highways were a pleasant surprise after all the horror stories that people have been telling about them. But the Poland changed with the EU - there is a huge number of new motorways constructed with a bunch of bridges in all the possible colors crossing them. The designs of the bridges does not change much, but the color does. It's the little things that you notice after 6 hours on the road. Lodz met us with some post-soviet road layout and even more post-soviet style of hotel that looked like the typical upscale communist party regional hotel, but cleaned up with some marble columns and refreshed power sockets. It felt like this was a soviet hotel a long time ago, but the hotel had clearly moved on. Nothing said this more than the episode in the morning in the lobby of the hotel - a woman was explaining to the young girl in reception that she left a cooling block from a car refrigerator in the hotel freezer and that she wanted it back now. The girl did not understand her. She understood basic russian, but the word for refrigerator - she just did not know it. I had to translate russian to english, so that the woman could get what she needed in a hotel of a rather large city in Poland. The english of the service personnel was perfect. That is something that we are going to as well.</p>
<p>Final day was a bit of a hell. I did 11 hours of pure driving from Lodz straight to Riga. We only stopped for a lunch at a random roadside polish tavern "Under the Black Boar" for a quick, but solid meal and then for another meal in Panevezys where we tried to find the only 7+ rated restaurant in the city that Foursquare knew about, but it was closed and there was a new place there called Pizza di Napoli. We were just from Italy here eating pizza in Lithuania. And it was a very solid and <a href="https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPdAAew1Xlya2Ha-4hKxdyCHFkUSlp6OcJkw1ERarmlOiKxNFdxLdXqB4g9AgO7Ow/photo/AF1QipMTy81pKIaBDEnGDk7r-5DVqbCIzJ5_Usqqs7Bx?key=SHJROWp1c2xvSGFxUF92OGwxX0RHUDlnbzFVWS1n">fresh pizza</a>. Latvia met us with an amazing contrast of deep fog and shining full moon. There was no way to photograph that, but it looked amazing and it felt like home.</p>
<p>In the end the <a href="https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPdAAew1Xlya2Ha-4hKxdyCHFkUSlp6OcJkw1ERarmlOiKxNFdxLdXqB4g9AgO7Ow/photo/AF1QipN_spO39UTcdVEF_A4RdRj8YI5qRrqzowjZeK-m?key=SHJROWp1c2xvSGFxUF92OGwxX0RHUDlnbzFVWS1n">full trip</a> took 4803 km driven in 61 hours and 35 minutes giving the average speed of 78 km/h and the average fuel consumption of 5.5l per 100 km. The numbers of the car computer matched almost perfectly with the numbers that my fuel tracking application showed for the trip. I filled the tank before the trip and after the above picture was taken. In total I used 264 liters of diesel fuel for the whole trip. Some of that fuel was bought for around 1€ per liter, but some of it cost as much as 1.7€ in one of the full service refueling stations in Italy. The hotels were around 60€ per night. Food expenses were on the high side with around 50-60€ per person per day. The pay roads and vignettes cost nearly 100€ in total and there was around 30€ spent on parking fees. The initial ferry trip cost 170€ (almost cheaper than fuel+hotel+food for the drive).</p>
<p>This was an amazing and basically life changing experience. This trip was the principal reason why I bought a car. It did not disappoint. Neither the trip, nor the car.</p>
<p>(to be continued with the experience of buying and owning a lightly used Mercedes C class)</p>