I just got back from an incredible WordCamp Europe in Kraków. My mind is still processing everything – early mornings, long days, late nights, and everything in between.

I’ve been to WordCamp Europe for years now, usually as an attendee, in Athens as a speaker, and this time as a contributor – I’ve been part of the incredible photography team.

Auschwitz

We arrived late on Monday before the event because we planned to visit Auschwitz on Tuesday, and let me tell you, this is a full-day exploration. While the official tour is only about 3 hours, we needed about 1 hour for the drive (and 1 back to our apartment), and let’s not forget about the emotional impact.

I think it’s incredibly important to remember the events and what happened to millions of people during WW2, and as a German myself, there was literally no way we could miss that part – as someone who was born and raised in Oranienburg, I’ve visited many concentration camps multiple times and I can assure you, you won’t believe what happened here until you visit one of those for yourself.

It’s one of those rare days, where I would have wished for worse weather – it was the hottest day of the entire week and the sun was burning intensely – not exactly what I had in mind when we decided on visiting this place.

Photographer Day

The next day, it was time for our team-internal day – we went grabbing some food, did a little photo walk around the city, and ended up checking out the venue before the first official (and busy) conference day.

I haven’t taken a ton of photos here (yeah, I get your point), but we’ve been busy getting to know each other, it started raining in between, and we’ve tried to keep it easy – I mean, we would all take thousands of photos over the next few days!

Food

Okay, this one will be quick, because A) I was too busy to explore all the amazing food spots during my stay here, and B) I usually did not have my camera around when we’ve been gathering together in the evenings, but for at least one evening, I got some:

Salt Mine

This actually happened on Thursday after Contributor Day. We visited the Salt Mine on a guided tour, and it was incredible. You won’t believe how huge this underground place is – at least I, after a whole day of shooting photos and running around, was not ready for all those extra steps that followed that day (I ended up clocking in 34500 steps that day).

The Conference

I decided not to split these into different days and instead give you my (photographic) impressions of the whole event right away – if you want to see all of our teams’ photos (grouped by day), check out the incredible WCEU Flickr account over here.

Afterparty

I’ve also got some photos of the after party as well – not as many, because it was supposed to be to calm down and have some drinks and food with friends rather than being a photographer, but here you go:

We left Kraków on Sunday (yes, after being at the after-party past 3 AM) – so I had about 7 hours of driving to make it back home, but we made it!

I’m leaving with lots of incredible memories, new friendships, and obviously a ton of photos! WordCamps, especially WordCamp Europe, will always be a very special place for me, and I can’t wait for the next one in Málaga, Spain!

Huge thanks to everyone – the attendees, the organizers, my friends, and also all the people I’ve met during the last week, but a special shoutout is going out to the incredible photography team – these are all amazing people, and even though I was the new guy, I felt right at home from day one!

See you next year, folks!