CERN Opendays 2013 is finished.

It was an incredible event, one that discovered I was entirely unprepared for.

The people hosting the various exhibitions and tours are the actual scientists who run the experiments.  One should spend months brushing up and studying their scientific fields of fancy, so they have questions that'll do justice with such august hosts.

The turnout seemed to be incredible.  I only hung around the Meyrin campus, which harbours the ATLAS detector, countless auditoriums, many labs, and the main computer centre.  There were lots of other options to visit, but time, weather, and lack of sleep (due to events beyond my control the day before the event) limited me.

A lot of the details around transportation were clearly still being worked out when I flew to Europe 3 weeks ago.  I didn't realize I needed to do a little more research before coming; free transit pickup points, better hotel options, etc.  It all worked out, but I could have saved myself some grief by having these sorted.

There was a rumour somewhere that they might do it again next year, before they go live again.  I am absolutely coming back, and I've got some learning to do.