Eurofurence:Tuesday (I arrive in one piece)

[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!

Eurofurence:Tuesday (I arrive in one piece)

[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!

Eurofurence:Tuesday (I arrive in one piece)

[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!

Eurofurence:Wednesday (Pre-con day!)

Here's the link to my Flickr folder for Wednesday. Most of the photos have comments if you want to skip my wordiness here...

Staying up to talk well into the morning pretty much nixed my plan to get up at 9am, eat at the buffet and get into town for shopping and tourist-stuff. I think I finally crawled down around noon-- just before Eosfoxx (my guest-relations person) was going up to see if I was still alive.



Saw many cool cars on the way out. Not hard to figure out this was the right hotel! Even saw familiar BR/TR art on one car! Nice motocycle, too: I didn't know Triumph was still making bikes!

Went to the town center and had lunch: I got one of those sandwiches pictured in Tuesday's post. Delicious-- how is it that a simple sandwich shop like this can't exist in the US? Fresh vegetables (tomatoes, lettuce) and good meats...sounds simple enough. Oh, and I discovered that Europe has Coke with *real* sugar in it! Not that corn syrup crap-- REAL SUGAR! *Bliss*

We headed over to the main shopping district: this is a pedestrian area that has most of the town's shops. I needed to find a coocoo clock and other kitsch souvineers for some friends I owe major favors to.

First thing we discover: the banks close at 2pm on Wednesdays. Ack. Apparently some tradition held over from the glorious GDR. Second (more happily) the ATM's are perfectly happy to shuck out euros from American bank cards! Woo! $$$!!! ... er...EEE!!!

Third discovery: there are no coocoo clocks to be had in Suhl. Guns, ya. Coocoo clocks-- nicht. Suhl was big into weapons manufacturing (it has a waffen-museum) and is not necessarily a tourist destination. We're in the heart of the former East Germany-- all spiffy now.

We did find a gourmet shop that had a great selection of chocolates, including a 99% pure cocao bar and flavors like chili (and even wasabi) flavored chocolate. She wrote an excellent review here. German chocolatiers are amazing...

Stopped at the grocery store ("Rewe") to get supplies: Diet Coke ("Coke Light") and fruit for me and water for Eosfoxx. Noticed that the Europeans have a far healthier take on sex than we do: so confident/not-hung-up-about-sex are they that most of their condoms have cartoon characters on the covers. I felt like such a Prude seeing those the first time. Discovered to my embarrassment that one needs to *buy* grocery bags (I ended up at the end of the cashier counter with all my stuff and nothing to put it in!).

Back to the hotel to hang Roz's art. I stuck the two heads I was donating to the charity auction in the show as well (don't have any pics of the finished Cheetah!).

The convention decorated the hotel all over: most noticeable were the lifesize stand-ups of characters done by various artists. I particularly liked the Blotch pic, the Albee pieces and Jack-Salem-as-gunslinger. The signs noting panels and rooms were also very cute-- all done by Akeyla.

Found Frysco and Aeto (to my relief: One of Steve's lesser known skilz is understanding how to seal me up in a costume; F&A both know how to as well). We checked out the bonfire (they had one every night! Very neat in the chill weather!). Watched Whitefox catch on fire several times and eventually saw him sniffle a live spark up his nose. Ouch.

Both Aeto and I got into costume: him in the manticore and me in Son-of-Arugal, the worgen. People liked us. The hotel staff got pics, too. Loved wandering around outside in the brisk temperatures. Rawr!

Returned to the room to detox the suits and head back down into the con. My desire to get to bed early so I could catch breakfast was diminishing...I ended up talking with a lot of people until nearly 4am. Does anyone sleep at this con?!? I haven't spent so much time talking with people since my early days in science fiction fandom!

Eurofurence:Wednesday (Pre-con day!)

Here's the link to my Flickr folder for Wednesday. Most of the photos have comments if you want to skip my wordiness here...

Staying up to talk well into the morning pretty much nixed my plan to get up at 9am, eat at the buffet and get into town for shopping and tourist-stuff. I think I finally crawled down around noon-- just before Eosfoxx (my guest-relations person) was going up to see if I was still alive.



Saw many cool cars on the way out. Not hard to figure out this was the right hotel! Even saw familiar BR/TR art on one car! Nice motocycle, too: I didn't know Triumph was still making bikes!

Went to the town center and had lunch: I got one of those sandwiches pictured in Tuesday's post. Delicious-- how is it that a simple sandwich shop like this can't exist in the US? Fresh vegetables (tomatoes, lettuce) and good meats...sounds simple enough. Oh, and I discovered that Europe has Coke with *real* sugar in it! Not that corn syrup crap-- REAL SUGAR! *Bliss*

We headed over to the main shopping district: this is a pedestrian area that has most of the town's shops. I needed to find a coocoo clock and other kitsch souvineers for some friends I owe major favors to.

First thing we discover: the banks close at 2pm on Wednesdays. Ack. Apparently some tradition held over from the glorious GDR. Second (more happily) the ATM's are perfectly happy to shuck out euros from American bank cards! Woo! $$$!!! ... er...EEE!!!

Third discovery: there are no coocoo clocks to be had in Suhl. Guns, ya. Coocoo clocks-- nicht. Suhl was big into weapons manufacturing (it has a waffen-museum) and is not necessarily a tourist destination. We're in the heart of the former East Germany-- all spiffy now.

We did find a gourmet shop that had a great selection of chocolates, including a 99% pure cocao bar and flavors like chili (and even wasabi) flavored chocolate. She wrote an excellent review here. German chocolatiers are amazing...

Stopped at the grocery store ("Rewe") to get supplies: Diet Coke ("Coke Light") and fruit for me and water for Eosfoxx. Noticed that the Europeans have a far healthier take on sex than we do: so confident/not-hung-up-about-sex are they that most of their condoms have cartoon characters on the covers. I felt like such a Prude seeing those the first time. Discovered to my embarrassment that one needs to *buy* grocery bags (I ended up at the end of the cashier counter with all my stuff and nothing to put it in!).

Back to the hotel to hang Roz's art. I stuck the two heads I was donating to the charity auction in the show as well (don't have any pics of the finished Cheetah!).

The convention decorated the hotel all over: most noticeable were the lifesize stand-ups of characters done by various artists. I particularly liked the Blotch pic, the Albee pieces and Jack-Salem-as-gunslinger. The signs noting panels and rooms were also very cute-- all done by Akeyla.

Found Frysco and Aeto (to my relief: One of Steve's lesser known skilz is understanding how to seal me up in a costume; F&A both know how to as well). We checked out the bonfire (they had one every night! Very neat in the chill weather!). Watched Whitefox catch on fire several times and eventually saw him sniffle a live spark up his nose. Ouch.

Both Aeto and I got into costume: him in the manticore and me in Son-of-Arugal, the worgen. People liked us. The hotel staff got pics, too. Loved wandering around outside in the brisk temperatures. Rawr!

Returned to the room to detox the suits and head back down into the con. My desire to get to bed early so I could catch breakfast was diminishing...I ended up talking with a lot of people until nearly 4am. Does anyone sleep at this con?!? I haven't spent so much time talking with people since my early days in science fiction fandom!

Eurofurence:Wednesday (Pre-con day!)

Here's the link to my Flickr folder for Wednesday. Most of the photos have comments if you want to skip my wordiness here...

Staying up to talk well into the morning pretty much nixed my plan to get up at 9am, eat at the buffet and get into town for shopping and tourist-stuff. I think I finally crawled down around noon-- just before Eosfoxx (my guest-relations person) was going up to see if I was still alive.



Saw many cool cars on the way out. Not hard to figure out this was the right hotel! Even saw familiar BR/TR art on one car! Nice motocycle, too: I didn't know Triumph was still making bikes!

Went to the town center and had lunch: I got one of those sandwiches pictured in Tuesday's post. Delicious-- how is it that a simple sandwich shop like this can't exist in the US? Fresh vegetables (tomatoes, lettuce) and good meats...sounds simple enough. Oh, and I discovered that Europe has Coke with *real* sugar in it! Not that corn syrup crap-- REAL SUGAR! *Bliss*

We headed over to the main shopping district: this is a pedestrian area that has most of the town's shops. I needed to find a coocoo clock and other kitsch souvineers for some friends I owe major favors to.

First thing we discover: the banks close at 2pm on Wednesdays. Ack. Apparently some tradition held over from the glorious GDR. Second (more happily) the ATM's are perfectly happy to shuck out euros from American bank cards! Woo! $$$!!! ... er...EEE!!!

Third discovery: there are no coocoo clocks to be had in Suhl. Guns, ya. Coocoo clocks-- nicht. Suhl was big into weapons manufacturing (it has a waffen-museum) and is not necessarily a tourist destination. We're in the heart of the former East Germany-- all spiffy now.

We did find a gourmet shop that had a great selection of chocolates, including a 99% pure cocao bar and flavors like chili (and even wasabi) flavored chocolate. She wrote an excellent review here. German chocolatiers are amazing...

Stopped at the grocery store ("Rewe") to get supplies: Diet Coke ("Coke Light") and fruit for me and water for Eosfoxx. Noticed that the Europeans have a far healthier take on sex than we do: so confident/not-hung-up-about-sex are they that most of their condoms have cartoon characters on the covers. I felt like such a Prude seeing those the first time. Discovered to my embarrassment that one needs to *buy* grocery bags (I ended up at the end of the cashier counter with all my stuff and nothing to put it in!).

Back to the hotel to hang Roz's art. I stuck the two heads I was donating to the charity auction in the show as well (don't have any pics of the finished Cheetah!).

The convention decorated the hotel all over: most noticeable were the lifesize stand-ups of characters done by various artists. I particularly liked the Blotch pic, the Albee pieces and Jack-Salem-as-gunslinger. The signs noting panels and rooms were also very cute-- all done by Akeyla.

Found Frysco and Aeto (to my relief: One of Steve's lesser known skilz is understanding how to seal me up in a costume; F&A both know how to as well). We checked out the bonfire (they had one every night! Very neat in the chill weather!). Watched Whitefox catch on fire several times and eventually saw him sniffle a live spark up his nose. Ouch.

Both Aeto and I got into costume: him in the manticore and me in Son-of-Arugal, the worgen. People liked us. The hotel staff got pics, too. Loved wandering around outside in the brisk temperatures. Rawr!

Returned to the room to detox the suits and head back down into the con. My desire to get to bed early so I could catch breakfast was diminishing...I ended up talking with a lot of people until nearly 4am. Does anyone sleep at this con?!? I haven't spent so much time talking with people since my early days in science fiction fandom!

For those who can't wait...

...or just want to skip the wordy posts, here are the links to the rest of the photos:

Eurofurence: Thursday

Eurofurence: Friday

Eurofurence: Saturday

Eurofurence: Sunday

Most of the pictures are captioned, so it's like a visual tour of Eurofurence!

For those who can't wait...

...or just want to skip the wordy posts, here are the links to the rest of the photos:

Eurofurence: Thursday

Eurofurence: Friday

Eurofurence: Saturday

Eurofurence: Sunday

Most of the pictures are captioned, so it's like a visual tour of Eurofurence!

For those who can't wait...

...or just want to skip the wordy posts, here are the links to the rest of the photos:

Eurofurence: Thursday

Eurofurence: Friday

Eurofurence: Saturday

Eurofurence: Sunday

Most of the pictures are captioned, so it's like a visual tour of Eurofurence!