~$ Going back to Amsterdam and attending MCH!

Posted on Jul. 29th, 2022. | Est. reading time: 5 minutes

Tags:ConferenceVolunteeringTravel


This June, I had the opportunity to go to one of the famed European Hacker camps.

If you do not know, in Europe, there are a series of hacker camps in the UK, Germany and the Netherlands which sequentially happen on yearly intervals (one year is one event, every year a different event), and are usually very fun to attend.

I had not gone to one of these conferences yet, mainly because I had only gotten into the industry during the COVID-19 pandemic.

When my friend Lennaert suggested I should come up and join, I thought it would be a pretty cool idea.

So I ended up doing the 14+ hour bus drive from Geneva to Amsterdam via Paris, and then taking a train to Amersfoort and switching onto another train to Nijkerk.

At that point, I was picked up by the conference's shuttle service and dropped off at the Zeewolde Scoutinglandgoed, a camping site alongside the Nuldernauw river.

Despite arriving during the setup, most of the tents and had already been set up.

Picture of the entryway to the camp.The Entryway Lamp Sign

I joined up with Skelli and Night, and we set up our tents on the outskirts of the DIVD & Zerocopter sponsor area (two entities for which Lennaert works).

Over the course of the event, this led me to meet a lot of interesting people such as Edwin, Chantal, Astrid, Wietse and Célistine, etc, as well as "Robbie the Emu":

As I tend to do, I spent a lot of time volunteering as an Engel (or Angel), specifically helping out on Camera duty, or on Audio or Visual if it was needed.

Although it involved a lot of running around to make it to shifts, it was a fun moment, and the people involved were great fun as well.

All in all, I met a lot of fascinating people and had some fantastic experiences.