Alpha Con - Part 1...
Okay… even though - like already mentioned - the previous weekend wasn’t the best experience of my life, some of you obviously still wanna have a report. But even though I’m just starting, I can already promise: It will be long and I probably won’t leave much out. Good stuff and bad stuff, because of course there was good stuff too. It was a special time after all and the actors gave me some very precious moments… and since I want to do a photo book as soon as I got my JPEG files for the photo ops, I thought, writing everything down won’t hurt… and kind of reliving some of my favourite moments.
And of course sharing it with the people who are interested in it is also a nice thing. I’m sure not many of you will read my “novel”, but since there ARE some of you who were interested, I’m now sharing my experience.
As I already mentioned, the whole experience already started on Tuesday, 3rd June, with Kasia (=aevenien) and Isabel arriving in Vienna. Which was already an experience itself *lol* I don’t really know WHY, but I was pretty damn sure Kasia would be arriving at Vienna Westbahnhof on Tuesday. Which is why I waited there at the time she told me. And then she wrote me was there and I couldn’t find her and she couldn’t find me. Until she was writing me something about a kiosk right downstairs the train platform and then it began to dawn on me that - SHIT - I was at the wrong train station. I actually WAS at Vienna Meidling before (the train station Kasia arrived at) and had to take the subway to get to Westbahnhof, so I told Kasia not to move and stay there and that I would get her.
My god, what a disaster. But I know it’s my fault, since I obviously didn’t pay enough attention. Luckily it’s only 3 stations with the subway and I FINALLY found Kasia. YAY ME *lol*
We said HELLO and then we had to go back to Vienna Westbahnhof because Isabel WOULD arrive there, so at least that one I got right.
We went back to the subway, drove to Vienna Westbahnhof and waited for Isabel. She arrived not much later and then we got rid of Kasia’s and Isabel’s luggage (aka putting it into a locker there) and went to get something to eat. At McDonalds. Because I had Coupons where we could get something to eat cheaper than normally, so that was a good thing.
Afterwards we took the subway again - this time to get to Stephansplatz - and there we went into the Stephansdom (it’s one of Vienna’s landmarks) and since it was already late when we got out we decided to look for the cinema.
For the people who haven’t read it before: Our plan was to watch the new “X-Men” movie this evening (so we wouldn’t have to go to Vienna twice and spend more money) - and so that’s where we were headed. The Cinema was supposed to be 5 minutes away from the Stephansplatz, but well… truth to be told: It took us 20 minutes to really find it *lol*
We got our tickets (I had them reserved before), got popcorn and something to drink and then sat down to talk for a bit until it was time for the movie. I’m not gonna repeat my review here, but I still wanna mention again how absolutely much I loved the movie and that I’m definitely going to watch it again. And again. And again. It’s probably my favourite so far and I just thought it was a great movie.
After the movie was over we went back to Vienna Westbahnhof, got Kasia’s and Isabel’s luggage and then went to Meidling and from there to Wiener Neustadt where I had my car. And from there - of course - we went to my place where we arrived around I think 10 or 10:30. Not exactly sure, but must have been around that time.
Of course both - Isabel and Kasia - were pretty tired, and so was I, and so after talking a bit, taking a shower and getting ready for bed we went to sleep around midnight. And since we didn’t have any big plans for the next day we didn’t turn on any alarm clock.
I was awake first, around 8, I think, and since both girls were still asleep I just left the room with my laptop and sat in the kitchen, checking the internet, watching “Faking it” and such (so I at least was able to watch one show during the week *lol*) and waited for the others to get up. Isabel “joined me” around I think 9:30 and Kasia slept a LOT longer… I don’t know exactly how long but when she got up she asked us why we didn’t wake her… well, I’m sure she needed the sleep.
Like I said - no big plans - but after getting up and getting ready we went to the shopping center and got something to eat and afterwards I showed them around in Wiener Neustadt a bit, showed them the Dom and such. Unfortunately it started raining when we were about to leave the Dome. Heavily. And so we decided to go back home.
Before, we did some grocery shopping in the supermarket, getting some things for dinner and also for breakfast for the days Kasia and Isabel would stay at my place and then we went home and well… started some kind of “tv-show marathon”…
I mean, not exactly, but we managed to watch a total of 5 episodes of “SUITS” this evening. Kasia already knew the show (and of course I did too), but Isabel didn’t, but she liked it (as far as I could tell) and it was a pretty nice evening.
We went to bed around midnight again and I turned the alarm on for around 9 a.m. since the next day was “registration day” and adding to that, another friend that would be staying at my place - Viktoria - would arrive at 10 a.m. - or at least that’s what she said. In the end it was 12 and we had to leave right away since registration would (or should have!!!) started at 2 p.m.
We also had to get another friend from the train station before - Fabiola - and while we were on our way there were more “bad news”, because she wrote me a message that her train would be about half an hour late. Well… higher powers or such, there was nothing we could do about it. We went to the train station anyways and waited for Fabiola who FINALLY arrived around 1:30 and then we got to the car and directly to Voesendorf. That’s the name of the town in which the convention would take place.
It was quite a challenge to find the free parking place near the “Pyramide” (that’s how the Convention center was called, and it was called like that because it was built like a pyramid. A HUGE glass pyramid for that matter), and we drove around for a while until we found it. It was already 2.30 when we arrived there and there was already a huge queue of people, but despite of the registration supposedly starting at 2.00 nothing had happened yet. And then we found out it wouldn’t start until 3.00. But that didn’t happen either. I think when they FINALLY opened the doors it was already 3.45 and it was another at least hour until I FINALLY was registered.
It was HORRIBLE.
And they made LOTS of mistakes there already since they completely mixed up mine and Isabel’s coupons for photo ops and autographs. It was a whole chaos and mess and I should have already known by then that this was NOT a good sign.
Still, I was happy when it was finally done and since I hadn’t bought party tickets before and everyone was telling me I should come to the 2 parties too (Saturday: Rock’n’Roll, Sunday: Blacklight/Neon), I decided, whatever, let’s just do this, and I bought the tickets for the 2 parties.
When we went outside I noticed that I had 3 missed calls from a german number, but that happens sometimes and I was quite sure it was one of those “polls” they do on the phone sometimes and didn’t really pay much attention to it anymore.
Kasia had planned this whole “get to know you before the con dinner”, and so we went to the huge shopping mall right across the “Pyramid” to meet up with people in the restaurant Kasia had chosen for it. There were only a few people there already, but in the end there were A LOT of people. It was an Italian restaurant and it was quite delicious.
And also: Something REALLY unbelievable happened during that dinner. Something I NEVER expected to happen.
I probably have to go farther back for you to understand what happened and why it happened.
About a week before the Convention Alpha Con posted something about a “competition” to win tickets for Alpha Con from a tv-channel called RTL 2 (it’s a German Channel). You didn’t have to do anything besides fill in your name and address and age and phone number and e-mail address and I was like “Whatever, let’s just try”. I mean, I already had my ticket, but you could win 2 tickets in each category of the Con (aka Alfa, Beta, Gamma - Alfa was the most expensive one), and yeah, I thought “whatever, I won’t win anyways”.
And then during the dinner the German number called again and I was debating for a second or two whether to take the call during the dinner or not, but I did… and OMG… I’m still SHOCKED about what happened next.
On the phone there was a woman from RTL 2. From the “competition”. And she told me I have won 2 ALFA (!!!) tickets for the Convention, asking me if I’ll be able to attend. I was SPEECHLESS. Like SERIOUSLY speechless. I didn’t know what to say besides “yes, yes, I’m able to attend the Con, I would like to have the tickets” - and she told me to be there at 9 the next day to register and collect the tickets. Like OMG. I FUCKING WON ALFA TICKETS. Who were worth about 600 Euros. Which I would have never been able to afford.
I was a bit scared that I wouldn’t get them since I already had the Gamma tickets (and the bracelet), but Isabel and me (I decided to give Isabel the 2nd ticket since she’s just so awesome and I couldn’t have imagined anyone who would have deserved it more than here!) decided to cut off the green bracelet (they had different colors so everyone knew which category we were) and just register again.
It also meant we would get 6 additional photos (with all guests except the Sponsored, which meant there were pictures of Paul Wesley, Michael Malarkey, Nathaniel Buzolic, JR Bourne, Ian Bohen and Daniel Sharman included), and also 6 additional autographs.
I decided to keep most of my autographs (except Nate’s since Viktoria loves him so much and so I decided to give her the coupon), but at the same time decided to sell or give away some of my pictures. I sold Michael’s and Nate’s and Daniel’s pictures (and the party tickets, since they were included in the Alfa Ticket and now I had them twice) and gave JR’s and Ian’s pictures to Kasia (for free, since I didn’t have to pay them either and since I’m a nice person and since she only had 2 pictures herself and I wanted to share the joy) and yeah… so everyone was happy.
I was a bit scared that Kasia or Viktoria would be angry that I gave the 2nd Alfa Ticket to Isabel, but first: I knew her longest and best, and second: Isabel also gave away the pictures and autos she didn’t want. Some of them she sold (like me) and some of them she gave to Vik and Kasia, so in the end we were all quite happy… and I still couldn’t believe that this happened and that I won those tickets, because apart from the fact that I had additional pics and autographs, it also meant seat in Row 1 or 2 ;-) So there’s that.
I was pretty much in a haze for the rest of the evening thinking that this convention would be perfect. I really thought that now nothing could go wrong anymore… oh how wrong I was…
But more about that in my report for Friday, since I decided to split the posts in days (just like with Bloody Con) and since it’s already way too long)
After the dinner the girls and me went home (Fabiola stayed in a youth hostel near my hometome), took a shower, talked for a bit and decided to call it an early night since the next day we would have to get up around 6:30 and leave around 7:30 to be in Voesendorf in time, so yeah… it was a short night.
And I can definitely mention that I didn’t get much sleep AT ALL during the whole convention time. I’m sure that’s probably “normal”, but I’m still pretty much beat and tired, so I’m sure I will sleep a LOT tonight and maybe even pretty long tomorrow and when I get up I’m going to see a doctor.
Another thing I have to mention before ending the post: On Thursday I woke up with a huge throat ache. I could barely breath and I was also coughing and my back hurt during coughing and when I checked my temperature it was 37,5 °C. Not really fever, but also higher than it should be and I was pretty much pissed. Convention time starts and I’m getting sick. GREAT. I just hoped it would be something that would be over quickly and took some medicine Thursday morning to try and catch it before it gets worse. I also took some “lozenge” with me, but it was all for nothing and when I got up Friday it was even worse than before, because adding to everything: My nose had started running like crazy. And to top it all off: I had gotten my period Thursday evening.
See? Perfect circumstances to go to a Convention… ;-) /irony off
More in the next part about the first day - Friday - that will come off soon… :-)