Hi, i'm Lucian and here I share my experiences, thoughts and opinions on life in the blue cloud. I'm a Cloud Solution Architect, specialising in Azure infrastructure, at Microsoft, in Sydney, Australia.

Microsoft Ignite 2016 (Atlanta) 2 days to go

This being my first time in the United States of America (‘MERICA!) and my first time at Microsoft Ignite (can’t think of a funny slang to say Ignite… sorry about that), I wanted to document and share my experiences on here.

It’s 6.36am Sunday morning (Ignite Day -1) which would mean this blog post would be a day late. However, that’s because of yesterday being a full on day. To catch up on everything that happened, here’s a rapid fire outline:

American Airlines flight AA072 to LA took 13 and a bit hours. It was not that bad, but, economy is never amazing.

Landed in LAX at 7.30ish in the AM, local time, and had a strange feeling. After playing various video games over the years, yes I know that sounds silly, but hear me out; it was like I’d been there before. I recognised the airport, the city scape and the landscape. I’m sure watching a bucket load of American TV and movies in my time would have also contributed. Still weird though.

Spent two hours in LAX. We landed at gate 153. I went through customs, security, to another terminal and back again to the Tom Bradley International Terminal to Gate 151 for my flight to Atlanta. Yep, about 60-70 minutes, walked almost a kilometre around everywhere I had to go, only to end up back where I came from. Pretty funny.

Atlanta! Fun facts:

  • Busiest airport in America (source)
  • There are more than 65 streets with the word Peachtree in Atlanta. Im staying at the Crown Plaza Midtown (590 West Peachtree St)
  • The Olympics before the best Olympics ever was here (Atlanta 96)
  • People here have been super friendly and nice
  • Uber from Airport to midtown- $15US, not an endorsement, but Uber has been awesome so far too. All the drivers have been great!

Dinner and a craft bier (yes, German spelling) with Darren (@darrenjrobinson) at Holeman and Finch which was yummy. Although, I’m really, really looking forward to some southern cooking. Some BBQ or chicken and waffles.

I haven’t had a Coke since mid-Jan this year. I’m in the hometown of Coke. I might have to grab a diet at some point just to say I’ve done it.

Finally, I’m not looking forward to jet lag. I hope its not too bad later today…