Hippo 🦛 group (Prague / Berlin / Amsterdam, 2026年01月29日) #7

We are taking the European Sleeper night train no. 452 on 2026年01月29日 at 18:00 from Prague main station. Detailed schedule (You have to select the date yourself, I don't know if I can create a link leading to date)

Leader contact

LEdoian
I am at hackertrain2026@pokemon.ledoian.cz or on Matrix as @ledoian:dolujeme.eu
And I am also in the main HackerTrain chat at #hackertrain:kompot.si

How to join

• Subscribe to this note's notifications to get updates (in the sidebar on the right)
• Optionally, you can introduce yourself here :-)
• Buy the ticket at https://www.europeansleeper.eu/referral?referralCode=TRAIN2FOSDEM2026 (15% discount and we should be placed to neighbouring compartments)
• Join the chat
• When the train goes, find us (we'll probably have a plushie in the corridor) (and look here about which coach it is to ease the search :-) )

And yes, it is the same European sleeper as used by the Boar 🐗 group, I'll coordinate with ES to merge the groups.

This might also mean that I would eventually deprecate this issue and merge it with Boars or something. I'll post an update later if that is the case.

Anyway, also let me introduce:

Hi! I'm LEdoian, I am a sysadmin, self-hoster, and apparently a web toucher when nobody else is willing to do that.

I like trains, so I was a part of last year's HackerTrain. Also, I am in talk with European Sleeper, so feel free to route potential requests through me :-)

I also like long walks, tea and chocolate :-)

Hi,

my name is Armin Wolf and i am from Dresden, Saxony. I am primarily working with Linux device drivers and and reverse engineering, but i am also involved in some other projects.

This is my first time visiting FOSSDEM, so i am happy to travel together with other hackers.

Are there already plans for an return group?

@Wer-Wolf wrote in #7 (comment):

Are there already plans for an return group?

Unless something happens, we'll be returning on Monday, also by European Sleeper.

Sadly right now the referral link doesn't work, so we don't have tickets yet.

Do we already know when the referral link will work?

@Wer-Wolf, a short update from the Matrix/IRC chat: @dvdkon said he got into contact with ES support and they said they’re looking into what went wrong.

Nice

My girlfriend and I will be on this train. We have booked a Comfort Plus compartment in coach 17.

We will both be wearing masks, which may make us easier to identify.

Looking forward to travelling with others on the HackerTrain - say hello if you spot us onboard.

So, two messages from ES:

• There have been some technical difficulty with the booking link, but it should work now.
• Given the issue above, the "hacker defragmentation" (re-seating, so that hackers end up together/close) needs manual fixup – please send me your booking codes if you want to partake in the defragmentation (either DM @ledoian@dolujeme.eu on Matrix or send an email to fosdemtrain@pokemon.ledoian.cz, and also add the date of the trip to distinguish between the ES trains). European Sleeper promised to do their best, but no hard promises due to a lot of bookings.

@edward, do you want to provide me with your booking number in order to try to defragment? (It might be hard, though, as you are in the sleeper car and I think others are in couchette cars, but maybe at least the cars are close to each other...)

@LEdoian We're in carriage 17 places 31 and 35. I'll come and say hello at some point. Don't worry too much about moving us.

OK, as you wish. (It's not a burden for me and it's probably not a bigger burden for ES, though...)

So, the defragmentation should have happened. To the best of my knowledge, we will be in carriage 14, compartment 10, so come meet us there when the train goes.

See y'all later tonight!

I'm at the station in Prague, the train is delayed 10 minutes. I'm at the departure board, wearing a mask 😷.

Well, there are some struggles with the locomotive, they'll let us know, but we are still in Prague...

I chatted to the European Sleeper on WhatsApp, they said buses all the way. So we decided to find a hotel and take trains tomorrow. Then there was an announcement in the station saying the train was coming to platform 4. I spoke to them again on WhatsApp and they said they said the train was fixed. We have a 3.5 hour delay. Arriving into Brussels at 13:00 instead of 09:30.

The Hippo 🦛 group made it to Brussels, there was a group photo with the train.