Just another brick in the wall

Wednesday

Once I'd unpacked I headed to the conference room to register. The hotel is build on a cliff face so the beach and pool are level 1, reception is level 9 and the conference is on level 10. I am on 8 and the restaurants on 7 as well as one near the pool.

The had out included a back pack with the large agenda document, a book on Dubrovnik and the strategic plan. A second satchel contained a sim card, with some preloaded value, a multi ride bus ticket and a museum pass as well as a tourist map and other info. Out badges came in a large lanyard with a small size program booklet and a smart id card. This card is used to register your entrance to lunch and other events.

From there I went to the pool area and met the new Malaysian chairman, who is my buddy for this meeting. This year I am the big sister after being guided by the Dutch chair woman myself last year.

I changed into 3/4 length pants as it was quite warm and caught the bus to the Old city. It runs 2 times and hour and starts from the front of the hotel. While the idea of a local sim (and the other passes) was great, Unfortunately it didn't fit an iphone, so I expect there will be many delegates in the same boat. However following Igor's instructions I passed through the old city and a few hundred m further to the shop of the SIM provider. A very helpful girl there replaced it with the micro sim i needed, set it up, used some of the credit for a small data plan and I left with everything working.

I then headed back to the old city and wandered around , following one of the recommended tourist walks I suppose I spent an hour or so there. The town is a fortified city with high walls surrounding it, up to 25m high,  6m thick and nearly 2km long. Inside are churches and civic buildings made of the same limestone as well as many homes. Most of the central area is now catering to tourists and are now shops, restaurants and bars. There is also a Marina one one side and from there a ferry runs to neighbouring islands.

The town is on a steep slope with many narrow stairways through out. If you can ignore (the other) tourists it is a very picturesque city.

After my walk got me back to the main street, I bough an icecream and headed out of the walls to the bus stop.One came alog after about 5 minutes and I was soon back at the hotel. I changed and headed to the pool where I met some more Mensans and then had a short swim. The ice breaker party was at 8 but we had been warned it was finger food only, so at 6-30 I was in reception. 3 of us headed out for a pizza, including Matthias, who I shared the Villa with in Bali. He'd been there a day and had found this place "about 10 minutes away" the previous night. It was a bit further than that but we had a cheap pizza (tasty but not very hot) bought some warm softdrink in a mini mart and walked back to the hotel (up hill) in time for the Icebreaker.

The high tech badges then came into use. It had to be scanned to get in and then before each (of the two) drinks we were allowed. Surprisingly that seems to be enough. I met a lot of people who had been at last year's meeting and some new ones as well. There also seemed to be quite a few people here for the event that aren't actually on the committee. They have a program of events while we are in the meetings and will mix in the social events in the evening.

I lasted till about 10-30 and was in bed and asleep about 30 minutes later. I sleep through til nearly 5 am (or 11am Perth time) so that is not a bad catch up on the jet lag for the first day. The early start has allowed me to catch up on photos, facebook and this blog.