España

In September I went to W3C’s annual TPAC conference in Seville. It was my first visit to that city and my first trip back to Spain since before the pandemic. After the conference wrapped up, I spent one night each in Cordoba and Madrid before heading home.

Sevilla & TPAC

Despite being in Seville for a week I didn’t see any of the sites. I just had enough time to attend TPAC. I did manage to see a flamenco performance (thanks, Elena), which was wonderful, and I ate a number of great meals at various restaurants.

TPAC

The conference itself was wonderful. TPAC is primarily a conference I attend for work, of course, but it’s also an annual reunion of some lovely, nerdy people who really care about the Web, several of whom I count among my dearest friends. A very non-exhaustive list of highlights in no particular order:

• my morning commute: a very pleasant walk from my hotel (the Macià Sevilla Kubb) to the conference venue (the Meliá Sevilla);
• hugging many friends, several of whom I hadn’t hugged in years;
• lively discussions over gelato and beer with my TAG colleagues;
• the PATCG’s enthusiastic reception of Luke’s Private Ad Measurement proposal;
• I presented (transcript) to the AC about our work in the TAG on the Ethical Web Principles document;
• I chaired a productive hour of the Privacy CG meeting;
• took 21 Apple colleagues to becerrita for dinner on Tuesday night;
• drank entirely too much sangria during that dinner (sorry not sorry);
• attended a number of excellent breakouts on Wednesday (& was sad to miss many more):
  • Chartering at W3C
  • Page Embedded Permission Control (Permission Element)
  • Tracking spec maintenance
  • Identity Wallets and the Web
  • Secure the Web Forward
  • Installing Web Apps
• participated in so many productive and fascinating side conversations over coffee breaks, lunches, more than one beer, and dinners;
• learned all about French hip hop from my fellow .cx domain holder, Paul;
• made progress on ::track and ::thumb pseudo-elements in the CSSWG;
• and participated in some enjoyable technical discussions in the WHATWG sessions.

Córdoba

From Seville I (barely) caught my Avant train to Córdoba where, upon arrival, I found my hotel reservation had gone awry. This was very quickly sorted out and I ended up with a perfectly serviceable hotel room just around the corner. I had dinner at El Astronauta and went to bed.

The next morning I visited the Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba. It’s simply incredible.

After having a simple lunch in the Jardines de la Agricultura I caught another Avant to Madrid. I had a lovely and wide-ranging conversation with the two ladies sitting behind me on the train.

Madrid

I had significantly less than 24 hours in Madrid but I managed to make the most of it. I stayed at the Hotel Urban just east of the Puerta del Sol. I spent some time wandering around Chueca, Madrid’s gayborhood, where I shopped at Librería Berkana. After visiting another queer bookstore, the transfeminist Mary Read, I had dan dan noodles at Zen Noodle Bar before spending several delightful hours at Fulanita de Tal, one of Madrid’s more well-known lesbian nightclubs. I ended the evening at my hotel’s rooftop bar, and then took a leisurely bath before bed. I think I spent less than 90 minutes in my bed that night. I slept extremely well on the plane ride home the next morning.