I hate early morning flights, and I hate it even more when I have to get up at 2.30am for it. It's pitch dark when I leave home and for some bizzare reason the road outside looks like the moon. How weird.
Not as weird as how busy the airport is at 4am. It's not like we're London Heathrow, we're just a little small regional airport. Once we got through immigration all the restaurants were packed full with people. It wasn't this busy when I flew out back in the summer. People were even drinking at 4am in the morning. I don't know if it's a Brit thing or people getting in the holiday mood.
Snowpea is very excited, this is her second Hivefest. She went to Amsterdam HF7 two years again and came back with her new friend Mary. The girls are looking forward to their second HF and are hoping they to see Sonja again. I all wonder if she has travelled with @zirochka.
I was very tired and slept throughout the two hour flight. When we landed at Split, I felt a bit more refreshed and was relieved to see the gorgeous weather. It was so different from the downpours the others had mentioned yesterday. Sadly I don't think the good weather will last long, especially on Friday when the boat trip is scheduled, thundershowers is forecasted all day.
Normally we stick to public transport when we travel and there's a bus that people straight into the city. Since we were both still quite tired we opted for a Bolt (like Uber) and got to our Airbnb within an hour of landing. The next thing we did immediately was to find something to eat. Apart from one croissant in the morning, we had not eaten for 16 hours and was absolutely starving. This burger was so delicious and juicy I had to end up eating it with a knife and fork 😀. By the way, Croatian beer is very nice.
More food later on in the afternoon before we head off to the first event of this year's Hivefest. We stopped by for some burek. It's filo pastry with filling, and we choose the beef filling. I found all the beef in Croatia to be very beefy and very flavoursome. This burek was very nice.
Finally it was time for the Opening Drinks. Although this is my third fest, it's always a bit concerning going to the opening drinks because you don't know who's there and if you can find anybody to talk to.
I really didn't need to worry because as soon as I arrived, I recognised a lot of faces and names. It was so good to see old friends and meet new ones. Everybody wants to talk to everyone. And I didn't even have time to get round to speak to everyone yet. Lot's more socialising to do the next few days.
Last and not the least, the Hivefest swag bag. It's always interesting to see what goodies are available. Let me do an unboxing for you.
This year's swag bag is a little light compared to HF7 in Amsterdam. Starting from the top we have some Hive keyrings. At last!! Why didn't we have them before? These will come in so handy. Then we have a bunch of stickers, Mogaland, Hive, and Worldmappin. If you want to make your suitcase stand out and not mix up with other people's, they will be perfect. We have a HF9 Croatia coaster, again always handy to have around home. There's be a bunch of goodies from the Bee Devs. I particularly like the candy, very nice touch, and the square one is a magnet. Yeah, one more for my fridge be collection.
I'll be posting more updates from Hivefest in the coming days. Stay at tuned.
I couldn't see you yesterday, hope to meet you 😄
Yes, see you around!
Have a great time, I look forward to reading your updates
Thanks. We had a great day 2 of conferences
Looks like you are having a great time already! I'll just have to live vicariously through you.
I'm sure lot's of the others will
be posting as well, you can get a multi view experience 😄
Awesome!
The boat trip sounds a bit sketchy lol thunderstorm on the forecast?
I'm sure you will be fine just make sure you have a life jacket nearby.
Have a great hivefest. 👍
Not looking forward to it if the weather is bad, otherwise it looked like a great time day out
I'm sure you'll be fine. Have fun ⛵👍
OH gosh, I'd be so nervous I wouldn't recognise anybody! I'd be a lurker in the corner until I had enough beers to have the ccourage to say hello. Of course I'd recognise you, but I'm not sure I'd recognise everyone else!!! So exciting - have the best time!
Man up girl!! 😂 You been around for so long, I'm sure you'll have a great time if you ever went to a Fest 💪
Hahah 'next time'.
Hopefully not like a bad smell :P
w000t !!! Enjoy HiveFest =)
Thanks! Missing you Team Malaysia, we had such great fun in Bangkok!
Enjoy, girls! ;) - You already have keyrings, the Universe was listening when you showed interest in the keyrings Mary made for HiveCubaCon.
Yes, so happy I got so many now 😁
Have fun Pauline 😁
I had a trip were I just returned from yesterday… I didn’t manage to stick hivefest right behind it.
One day I make it 😊
!LUV
@livinguktaiwan, @littlebee4(1/10) sent you LUV. | tools | discord | community | HiveWiki | <>< daily
That's a shame, it would have been great to meet you Jackie.
Yes, one day we meet 😊
Those goodies are cuties, love them...
Not as diverse as the one in Amsterdam but I love the keyrings
Yes, those keychains are useful and cute... I hope you are having a good time near the sea...
Lovely goodies in that bag! And I feel you for not being a morning person. However, I enjoy these mornings no matter how early they are when it comes to a trip. The excitement just reaches new limits then and completely forget about hating to wake up very early in the morning. Have fun at Hivefest!!
It actually took a lot of planning to get up that day 🥴. On D-2 I went to bed at midnight, on D-1 I got up at 7am and went to bed at 10pm to make sure I could wake up at 2.30am on the day. Now I'm writing this, it sounds so stupid 🫣
Would have loved to see you here Gabby, I have met a couple of ladies from Romania here, they are lovely
Woah, that's such a planning indeed! Sounds funny but smart too! No joke!
Would have loved to meet you as well :( There are very few people from the chain that I have on my list to meet IRL one day and you are one of them for sure! Maybe next year tho..
That would be great if you can make it I'm sure you'll love it and I look forward to meeting you
@tipu curate
Upvoted 👌 (Mana: 46/56) Liquid rewards.
enjoy your fest!
Will do, you can be sure of that. Will you be joining us one year?
I would do the social side LOL, the other stuff would just not suit my brain tbh !
Looks like a fun time.
It sure is!
Snowpea & Mary are adorable! And that burger looks amazing! 😋
Had to bring my girls with me so they don't miss out 😄
Glad to see you made it there this time.
Hope you get to go on the boat on Friday.
Boat trip moved to Sunday now, so I'm sure you'll continue to see more Hivefest posts next week
I think I am going to move to Croatia. It’s beautiful.
So far so good from what I've seen, I'm hoping to explore more in the next few days
For sure that morning flight sounds annoying especially loosing your beautiful early morning sleep. Oh well those foods though got me salivating here
Luckily I can sleep well on the plane so it wasn't too bad in the end
Which I can travel with u guys need some vacation myself
Love it!! 👏👏
Ahhhh those burek things look devine!! 🤤 🤤 🤤 🤤 🤤
Looked like lots of fun at opening drinks and cool that you were able to make it to Hivefest again. Some year I will get there!!
I'm enjoying these gathering more and more. I remember the first one was very daunting but now it feels so good to see friends again
It's great to be able to hang out with you and your husband again!!
Thanks for the rocks! 😜 😝
Thanks for being the courier, hopefully next time we meet Mrs P can join us as well
Aha! So this is the burger that I was told about on the way to our lodgings, honestly it looks very good, a dish to definitely replenish energy. How nice that you tried St.Burek as soon as you arrived, I still have it pending, but I like to know that someone approves it, I will go more confident in their search.
Hahaha I still haven't checked the HV bag yet, thanks for letting me know what it brings, that day I took it and put it away immediately so I didn't lose it and haven't had time to nose around.
This day of the welcome drinks, I thought it would be very hard to recognize anyone and I really appreciate you greeting me as soon as I arrived and gifting me some of your time so soon, it was great to meet you this prompt!