Location: Zeughaus 24
So here's a little report about a very eventful trip.
I've not been talking about it a lot was since the reason why I went to Cologne in the first place was to deliver a suit I was supposed to keep secret. The 2 weeks before consisted 60% of hand-sewing, 10% of machine-sewing, 20% of cutting and 10% of gluing. And -5% of fun :P
Anyway, here's some log for myself and you if you dare to read it.
I had to leave for the airport at 6:00, luckily my father gave me a ride since otherwise it would've taken even longer. Met up with Tabbiefox there and had an awesome flight to Cologne. (We got exit row seats and the legspace was like in a stretch limousine). We arrived in Cologne at 10-something and got a VW Polo rental car. It was pretty fuel-efficient but that was due to the engine which had no power at all. 1.5 hours and a quarter pounder later we arrived at Henrieke's place and started working on finishing Bent-Tail. In the evening we went to meet some people, but I was pretty much dozing off all the time. Also it was like -1000°C outside and I was freezing (Henrieke was only wearing a t-shirt and didn't apparently).
In the morning we still had to do some suit stuff and then went off to the Centro mascot meeting. We were late (sorry Cody!) but didn't miss too much luckily since it rained just before we arrived. The weather was perfect for suiting and I took Tyler out a bit while Henrieke was working on Bent-Tail. I finally got to meet AceSheperd and FinnFox and all the other awesome people. Also Neo you're so fun to hang out with!!
When done with suiting I insisted on going onto the jumping castle, so Neo, Cody, Tabbie, Keenora and I went there. It was SO FUN. We did tons of flips and stupid stuff :D
After that we took our suits back to the car, I did some parkour, cut open my hand on a recycle bin with razor sharp edges, was busy with bleeding for a while (thanks Keenora for getting supplies at the pharmacy!) and then we had some Asian food. At that time it was Henrieke, Tabbie, me, Keenora, Cody, Neo, Kuro, Finn and 3 Dutch guys (sorry I forget names so easily!!)
Before CFD we made a stop at Cody's place and went shopping for some drinks. CFD was already going on for an hour when we arrived, we took our suits in there and I enjoyed BBF's awesome Electro House set :) I was happy to meet awesome people such as Shivon, Shay, Kwisa, Kenai, Katara, Ashanti and many others again! Sadly we didn't get to suit as we were too tired and also there wasn't really anyone else suiting either. Also it was super hot and humid. We still had to sew Bent-Tails neck and a minute after having finished the suit BBF tried it on instantly. and omg everything fit! I was so worried since I had to build the body without a DTD, but it worked great :)
The rest of the night was just chilling and being relieved. I have to admit I didn't really get in the mood and the atmosphere wasn't as good as at CFD3 imho. Not because of bad music, the music was really good! (And the dancefloor was also full at all times), but a lot of people were missing sadly. Also a lot of people left very early.
Anyway, at about 4:00 we left to Nightfox' place since he kindly offered us to crash at his place. The night was really nice despite the cats that were crawling on my face and under the blankets.
We got a good amount of sleep and I got up at about 10:30. Henrieke was up earlier as usual and drew awesome portraits of Tani's cats. As recommended by Nightfox, we went to have lunch in a "Brauhaus" about 100 meters from his place. The spareribs there were SO GOOD and tasted even better since we were starving :) Back at Nightfox' place we tried to arrange meeting up with Keenora and the others and ended up going to Centro despite my promise to myself to not go to Centro or Landschaftspark. We had a nice (but too short) time there with Keenora, Cody, Neo, Kuro, Ace and the dutch guys.
At about 7 we arrived at Nightfox' place again in order to watch a sneak preview of BBF's CFz10 Video. It was awesome and I'm sad I missed that con! Time passed by too quickily and before we noticed it was 1:30 (sorry for keeping you guys up) so we went on our way to Henrieke's place and flopped onto our beds.
We slept loooong! The only plan for today was using our suits. I felt bad for Henrieke since she took Kiki all the way to Cologne but ended up not wearing her once. At first though we watched some Tex Avery cartoons, had breakfast and looked for a Geocache which we found :) Since Eline's place was right around the corner we went there and knocked, and she was there! (Eline is Henrieke's best friend and spends 90% of her day laughing). We randomly decided to go to a nearby nature park. There wasn't a single person except 2 boring joggers since EVERYONE was watching TV because the Netherlands played against some other country in the soccer world cup.
And then, suddenly, we met Kiki and Tyler! What a coincidence!
When back, we packed our stuff quickly and grabbed a quick lunch from the snack bar. We drove off at 15:20, giving us 3 hours and 20 minutes until our flight. Enough time you'd think. This is where the horror started.
15:20 We drive off.
15:40 Since the Autobahn around Eindhoven is new, everything is superconfusing, the navigation can't help us and we end up taking the wrong ramp and driving into the wrong direction for 10 kilometers. It costs us some time.
16-something At the german border the Customs (2 really unfriendly german police officers) stop us, empty our car and search for drugs. They grabbed my balls and damaged Tabbie's suithead. They were "nice" enough however to only let the dog sniff our luggage instead of spreading everything on the dirty road. It took about 15-20 minutes.
16-something later Our tank is empty, so we have to drive off the autobahn since that's the only gas station. We payed 1,50€ per liter (about 8$ per gallon!). Turns out that the ramp onto the autobahn is closed which requires us to do a HUGE detour which costs us at least 20 more minutes.
17-something We drive through cologne. There's a car accident that happened 5 minutes ago in front of us. I checked in online, but my phone battery is almost empty but you need the phone when checking in online. I also forgot my charger at Henrieke's place.
18:00 There's traffic jam in front of the airport. We're sure to not be able to catch the flight but still try.
18:09:59 Tabbie drops me off in front of the Germanwings check-in counter and I run to the counter and check in our luggage. Despite being not allowed, she also checks in Tabbie's suitcase (she was super nice). Tabbie in the meanwhile ended up on the Autobahn driving away from the airport again since there was no other way to access the rental car return. Also it's on the other side of the airport to he has to run through the whole airport.
18:35 We arrive at the gate and find out the flight is delayed. F*** YES this is the first time I was happy about a delay!! We even got exit row yeats again and couldn't believe our luck.
Anyway, we made it, so yay. Missing the flight would've meant spending A LOT of money. Also thanks to everyone we met for being awesome! Especially Henrieke, Henrieke's parents, Cody, Keenora, Nightfox (aka Nicefox), Tani, Kralle, Neo and Ace!