Hello Steemian so after a wonderful yet surprising night in the main Steemfest hotel at the secret garden for some pre-drinks and of course meeting great new Steemians friends which I would interact with for much of my stay in Lisbon, I wanted to still give a quick overview on the happenings and thoughts I had on the first day at the Steemfest event.

Images By: Hive account@simonjay

So I started day 1 by getting up early obviously too early for my liking because of the late night pre-drinks event which I know is completely my fault but other steemians stayed up much later then me which is why I think some turned up to the main conference much later.
But I dont regret any of it! I was warned about this anyway and was loving it.

Anyway after getting my Steemit gear on it was off downstairs to have some yummie hotel breakfast not the best I have had but still very good quality.

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Images By: Hive account@simonjay

After breakfast it was time to catch the coach Hive account@roelandp said there would be like 6 coaches to take all of us Steemians but at first I didn't believe him it seemed like waaay too over the top I mean 6 coaches really!? But there was indeed many steemians this year it just shows how large the numbers have got since the first Steemfest in Amsterdam.

Having our own Steemfest Coaches was freaking amazing guys!

Images By: Hive account@simonjay

Steemfest Coaches Now Open For Business Wow!

So the coach was taking us to Praça do Império which for me was an honour and I hope other Steemians realise its the largest square in the Iberian Peninsula and one of the largest in Europe it measures about 280 m by 280 maybe more.
Yes I had been there before but that was already many years ago I was mostly there to see the Padrao dos Descobrimentos.
Which I pictured here.

Oh and btw descobrimentos means discoveries.

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Images By: Hive account@simonjay

Here is a closer look later

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Yeah so I didn't bother too much this time as I concentrated more on the Praça do Império but didnt have much time for that either.

Anyway unfortunately while waiting for the coach there was these beggars being slightly pesky some made jokes that they got tipped off that Steemians were here and that were all mega rich so for them to come and target us standing right outside the hotel at 9 sharp for money.

All jokes aside I felt sorry for them the problem with the homeless is you cant always tell if your money is going to be used for good like getting a meal vs drugs but to be honest these beggars didn't look like the type for drugs not only that but the people of Portugal are mostly not interested in drugs but my problem was I honestly had no money on me especially any euros that would be useful to them.

I wished at the time I was in a position where I could of given them both 20 euros so they could go get some food but unfortunately I barely had the money to get to steemfest it was only because of the occasional fund support from Hive account@paradise-found Hive account@roelandp Hive account@blocktrades Hive account@done Hive account@kevinwong Hive account@firepower and those who voted that I managed it and infact that is abit of a lie I still had to borrow some money from a friend to cover the hotel costs.

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Images By: Hive account@simonjay

Perhaps in future I will have more to give but for now I must continue on my own quest for a new computer as mine sufferers from the blue screen of death making writing post incredibly frustrating most times and if I cant write posts then I cant ever help anyone else.

Anyway next time I want to share more of Praça do Império stick around for that plus much more to come still.