DebConf19/Bids/Bratislava

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Bratislava Montage. Clockwise from top left: View of Bratislava from the castle, St. Michael's Gate in the Old Town, Eurovea shopping complex, Primate's Palace, Hviezdoslav Square, Bratislava castle and the Danube riverbank at night

Why Bratislava

Bratislava is a capital of Slovakia, and is a nice small city in the centre of Europe. It is home to about 500 thousand people, and it's the biggest city in Slovakia. Unique among its kind, Bratislava directly borders two countries, Austria and Hungary.

Due to its location, Bratislava is easily reachable by land and by air. It is one hour away from Vienna and its airport, which has direct connections to many locations outside Europe, and lies on a railway line connecting Prague, Brno and Budapest, making it possible to use airports in those cities too. Bratislava's own airport is served by low-cost airlines (mostly Ryanair) to more than a dozen locations in Europe.

Bratislava has a lot nearby tourist attractions to offer, especially during the summer. The city is build on the Danube River, with Morava River entering the Danube at Devín, west from Bratislava. The Little Carpathians mountain range begins in the city, with lots of places for hiking.

The transport system in Bratislava is mostly buses and trams. There is a direct bus from the local airport, and several bus companies operate regular (every half an hour) connections to Vienna airport.

While Bratislava is more expensive than the most of Slovakia, it is much cheaper than most of the European countries.

Visas, customs and entering the country

Slovakia is a member of the European Union and the Schengen Area. Visiting it residents of most of the countries in Europe is possible without needing a visa, but depending on your citizenship if you're living in the UK or other countries not signatories to the Schengen Agreement, you may need to secure a visa prior to your arrival.

Due to the import restrictions, it is not allowed to bring dairy or meat products into the EU countries. If you attempt to smuggle any of the restricted items, they may be taken away from you should you be subject to a spot check.

Local team

Please add yourself if you are part of the team!

Name/nick	Location (town)	Debian/DebConf experience	Comments
Andrew Shadura (andrewsh)	Bratislava	Debian Developer; attended first DebConf in 2015.
Marek Mansell	Bratislava		Local hackerspace member, PyCon.sk organiser
Martin Šechný	Bratislava		SOIT, OSS Víkend organiser
Christian Amsüss (chrysn)	Vienna	Debienna/MiniDebConf Vienna organiser	Agreed to help during DebConf17, confirmation required
Clara (TrT)	Vienna	Debienna/MiniDebConf Vienna organiser, DebConf volunteer	Agreed to help during DebConf17, confirmation required

Contact Details

• IRC Channel: #debconf19-bratislava on oftc
• Matrix: #debconf19-bratislava:matrix.org

Venue options

STU/UK Karlova Ves campus

Criteria	FIIT STU (main option)
Location	Venue is situated outside of the centre (Karlová Ves). Student accommodation available (multiple options).
Transport	Airport to venue is 45 to 60 minutes by public transport
Accomodation	Nearby hotels or student residences
Food	Internal caterer
Capacity	Big lecture theatre: 390 seats (photo¹, photo²) Small lecture theatre: 110 seats (photo) Turing lecture room: 120/240 seats (photo¹, photo²) Babbage lecture room: 80/160 seats (photo¹, photo², photo³) 9 classrooms (40 seats, 10 seats, 7×20 seats)
Advantages	easily accessible by public transport, bicycle of by foot a few pubs and cafés next door, a shopping mall with even more botanical gardens and a zoo in a walking distance ⇒ fun good network infrastructure at the campus
Downsides	while mostly wheelchair-accessible, has certain (potentially solvable) issues depending on the day temperature, air conditioning can be expensive
Potential Dates	July 15th to August 15th
More photos	Hallway: entrance, downstairs, downstairs seating
Details	Venues/FIIT STU

STU central campus

Criteria	SvF STU	SjF STU	FChPT STU
Location	Venue is situated in the centre of the city. Student accommodation available (multiple options).
Transport	Airport to venue is 20 to 35 minutes by public transport
Accomodation	Nearby hotels or student residences
Food	TBD	There’s a small cafeteria, the entry hall can be used for serving food	There’s a slightly bigger cafeteria, a nice café, potentially the entry hall can be used for serving food
Capacity	TBD	Lecture theatre: 700 seats (photo¹, photo²) 4 smaller lecture rooms: 120 seats each (photo¹, photo², photo³) Multiple hackrooms of not yet known capacity Big entry hall, smaller hallway next to the lecture rooms (photo)	TBD, preliminary data: Lecture theatre: 168 seats 3 lecture rooms: 176 seats each 4 ultra small lecture rooms: 96 seats each
Advantages	easily accessible by public transport, bicycle of by foot potentially better wheelchair accessibility of the campus lots of pubs and cafés nearby due to the proximity of Obchodná street and the city centre
	TBD	were very direct and professional in communicating terms and conditions promised to arrange a dedicated faculty person to help during the conference insisted key organisers undergo safety training	the entrance is wheelchair-accessible
Downsides	TBD	lecture rooms are on the first floor with stairs only, need to investigate wheelchair access rooms are slightly old, but have been refurbished recently small lecture rooms may be a bit too small? — need to be checked	TBD
Potential Dates	July 15th to August 15th
Details	TBD

More venues

• Find one or more alternate venues.

Power

Slovakia uses CEE 7/5 sockets and CEE 7/6 plugs (‘French plugs’). The socket has a predominantly circular recess with two symmetrical round apertures and a round earth pin projecting from the socket. Sockets accept German Schuko and Europlugs.

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Potential dates

• As we consider universities, in June they are mostly fully booked (exams, proms…), leaving mid-July to mid-August to us. July is the hottest month in Bratislava, so we need to check with the weather agency, but with good air conditioning the climate issues can be mitigated.

Prospective local sponsors & support

Community

• Progressbar hackerspace
• PyCon Slovakia
• SOIT.sk
• …

Fun and Free time

Castles around Bratislava

• Bratislava castle

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• Most SNP bridge

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• Devín castle

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• Parks

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• Koliba/Kamzik

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Conference dinner

Bratislava Flagship restaurant ([1]) is a nice reasonably-priced restaurant with beautiful interiors, which can accommodate up to 400 people. We think it's one of the best options available.

Transport

Public transport

Škoda 30 T tram in Bratislava

Most SNP bridge

A typical red bus in Bratislava

Bratislava has a rather good public transport system although some of the vehicles are quite old. Buses tend to be the slowest means of transportation. Stops normally don't need to be requested unless stated otherwise, request stops are marked zastávka na znamenie at the bus stop sign as well as on electronic information displays in most buses and trams. Bus doors are usually opened by the driver; tram and trolleybus doors have to be opened by yourself by pushing a green or yellow button at the doors.

A single-journey ticket costs €0.70, valid for 15 minutes only. There is a longer validity ticket available for €0.90 (valid for 30 minutes). Any ticket can be used for any number of travels within the specified time period. There are day and multiple day tickets available.

Tickets must be validated directly after boarding a vehicle.

Bus and tram drivers in Bratislava do not sell tickets, therefore you need to obtain a ticket prior to entering a bus or a tram. There are ticket vending machines at most stops in the town. Few newer ticket machines accept bills and credit cards, although most accepts coins only. A few old style coin-only machines near the train station have been upgraded to accept contactless cards. Tickets are also sold by many news agents and at the train stations. Users of Slovak mobile carriers can buy an SMS ticket by sending an empty text (or a text with one Latin letter only) to 1140 or 1100. Do not board a bus or a tram before you have received the confirmation. Tickets obtained by texting 1140 are valid for 40 minutes, for a longer trip get a 70 minutes ticket from 1100. Both SMS ticket types can be used on any number of travels within the time period. SMS tickets cannot be used on S-trains.

There are a few main interchange points in the close city center where you can get a bus or tram to nearly anywhere else:

• Hodžovo námestie (Presidential palace) for Northwest- and Eastbound bus connections
• Poštová for trams
• Most SNP (close to St Martin’s Cathedral and the Danube banks) for trams and for Westbound buses as well as bus connections to Petržalka.
• Trnavské mýto for Eastbound connections and connection to the Bratislava airport

More information

• DPB website for ticket prices, terms and conditions: ticket types, SMS tickets
• Bratislava integrated transport system website for maps and general information on public transport in Bratislava
• IMHD.sk for a route planner

Bikes

There are multiple places in Bratislava where bikes for hire are available, and there's a community bikesharing scheme which attendees may join. The city administration also promises to run an official public bike sharing scheme soon.

Car hire

There are many car hire companies in Bratislava, a few of which are conveniently located in the airport.

Taxi

Mismanaged taxi regulations in Bratislava resulted in many overpriced taxi services specifically targeting foreigners not familiar with local prices at the train stations and the airport. While there are a few cheap taxi services, it's difficult to tell them from the expensive ones. Uber and Taxify both operate in Bratislava, and are quite cheap. Should you prefer actual taxis, using a taxi-hailing service Hopin may be easier than having to order a taxi by phone.

Food

TBC.

Potential sponsors

Energotel hosts mirrors of Ubuntu and Mint — they might be interested in sponsoring?

Links

• Bratislava in Wikivoyage