2026-04-04 –, The Rabbit Hole
War in Europe, criminalization of queer rights all over Russia's satellite states and mass surveillance in China and its economic colonies - these are definitely not the best conditions to go on a world trip from Europe to Asia connecting the FOSDEM in Belgium with the FOSSASIA in Thailand by train.
I would like to share the experiences and lessons learned of traveling 34.000 km by train around half the globe behind the new Iron Curtain separating our liberal Europe from the dictatorships on the way to South East Asia.
I like trains <3.
This talk will cover tips and tricks on foreign travels beyond Europe when choosing the train, insights of data security when traveling in oppressive countries and a bunch of anecdotes from borders, tickets and friendly people you meet on your trip.
Oh, and you might learn why my public travel journal contains a hole of three days.
Wanna learn even more ? There's a second part of this talk focussing less on railways and more on politics. For safety reasons, it will only be announced shortly prior to EH23.
Member states of the European Union discourage from traveling to the Russian Federation. You should respect this travel warning.
I like trains, they are cute <3.
Hey, I'm The one with the braid, I travel a lot and do [matrix] for work. Ask me about night trains, encryption, paranoid data security and federated systems.
I've been traveling by trains and public transport around the globe for a couple of years now, especially to places others would not travel to these days, mostly in eastern Europe, the Arabic world and central Asia.
I might have controversial opinions but I'm always willing to learn more.
Feel free to contact me !