Theme: Ancient Egypt
Location: Estrel Berlin
For the 11th time now I've been at Eurofurence! Once again in the Estrel in Berlin, Germany.
Due to limited flight options, I decided to fly today already since the other option would have made me arrive late on Monday. Considering the charity workload, I wanted to have all of Monday available for preparing things. I spent pretty much all day packing, my mom was nice enough to bring me and my heavy bags to the airport. 50 Minutes of flight later, I found myself at the Schönefeld airport, right next to the Berlin-Brandenburg Airport which should have been opened years ago. Being tired and lazy, I took an Uber. I chatted a bit with the driver about Eurofurence and had trouble explaining how a convention that is completely non-profit and run by volunteers works. At the hotel I got to see the renovated lounge that was finished just a day earlier and still had a nasty glue and paint smell. I went to the room of Sithy and Okill, who hosted me that night (thanks guys), worked a bit on freelance art and went to bed at midnight.
I got up at 10:00 and met Okill, Sithy and Djem at the breakfast buffet which was in the Estrel Hall rather than the regular breakfast area due to construction work in the lobby. I propably talk every year about how amazing the Estrel breakfast is, but this year they made it even more amazing. They even had honey combs where you could cut pieces off!
I went to ConOps to check if anything had arrived yet, but nothing was there so I didn't have much to do. I spent the morning being lazy on the room and watching German TV and stalking people on Glympse while Okill and Sithy went shopping.
When they were back we had some Brood with Pindakaas (Bread with Peanut Butter). After that, I went to the steam sauna with Okill for a little bit, then put my luggage on my own hotel room as soon as I could check in. I went back to ConOps and started unpacking all the charity team orders and put everything ready so we could start building the booth the next day. The only thing missing was the roof assembly from last year.
When Yotie and Henrieke arrived, I met them in the lobby and helped them unload. Henrieke and I unpacked our stuff, then we ordered some Asian food and ate on Yotie's room and had to trash about half of our food because the portions were ridiculously big. Yotie wanted to take a bath, but his deluxe suite had no bathroom, so we gave him our key so he could use our bathtub. In the meanwhile, Henrieke and me went to ConOps to look for the missing roof. After lots of people reassuring us that it had to be there, we found out that it was trashed last year, despite being labeled. Luckily I documented everything so I could pull up the building plans quickly and made sure that someone from ConOps would get new construction wood. We sorted through more stuff and put everything ready to start building the next day. Chiros was helping out a bit, and we also ran into Lance and Tioh at ConOps.
Tioh showed us some of the new puppets at the PPS workshop, which was in the same room as ConOps. We ended up chatting about fur until Midnight when they closed up ConOps and kicked us out. I walked around in the lobby a bit, ran into Kana and Shadow and spent a bit more time chatting with Lance. Went to bed at 1 am.
We had breakfast today with Lance, Itchigo, Sithy and Okill.
After that we went to registration, but the computer system had some problems so we went to ConOps instead and started building the obelisk I designed prior to the convention. Yotie, Sniffer, Itchigo, Lance and Henrieke helped cutting and assembling wooden bars and polystyrene panels.
Yotie improved my design a bit while we worked on it. We had lunch at staff buffet, which was conveniently right next to ConOps. Emi, a non-furry friend from Vienna moved to Berlin recently and dropped by the hotel in the afternoon, so for about an hour I stopped working and showed him the convention a bit and talked about University and photography. I quickly picked up my badge and then had a coffee in the lobby with Emi. Atkelar also dropped by and we chatted more about analog photography.
I went back to ConOps where the obelisk was already assembled and ready for painting thanks to all the helping hands we had, especially thanks to Lance who assembled the hardest part. Loxy and I painted over all the gaps to make everything smooth. At a break at staff buffet I said hi to Cheetah and talked a bit with Krauti. Mag and Jym also joined us for a bit and showed us photos of a cheese in the shape of a dragon head that they sold at the local supermarket. We finished painting the obelisk that night and did some dumb stuff in ConOps, like building a cardboard fursuit and having too much fun with giant cardboard rolls.
We checked out the Artist Lounge for a bit after work, said hi to Kashmere and then went back to our room to rest a bit. Mag, Jym and Copper joined us for a bit on our room while I copied videos from our action cam. Then we went to Yotie's room and played some Space Team.
We had breakfast with Lance, Mag, Yotie and Itchi. Then we went to ConOps to get supplies for setting up the booth to the lobby. The paint on the obelisk dried fine, and we already put it in the lobby as well. I set up the booth with the help of Sniffer, Itchigo, Loxy, Shay, Mag, Sweek and Yamavu while Henrieke and Sithy mixed paint at ConOps. After that we had a slightly delayed charity meet up in the Presidential Suite.
I went to Mag's room after that and then went to the steam sauna with Mag and Yotie while Henrieke already started painting the obelisk. After that I helped with painting as did Mag, Yamavu and Kiguren.
We finished painting just before the opening ceremony ended, which we sadly missed. After this, I was finally done with 3 days of really exhausting setup work. We went to Portofino for dinner with Mag, Sweek, Chiros, Yamavu, Yotie and Jym.
After dinner, we relaxed a bit on our room, then we met up with the others on Yotie's room where we watched the first episode of the new DuckTales show as well as some YouTube poop. Later in the night Henrieke and I walked around in the ECC a bit and looked around in the Artist Lounge. I met Atimos there. We also ran into Kiguren, Chiros and a bunch of other Belgians and checked out the dance on the Club Stage, which consisted of amazing 90s rave music. Sadly we were too tired from working all day to really engage.
On the way back to our room we encountered an adorable mouse which was Templa's newest creation. We chatted a bit with Shorty, Jym and Copper in the lobby and then went to bed.
Had breakfast with Lance, Mag, Sweek and Yamavu. After that we went to the Artist Alley to set up out stuff there, only to discover that the Artist Alley didn't open until Friday. We went back to the room then and I chatted a bit with Mag while Henrieke went to help out at the art show. I joined her soon after and helped a bit with cutting out bid sheets and did a quick round through the art show with Mag.
Since the parade was about to start, me and Mag went to the room to get Baseball and Dog down. Baseball and Dog were a bit late but joined half of the parade. After that they had some fun with cubes in the lobby.
Back at the room we had the bad luck of room service being there since our "Do not disturb" sign apparently fell off. Not fun when you're overheating. The cleaning guy luckily was almost done, so we could hang up the suits and shower soon after. I checked out the Dealers Den with Henrieke and Mag where I met Nwar and Ritka and dropped by the PDC table. After that we went to the International Snack Exchange, the most important panel at any con.
I brought the usual Austrian Snacks (Mozart balls, Schokobananen, Dragee Keksi) and ate lots of unhealthy snacks. There were 3 Japanese guys who brought amazing snacks. I was able to snatch some green tea KitKat as well. At about 17:15 I met up with Huscai and Tigger on my room, who helped me with repairing a Barbapapa inflatable from the 70s that my parents bought in Japan. I wanted to fix it myself earlier, but the hole was so complicated that I was happy to let someone with experience do a better job than I would. I met Henrieke again downstairs and had dinner at staff buffet with Pinky, Itchi and some ConOps staff while the others went to have sushi. I went back to the room and sat in the steam sauna a bit while Henrieke went back to the art show. Huscai came back and picked up his repair supplies from my room a bit later. I met up with Mag, and he and Baseball went to the inflatables panel for a bit – to look at the cute sea dragon of course.
After that I went to the Artist Lounge with Mag and sat there with Henrieke for a bit.
I walked around a bit at the ECC, dropped by the video game tournament and checked out the dance with Mag. Both the music by Djem and the visuals by Krauti were amazing, and he even played the dog animation again upon request!
I went to the room and sent Baseball to the dance, sadly the music turned a bit less fun by then, but Baseball still flapped his wings to the music for a bit. After being exhausted from the dance, Baseball dropped by the inflatables panel again and encountered a magic floating hamburger.
After that, Baseball went back to his cave and I cleaned up the room a bit and rested for a few minutes. Back in the lobby I met Shorty, Trax and Kwisa, then I went to the Artist Lounge and drew at a table with Chiros, Itchigo, Yamavu and Henrieke until 1:40.
We got up a bit earlier today and had breakfast at Portofino with Lance. I went to the Artist Alley at 10:20 only to find that all but one table were taken already. I reserved it for us and Henrieke went to get our bag with stuff to sell. I set up everything as good as I could, and we sat there all morning. Yamavu also dropped by and did some drawings at our table.
I helped at the charity booth a bit and ran into Zhenya, who I didn't see since EF was at the Ringberg. I got Baseball down for a bit and he drew about 6 sketch commissions at our Artist Alley table. Mag joined us at our table as well around noon. Baseball went back up 14:30 and I got out of suit. I chatted a bit with Shadow at my room door, then took a shower and relaxed a bit, then went back to the Artist Alley and sat there a bit with Henrieke.
I had some Currywurst at staff buffet with Henrieke later and chatted a bit with Loewi there. After that we went to the art show and I bid on some charity stuff and looked at the amazing Thylacine painting by a local German artist. I also ran into Layown, Kaelin and Fang. Henrieke went to the Dealers Den and I went back to our Artist Alley table. I waited for Henrieke while chatting with Mag and Jym and packed our stuff. I also took some Polaroids with expired SX-70 film. We put our Artist Alley stuff back on the room, and Huscai dropped by to check the seams of the inflatable he repaired for me. We went to Mag's room which was conveniently on the same floor, played some Mario Kart and ordered some food. When the food arrived we went to Yotie's room and watched some videos while eating, including every version of the Crash Bandicoot "Whoa" video.
Yotie left for a bit and suited while we played more Mario Kart with Chiros, Yamavu and Mag. We left to go down to the Artist Lounge at 11. I checked out the dance, but it was delayed. I wanted to to the dance because Krauti was DJing, but due to delay I went back to the Artist Lounge for a bit first. A bit later, Kiguren, Dice, Kzarren and Chiros joined as well.
I did an art trade with Kiguren, then checked out the dance, which had started by now. I went to get Baseball immediately and he had some fun at the dance. Baseball also dropped by at the Artist Lounge a bit.
I went back to the Artist Lounge as well later, ran into Itchi and Pinky. In front of the main stage I chatted a bit with Khaki, Mag and Henrieke, while Khaki took probably around 100 photos on burst. Nightfox let me try his amazing electric scooter there, making me instantly want to buy one of those. I peeked into the dance again, where Silverfoxwolf and the viking guy were DJing, and of course it was amazing cheesy music. Sadly I was out of energy, otherwise I'd have danced all night. We went to bed at 3:15.
We got up at 9:30 and went to breakfast. Henrieke went to the Artist Alley to get a spot and set up her stuff while I stayed for a bit longer at the buffet with Mag, Sweek and Yamavu. I took care of the Artist Alley table while Henrieke still got some breakfast. A bit later we went to the Charity team photoshoot. I wasn't there, but Baseball was!
After that, Baseball did about 13 commissions in the Artist Alley! We spent most of the day sitting at the Artist Alley with Mag. I got some cute photos and Polaroids of Noire and Iris.
Later I went to the Dealers Den to commission Nwar, sadly no luck as she had no free slots left. I ended up chatting with Silverfoxwolf a bit as well as the PDC people. Also that amazing German artist who did the Thylacine painting that was in the art show! I got some snack for Henrieke and brought some snacks, then back to the room and cleaned up a bit, finally getting the paint off the paintbrushes we used for the obelisk. Back at the Artist Alley I met Trax, then checked the Art Show pickup line which was still way too long. I chatted a bit with Niminy back at the table and sold some Derptongues and Furry Computer Club stickers. After packing up our stuff, we watched the closing ceremony on our room with Mag and Chiros. One of the charity ladies wore Thabo. We went to Yotie's room then, ordered some Pizza and watched the PawPet Show. After that, we went to the Artist Lounge. I ended up chatting about charity stuff with Sniffer, Loxy and Honey a bit while getting some drinks at the bar. Back at the Artist Lounge, I played the Lego game with Mag, Yotie, Chiros and a guy from Ireland while Henrieke chatted with Vantid.
I checked out the dance a bit and decided it was just the right thing for Baseball to go to, which he agreed with!
 Bat on the dance floor with lasers in the background](./photos/2017-08-20_011147.jpg)
Baseball went down and danced a bit with Pinky and Henrieke took some pictures. We sat in the Artist Lounge again later with Yamavu, but decided we were too tired and went back to the room. On the way we chatted a bit with Layown and Kaelin, also ran into Mstr, Sniffer and a charity lady at the booth. Since we needed to get rid of the obelisk, we decided to make an adoption sign for it, since destroying it would both be a lot of work and heartbreaking. Went to bed at 3:20
Had breakfast with Mag, Sweek and Shorty at Portofino. I went back to the room for a bit, then we did the teardown of the booth with Mag, Yamavu, Loxy, Sniffer and others.
We did a time lapse of that again. After labeling and putting the charity supplies in the artshow for pickup, we cleaned up at ConOps. I drew the short straw and washed out the roller brush. We had some chicken with Chiros and Mag at the staff buffet, then Henrieke and me went to McDonalds and met up with Mag, Sweek, Jym and Tirrel. I had a disappointing Fanta slushie there.
On the way back I dropped by the BEFurs meet in the Biergarten for 20 minutes, then I helped Sniffer a bit with preparation for the open table.
I sat there and drew commissions for a while next to Boxy, who was first performed by Loxy, later by Mag.
Mag, Yotie and me went to the steam sauna for a little bit while Henrieke drew commissions at the open table, then I went back to the room and since Atkelar asked me, I made quick drawing for an EF staff member who had to spend the con in the hospital. I delivered the drawing to Atkelar at the charity table, then Mag, Sweek, Yotie, Henrieke and I had Pizza on Yotie's room. We played some Mario Kart and Overcooked.
Since Henrieke didn't suit yet, we got Dog and Baseball out. They roamed around in the lobby and barely escaped an attack by a vicious dinosaur!
They met Noire, then went on to the dead dog party to collect some more money for charity. People were being very generous that night! After collecting at the Artist Lounge, Dog went up with Mag and Baseball delivered the money at the security office. I took a quick shower, then Henrieke and me went back to Yotie's room.
Kiguren joined and we played 2 rounds of the Lego game, and later Vinnie dropped by to say bye.
We stayed until 2:20 at Yotie's, then tried and failed to do an early check out. After chatting a bit more with people, I went to bed at 2:45.
We had a quick breakfast with Lance, then packed our stuff which took until 11:00.
I carried everything down the stairs because of course getting an elevator was impossible. After that I helped Yotie get his stuff to the car. We spent a while saying bye to Mag and Sweek, then departed after a quick stop at Edeka. The drive was pretty ok and without much traffic.
We arrived in time for a tasty dinner at Henrieke's place.
The end.
