Theme: Crime Scene Berlin
Location: Estrel Berlin
A bit late, but here it is, my Eurofurence 20 report!
After still working on charity stuff with Henrieke the night before, we got up at 8:00. Tabbie, Lisa and Wolfy-Nail stayed at our place overnight already so that we could get up at 8 and leave early. This year we took a completely different route than usual. Usually we drive through Germany because the roads there are awesome and they are also free to use. This time we drove through the Czech Republic, which meant paying for the roads, but also about 200km less driving. After what felt like an eternity of narrow countryside roads, we finally reached the border of the Czech Republic sometime around 10:00. We spotted some Dragons on the roadside, so of course we had to stop. Turns out it was "Excalibur City", a weird mash of duty Free shop, roadside restaurants and a tiny kids theme park.
Wolfy bought a boatload of booze and we went on a ride where you had to shoot endangered animals and the fish from shark tale. We continued our ride, and just as we thought we would escape the cold grip of Czech Republic, it turned out that the highway to Germany way closed only a few km before the border. Google Maps didn't know about that, so we made the most awkward detour, driving through tiny villages and on roads usually used by farming vehicles. Eventually we did make it to Germany, and around 17:00 we finally had lunch at a roadside McDonalds.
Around 19:00 we finally arrived at the hotel and checked in. We said hi to Lanakila, then dumped our stuff in our rooms and parked the car outside the hotel for free instead of paying 18€ per day for the hotel parking garage. The rest of the evening we wandered around, saying hi to all the people who already were at the hotel. EF seems to be getting longer and longer! We had a charity team meeting to to figure out when and where we would build the charity lottery booth. We also had a secret book for Cheetah where people would write down their memories from their good times at any of the past Eurofurences, so we started bugging people to fill it! Went to bed around midnight which felt great after an exhausting 11-hour trip!
We got up at 8 and went down to the breakfast buffet at 9. This year, breakfast was included, and it left nothing to be desired. The buffet offered scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages, 10 types of breads, super tasty juices, super ripe fruits, yummy hot chocolate and a lot more. A great start for an exhausting day! We sat together with Rotarr and Wolfy-Nail, later we discussed some details about the charity booth with Pinky. After breakfast we got all the materials for the charity lottery booth together that Itchigo and Darkwing brought and got started in the not-yet-setup fursuit lounge. It turned out to be a lot more work than we thought, but luckily Rotarr and Wolfy-Nail came to help us with cutting and gluing all the styrofoam boards needed for the "cave" decoration we wanted to build. After gluing a whole side together with the styrofoam glue we got, we found out that the styrofoam glue didn't hold anything together, so our last resort was duct tape, which worked good enough. Later Ekorren joined since he just arrived, and we spent another few hours painting cave rocks on styrofoam boards. In total we worked around 7 hours.
Around 17:00, we finally had lunch/dinner with Ekorren at Portofino, the Italian restaurant right in the lobby of the hotel. Very good pizza! As soon as we were done, there was more work to be done as we somehow had to carry the panel through half of the hotel to get them to their final destination near the hotel entrance. The aluminium frame was sadly 10cm too wide on every side, but luckily it all worked out in the end, using even more duct tape and cable binders. Finally we got some break and spent some time in the lobby.
Then we went to our room again, getting more decorations for the charity booth. I created some kind of projector that would project silhouettes of bats onto the back of the charity lottery booth, which worked out pretty well. :)
Later in the lobby we also met Titash (who just arrived), Yotie, Cody, Kee and Aatheus! We already went to bed at midnight since the painting messed up my back a bit. Thanks to everyone who helped that day again, we couldn't have done it without you!
Got up at 9 and had another super tasty breakfast with Lanakila.
Henrieke went to help out with painting some PawPet Show backdrops. I ran into O'Wolf, who asked if I wanted to get Baseball down since some TV teams planned to film soon. I helped Henrieke a bit with painting, then got into suit and had some fun in the lobby. After suiting I went back to the balcony of the fursuit lounge, helping Henrieke with some finishing touches of the backdrops. I also met Luno there, who did loads of work for the PPS! I've known for years but never actually met, so that was really cool!
At 17:00 Titash, me and Henrieke went to see the opening ceremonies. It started with a 10 minute video I put a lot of work in, showing the highlights of the past 20 years of Eurofurence. I had to cut down on some other projects to be able to finish it, but I think it added a nice touch to the opening ceremonies!
After that, we met Flacko for the first time, she's an amazing cartoon artist from Estonia! Also Birone and Ottselpaw, who were first-timers at EF and really nice guys! Henrieke, I, Flacko, Birone, Ottselpaw, Lanakila, Titash and Howee went to "Estrel Stube", a German restaurant inside the Estrel, since at the opening ceremony we were promised 9€ BBQ specials due to the BBQ not happening because of unstable weather. The special was sold out, and we waited about 2 hours for our food. Being at a table with mostly artists, we made the best of it and did some sketchbook trades.
After dinner, we checked out the Artist Lounge, which was a bit disappointing. It was not really big, in a hidden corner of a hotel and had a long waiting line as it wasn't open yet. There was also the 80s party going on, which looked super fun! Sadly I was still a bit too exhausted for dancing, but I spent some time there!
Later I spotted Baseball while he was collecting some money, also peeked in at the 80s party once more and went to bed at around 1:00.
Had breakfast around 10 with Lay0wn, Kaelin, Pegla, Tabbie and Lance. Before the Dealers Den opened, we got the things we wanted to sell (Derptongues and patches) and the Kiki puppet. While Henrieke was signing "The Art of Henrieke" books at the Sofawolf table in the Dealers Den, I looked for people who would join "Impossible Fursuit Charades", an event I've been hoping to see at EF ever since I saw it on a live stream of Megaplex. Thanks to Shay, it finally happened!
I got Baseball down and met up with Yotie in the fursuit lounge, then we joined the show! I believe 3 words were actually guessed, with the crowning achievement being Ekorren, guessing "The destruction of the second death star" within just a minute. It was lots of fun and I hope seeing that event again next EF!
After that I collected some more money for charity as Baseball and got approached by 2 women from the German newspaper "B.Z. am Sonntag", who mostly interviewed me about my charity work and fursuiting. They also followed Henrieke, me and Ekorren during and after the fursuit parade and would later write a mostly positive article, but also get things really wrong and make things up.
We later found out that B.Z. is part of Bild, which is Germany's worst "newspaper". For perspective, they dedicated another page in the newspaper to a nipple that could be seen on camera in Big Brother (why does this even still exist?). The fursuit parade went nice, I took photos while Baseball and Dog were in the parade. The brass band playing there was an amazing addition and really created an awesome mood, with many suiters dancing to the music! After the parade, we went down to the art show. Then we went to see a 10-year old rescued bat that the charity brought in and showed in a very small panel room to the first few people who snatched a ticket, really cute! I usually don't get to see microbats up close, the only other time was when I rescued a tiny pipistrelle.
Since Sarduyon's show was delayed by quite a bit, we could even see some of his amazing acrobatics after the charity panel, it was really impressing and I'm pretty sure he would've stacked the chairs even higher if it wasn't for the low ceiling.
Lance did a panel again on advanced fursuit construction (which everyone who plans to build a costume should attend). He had some leftover materials with him again that he auctioned for charity, one piece of NFT fur went for 115€ even! I got a piece of Wonderflex and a nice super-longpile piece of black NFT fur that will come in handy sometime for sure! We dumped our newly acquired materials in the room and had dinner at Portofino again, sitting at a table directly in the lobby. Having restaurants in the lobby is such a nice thing as we could have dinner and see friends walking by. Itchigo joined us, later Ekorren as well and we had a nice relaxing dinner.
We all went to the upper Artist Lounge since the lower one was too full and did some sketchbook trades. Jym and Tirrel also joined at some point, creating amazing things. I went to the lobby at some point but didn't really find anyone, so I got Baseball down and visited the fursuit friendly dance. Ace was DJ and did an awesome job, just like at the EF19 dead dog party! I also ran into Tabbie and Howee in the lobby and then went back to join the others in the Artist Lounge. We went to bed at 3:00.
I forgot who we had breakfast with, shame on me! After breakfast, at 11:00, we met up at the charity booth with the rest of the team for the charity team photoshoot. Atkelar did an amazing job at the setup, it looked great and you could even see the photos instantly on a screen. We did some really stupid photos with the people from Stiftung Fledermaus.
After that, we looked around a bit at the art show and placed a bid on a drawing of a field mouse that was pretty cute. We were a bit late at the international snack exchange, but luckily the event's duration was 3 hours, so plenty of time to try unhealthy foods from around the world.
I think the food that got really etched into my memory most was the root beer flavored Oreo I ate. I spent most of the day trying to get that awful taste out of my mouth again. We also ran into C_Eagle again there, which always improves any situation. Earlier that day I got approached by Lay0wn and Kaelin, telling us that there is a big chunk of money left from the discontinued "Furs on Fire" new years party, so we agreed on the money being given to the charity at the end of the dance competition. Since Baseball was one of the two official charity bats, it was Baseball and the representative from the charity who went on the stage after it ended and received a ton of money from Kaelin, bumping our charity result up by 1000€.
After that we went to the artshow again to see how the bids are doing and talked to people in the Dealers Den. Rotarr was nice enough to sell patches and Derptongues again, and some even sold. Thanks again!
We had dinner in the lobby with Eko, Birone, Howee, Ottsel, etc. Currywurst wasn't too bad and those fries, yum! EF Prime was showing the fursuit gameshow, so we watched some of that on one of the flatscreen TVs above the atrium bar. Ekorren had to leave to see the bat that the charity brought, and we also guarded the charity booth so Itchigo, who literally spent the whole con working, could also see it. Seriously, Itchigo deserves more credit!
Later I went to the highlight of the con with Tabbie and C_Eagle, which is of course the inflatable community gathering. Disappointment over the lack of a pool in the hotel was lingering in the air that they used to pump up giant pool toys. We didn't stay too long and I went to the Artist Lounge where we did mostly sketches for the rest of the evening as there was no dance going on anyway.
Most notably C_Eagle and Tabbie visited in suit! We went to bed around 2.
Had breakfast with Titash, Eko and Yotie on the "Orangerie" floor which is above the whole lobby and pretty comfy, while Henrieke had breakfast with Lance and Cairyn. After that, we stood in line and got a spot for the fursuit photo shoot, really amazing what Atkelar put together (you even got a little printout with time and information on the photo shoot when you registered). Then we went to Ursula Vernon's panel about writing for comics with Henrieke and Ekorren, which was really interesting. I'm not much of a writer myself, so this was especially interesting for someone without much experience like me. We missed most of the art auction due to the panel and only saw the last few pieces being sold. Henrieke's bat drawings for charity went for 140€. We went to the Dealers Den again then, Henrieke stayed there while I wandered around and ran into Papangelo, who was nice enough to take a moth habitat (yes I really like moths) I bought from the UK to EF for me. I put that on my room, then suited up and collected some money for charity together with BatKat, whose secret identity remained a mystery. Baseball and BatKat also paid a visit to the "scary fursuit acting" panel, but could not out-scare all the scary suiters there. I got out of suit again, peeked into the Dancer furs panel and then met up with Henrieke to take the Possum to the photo shoot.
After that we went to the lobby and heard an announcement that the group photo would be taken in front of the hotel in 5 minutes, so we went there and waited quite a while until the photo was actually taken. Back in the lobby, we did the "dead possum skit" where Mr. unnamed possum would just lie in the lobby, pretending to be dead, fitting the crime scene theme. People found it pretty funny!
We sat down in the lobby after that and had some fries. I drew in Templa's sketchbook that she gave to me earlier in the Dealers Den while looking at the very fluctuating delay prognosis for the PawPet Show. We also ran into Tes and Skunki, who were some of the first people to organize EF, it was interesting to talk with them for a bit! I also spent some time at a table with the ever-fabulous Jym, also Lev! After 3+ hours of delay, the PPS finally started. I got to watch the first 2 or so scenes before the headache I already had for a while went so bad that I had to go to the room and stuff myself with painkillers. I flopped on the bed and apparently slept for short bits while watching the PawPet Show on EF Prime. I missed some bits sadly, but at least I could watch it at all! I'm happy I was still seeing it downstairs when the giant puppet built by Lance, Snapjaw, was on stage, which was really impressive! During one of the show breaks I went downstairs to meet up with Templa, who made me an absolutely adorable sketch in return for my sketch, so awesome! :D
I went downstairs again when the PawPet Show ended with no headache anymore and joined the applause. Henrieke was called up on stage again and the theme for next EF was announced.
Sadly, due to some unfortunate happenings in the higher staff, BBF's dance was cancelled, which was a bit of a bummer as I was really looking forward to it. The plan of BBF was to play music from Big Blue Dances of all EFs, which means lots of bouncy, cheesy music that would take me on a nostalgia dance trip! I secretly hope that he will go through with this plan at next EF :)
We went back to our room for a but and had dinner, then went to the Artist Lounge. While the others drew, I checked out the not so big and not so blue dance a bit. I didn't know the DJ, but he was also doing a fine job! I ran into Lance who suggested that Baseball might enjoy the music. After my horrible headache earlier I didn't count on suiting anymore, but actually I felt fine enough, so it was time for some Baseball party! Henrieke filmed a bit and Baseball even got to dance with the super-nice Belo4ka a bit! Baseball went to the Artist Lounge a bit then, ran into Jym and Tirrel and encountered a melody mewing cat plush. I forgot when we went to bed, but I guess around 4:00.
Sunday is always a pretty relaxing day at EF as the con is officially over, but a big portion of people stays until Monday which makes it a perfect day for just socializing with friends without missing out on any events. We had breakfast with Yotie, Ekorren, Birone and Ottselpaw, which slowly turned into an art jam as Tabbie, Pegla and others joined. Henrieke and I went to get some copies of the "B.Z. am Sonntag", the newspaper that interviewed us, from a small convenience store near the train station. The article was alright, however we were pretty annoyed about some things that they completely made up in the article, as well as a photo that they shot without our consent. We spent some time in the room, then we met with Yotie, Ekorren and Titash and went to get some Kebab which we ate on our room.
We had the idea to get Baseball and Titash to draw some sketches for charity on the now-empty charity lottery booth, so we asked the hotel for some tables and made some signs. Henrieke and Titash did the work while I filmed and made sure people actually paid. I later joined a bit with Tyler. It was a big success and just with this small charity stunt we made an additional 520€ for charity! :)
We delivered the money to Pinky, who was of course delighted to get even more money for charity. Then we ran into the most adorable Tabbiefox and had dinner at Portofino with Titash and Ekorren since all the other restaurants were closed already. We finished up the "EF Memories" book for Cheetah by letting Aatheus and some other people fill the remaining pages. We delivered the book to Cheetah, and I have a feeling that he liked it :) We moved to another table and sat with Birone, Ottsel, Titash and others, art-jamming. I got Baseball down for one last time, has some fun at the dance and Jym was lucky enough to get a Sketch drawn by Baseball's nostril.
After suiting, I spent some time in the lobby with Slycat and Flinters. Props to Mstr, who was still collecting for charity by the way! The dead dog party was at its peak by now.
The Dead Dog Party is always was a highlight of EF for me, and unlike at many American cons, it's always pretty big at Eurofurence. This time there was sadly no piano bar, but there was a dedicated room with a dance floor, which was nice. Tabbie, I and Ekorren went there and went crazy on the dance floor to some very out-of-sync transitions. The music itself was nice, but I think automatic crossfading would've done a better job.. Back at the table Birone got us all to draw on a birthday card for Ottsel as today was his birthday. We also sung for him and even made a dance circle in the middle of a – by now – pretty deserted lobby, being watched by the displeased eyes of a janitor at work. Since it was pretty late, it was time to say good-night and good-bye, which is always the saddest part of the con. I think Birone and Ottsel will soon find out what the term PCD means! We finally got to bed around 4:30, not much time to sleep.
We got up at 9-something I think, then had breakfast (luckily the breakfast buffet was still included on Monday), the packed our stuff and loaded the car that Tabbie put in the Estrel garage. We had some trouble getting out as the parking ticket machines were gone so there was no way to pay. Not that we would have to pay as the first hour is free, but apparently you still had to stick your ticket into the machine. In the lobby I stood in a long line of people with the same problem, but at least I got to say good-bye to some friends like Howee and Shorty! The hotel wanted me to charge 4€ since the free parking hour was already over, I was like NOPE since I only took that long because I had to wait in an awfully long line because they had the genius idea to replace their parking ticket machines on the busiest day. I ended up not paying anything and we left around 12 to Suhl. Somewhere along the way, we got some sandwiches, filled up the car and saw the most adorable moth!
Around 18:00 we finally arrived at the Ringberg Hotel and declared this to be the opening of Interfurence 1, the new con taking place in the Ringberg Hotel. Attendance was 6 - gotta start small. After putting the stuff to our rooms, Tabbie and Titash went down to Suhl to get some Pizza since we were all pretty much starving, then we went down to the lobby and saw how the Ringberg Hotel feels like without a furry convention. It was mostly very old people and a few kids and everyone went to bed at 22:00, so suiting didn't make much sense anymore in the evening. We just sat at the bar for the rest of the evening and talked about good old times at EF15, I also walked around the hotel for some nostalgic flashbacks. I'm pretty much the most nostalgic person I know and this place is home to so many amazing memories!
We even had badges and our own little dance.
Day 2 of Interfurence! We got up around 9:00 for breakfast, which had a nice view but couldn't keep up with the Estrel in terms of tastyness. It was included though so I can't complain! Ekorren and I wanted to go to the Sauna to relax for a bit, but we discovered that the Sauna opens at 11:00 which was too late. We scrapped that plan and went suiting instead. Sadly it was too wet outside to take some nice photos with the hotel, but we had a lot of fun with the kids who were staying in the hotel. :)
Dog and Baseball attended the fursuit game show!
After suiting, it was time to pack our stuff and find some food! We ended up going to Rewe at the base of the Ringberg and got some snacks there. We sat there quite a while, stupidity ensued.
After a 2-hour drive we arrived in Nuremberg, parked the car in a nearby parking house and explored the city a bit. We were staying in the Nuremberg Castle by the way, which was home to EF11 and EF12. My first EF was EF13, but Tabbie has been to both Nuremberg EFs, so he was quite nostalgic about it and I enjoyed hearing his stories about the place!
The inner city of Nuremberg is stunning, almost every single building looks like it comes from a fairy tale! Sadly the weather wasn't too pleasant, but at least we didn't get completely soaked. We went to a comic store Tabbie remembered, Ultra Comix, which had an amazing collection of everything! We also discovered that every second word in Nuremberg is "Bratwurst". After our trip to the inner city, we went for dinner at Hexenhäusle, a small and cozy old style restaurant that served amazing food and beer.
We spent the rest of the night making a little roomparty and finishing a commission for Pinky.
This concludes my report, here are some more impressions of Nuremberg castle!
Thanks for reading! :)