G2X Day 0: Landed

An article by Glen    1 Comment

Well it was over 20 hours to get here, but I’m landed in Washington DC ahead of the Groovy Grails Exchange which starts tomorrow morning. I’m going to hopefully blog up a bit of the action while I’m here since my talks aren’t until later in the week.

I’ve got to say that Washington is a really beautiful city, and reminds me heaps of Canberra (must be a capital city thing). We’ve been staying a few days in DC to see the sights and have relocated to Reston, Virginia this afternoon. Looks like the conference rooms are all happening downstairs.

Some random observations about Washington DC from an Aussie visitor:

• Never ever order a large anything, no matter how hungry you are. A regular is already huge.
• Whatever the price says on the sticker, add about 30% to it to work out what the price *really* is (There seems to be some sort of VAT/consumption tax happening and if there is a person involved, they’ll want a 19% tip)
• It’s probably walkable. Really.
• We’ve found the locals to be really friendly. I’ve stopped a ton of people in the street and every single one has been friendly and helpful.
• A Starbucks double-shot Caffe Latte is equivalent to an Aussie Flat White.
• President’s Day is a great day to visit any monument. Public Holidays are rare in the US, and the locals love to enjoy them at home.
• Nicole Kidman seems to be quite an Australian Identity.
• DC Metro is super-cheap to get around on ($1.35 will get you just about anywhere, $5 for a daypass) and goes most places you want. Though you can walk it pretty easily.
• We stayed at The Quincy in DC and it was awesome. A couple of blocks from the Whitehouse and easy walking distance to just about everywhere. We booked through hotels.com and it was around $100/night. The rooms were giant, and the beds were fantastic. And they have free DSL and Wifi in the rooms.

Anyways, big thumbs up to Washington DC. Fantastic place to visit – and even more fun with a couple of hundred Groovy/Grails community members around!

Updates coming soon once the conference is underway… I might even have some news of my own to announce…