Amazing Krakow

I had heard a lot about this city, however after visiting, I can say that it really is a nice and beautiful city.

We arrived in Krakow on Friday, a very sunny and hot day compared to Dublin standards.  It was around 31C.  After settling in the hotel, we went for a walk around the city.  I could see that its quite an old city. 

The main square is the second largest in Europe, and one can find lots of things in this square, such as shops, markets, street entertainers and nice bars.  You can also meet the picturesque horses and cabins.

 

 

 

One of the main attractions in Krakow is the Wawel (castle), which is a majestic location.  Its a burial place for previous kings of Poland.  It was quite a walk to get there, but it was utterly worth it.

 

 

 

 

 And if you are in Krakow, you have to taste their range of beers.  I tried the Zwyiec dark, which I could compare to a Guinness.

 

 

 

 

On our last day there, we got a mini van to Wieliczka to visit the very famous Salt Mines.  Initially, I thought that it would just be some small dungeons with some salt attached to it, or some salt conservation unit.  How wrong was I!  Its literally a small village underground, completely built out of salt. 

Its amazing how all this could be dug.  And we only went down 3 levels, the guide said that there were more levels underground, which were not accessible to the tourists!  There were statues and carvings made entirely of salt, and the most impressive was a whole church made out of salt, which status of the holy Mary, Jesus Christ, and obviously Pope John Paul II.

Microsoft Mix Essentials Dublin 2008

On Friday, the 23rd of May 2008, I attended the Microsoft MIX Conference (http://www.microsoft.com/ireland/mix08/default.html), held here in Dublin, at the Cineworld, Parnell Street, in the heart of Dublin City. It was a very successful event, with excellent speakers which kept their audience engaged for the whole day.
First up was Lou Carbone, founder and CEO of Experience Engeneering, and author of “Clued In”. Lou’s presentation was on how everything we produce should give our customers the experience they expect. He also stated that you should give a “memorable” experience to your customers, so that they can come back time and time again. His presentation was full of interesting short clips, which stress the importance of user experience.
Lou was followed by Remy Pairault, a Microsoft Technical Evangelist. His speech was focused on the Windows Live platform, and what it can offer to the developers and their customers. He focused on the Live Passport Authentication method, and also how to incorporate instant messaging into your website.
After lunch, Chad Hower, which is an MVP, gave an introduction to Silverlight 2, and the potential there is in this fairly new Microsoft technology. Silverlight 2 can do much more than streaming videos. Developers can now deploy .NET applications into the browser on multiple platforms easily through the browser.

Martha Rotter, a Microsoft Developer in Ireland continued where Chad left, giving more information on Silverlight 2 and Deep Zoom. She also showed some hands on examples on how to integrate Expression Design Studio and Visual Studio to build cutting-edge applications. Another interesting feature of her talk was the Hard Rock cafe memorabilia website (http://memorabilia.hardrock.com/), and how this website uses Deep Zoom to perfection.

Chad Hower finished off the day, with a presentation on the ASP.NET MVC Framework. He showed some samples on how the new ASP.NET MVC Framework can help web developers make a better experience in their website for their customers.

It was a really interesting day, and I look forward to another event of this sort.