13:58, the sun is shining, the sky is blue, and I just had the best tomatoes -- ever. Welcome to Vienna and PgConf.eu
I am sitting in a glorious (although not the conference) hotel, writing this article. It is 13:58, at least it is where I am from, the great Pacific Northwest. I must admit, I miss the trees although I hear there are lots of them if you leave the city. What is there to say about this great city that the European community picked for their latest conference?

First and probably obvious, it is full of history. Second, don't bother doing anything on a Sunday. Third, smoking is allowed in restaurants (one ridiculous thing I have noted). Fourth, they sell water that has, "Natural Oxygen". Fifth, it feels a lot like Paris but the people seem friendlier. Lastly, this is a fantastic choice of venue.

This is my third Europe event with the community. I am teaching on PostgreSQL backups. I was also in Ireland as well as Paris years ago. The buzz around the conference this year has been loud. It feels like a fan that you turn on to drown out the traffic downstairs. Everywhere in the community you can hear whispers of this upcoming event. It is exciting and I believe this will be the largest, best executed event in the European community history. I will report more on that after the conference starts.

If you are here in this beautiful city (especially if you are from the states), full of wonder, history, and culture please don't hesitate to say hi to someone, open a door or even smile (although that is apparently a weird social faux pas).

Thank you to the European community for having the American heathens present!