My plan for next Monday: travel from #Hannover to #Vienna for Maintainers Summit and #LinuxPlumbers2024 by train.

The weather's plan for the next few days for Vienna and its surroundings (including the rest of Austria, Czech Republic, Poland, and some areas of Germany): never ending rain.

So I fear something like the below will happen. 🥴

#Ook!

@kernellogger Hoffen wir lieber mal das beste das es nicht so wird !

@ShinjiLE

Hoffen ja, aber ich fürchte, irgendwas zwischen Bayern und Wien wird es erwischen…

@kernellogger You can take a ferry then.

@pony @kernellogger To flood Slovaks instead?

@kernellogger Umm. Travelling to Vienna by train, you may want to start few days early :-). So far, predictions of heavy rain seem to have shifted to Friday. But ... what you should know about czech railways: a) likely, flooding will not be this bad and b) likely, trains will still not be going according to timetables. Our trains have problems even under "normal" circumstances, and this weekend will likely not be "normal".

@oleksandr 😂

@oleksandr @pony @kernellogger slovaks made sure they can shift their floods into hungary actually https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gab%C4%8D%C3%ADkovo%E2%80%93Nagymaros_Dams

@pavel

thx. FWIW, never had any problems on my rides to Brno (via Dresden and Prague) for devconf.cz; this time I'm not entering the Czech Republic though.

@kernellogger @pavel you've been to Brno???

LEGEND!

@ljs @kernellogger @pavel his train also passed through my town!

@vbabka @kernellogger @pavel wow so it really went to the absolute arse end of nowhere then!!

Was it pulled by oxen?

@ljs @pavel

On one occasion (one of those few without snow) I even rode around the city on a bicycle together with @lkundrak (who had organized the bike, thx again!), which IMHO is always a great way to get a good impression of a city.

@kernellogger @pavel @lkundrak UGGHHH WHAT

I've told you and @liskin before, all cyclists and skaters should be shot out of a cannon

@ljs @liskin @lkundrak @pavel

I'm pretty sure I will mark quite a few checkboxes on your "list of people that should be shot out of a cannon". 🙃 Makes me wonder if we better should avoid each other next week. 😬

@kernellogger @ljs @liskin @lkundrak @pavel I thought you wore shoes, though?

@kernellogger @liskin @lkundrak @pavel NO ABSOLUTELY NOT you and I have a long 3 hour stuck in a lift moment to get through where we really hash out the CVE thing.

Maybe @gregkh can join us?

@vbabka @kernellogger @liskin @lkundrak @pavel he better, one bare footed maniac is enough (I'd at him but fedi is SO SHIT at looking up people that I can't, somebody else can)

@kernellogger @ljs @liskin @pavel please excuse my dear british gentleman friend

he already got stage fright from his upcoming LPC talk and this is his strategy to set expectations as low as possible so he can't possibly disappoint

@kernellogger @gregkh @liskin @lkundrak @pavel will turn out that fundamentally we all agree ;)

Maybe

Anyway no seriously will be nice to meet you IRL! I am a lot more hinged than I seem on here

@kernellogger @ljs @liskin @pavel he got a kind heart

but generally is an ass

@lkundrak @kernellogger @liskin @pavel how is shooting Thorsten out of a cannon setting expectations low??

That seems to be setting them rather high

@lkundrak @kernellogger @liskin @pavel lol I'm so much worse than that.

In person actually I"m really lovely, @vbabka can confirm.

@lkundrak @kernellogger @liskin @pavel to be clear - I meant a very gentle, safe, and kind cannon shot.

Like from a really really safe circus, not some crazy thing.

If you think about it, it's basically a bike route

@ljs @kernellogger @lkundrak @pavel that sounds like something I might genuinely enjoy

Even if I break some bones in the process. That's usually a proxy for having had lots of fun. Too much perhaps.

@liskin @kernellogger @lkundrak @pavel there you see??

Who's unhinged now???

OK it's both of us isn't it

@kernellogger I don't see any big issues at least in Austria with your route. Because the route you take is pretty weather safe.

You don't drive through the alps, where you would find mudflows at such heavy rains.

Also the ÖBB said, that it probably will be fine again on monday.

Of course I can't talk about the other countries.

Anyways I wish you a safe and fast trip.

@kernellogger oh boy, good thing it is predicted to be drier for LPC itself!

@michelin

yeah! OTOH: we are close to a river and it sometimes takes a day or two for all that water to flow from upstream to downstream, which at least in Germany sometimes becomes a big problem downstream.

But let's just hope that this won't be a problem. 😄

Safe travels to everyone going to Vienna next week!

@thomasmarangoni

thx, that gives me some hope; I had looked at the map already and hoped for "pretty weather safe" -- but at the same time I remembered how bad it was in Germany earlier this year, so I still worry somewhat…

@kernellogger

Another good news, we know have snow at 600m. This means the rain is now snow at 600m and above, which reduced the water in rivers -> less chance of bigger floodings.

Snow was only announced for 1000m and above.

@pavel @kernellogger

> Our trains have problems even under "normal" circumstances,

In general, this perception of how problematic the trains in CZ are seems to me negatively correlated with how often a given person uses trains.

(Exceptions exist of course, a glaring one is #trať171 line Praha-Beroun, that's getting slowly fixed in piecemeal fashion)

@djasa @kernellogger https://kam.mff.cuni.cz/~babilon/zpmapa :-). And of course there's negative correlation; if one believes train will be 3 hours late, one is more likely to ride a horse instead.

@kernellogger Ab Bayern mit Flugtaxi. /s

@tor 😂

@djasa @kernellogger Let's say that current situation seems to be "below average" with all the trains in north-east delayed. https://kam.mff.cuni.cz/~babilon/zpmapa

@thomasmarangoni if I had taken the connection I booked today, I would have made it till Passau; DB cancelled the rest of the trip for the ICE.

But looks like I might have been able to do the rest of the trip with some ÖBB trains…

We'll see how things work out tomorrow. Maybe I should take a plane instead...

@kernellogger @thomasmarangoni ugh man I really want to meet you so FIND A WAY man please :)

Maybe road trip?

@ljs @thomasmarangoni

road trip is the backup strategy I really want to avoid, but might need to come back to

@kernellogger @thomasmarangoni you can come pick me up too! And maybe @vbabka ?

@thomasmarangoni

Picking up @vbabka might even be not that much of a detour, but I'm not sure how the road in .cz are currently; if guess going through south germany would be the better option.

@ljs that might be too much of a detour, or are you not in the UK currently?

@kernellogger @thomasmarangoni @vbabka haha I am in the UK!

Nah I'm kidding about me, I'm catching a plane which should all be ok assuming Vienna isn't under biblical levels of flooding.

Vlasta well who knows :)

@kernellogger yeah seem like öbb is still reaching most destinations and that mostly on time.

If you are able to get to Austria and suddenly get stuck here. You can write me and we can find a solution here.

@thomasmarangoni

many many thx for the offer, but it won't come to this: due to how things develop I just gave in and booked a flight for tomorrow. 😟

Maybe that was stupid and a waste of money, but I feel relieved now.

2/ due to how things develop on the rain and water front in Austria I just gave in and booked a flight to Vienna for tomorrow. 😟

Maybe that will turn out to be stupid and a waste of money in the end, but I feel safer and relieved now.

@kernellogger

It's probably the safer option and if you arrive with less struggles, then it wasn't a waste of money.

@kernellogger

Yep! The climate tells you something's very wrong, so let's take a domestic flight in response! 👏

@nik

Yeah, tell me about it, I really hate how this turned out. 😟

Never do any vacations that involve flying and apparently made a few people angry for not visiting maintainers summit and LPC last year, mainly because I did not want to do an intercontinental flight.

@kernellogger
Haha, I'm booked on the night train from Hamburg to Vienna tomorrow evening. Will let you know how it goes! 😅

@toke

good luck, crossing fingers for you; with a bit of luck things will already be better by then maybe.

But maintainers summit is Tuesday and starts early in morning with my own session, would be really bad if I missed that. :-/

Guess I should have planned to travel to Vienna one day earlier (e.g. today), then I would have risked the train.

@kernellogger @thomasmarangoni @vbabka @ljs It seems that roads are still okay in Czech republic. At least I hope so, I'm currently in bus going through Brno to Vienna. It left on time and studentagency did not list anything serious on their pages.

@pavel @kernellogger @thomasmarangoni @vbabka PLEASE tell me Brno is ok, I wan to meet @lkundrak and that matters a lot more to me than this linux bullshit

@ljs @kernellogger @thomasmarangoni @lkundrak @pavel @vbabka it's ok

@pony @kernellogger @thomasmarangoni @lkundrak @pavel @vbabka OH THANK GOD!

Wait does this mean I have to give my talk now? SHIT

@ljs @thomasmarangoni @pavel @vbabka

As long as the roads are okay, @lkundrak could just take a bicycle: it's just 141 km (740m climb, 770m down) and would take about 8 to 9 hours according to komoot. 😬

/me runs and hides

@kernellogger @thomasmarangoni @pavel @vbabka @lkundrak yeah but it's the way back while drunk that's the issue

@kernellogger
Thanks! I'm not a fancy enough maintainer to go to summits about it, so I have a whole day of slack to paddle through masses of water should the need arise 😅

But yeah, did do a double take when I got an email from DB advising against traveling during the weekend. Feel like I got lucky with the timing in that sense!

In any case, have a nice trip and see you in Vienna (🤞)

@kernellogger Social pressure, hmm? Well, hope your trip turns out to go well!

@nik

Social pressure: I can stand that.

But here it's about the way I make my living currently after taking a big risk and a kind of investment into a future -- and a deciding factor if I can & want to go down that path as well as if someone is willing to pay me for that.

@ljs @kernellogger @lkundrak @thomasmarangoni @vbabka Opava is flooded, Brno is not, at the moment. Prague should be fine, but I'm afraid it is early to say if Brno will be fine, so you may want to be quick :-).

@pavel @kernellogger @lkundrak @thomasmarangoni @vbabka if Lubomir's plague cart doesn't make it to Vienna I will pray to Rhesus for more rain

> Guess I should have planned to travel to Vienna one day earlier (e.g. today)

@kernellogger @toke no, good you didn't I think: I took the night train yesterday from Belgium, but the train could not make it into Vienna. It stopped in Linz and they told us to take another train. We all did that, went to the next station, then had to stop again. We were supposed to take a bus but a lot of people were in the same situation. And the bus service stopped... And no solution, just: try to find one!

@matttbe @toke

Ook!

So you are stranded somewhere between Linz and Vienna currently? Ouch. Good luck for the rest of your trip, hope you can make it relative pain-free.

@kernellogger @toke I got lucky and found someone who was going from there to Vienna by car! Still not there yet (we left 3h ago), but moving, looking at the overflowed rivers all around!

@kernellogger

I just want to give you an update on the situation here:
- Trains service now has been cancled between Vienna and Linz (the route to germany and czech)
- 3/5 subways are only partially operational (some sections have been flooded, other section are still in service)
- S-Bahn is still operational (main route between airport and Praterstern)
- The river "Wien" is on it limits and flooded some smaller regions in vienna
- Water level of Danube is high but isn't near its limit. 1/x

@kernellogger

(Flood prevention system from 1980 is working great)

Some good news:
- Wiener Linien said all Subways will be fully available again on Wednesday
- The rain stopped for now (another wave is announced for tomorrow)
- Water levels of rivers are slowly decreasing (Level of Danube is slowly increasing, but still has a lot of capacity)
- Overall Vienna is in a good shape, but parts of the countryside did get hit pretty hard.
2/x

@kernellogger

I also talked with my uncle, he works at the airport and is doing flight planning for Austrian Airlines. He said its a lot of rain, but the weather it self isn't that bad for flying. Maybe some delays will happen, but flight shouldn't get canceled.

3/3

@thomasmarangoni

Many thx for the insights, much appreciated.

Looks like booking a plane ticket was definitely the right choice.

And sounds like Vienna is an area one should not travel too right now, as people are busy with more important stuff that computers. But well, in these sometimes strange times some things move on if nothing happened while close by many people fight with catastrophes. 😕

@kernellogger

In most parts of vienna, life is normal as usual and just a bit wet. I think its okay to travel to vienna as long as you don't do catastrophe sightseeing.

My family was hit by flooding back in 2002, a lot of people helped us, some continued their life, which is totally fine. But there was a group of people standing on the hill across the street and watched the helpers and my family while they pumped out water of the houses.

As long as the water is still high, you can't do a lot.

@thomasmarangoni @kernellogger the conference being in Austria Center in the middle of Danube... do you think the capacity is enough for that place as well? ;)

@vbabka @kernellogger

The flooding prevention system is designed for the flood of 1501, which was the highest one ever seen in Europe. We are far away from that.

Also its not in the middle of Danube. Vienna has four Danubes:
- Donau Kanal (Danube Canal): Original river path its flowing next to city center.
- Donau (Danube): Main Stream
- Neue Donau (New Danube): Its a secondary stream only for flood preventing
- Alte Donau (Old Danube): Part of the original stream, but not connected. 1/x

@vbabka @kernellogger

Austria Center is between New Danube and Old Danube, the old one is basically a lake.

Between Danube and New Danube there is an island, the main purpose of this island is to get flooded. If it isn't used for that it is a great park and the biggest free open air festival is hosted their.

Currently the new danube was connected to the main stream, so swimming is now forbidden their, but its reducing the load on the main stream. If the level would continue to rise, ... 2/x

@vbabka @kernellogger

the island would be flooded. If the island is flooded the "Island" where the Austria Center is placed would get flooded. But then we would have way bigger problems.

Also the Danube Canal has some event areas, those also got flooded, but if they are flooded you still have like 8m until it overflows.

Good video about the system:
English: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEbjqDLpesU

German: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVgPdqcoan8

I will also be at LPC, I don't see any risk of getting wet there. 3/3

@thomasmarangoni @kernellogger thanks a lot for the info, so hopefully the trains will go (via Brno) on Tuesday, and the public transit as well.

@thomasmarangoni @vbabka

thx for the info.

Side note from the "languages and dialects are fun" department: I started watching the German video and then switched to the English one, as that was a whole lot easier for me to understand…

@kernellogger @vbabka

Yeah its a very strong Viennese dialect, but most people speak standard German in Vienna so no worries. And of course English is also possible with most people.