I have never been (officially) on a hivefest before but I met a lot of cool people in Krakow when steemfest happened there back in 2018. I simply didn't had the money to book flight and the stay while still paying a ticket but I decided to make a short trip to meet all my online friends and bind more with them in person. Many things happened since then, a lot of the people have left or changed directions so it is now time to get to know some new people this year in Amsterdam.

The moment I heard about the next real life hivefest I have been all-in already. It took me some time to save the needed bucks for booking everything but hey: now I am writing this post so everything worked out as it seems!

My Travel

To Amsterdam I will get by train from my hometown Hamburg. The original plan was to get their by car and park my little bumpy car outside of Amsterdam. But then I researched parking prices and quickly changed my plan to leave my little friend at home and take the train. The train tickets are even cheaper than the parking fees needed for this time span. I booked a pretty good deal via https://omio.com

I will arrive on wednesday evening at the central station to have some time by myself. I will wander around the city, take photos, make some videos and enjoy the city without any intense communication. I need this to get grounded and comfy in a new place.

Unfortunately I will not make it to the closing dinner because of train schedules and all that but after so much time spent with you I think I can skip the closing dinner. I will stay in Amsterdam until sunday afternoon and hop on my train at 5pm to get some sleep and to proceed the experiences I will then have made with you!

My Stay

My hotel is located pretty central in the Warmoesstraat from where I have a good starting point to explore the city and to get to the event locations of hivefest. I payed some extra bucks to have a single bed room with my own bathroom because I have the feeling that I am not the person who is open to sleep in one of the many hostels and share my space with other people. I guess I am a bit spoiled by the business trips I usually do :P
The Warmoesstraat looks so damn pretty that I think I will make thousands of photos there alone.

source: wikimedia

Waking up early

One of my many plans is to get up early every day to see the city wake up. I am going to make photo walks in the morning, capture empty streets, the sunrise, road sweepers and everything what happens around me. This will be the perfect way to get ready for hivefest every day!

I don't drink any alcohol and stopped doing drugs more than 6 years ago so you will probably not meet me in the middle of the night in a bar. I will have fun and probably I will go on a dance but usually I stay like 2-3 hours before I become annoyed by the drunk or drugged peeps. No offense! Do your thing and have fun :) It's just nothing for me anymore.. I had to learn it thr hard way that I am not doing good with addictive substances. Okay that went far.. What I tried to say: I wouldn't have problems with getting up early to fulfill my plan.

source: wikimedia (this is a sunset .. I did not find a creative commons image of a sunrise in amsterdam ;) )

Also I will always have my gimbal with me to create some videos and talk about my experiece which leads me to the next chapter:

Vlogs

As you perhaps know I am a passionate video creator and DTuber. I am going to make short vlogs about my experiences at the hivefest and try to capture many moments to share with you here and on DTube. For these videos I am going to create an unique intro with stop motion and some video editing in the next couple of days. More on that in an upcoming video but as a little sneak peek here are the printed elements I will animate by hand:

While in Amsterdam..

I will miss my girlfriend and my two little flat mates:

When you see me..

please don't hesitate to just speak to me! You can call me by my real firstname "Norman" if you want and we can have a chat about anything and/or have a coffee together.

Thanks to Hive account@roelandp for organizing this event!

I have been a part of the organization team of the DTube Forum in Barcelona and I know how much work this has been. An event like the hivefest is not comparable to the Dtube Forum so I can only imagine how much you and the team have on your table.

Thank you for reading this far and for your time to comment. Hope to meet you in Amsterdam and have a great time together!

I am looking forward to build new relations with exciting people - That's my main aim for attending the hivefest!