My First and Second JCrete Unconference Experiences
A blog eight years, five Java Dukes, and one Java Duchess in the making.
My missing blog for JCrete 2016
I went to JCrete for the first time in August, 2016. I didn’t start blogging on Medium until August, 2017. I never wrote a blog about my experience in 2016, so I will share a few of pictures here. Some very memorable events from my JCrete trip in 2016 were the beaches we visited. I don’t recall going swimming at so many different beaches in a single trip. We went to Falassarna, Balos, Elafonisi, Kolymbari, and a few other beaches.
Here’s a photo of an adhoc Java discussion in the water room at Falassarna beach in 2016.
Here’s a view of Balos beach from a ways down the mountain hike required to get there. This is a different perspective of the beach than I usually have seen or shared.
Here’s a picture of the large area where you can just walk in a pool of clear water that is less than knee deep at Elafonisi beach.
There is one beach I didn’t get to see in 2016, that we did get to visit in 2024. There is a picture of that beach on Day 2 of my visit to Crete in 2024.
Now we move on to the blog for JCrete 2024.
JCrete 2024 — Day 1
Pictured at the top of this blog are the nails my wife had hand painted for the third Java conference (unconference in this case) that she has attended with me since 2022. Technically, this is her fourth conference (JavaOne 2022, Devnexus 2023, Devoxx Belgium 2023, JCrete 2024), but it is the third time she has painted Duke, the Java mascot, and now Duchess on her nails. My wife could not attend JCrete in 2016 because she was not cleared to fly on a plane after having a stem cell transplant the year before. “There is a blog for that” linked here. To say that having her attend JCrete in person with me this year is an emotionally uplifting experience is a woefully inadequate understatement. The nails are her way of showing her love for the Java community that has been so welcoming and supportive of me and my family for the past two decades. The nails look absolutely amazing, and folks at JCrete really appreciated seeing them!
We arrived at Chania airport and headed to our apartment rental in Kolymbari on Saturday evening. I caught the moon reflecting in a pool at a hotel that we walked to a few hundred meters from our apartment after checking in.
I don’t remember the moon being so prominent during my first trip to Crete. The moon was competing with the sun during our trip this time.
On the way back to our apartment, we saw some fireworks over the beach in front of a restaurant in the village. We were told it was customary to have fireworks when someone is getting married.
Later that evening, we stopped by a local restaurant and saw the moon over the sandy beach in Kolymbari. This beach was created sometime after my last visit to Crete. The lights from the restaurant lit up the beach at night.
One of my favorite memories of Crete were the fresh Greek salads. I had a nice Greek Salad to kick off the week. This was not the feta I recalled falling in love with during my first trip, but it was still very good.
I also had some Tzatziki with chips to go with my salad. Yum!
Day 2
We had a day before JCrete officially started to explore. I decided I wanted to see a beach I hadn’t seen during my first trip in 2016. We set the GPS to take us to Seitan beach. I had a knee injury so wasn’t feeling up to a steep hike, but we drove down the zig zag road to the parking lot and see the amazing view from above. The drive down the road was pushing me past my limits, so if you have a fear of heights or rocks falling or roads you cannot see until the next turn, this drive may not be for you. It terrified me. I like doing stuff every once in a while that terrifies me.
The beach is pretty close to Chania airport. The water looks absolutely amazing, and clearly this is a popular destination as the parking lot was full and a couple busloads of people were dropped off after we arrived.
There were several mountain goats around, and while they seem used to humans I wouldn’t get too close. I wouldn’t go back to this beach unless I was feeling one hundred percent able to complete a steep rocky hike, as I would absolutely want to experience swimming in the water, and maybe jumping off the rocks if I am feeling confident.
When we returned from Seitan Beach, we ate lunch at a restaurant near our apartment. I had some yummy grape and other vine leaves.
We dropped by at the Orthodox Academy of Crete (OAC) during the evening to catch up with folks who were meeting after event setup and before the first official day of the unconference. Once the sun had set, the moon made a spectacular showing over the bay. I started to see it as it began its ascent over the horizon, and it was magnificent. My old iPhone can’t really replicate the spectacular view as the naked eye saw it, but hopefully the following picture and some imagination will suffice.
Day 3
I am not a morning person, and usually prefer sunsets to sunrises because of the challenge of waking up super early. The exception to this rule is when I am at a conference, especially JCrete. This time around, we had a beautiful view of the water from our apartment, that was perfectly situated for sunrises. This trip I caught sunrises almost every single day, which arrived after 6:23am. It was worth it to get up this early.
Day 3 was the official Day 1 of the JCrete unconference. An unconference plans each days sessions with a market place session at the beginning where folks can propose sessions.
This was the view from our lunch venue every day from the OAC. It was very warm, but bearable in the shade, and the view was lovely and relaxing.
I didn’t submit any session proposals on day 1, but attended three sessions in all three session timeslots.
I haven’t ventured into the water at the rocky beach in front of the OAC, but the water looked quite lovely and clear. Several other folks at the conference did go swimming there.
For a late post-lunch snack, I finally had the Greek salad I was dreaming about the past eight years. There was a feta steak brick cut in half and sitting on a bed of fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, and onions. OMG so delicious!
I need to find a restaurant that serves Greek salad with feta cheese this amazing in the states.
Here is a nice view of the OAC from the port at Kolymbari which is where the apartment we stayed at was located.
Every day seemed to finish with a lovely moonrise over the Gulf of Chania. The moon was so bright on this night, you could almost confuse it with one of the street lamps.
Day 4
I learned during this trip that the sunrise happens every morning, and I tried to be there to greet it properly every day. It was a bit strange not having a cloud in the sky to catch color changes but the sun did a pretty good job on its own with the skyline.
Another day, another market place with folks on line proposing sessions for JCrete Day 2.
One of my favorite sessions was the one on book writing led by Cay Horstmann. It was also appropriately held in the library (the place where physical books still live) which was one of the coolest rooms for talks at the conference. I mean both cool as in temperature, and also cool in terms of me being a physical book junky.
The evening of Day 4 required some sampling of grapes in solid and liquid form. Ten years ago I could not drink wine or beer due to some unknown allergy I had acquired. I could not drink wine or beer at any event at JCrete 2016. Thankfully, I performed a food test at Devoxx Belgium 2023 to see if my allergy was still active, and everything seems fine so far (knock on wood). This time I was able to enjoy wine with my wife, along with some fresh locally farmed grapes.
Day 5
I didn’t take any sunrise pictures on Day 5 (Official Day 3 of JCrete), but I did propose a session titled “The Long Road” in the market place that was accepted. I also attended an amazing session led by Tagir Valeev on Static Analysis in Java.
There were developers who work on Maven, Elastic Search, IntelliJ, JUnit, JaCoCo and Eclipse Collections among others in this picture. I was extremely humbled to be in this group of folks who have directly impacted my Java development life for the past two decades. It is the folks in sessions like this that make JCrete a unique Java unconference experience. JCrete is a small but ultra high quality Java talent unconference.
I didn’t take any pictures at my own session, but it was in the library which you can see above. There were several folks in the room who shared their experiences, joys, and pains of working on projects for more than a decade. I mentioned a keynote talk I gave at the IntelliJ IDEA Conf on the topic of surviving an open source project named Eclipse Collections, which I have been working on now for over two decades.
I didn’t take a sunrise picture on Day 5, but the moonrise was begging me to take a picture or two, so I did. The zoom here made the picture a bit grainy, but you can still see kind of what the moon was like just as it fully peeked above the horizon each night. It reminded me of the start of the “That’s Amoré” song by Dean Martin. A big pizza pie hitting me in my eye.
Day 6
Official Day 4 of JCrete. One of the most amazing, energetic, and enlightening sessions at the conference for me was the session on Climate Change and Green Java led by Holly and Yorgos. Another great session in the library. Love those books and air conditioning!
There are some amazing Java luminaries and practitioners pictured here. I won’t name names, but if you know, then you know. Another case of me feeling super humbled by absolute rock star talent in the Java community.
On the last day of the conference, we got to see all of the proposals that were accepted over the four days of sessions at the conference.
After the final day of sessions, many of us enjoyed a wondeful BBQ at the OAC. A heart felt thank you to everyone who helped prepare the food that was absolutely amazing and that my wife could enjoy without fear of her allergies.
Day 7
I skipped the hack day which was set for Day 5 of JCrete. My wife and I drove to Falassarna beach to sightsee, and then went to the local beach on Kolymbari for a few hours just to relax and cool off. Need to unwind from a whirlwind week of sessions, events and excursions at an unconference? This is the way.
Day 8
One last sunrise to go before heading to the airport for our two flights to get to New York.
I was up at 6:23am in Crete, landed at JFK at 8:30pm EDT, made it home by 10:30pm EDT and went to bed at 2am EDT the next day (9am in Crete). The next day was a blur.
Final Thoughts
JCrete 2024 was an amazing and emotional experience for me and my wife. There were many things we could have done while on this trip, but we did all of the things that were meant to be done. Anything that happens at JCrete was meant to happen. It is not planned before hand. This blog does not include all of the things we did and saw, but hopefully gives the reader a taste of the amazing experiences that may await future attendees of this rare and special unconference.
If you have the opportunity to be invited and ability to go to JCrete, my recommendation is to go. Listen to the disorganizers and be prepared if you try different excursions. If you’re out of shape like I was at JCrete 2016, consider carefully if you are up to somewhat strenuous hikes up mountains in 95 degree Fahrenheit heat. I survived the trip to Balos for an amazing experience and story in 2016, but decided it would be beyond my limit of risk taking this time with my wife, especially since I would not have my friend Nikhil here to drive the very rough and rocky cliffside road there. Boating is an option you might consider instead, but the best views of Balos are from the mountain above.
I want to give a huge thank you to Heinz Kabutz, Ixchel Ruiz, Dmytro Vyazelenko, Andres Almiray, Kirk Pepperdine, and the other disorganizers of JCrete. My first experience at JCrete 2016 was amazing. The experience this year at JCrete 2024 was beyond spectacular. I was terrified making the trip with my wife, and was unsure what to expect with her various food allergies. Everywhere we went was accommodating, and none more so than the folks who prepared the food for the OAC BBQ, which my wife was able to enjoy stress free.
To the attendees I have connected with at JCrete this year, I consider myself extremely lucky to have met and spent time discussing both Java and non-Java topics with you during the week. I hope to see many of you again at future Java and open source conferences, and stay connected with you via various social media and open source channels.
I also hope next year to attend both the JChateau (France) and JAlba (Scotland) unconferences. I am overdue to attend both.
Thank you, JCrete! Looking forward to a third time at some point in the future!
Thus ends my second travel blog of 2024. The next travel blog I have planned will be for my visit to Colorado and dev2Next which is organized by the amazing Venkat Subramaniam.
Thanks for reading!
I am the creator of and committer for the Eclipse Collections OSS project, which is managed at the Eclipse Foundation. Eclipse Collections is open for contributions.
