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Last year I had the awesome privilege of attending and speaking at a conference in Sofia, Bulgaria for Java2Days. The experience was unmatched to any previous conference, the organizers were amazing and gracious hosts, put on a great event and made sure that the speakers all felt welcome in their hometown.

When it arrived this year, I accepted without question — and also shoved a few more friends who speak at conferences in their direction. And as they did last year, they put on a great event, made everyone feel welcome and cared for. This year I decided to take a few days and visit Greece and more specifically, Athens. And since last year, I’ve been likening myself to an amateur photog… taking snaps of the Acropolis and surrounding ancient sites was a big win for me.

Here are the shots of Athens I took on day 1. There are hundred’s more but I haven’t gotten the time to process them all — still jetlagged it seems.

Day one was great, I did my beginner Wicket presentation after flying in from Athens — thankfully missing most of the strike mayhem scheduled for that day. I really don’t know what it is about the sessions in Bulgaria, but I enjoy them more than most other crowds — great group of people in attendance with great questions.

That night the speakers were treated to the Speaker Event which if you click through to the Flickr photo set, you’ll see was great fun. During the night connected and danced with a few great locals from Sofia and what I understand is, the event and dancing is not really culturally relevant to Bulgaria … but no one was complaining!

Day two was filled with laser focus and ignoring most of the world around me, so I could make the last minute changes to the HTML5 presentation. And again, the group that attended in the small room was great, it was standing room only and we laughed through lots of the spec together. At one point (there may even be pictures), I physically held the projector because it was dipping below a visible point for most in the room.

See below for links to downloads for both presentations.

On Saturday we were privileged enough to venture over to the Rila Monastery. This is an Eastern Orthodox monastery in the Rila mountains of Bulgaria which afforded me these beautiful photos while I was there.

It is more than well worth the trip, for the engaging and amazing information, conference attendees, and environment. See you all in Bulgaria for Java2Days 2011!

Presentations:

• An in-depth look at Apache Wicket
• HTML5 In Depth (slideshare)