Theme: Kung Fur Hustle
Location: Maritim Hotel
Here it is, the longest conreport I ever made. Enjoy!
Despite our plans of departing at 6, Titash, Tabbie, Henrieke and I ended up departing at about 7:30 to Magdeburg.
We arrived at around 18:00 in Magdeburg at the super nice couchsurfer's place. We relaxed a bit, went to the store and I made pancakes for 5 people. The suits needed some repairs too, so we did that in the evening.
Later in the evening, we decided to give the Maritim a visit since it was only 10 minutes walking distance from our host. We met BBF, Nightfox, Tani, Loewi, Cheetah, Atkelar and many others who were all pretty relaxed considering the con was about to start. We had a nice beer and then went back to get some good sleep before the con.
We got up at 10, had a nice relaxed breakfast (with Nutella of course) and arrived at the Maritim at around 12:30.
Immediatly we ran into Fibre and gave him a warm welcome to Germany. Luckily we were the first to register, so we got our rooms pretty quick. After us formed a huge waiting line, just like previous times. We parked the car for free near the couchsurfer's place which was a nice way to save money, then went back and brought some food from the Asian place and ate at our room. Sadly the Asian food wasn't nearly as good as last year, I wouldn't recommend it anymore. Since Tabbie and me are steam sauna addicts, that was our first thing to do at EF, since everyone else was busy standing in line anyway. Afterwards Henrieke and I went down to the lobby to greet people and we ran into Neo, Kougo, Cody, Kee, Yotie, Leeden, Pinky, etc... Since Henrieke felt like suiting we went up again and got Dog.
Dog ran around in the Lobby and outside the hotel entertaining people, and Yotie made the first Polaroid photo with his new Impossible film.
For Dinner I went to the Italian restaurant with Henrieke, Tabbie, Kougo and Fibre after finding out that the Spanish restaurant was closed. The personnel was kind of.. weird and partially even rude. Not being very helpful to non-German speakers and poking fun behind our backs. They didn't realize though I could understand every word. Also the face of the waitress when Fibre tried to order cognac with his Pizza. At night we tried to find the mysterious beach bar our host had told me about but there was.. nothing. We ended up at the hotel bar since there was absolutely no service in the one next to the hotel.
Since I felt really tired I went to bed already though while Tabbie, Kougo and Fibre stayed in the bar.
Got up at 10:00, had relaxing breakfast, sat in the lobby and drew stuff. I did a badge trade with Neo and I did a collab badge with Henrieke for Loewi. Also, we started working on our roomsign. We already had that idea last year, but this year we finally pulled it off! Someone hung up an awesome poster which immediatly separated the men from the bronies.
Then Tabbie, Mag, Henrieke and I went to subway for lunch, after that I got Dog and went suiting with Tabbie, only for a short while though.
There was a pretty cool DnB party going on at the other side of the hotel, I was too late though.
Met up with Tabbie and Mag in the pool for another steam sauna party while Henrieke was helping with the final PawPet Show preparations. I waited for Henrieke, and then went to the Lobby again with Dog and Tyler.
Both of us went to Tioh's panel about fursuit animatronics in the morning after putting our roomsign on the door.
It was really interesting and gave us new ideas since Tioh's approach to things is so different from what we're used to. After Tioh's panel we chatted with the GoH and then Henrieke had to rush to Banner Brawl because of that.
I had lunch at House of Steaks with Tabbie, Mag, Kougo and Pegla while Henrieke was at banner brawl, got a sub for Henrieke and brought it to her when banner brawl was over. I'm sad I was too late and didn't see any of the show. We went to the room a bit, then downstairs, looking for C_Eagle who had been looking for us. Also, at the dance they played the original version of "What is love". Thanks Kenai :D
We shot a very special polaroid photo of C_Eagle (we took an empty cartridge and put in a drawing in the shape of a polaroid photo, so instead of a photo the camera would eject the drawing). We spent most of the night in the Artist Lounge (while being stalked by a very evil looking Titash), I checked out the dance every now and then and danced with Katara.
Went to bed super late.
We got up and went down to the lobby for a bit, mostly because I was looking for someone who could take Polaroid photos of the fursuit parade. Leeden was the lucky one (thanks again!).
We suited up then and went downstairs for the group shot, the fursuit parade was almost canceled due to rain but eventually took place. However, since Tyler shouldn't get his feet wet, he and Dog stayed at the hotel. After a short break, we suited more. There were dozens of reporters in the lobby, and eventually Dog and Tyler caught the attention of a camera man outside the hotel.
Almost starving, we ate half of a subway sandwich from the day before while watching the fursuit dance contest. We went downstairs then, Henrieke to the art show and myself to the fursuit dance contest, cheering for Neo (who won by the way!).
Afterwards we went to the "Fursuit performance" panel with Jim Martin. Tzup and Buddy were there too, I drew something for Buddy and then we left before the panel was over since there wasn't too much useful information there for us. In the Dealers Den next door we hung out a bit at Tabbie's table, who offered totally underpriced commissions. We went to the second Dealers Den and ran into Muzz, also I picked up the most awesome badge ever from Leeden. (why is Leeden such an awesome artist?). We had dinner at House of Steaks with Mag, Tabbie, C_Eagle, Henrieke, Katara, SnowWolf and Faolin. Steak for 10€, awesome!
Afterwards steam sauna party with Mag, C_Eagle and Tabbie while Henrieke and Katara went to see Bitter Lake. Tyler went downstairs later in order to take a Polaroid photo of BBF, which turned out quite nicely! The rest of the evening was basically hanging out in the Artist Lounge. Henrieke was in the girls' café half of the time (where I wasn't allowed to go in, how mean!).
I was dancing with Katara in the piano bar again. Later, in the Artist Lounge Katara came running with the latest gossip. Nightfox proposed to Tani, and suddenly the whole con was about 20% happier since the news was spreading faster than the speed of sound. We went downstairs to congratulate the uber-happy couple. It was really sweet!
We got up at 11 for the groupshot. Since I wanted to have a Polaroid photo of the whole con, but the Polaroid lens wasn't quite wide-angle, I had to improvise a bit, using my DSLRs wide-angle adapter and lots of tape.
Then we went to con-ops to get Henrieke's lost cam and took a Polaroid photo of Titash. Afterwards we went to video puppeteering workshop with Jim Martin which was really fun and interesting. We went once again to subway for lunch, this time with Cody. Later we sat in the lobby at the table with Davuu and C_Eagle. Since I felt like suiting, I got Dog, who was running around in the lobby, spending most of the time pushing people to the charity desk and making them buy stuff.
The line for the PawPet Show was long as usual and having reserved seats for Henrieke and me was really nice. The PawPet Show itself started (only) 1 hour late and was extremely awesome. I loved the puppets, the story, the effects and every single super nerdy joke in there. After the PawPet Show and tons of applause all people who worked on it were called on stage, including Henrieke! Closing ceremonies were the next thing, then I went backstage with Henrieke and took Polaroid shots for her.
The rest of the evening was the usual running-between-dancefloor-and-artist-lounge-routine. The dance was awesome and the packed dance floor made that obvious!
I danced the Vincent with Katara, Dracky and Sonny and did art trades with the French in the Artist Lounge. Went to bed... at one point I guess.
Got up around 12 and went to the lobby to draw, then moved to the C level with all the French people for a nice art jam mostly on the floor. Most of the time was spent figuring out who would be which Astérix character since everyone already knew that the theme for next EF would be ancient Rome.
I suited as Fibre (thanks Fibre) for photos, then after taking some polaroid shots with Yotie I went to the Chinese all you can eat place with Henrieke, Corneil, Leeden, Yotie, Tabbie, Mag and Lockheed. Later at the dead dog party I got Dog dowstairs who had a great time and was very much not dead.After a long art jam in our room and a visit from Timduru, we lent Dog to Titash and for some odd reason Dog was extremely hyperactive.
Tabbie, Mag and Fibre got pretty wasted that night. Henrieke and me went to bed at around 5 in order to get a few hours of sleep before the drive to the Netherlands.
Got up at 10, packed, said goodbye to Titash and everyone else we met in the lobby. We did a quick commission for Fibre and an art tade with Lucky Coyote while Tabbie and Mag were walking around trying to wake up a bit, then left the Maritim at 15:30.
What we did after the con was basically relaxing and all of us going to Efteling one day meeting Pegla, Kougo and Leeuw there.
On the last evening Mag made some amazing Pie for dinner. Also noteworthy are the 3 sticks of Veldhoven. Basically instead of a regular playground they put 3 sticks there. While nobody knows what to do with them, we discovered the beauty of the sticks.
Our trip home was long but alright, we arrived at 9 in the evening and had the most awesome spareribs. Also I got PCD and PHD.
