2019 EuroPride

EuroPride is a pan-European gay pride that is hosted each year in a different European city.  The only time EuroPride isn't held is when a European city hosts WorldPride then that counts as the year's EuroPride.

This year Vienna hosted the 26th EuroPride event - a two week long event of parties, sporting events, artistic, cultural, and human rights events.  Yesterday was the parade.

I committed to walk in the parade with other IBMers.  Originally I had planned to go down to Vienna on Friday night and come back on Sunday.  Basically make a whole weekend of it.  But I've been so busy lately that I decided to just go down for the parade on Saturday and come back afterwards.

I was supposed to meet up with everyone in Vienna at 11:30 as the parade would begin at noon.  I missed my train from Brno.  Long story.  So I got a ticket to Břeclav where I would change trains and head to Vienna.  Well my Břeclav train was delayed so I missed the connection in Břeclav.  So I ended up catching a train to Bratislava where I would have a 5-minute window to catch the next train to Vienna.

Vienna subways "We Ride With Pride"

My train to Bratislava was a bit delayed but I managed to make the connection.  Whew!  Then I needed to hit an ATM to get some euros and catch the subway to the parade meeting space.  I had the parade route map so I figured I would just catch up with the group.

I ended up meeting up with the IBM group at 1 pm.  The parade had started late and because there were at least 100 groups marching the IBM group had not even crossed the starting point yet.  So in the end I still made it "on time".  As stressful as all of the train hopping was I'm still glad it happened.  It was 36℃ (97℉) and had I been standing place in the heat for 1,5 hours just waiting for the thing to start then I would have been annoyed as hell.

The parade was great with around 500,000 present.  We had IBMers from Austria, Czechland, Slovakia, Romania, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, and Denmark.  Given the heat, the 5 km (3,2 mile) route on the Ringstraße seemed way, way longer.

Overall it was a really good day, despite the heat.  This was my first EuroPride and my first pride event this year.  I'm also signed up to join the IBM groups this year at Bratislava Pride and Prague Pride.