Tuesday 3 May 2011

Fedcon XX part deux


Fedcon XX

Day 0: Wednesday.

So all packed and ready to go we drove to Düsseldorf. The traffic was CRAP and people were idiots on the road. This is not usually the case but there are exceptions to everything. We get to our hotel which is in a small village outside of Düsseldorf and check it. My first reaction was well it's not quite as nice as it's pictured on the webpage. The room was a kind of dingy and the bathroom smelled. It was clean-ish but I've seen better. Still it was only 75- euro a night with breakfast included and when compared to the 220- euro a night we would have paid for a room at the Maritim one can't complain too much.

I nested and Marcus brought luggage up. By his 3rd journey the woman at the front desk thought we were moving in. We got settled and then decided to head to the con hotel to get our passes and stuff since there as early registration open till 21:30 according to the info page on the forum.

We walked from our hotel to the Maritim and it took us half an hour give or take so by the time we got to the registration desk we were kinda hot, a bit foot sore and tired. It was a long drive and a longer walk than we expected. So you can imagine how we felt at 20:00 hrs being told oh sorry we closed the ticket pick up. Grrrrrrr

We ended up going to the info/help desk and the guy who Marcus talked to was also very surprised they had closed the ticket pick up desk and seeing our faces and the fact that we had come especially to pick up the tickets stuff, he rescued us there is no other word for it.

My Hero on Wednesday!

 
After this we decided to find food, and learn how the train system worked which ended up with walking all over the airport and then taking the S-bahn into the city late , not finding food and being cranky by the time we'd gotten a little lost and sorted out how things worked. It was 11pm by the time we made it back to the hotel room and we still hadn't eaten. Needless to say the 1st day in Düsseldorf was not a good one. I was tired, cranky, not feeling so hot, hungry and over all kind of annoyed.

We set up the notebook and watched an episode of Castle. Castle makes everything better then went to sleep.


FedconXX Day 1: Thursday

Woke up at 6 am to this:




At breakfast we saw other fellow con goers. We are a breed apart and you can spot us instantly because we're the ones wearing geeky t-shirts with something sci-fi related on them. The hotel breakfast was minimal but okay the hotel coffee was surprisingly excellent.

Thursday saw us rested and awake. There wasn't lots going on at the Convention so Marcus took me shopping. We explored Düsseldorf which, it turns out, is a lovely city with a lot to see. We mainly toured the main shopping center area and I found a pair of shoes ( yeah laugh) that I had been wanting for ages. Skechers- shape ups mary janes in black. the shop had 1 pair, in my size and we got money off due to a clever sales pitch from the cashier.

We ate a very nice Indian lunch from the food court in the Schadow Arkaden ( I swear I am using this as a character name in a book) and poodled a whole lot. Eventually though Marcus use dup all of his shopping XP and it was time to head back to the hotel then explore the bus system from there to the airport. the 760 stopped at the street perpendicular to the hotel and it took aprox 10 minutes to get to the Maritim. bonus points for this. 

Thursday the con area was relatively quiet. We were in mundane dress or civies as the 501st guys call it, so we poodled the dealer's but I had the feeling there wasn't as many this year as last and they were kind of spread out all over the place. One stand was selling great t-shirts but at 26,95 a t-shirt I'm afraid that's beyond my budget. We looked but didn't buy.

We went to see Garrett Wang who was really great to listen to and fun to watch, and sat through part of some of the fan films which were also very enjoyable.  The opening ceremonies was hilarious due to the whole flag muddle up ( Austria???)  and I have to admit that Garrett handled the hurdles presented to him with grace and humour. He is an excellent host / mc. I laughed so hard I cried and that doesn't happen with me all that often. While my bitch bone is huge my funny bone isn't.



After that we sat through Lance Henriksen's panel. He was jet lagged and low key. It was really intriguing to hear him speak and learn a little more about him as a person. He's an actor I've loved since I saw him in Near dark. After that we left ( sorry WW) we were just so tired and still autobahn lagged  I think.



FedconXX day 2: Friday

The first really BIG day of full convention going with most of it being for the autograph sessions so since we could care less about autographs we went back into Düsseldorf and explored the Altstadt. It was gorgeous and sunny and warm and we had a very nice time. I however developed headache form hell so we went back to the hotel and rested  before getting togged out in Stargate costumes and off we went. We met up with some friends and spent a lot of time chatting, then off on our own again we meandered down the corridor to get waylaid by the German Stargate club and drafted to be in the group going on stage to pay tribute to Richard Dean Anderson who had a panel. ( for the record I didn't want to get dresed up but Marcus insisted...)






The way it ended up happening I and the girl next to me were front and center stage so RDA ended up standing between us and slung his arms around us for the big photo ops. It was an unexpected fun and cool thing. One of those magic moments that occur when you wear a costume and are in the right place at the right time.


You can see Marcus and me here, we're actually looking at each other as if to say wow. So thanks to those who organized this, it was a highlight for us. We're pretty big stargate fans and I like Richard Dean Anderson, I think he's quite funny and very cool. And thanks to John for giving me his old BDU's. Dude bet you had no idea this would happen to them did you?


End of Part 1.

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