Travel Blog

The fourth edition of PyCon Portugal was in Cascais, and, just like last year, I was one of the volunteers that helped organize the conference program. In addition to unexpectedly presenting a talk in addition to my workshop, I also learned how to make pastel de nata.

After PyCon Italia in May, I had the full month of June at home. I used this time without any travel to update two of my workshops for the SciPy conference. For the first time ever, I would be presenting two workshops at a single conference – both of which were four hours long.

This year's PyCon Italia was in Bologna, the capital of the Emilia-Romagna region. In addition to presenting a talk, I got to enjoy spectacular food and company and get a taste of Modena and Ravenna (two nearby cities in Emilia-Romagna).

While I've presented several times at ODSC and PyCon US in the past few years, this trip was filled with unexpected developments. For one, I was presented with my first ever speaker award, which I will cherish forever ❤️ You'll have to read this post to learn about the rest.

After a few months without any conferences or travel, I started off 2025 with my first ever keynote, which required several months of preparation. In this post, I talk about how the keynote for PyCon Lithuania came together, from the opportunity to the final result, and what I did to get a taste of both Lithuania and Latvia before heading back home.