What?
DjangoCon Europe is a conference for everybody with something to do with Django. Django is my favorite framework for creating full-stack applications. The community around it and Python is the best that I found in the tech scene.
After many years of watching videos on YouTube, I had the chance to attend the conference!
It’s years that I attend PyconIT and it has its good dose of Django but this is different. At Pycon you meet a lot of people with many use cases of Python. For example, people that use it in the science field or the business field. Instead here are 100% “web people”! And all of them use Django.
I felt immediately between my people. But let’s go in order.
The trip PT. 1
The venue was in Porto, Portugal. I’ve been in Lisbon in 2021 and it has been amazing! I love Portugal, for as I’ve seen.
I live in Trento so my trip to arrive at Porto is more or less this:
Trento ➡️ Bergamo ➡️ Porto.
Fortunately, to arrive in Bergamo, they gave me a lift by car. (Spoiler, the return wasn’t that comfortable.)
After a good flight, we arrived in Porto.
As soon as we set foot in Porto we immediately start with a very high moment.
We took a taxi from the airport to our Airbnb. After waiting a long time for a taxi to arrive, the three of them come together. All the people rushed to get one. However, we note that one stopped a little further on, with the trunk already open. The taxi driver is an old man. We approach and with no small effort, we ask him if he was free and if he can take us to our destination.
We shouldn’t have taken that taxi.
Well, he took the wrong turn 4 times. He played the horn to the girls walking down the street. “As a joke,” she tried to pull one of these poor girls under the car.
He has entered my blacklist.
Luckily we arrived safe and sound.
Our Airbnb
More than saying wonderful I could not say anything else. Definitely luxury.
The conference
Considering that I used Django for almost 10 years I know that I don’t know anything anyway. The talks were so on point. Certain were about many things that I haven’t ever touched.
There are many aspects where I never dug that much. That can happen only when you focus your attention on a single thing.
The first example that comes to my mind is the talks about translation. I was a heavy React.js user so every translation was managed client side, in huge JSON files. I always knew that when working with pure Django you have good tools out of the box at your disposal but now I have a better idea.
This is not a real technical blog post so you’ll find more techy things here. Probably when I pull out the notes I have taken I will write some pieces a little more to the point on the various topics covered.
The city
As I wrote earlier, I like Portugal very much. Everything seems to be working fine and it doesn’t feel too crowded.
It made me want to move.
On top of that, the tech scene has moved a lot to Porto in recent times. This is also thanks to Pieter Levels who made great promotion.
If you are planning to walk around the city, be well prepared. You go up and down a lot since the city is as if it were organized in steps. I got my fair share of miles.
This is Ribeira do Porto. A beautiful place to take a stroll in the evening and have a beer.
🚨 Random 🚨
This tile design made me laugh a lot.
The trip PT. 2
This was the plan:
Porto ➡️ Airport ➡️ Bergamo ➡️ Trento.
This is what happened briefly:
- Took the metro from Porto to the airport. The experience with the Portuguese metro is always extraordinary. They work great, are on time, and are spotless. The only flaw was understanding how the payments worked. The answer was too good because you don’t have to do anything but swipe the card once.
- “Slept” at the airport on a convenient and comfortable bench. Staying at the airport at night is always a strange experience. You seem to be alone but instead, there are a lot of people working in some room or shop that is hiding.
- Took the flight. I haven’t died.
- When arrived in Bergamo I waited for a Flixbus (Bergamo ➡️ Verona ➡️ Trento)
Conclusion
Not happy that evening I met a friend and to finish off we went to a concert.
I was demolished.
But that’s another story.
Lastly, I would just like to make the classic invitation to go to conferences. They are the best source for meeting new people, new technologies, and new realities. I’m not just talking about those abroad like this one but also those that take place in your city.
It was a wonderful experience. 10 out of 10 slices of pizza 🍕.