I've just came back to Mexico from Split, Croatia last Wednesday. Yup, I made it after all!
On the 9th of September I was pretty sure I wasn't going to make it, and only a few hours later I managed to book my flights anyway. So let's dive right in how all this came to be!

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I had a few things going against me, one being finances, and the other was time.
The initial plan was to travel to Germany with my kids, then the two teens would have been picked up there by their sister so they would have spent some time with her and my sister in the Netherlands, while I would continue to Split, accompanied by my youngest, who was really looking forward to it.
And so was I. We were going to do Hivefest, then spend a few more days in Croatia, and slowly make our way to Romania and visiting a few other countries along the way. I had plans to visit Hive account@honeydue in Romania, spend some time exploring the country, before heading back towards the Netherlands...slowly. Spend some time with my family and friends there, and then hop on a plane back to Mexico. The whole trip was supposed to last for 3 to 4 weeks, and most of it would be done by train.

And then shit happened. I've mentioned all of it before in this post, so I won't bother you with it again.
But in short: my plans suddenly fell through, and at this point, I didn't even know if anything was even possible. When my daughter suggested I'd go to Hivefest alone, because 'only one week wouldn't be so bad' I regained a little hope, but there were still a few things to consider.
Our damn fridge was hanging by a thread, and the climate we live in requires a fridge...
Low and behold: the thing regained some of its life. I have no clue how, but it did. It's about 80% functional now, which is better than what it was before with only the freezer working (after I shut it off to defrost and clean it). A true miracle, because usually here, things only break more, not less. LOL. But even with no fridge to worry about any time soon, it still looked quite slim, but I didn't give up, and kept looking for cheap flights.

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On the 9th of September, however, I felt like I had to let this dream of me making it to Hivefest this year go. I couldn't find any flights suitable. They were either too expensive, or too late.
I thought I had checked everything, so I decided to accept defeat. When I mentioned this on the Hivefest Telegram group, Hive account@jza told me he'd managed to get a flight from Cancun to Brussels via Tui fly, for a reasonable price. I think it was about the only airline I hadn't checked yet. But when I checked the flights to Brussels, the next one would be on the 11th, which meant I'd arrive on the 12th, and on the second day of the conference. This didn't seem like a good idea, to arrive after the conference. Sure, there would still be lots of people there, and activities as well, but it would be nice to catch at least one of the conference days.

But then I discovered that other countries have their own Tui fly websites, so I checked those, and low and behold: The UK version was a hit!
I would fly on the 10th, arriving only one day late, at the end of conference Day 1, missing only the opening drinks and the 1st conference day. Not too bad!
Now there was still the tedious task to get myself from London to Split, and, of course, also back home. Since I couldn't risk not having a flight for either leg, I had around 12 different tabs open at one point. 😆 My brain was still functioning, luckily, so I was smart enough to call my bank to let them know that in a moment, quite a few flights would be booked using my card, so they wouldn't cancel or somehow stop it. It's happened before, I knew what I was doing...

So with all these tabs open, luckily a constantly functioning internet, some 100 curse words I didn't even know I knew, and a little headache later, I managed to book Cancun to Gatwick, London. Then London to Milan, Italy, and Italy to Split. The return flight was a bit harder, with no connecting flights available, so I ended up booking Split to Rome, Rome to Brussels, where I'd arrive at 4 pm, and would have to wait for the next flight to Cancun, the next day at 9.45am.

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Was it all worth it?

Yes! It absolutely was!
Once I took a much too expensive taxi to the dinner venue, I was greeted by many of the Hivefest friends I already had. For a moment, I felt like a celebrity, and it was amazing to see everyone again. Some I had just seen a few months ago, and others not in years! The celebrity feeling was mostly fueled by the little drama I created by posting in the Telegram group about my 'YES, GO, NO GO, 'wishing you all a great Hivefest, while I cry myself to sleep' to finally another YES GO, after all...So yeah, I kinda made them be as happy as I was to be there, LOL.

But that's all in the past, and unfortunately, so is Hivefest. (wouldn't it be amazing to finally have that Hive island...or cruiseship? And live like one happy Hive family? OK, I'll shut up. One can dream, right?) But even though it's over now, I met old friends, made new friends, and all of them are now considered family.

So thanks to Hive account@jza, for the tip. One of my Hivefest heroes, because there were a few who I need to thank for even making it this year.
Another BIG thank you goes out to Hive account@growandbow Mazin, without him, I wouldn't have been there. And of course, Hive account@llunasoul, because she's just amazing.
I also have great love for the lady I do translations for, because she paid me an advance, even though we only just started working together in the last few weeks...Talk about trust. So if you're looking for me, I'll be translating hah!
And last but not least: Hive account@honeydue who I became roomies with at the last moment. All of the above:
Without you, Hivefest9 wouldn't have been possible for me, so I will be forever grateful.