Eurofurence:Tuesday (I arrive in one piece)

[furtech]

[You can skip the wordy posts and go straight to the pics-- see link at bottom of page!]

After weeks of cramming to get two heads finished for the con, taking care of the day job's duties and dealing with 112f heatwave, I finally arrive in Germany! Flight was mercifully uneventful: (aside from the crazy Euro-chick) I slept, watched "Bleach" on my iPod (love these things! And just got $100 back because of the price drop!), ate and wrote. Baggage and customs at Frankfurt were fast and non-events.



I can't tell you how happy I was to see Loriana's smiling face on my exit! She had accompanied Loewi down to Frankfurt to pick me up (she could recognize me-- though I think I was the only asian on the flight...). Loewi rented a minivan to accommodate all my junk and I was amazed at what a minivan on the Autobahn can do! 105 mph! Wow! I wonder if German-sold cars have better suspension systems than US ones?

The drive was beautiful: I had only been in big cities in Germany before, so I enjoyed all the trees and forests. Now I really want to see the Black Forest! The hotel was visible quite a number of miles away: the Ringberg Hotel is located on the top of a mountain.

Checked in and found a huge room waiting for me. Later I would let Aeto store the manticore there since his standard room was a little small for two sets of costumes (his and Frysco's). The goodie basket was filled with local foods (Weiswurst, Jagermeister!, bheer!, chocolates, etc!). The glass-enclosed balcony had a spectacular view of the surrounding area. I unpacked: all the costume stuff arrived in fine condition!

Here's the GSD head I made for the charity auction.

At Dinner I met more of the Eurofurence staff: Bluepanther (artshow) and SomeWolf (Chief Improviser-- who told me where to find hiking trails nearby) and the ex-patriot Brit who lives in Switzerland now (whose name I -cannot- remember, despite hanging out with him all weekend! Bad me!).

I had vowed not to hide out in my hotel room watching tv, so I went down later that evening and took a walk around the hotel: spooky dark forest outside the ring of lights. Easy to see how it spawned Grimms fairy tales!

I sat down with some people in the bar and ended up chatting until nearly 3am...totally eliminating any chance of getting up in time for breakfast!

EDIT: Forgot to mention my tourista moment: bought what I thought was lemonade from a vending machine...turned out to be some nasty lemon-flavored bheer! Ack! Was reminded not to assume anything just on appearances...

Here is a link to my Flickr page with Tuesday's photos. If you want to cheat, you can check out the other picture sets-- but I haven't finished annotating them yet!

Comments

[mistahbojangles.livejournal.com]

Neat discovery of the spare tire art and sticker, -thanks for shooting that! I also really dig the design of the ferret costume, -nice! Glad you had a good time, -looks like a terrific place to visit.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Yeah! I saw Tracy's fox first and said, "Oh, that's a *cool* fox...haaay-- I know that artist!" Be better if you were there, though! You'd love the place-- leggos, German engineering, etc. Plus, chocolate and stuffed animals for Tracy and kid.