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slycatI had tried to get to sleep early Tuesday evening in preparation for the extremely early time I had to wake up, but I only managed to get to sleep around 10.30pm. I woke up in a semi zombie-like state at 2.15am and jumped in the shower. Left around 2.45am and we picked up ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
arakinuk at 3.30am before continuing on to Stansted, getting to the car park just after 5pm.
Shortly after getting to the terminal building, and joining the queue for check in,utlah74 called to say he was just arriving himself, fursuit in hand. I turned around to notice Utlah and waved him over. The fursuit was in a box just a tad too big to put directly into my luggage (as I would have hoped) so I had to take it out of it's box and put all the fursuit bits in my luggage, all in plain view of the queue for check in :P. Anyway, checking in was simple enough, but the queue for passport control was absolutely huge, stretching across the width of the airport almost. It seemed to go fairly fast so wasn't too much of a problem, despite the Disneyesque deceptive queue length (once through the door, there was more windy queue to wait in). Once on the other side, I only really had time to grab a sandwich before getting the tram thing to the gate.
Was quite cool getting on the plane with so many other furs. There must have been around 20-30 furs on the plane. The flight itself was pretty pain free despite the delayed boarding for some unknown reason. It was a cheap airline but by no means as bad as SleazyJet. You got complimentary sandwiches and soft drinks but obviously nothing too special, as it was only a short flight anyway. On arriving, it was all very swift, the passport control people badely even bothering to glance at my passport before walking throught o baggage claim and collecting my easily identifiable bright yellow case :).
Couldn't be bothered with the whole public transport thing so 4 of us got a taxi to the hostel. Was quite cheap when split 4 ways, like around 3 euros each. The hostel itself was on top of a steep hill. I hadn't really looked at EF11 photos so didn't really know what to expect but it was all pretty impressive. Inside were random people, most who I had never met before, apparantly queuing for something but we were told registration was closed. Arakin dashed off to treat me to some Mezzo Mix (A Coke branded drink which is a mix of Coke and Fanta Orange) while we waited for registration to open. Lots of other UK furs were arriving while we were waiting, such asagrajag_fur, stu_ath and rapidofrog.
Apparantly once registration was open, it went very smoothly compared with previous years. Inside my pack was a con book, registration badge complete with food card and also a fursuit badge which I had requested online previously. Also exchanged 20 euros for my room keys and then made my way to the room. As I had made a request for room on the fursuiter's floor, we ended up on the 3rd floor, in room 316, literally right next to the fursuiter's headless lounge which was sandwiched between our room and the main stage. The room itself was reasonably small but it had 2 double bunk beds, a wardrobe and a sink which was all we could need really. I claimed a bottom bunk remembering Glis' nightmare tales of a hostel in Amsterdam (I'm not going to repeat the story here).
After getting settled in, we ventured back out and hooked up withskunki for some food at a kebab place. Continuing the rule that seems to be kebabs are nice anywhere apart from the UK, it was very nice. I tried out some random drink there which turned out to be a 7up clone, while Arakin had a can of "Schwip Schwap" which was Pepsi's (inferior) version of Mezzo Mix. Wondered back to the hostel, after dropping by an art supply shop and a "Norma" supermarket.
Pretty much socialised in the main dining room while waiting for the "Grand Opening" where the murder mystery began. The murder mistery being a nice extra twist on the con. Basically, "Madame DaReal" supposedly died during the opening and there's clues left around the con and in the con book as to the motive and reason behind it, etc. Following the ceremony, there was a barbeque put on where they had freshly grilled meat. Was also a good oppertunity to start chatting with random people who you ended up sharing the tables with.
I was feeling pretty damn tired by this time, and I wasn't sure if I could be bothered suiting up. Lots of others got suited aroun 8pm so I just grabbed photos and videos of their antics. However, some time later on in the evening I decided to suit up after being encouraged bydurandal2uk. I had been wearing my contact lenses, and as my eyes had got sore from being tired, I was wearing the fursuit without really being able to see that far. I went down to the lobby and mingled a little letting people take photos, etc. Was fun, if a little scary as I couldnt see very far due to eyesight and mesh in front of my eyes, but the suit was well received, especially amongst those I already knew. One thing I did learn from the experience is that I need to learn poses!
After that, I think I just went back to my room and went to bed... day 2, hopefully coming soon. In the meantime, here's another photo I found of my fursuit, taken on the Friday during the parade:
arakinuk at 3.30am before continuing on to Stansted, getting to the car park just after 5pm.Shortly after getting to the terminal building, and joining the queue for check in,
utlah74 called to say he was just arriving himself, fursuit in hand. I turned around to notice Utlah and waved him over. The fursuit was in a box just a tad too big to put directly into my luggage (as I would have hoped) so I had to take it out of it's box and put all the fursuit bits in my luggage, all in plain view of the queue for check in :P. Anyway, checking in was simple enough, but the queue for passport control was absolutely huge, stretching across the width of the airport almost. It seemed to go fairly fast so wasn't too much of a problem, despite the Disneyesque deceptive queue length (once through the door, there was more windy queue to wait in). Once on the other side, I only really had time to grab a sandwich before getting the tram thing to the gate.Was quite cool getting on the plane with so many other furs. There must have been around 20-30 furs on the plane. The flight itself was pretty pain free despite the delayed boarding for some unknown reason. It was a cheap airline but by no means as bad as SleazyJet. You got complimentary sandwiches and soft drinks but obviously nothing too special, as it was only a short flight anyway. On arriving, it was all very swift, the passport control people badely even bothering to glance at my passport before walking throught o baggage claim and collecting my easily identifiable bright yellow case :).
Couldn't be bothered with the whole public transport thing so 4 of us got a taxi to the hostel. Was quite cheap when split 4 ways, like around 3 euros each. The hostel itself was on top of a steep hill. I hadn't really looked at EF11 photos so didn't really know what to expect but it was all pretty impressive. Inside were random people, most who I had never met before, apparantly queuing for something but we were told registration was closed. Arakin dashed off to treat me to some Mezzo Mix (A Coke branded drink which is a mix of Coke and Fanta Orange) while we waited for registration to open. Lots of other UK furs were arriving while we were waiting, such as
agrajag_fur, stu_ath and rapidofrog.Apparantly once registration was open, it went very smoothly compared with previous years. Inside my pack was a con book, registration badge complete with food card and also a fursuit badge which I had requested online previously. Also exchanged 20 euros for my room keys and then made my way to the room. As I had made a request for room on the fursuiter's floor, we ended up on the 3rd floor, in room 316, literally right next to the fursuiter's headless lounge which was sandwiched between our room and the main stage. The room itself was reasonably small but it had 2 double bunk beds, a wardrobe and a sink which was all we could need really. I claimed a bottom bunk remembering Glis' nightmare tales of a hostel in Amsterdam (I'm not going to repeat the story here).
After getting settled in, we ventured back out and hooked up with
skunki for some food at a kebab place. Continuing the rule that seems to be kebabs are nice anywhere apart from the UK, it was very nice. I tried out some random drink there which turned out to be a 7up clone, while Arakin had a can of "Schwip Schwap" which was Pepsi's (inferior) version of Mezzo Mix. Wondered back to the hostel, after dropping by an art supply shop and a "Norma" supermarket.Pretty much socialised in the main dining room while waiting for the "Grand Opening" where the murder mystery began. The murder mistery being a nice extra twist on the con. Basically, "Madame DaReal" supposedly died during the opening and there's clues left around the con and in the con book as to the motive and reason behind it, etc. Following the ceremony, there was a barbeque put on where they had freshly grilled meat. Was also a good oppertunity to start chatting with random people who you ended up sharing the tables with.
I was feeling pretty damn tired by this time, and I wasn't sure if I could be bothered suiting up. Lots of others got suited aroun 8pm so I just grabbed photos and videos of their antics. However, some time later on in the evening I decided to suit up after being encouraged by
durandal2uk. I had been wearing my contact lenses, and as my eyes had got sore from being tired, I was wearing the fursuit without really being able to see that far. I went down to the lobby and mingled a little letting people take photos, etc. Was fun, if a little scary as I couldnt see very far due to eyesight and mesh in front of my eyes, but the suit was well received, especially amongst those I already knew. One thing I did learn from the experience is that I need to learn poses!After that, I think I just went back to my room and went to bed... day 2, hopefully coming soon. In the meantime, here's another photo I found of my fursuit, taken on the Friday during the parade:
