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Eurofurence 24 - My Experience and Review
7 years ago
Hello peeps! So I attended EF 24 in Berlin, which was held in the Estrel Hotel. The actual convention started on the 22 August and ended on 26 August, but I actually arrived very early in the morning on the 21st and left on the 27th. Here is a long review and journal about the time I had there.
I arrived at Berlin Schonefeld Airport at around 9:30AM on the 21st, after picking up my luggage, I got into a taxi and made it to my hotel. (Obviously not in the Estrel, since you have to reg within 5 miliseconds to make it into that it seems nowadays) but unfortunatly, I made it way to early to actually check in and put my luggage in the room, so I decided to go to the Estrel with my luggage. I ordered an Uber and made it to the Estrel, and I was shocked to see the absolute size of the hotel! and really excited to see it too since this was my first EF and this was my first time seeing the infamous beloved hotel for the first time. When I first walked into the hotel and through the door,
I was so excited to have finally arrived there, and walked into the lobby and had a little look around, only literally 2 minutes after walking in, I was very nicely greeted by
eltigero in fursuit who was being cute as always. We took a selfie that I uploaded to twitter and then he left. Now, this day was kinda meh for me because I was stuck in the Estrel with a very big suitcase, because to my annoyance, the fursuit lounge did not open untill 6PM, and it was at that time only 11am. So I had to wait 7 hours untill the fursuit lounge open so i could store my luggage there and fursuit and so on. So I spent the next 7 hours sitting around, drinking a bit and being bored as hell. However, FINALLY after a very long wait, I was able to go into the fursuit lounge to store my luggage. I don't remember if I immediatly when into fursuit or first walked around, or if I actually fursuited that day. I do believe that I went back to my hotel quite early because I was so tired, and I had a headache. So I ordered an Uber just a little after 10PM, and went back to the hotel to get a good night's sleep.
However, I only slept for about 2 and a half hours, and woke up at like 2:30AM with my head still hurting. So I went to take a shower, and laidd in bed watching some videos, and I felt better but I couldn't fall back asleep. so at 5:20 AM I ordered an Uber to take me to the Estrel because I was bored. So when I arrived, I had a lil look around the hotel but it was dead, so I waited outside the supermarket for it to open, bought a bottle of the worst carbonated apple drink I have ever tasted.... Okay. I then went to McDonalds to have breakfast. I don't remember exact details, but I went to go fursuit for most of the day and met a few Dutch furries who I talked to and even befriended a few. After that I went to go fursuit for some of the day, but it was quite hot and it was hard to suit more than 2 hours at a time due to the immense heat. Infact, one of the days it was 32 degrees. Most of the day I spent suiting, including going to the Fursuit Parade and also did some general chilling. I then went back to my overflow to meet my roomie
petephin who had landed and was about to come. after meeting him, we took an Uber straight away back to the Estrel and went to go for some food, for some alcohol and had a good time drinking, taking pictures and having a good time.
We then took an Uber back to our hotel at like 2:30am, so we could sleep for a new day of fun. We woke up in the monring, and petephin practiced 'Fruit Cups' on his bass since he was going to play this song with FoxAmoore and Peppercoyote at the Charity concert on the saturday. We then took an Uber to the Estrel and did many more fun stuff together, more eating, drinking, fursuiting, picture taking, meeting new people and so on. I started to make new friends and meet new people too as the con went on and enjoyed the good attention that my suit was getting. I was nearly always suiting with my Dutch flag, and to my delight it got a lot of attention from people.
To make this journal not too long, I shall shorten the events that happend over the next few days:
-Me and petephin met with 
coopertom on one of the evenings, he told us about his DeLorean, his life, his views on European furry cons and so on, it was absolutely amazing to be able to talk to someone I had been following since I ever first came to the fandom. On the last day of the con, I gave him 5 packets of stroopwafels to take back home with him. It was so awesome to meet him in real life!
-My roomie petephin did indeed play his song at the charity concert, it was sold out and he did an absolutely fantastic job!
-I managed to get my picture taken with a lot of people, and a lot of suiters. It was great to have met so many people at the con and to make new friends on Telegram
-
lemurr drove to come visit me and :iconpetephin for 2 days, as it is within driving distance. During the 2 days.
Conclusion:
Before I went to EF, I had always seen it as a 'popufur only' convention, where you won't get any attention if you are not well known, don't have an expensive fullsuit or whatever. When I actually went, I actually had a great time. It was really fun and I actually did get a lot of attention, hugs and cuddles and pictures taken of me. There were some lonely times but that was not really the fault of the convention, more my own. Saying that though, If you are going there on your own, especially if you are not in suit and just a regular attendee, i would not really advise it. I would only go there if you are with atleast a semi large group of friends and if there are many people there that you know that you can hang out with. Otherwise you will be quite bored and alone due to the sheer size of the con. Because it is so large, it can be quite hard to start up new friendships, but at smaller cons it is more cozier and you seem the same people all the time, which means it is easier to start talking to people.
I have concluded it was worth me going to EF, and I will definetly return in the future. So far, I do have plans to return for the 2019 edition. So, I shall see you all again at EF25!
Shoutouts to people that I especially enjoyed hanging out with:
petephin - Friend and Room mate
lemurr - Friend
kratas - Friend
coopertom Really nice guy that I enjoyed meeting for the first time
condemnedtrack - Friend
I arrived at Berlin Schonefeld Airport at around 9:30AM on the 21st, after picking up my luggage, I got into a taxi and made it to my hotel. (Obviously not in the Estrel, since you have to reg within 5 miliseconds to make it into that it seems nowadays) but unfortunatly, I made it way to early to actually check in and put my luggage in the room, so I decided to go to the Estrel with my luggage. I ordered an Uber and made it to the Estrel, and I was shocked to see the absolute size of the hotel! and really excited to see it too since this was my first EF and this was my first time seeing the infamous beloved hotel for the first time. When I first walked into the hotel and through the door,
I was so excited to have finally arrived there, and walked into the lobby and had a little look around, only literally 2 minutes after walking in, I was very nicely greeted by
eltigero in fursuit who was being cute as always. We took a selfie that I uploaded to twitter and then he left. Now, this day was kinda meh for me because I was stuck in the Estrel with a very big suitcase, because to my annoyance, the fursuit lounge did not open untill 6PM, and it was at that time only 11am. So I had to wait 7 hours untill the fursuit lounge open so i could store my luggage there and fursuit and so on. So I spent the next 7 hours sitting around, drinking a bit and being bored as hell. However, FINALLY after a very long wait, I was able to go into the fursuit lounge to store my luggage. I don't remember if I immediatly when into fursuit or first walked around, or if I actually fursuited that day. I do believe that I went back to my hotel quite early because I was so tired, and I had a headache. So I ordered an Uber just a little after 10PM, and went back to the hotel to get a good night's sleep.However, I only slept for about 2 and a half hours, and woke up at like 2:30AM with my head still hurting. So I went to take a shower, and laidd in bed watching some videos, and I felt better but I couldn't fall back asleep. so at 5:20 AM I ordered an Uber to take me to the Estrel because I was bored. So when I arrived, I had a lil look around the hotel but it was dead, so I waited outside the supermarket for it to open, bought a bottle of the worst carbonated apple drink I have ever tasted.... Okay. I then went to McDonalds to have breakfast. I don't remember exact details, but I went to go fursuit for most of the day and met a few Dutch furries who I talked to and even befriended a few. After that I went to go fursuit for some of the day, but it was quite hot and it was hard to suit more than 2 hours at a time due to the immense heat. Infact, one of the days it was 32 degrees. Most of the day I spent suiting, including going to the Fursuit Parade and also did some general chilling. I then went back to my overflow to meet my roomie
petephin who had landed and was about to come. after meeting him, we took an Uber straight away back to the Estrel and went to go for some food, for some alcohol and had a good time drinking, taking pictures and having a good time.We then took an Uber back to our hotel at like 2:30am, so we could sleep for a new day of fun. We woke up in the monring, and
petephin practiced 'Fruit Cups' on his bass since he was going to play this song with FoxAmoore and Peppercoyote at the Charity concert on the saturday. We then took an Uber to the Estrel and did many more fun stuff together, more eating, drinking, fursuiting, picture taking, meeting new people and so on. I started to make new friends and meet new people too as the con went on and enjoyed the good attention that my suit was getting. I was nearly always suiting with my Dutch flag, and to my delight it got a lot of attention from people.To make this journal not too long, I shall shorten the events that happend over the next few days:
-Me and
petephin met with 
coopertom on one of the evenings, he told us about his DeLorean, his life, his views on European furry cons and so on, it was absolutely amazing to be able to talk to someone I had been following since I ever first came to the fandom. On the last day of the con, I gave him 5 packets of stroopwafels to take back home with him. It was so awesome to meet him in real life!-My roomie
petephin did indeed play his song at the charity concert, it was sold out and he did an absolutely fantastic job! -I managed to get my picture taken with a lot of people, and a lot of suiters. It was great to have met so many people at the con and to make new friends on Telegram
-
lemurr drove to come visit me and :iconpetephin for 2 days, as it is within driving distance. During the 2 days.Conclusion:
Before I went to EF, I had always seen it as a 'popufur only' convention, where you won't get any attention if you are not well known, don't have an expensive fullsuit or whatever. When I actually went, I actually had a great time. It was really fun and I actually did get a lot of attention, hugs and cuddles and pictures taken of me. There were some lonely times but that was not really the fault of the convention, more my own. Saying that though, If you are going there on your own, especially if you are not in suit and just a regular attendee, i would not really advise it. I would only go there if you are with atleast a semi large group of friends and if there are many people there that you know that you can hang out with. Otherwise you will be quite bored and alone due to the sheer size of the con. Because it is so large, it can be quite hard to start up new friendships, but at smaller cons it is more cozier and you seem the same people all the time, which means it is easier to start talking to people.
I have concluded it was worth me going to EF, and I will definetly return in the future. So far, I do have plans to return for the 2019 edition. So, I shall see you all again at EF25!
Shoutouts to people that I especially enjoyed hanging out with:
petephin - Friend and Room mate lemurr - Friend
kratas - Friend coopertom Really nice guy that I enjoyed meeting for the first time
condemnedtrack - Friend