Back Home in London

Sunday 19:30 BST And back home after an uneventful DLR journey home from LCY to the flat.

Sunday 16:40 CET So 40 minutes to change flights at Zurich, and I remember the insufficient 50 minutes slot I was given at Frankfurt, but we got a gate not a coach, and it’s all within one building, and I stayed on the same airline because I kept to my rules. Despite this, the Swiss Air staff were just as un-helpful as last time, merely saying that 40 minutes was enough, which was true and that we were early, which was not. My experience is that short/medium haul are never early; the ground resources are not ready.

Sunday 11:45 CET I got to Budapest Airport early, again. They won’t check you in until 2 hours before, but now Priority Pass can get you into four lounges. How to choose? However, they’re all airside, so I had to wait for checkin to open. The Taxi company this a.m. were marvelous, so thank you for that but they’re expensive, I wonder if they have multiple tariffs and if I come back I am definitely going to work out the public transport option. Either bus to the Metro and on, or Bus to Terminal 1 and the overground to Budapest. …

A place to lay my head

22:45 CET We pop out for a swift one at Morrison’s Music Pub. I really mustn’t leave the research to others. I did quite enjoy it in the end though. If the Karaoke bar had had “Anarchy in the UK”, I’d have been up there.

budapest

20:15 CET I have finally arrived in the Hotel Bristol in Budapest. Nice people, free public Wifi. English speakers had best watch out. Remind me, why do I have to spend £5 an hour to connect to the internet when staying in British and US hotels. Obviously not in San Francisco.

19:15 CET And finally, Budapest, but I have not got any HUFs, but I do have Euros, which I hadn’t realised most people will take, not the best exchange rates but you never do when your buying retail. I speak to the exchange in baggage reclaim and fortunately they make a mistake and only book a small transaction because I had used a credit card; once I get out into the arrivals lounge there is an ATM. Marvelous. I booked myself a seat on the Airport Shuttle Bus while in baggage reclaim, which you can pay in Euros and avoids the need to navigate in Budapest. The public transport options are far cheaper, but need experience and the Taxi’s are not cheap.

16:00 CET Zurich Airport, I arrive and need to depart from the same terminal building, excellent. Priority Pass get me into the Swiss Business Lounge, which was nice very quiet and I got an hour’s free Wifi. (There was no cheese).

13:00 So off to Budapest, making the most of my city living style I have decided to fly via London City Airport, LCY. This means I have to switch flights at Zurich, since I am flying Swiss and there are no direct flights to Budapest from LCY. (Is that a distance/size thing at LCY, or isn’t there the demand? Both Swiss and Lufthansa offer you changes. Do BA actually still use City?) Anyway the AMEX exchange there doesn’t offer HUFs, bad news! The journey to LCY took 45 minutes, also not good, but LCY’s awesome compactness and efficiency means I made the flight on time. I love City Airport. …

Knowing me, knowing you in Zurich

Knowing me, knowing you in Zurich

I travelled to Zurich for a workshop on social media. It was a requirements gathering exercise and I originally published two articles, on the sun/oracle blog, one on Zurich and one on some ideas which became the social graph. These ideas were presented by Bertolt Meyer of Humbolt University, Berlin, who has recently published research into the fact that Knowledge Repositories don’t work.  …