The Meepledrone Diaries - Essen or Bust 2022

[Meepledrone]

Prologue

October 4th 2022

Dear Meeple Diary,

As you well know, it all started in August. After a few tries, I couldn't put together a party of valiant Iberian Carcassonne fans to attend together the Essen Spiel fair. I was on vacation, so I was just relying on pure luck to be able to succeed in September.

All of a sudden, I got this message from Tom to join a Carcassonne Central party to Essen along with Dan and Willem... Holy Meeples! I was reading the messages as I was wandering the streets of Mallorca admiring the peculiar signs written on cans. All of a sudden, I found myself staring at this traffic sign... Was this any type of heaven-sent sign?

It took me 5 milliseconds to say yes.

XOXOXO
Meepledrone

Linkback: https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=6128.0

[Meepledrone]

Catching the flight

October 5th 2022

Dear Meeple Diary,

Today is the day. So nervous... Will they allow me check in my large suitcase? I've been gathering stuff for Willem since early May. My largest suitcase is full of Carcassonne stuff weighing almost 20 Kg now... Piling up box by box, and also lots of maps... Stuff from Devir and also from Swan Panasia, which I received luckily yesterday. It will be great to meet Willem in person and see his face when I hand him over all this stuff. One thing is imagining what you'll get and another seeing it with your very own eyes....

...

OK. I'm heading to the airport. Finally I decided to move 3 boxes to my carry-on suitcase and a couple to my backpack. I don't want anything in the suitcase to get squashed. I'd also like to avoid any issues during check-in due to overweight limits. Going early, just in case anything happens.

...

This is what my suitcases looked like. So innocent-looking on the outside. Wish me luck!


- Are we there yet?
- Nope!
- What about now?
- Nope!
- ...

...

No issues with the check-in so we are ready to fly... The in-flight service was out of this world. I was sitting in row 27. When the reached me, they were out of sandwiches, so I had a soup just in case I could have nothing to eat in Essen. Who knows? I was landing at 22:20. Not a bad time to have dinner for a Spaniard... Forget about that in Germany... or in the rest of the world.



See you later!

XOXOXO
Meepledrone

[Meepledrone]

Meeting the guys

October 5th 2022

Dear Meeple Diary,

We finally landed. My red suitcase took ages to come out... As it was quite late I decided to take a cab to the hotel and spare me from the burden of dragging around two suitcases and a backpack... All in all, I wanted to maximize the time with the guys as I was the last one to arrive.

The hotel was almost in shadows, not a single soul in the streets. The cab driver wasn't even sure we had arrived to the right place. Was the address wrong? Was this a ghost hotel? I paid and entered the hotel which seemed so quite and dark...

To my surprise I heard some voices coming from an dimly lit area in the lobby which turned out to be the bar. High celings, open spaces, a few guests, flickering candles on the tables...  And finally I saw them there: Dan, Tom and Willem drinking tall glass of beer each. Left my stuff there, greeted them and joined them with another beer.

After chatting a bit I proceeded to open my large red suitcase and show them its contents. They were surprised that it was larger than expected from the pictures I shared earlier.



We also exchanged some gifts and enjoyed watching Willem assemble his brand new customized tile tower reading Carcassonne Musem on one side and Willem on the other. Dan and Tom checked the process from a prudent distance. Eventually they will have to do the same with theirs.


We enjoyed the light of the flickering candles on the tower and played our first game together using the tower dispenser. Willem played yellow and one. Had he rigged the his tile dispenser to draw the best tiles? We'll never know



It was exciting to finally share some hours with these guys I've been exchanging messages with for maybe four years. Even if we had frequent exchanges, I hadn't met them in real life yet. Just saw a few pictures of them from some UK meetups. I came with no preconceived ideas of how the following days will unfold. So let's enjoy the ride.



...

Time to go up to the room! I't s been a long day and we have to get up early in the morning. What will happen tomorrow? Time will tell.

XOXOXO
Meepledrone

[Decar]

I'm gutted to hear that they ran out of sandwiches on the plane!

[Meepledrone]

I'm still devastated two weeks later...

[Meepledrone]

Breakfast... a world apart

06/10/2022

Dear Meeple Diary,

We met at the hotel lobby at 08:30. I was ready: Backpack and extra large bag inside - check. MMike's temp tatoo on - check (the second try was a success ). Non-descript T-shirt on - check.

The temp tattoo before applying

The tattoo once applied Note to self: Next time, apply tattoo on the hand with the city edge facing the knuckles. Secret CarcC salute: fist bump with another member while shouting "4 points" and mimicking a explosion afterwards.

Oh, wait! At the lobby we got new T-shirts by Decar aided by MMike's talent. The shirts read "No tile left unturned," so I changed my T-shirt on the spot. First suprise of the day. If we wanted to lay low, we were just breaking the prime directive...



The Carcassonne T-shirt legend!!!

Here we are flying under the radar some hours later...

Nobody would say they are not twins...

The morning was a bit chilly and we headed to fair on foot. On our way there we stopped by a McDonald's to have breakfast. This was my first time ever to struggle with its breakfast menu... Where were my beloved ice creams??? I scanned and perused all the menu options several times to find them but to no avail... 




In the end, I got an Egg McMuffin®, an orange juice and a bottle of water... Mehhhhhh! No sugary boost to endure the morning... Could I survive like that? Could I cope with the emotions of the day with such a small food intake? Would I faint half way? The McMuffin thingy seemed so small... A vortex of thoughts were spinning in my head! Ahem! Ahem!

- Is your breakfast okay? (while munching a heavenly cookie)
- Yeah! Yeah! (while taking small bites like in a Jane Austen novel to make it last a bit longer...  )
- Good! We should get going...
- (Thinking to myself) As God is my witness, I'm going to live through this and when it's all over, I'll never be hungry again.

This tiny breakfast would not beat me! Not at all! I shall prevail!!!


Egg McMuffic... The crude reality halves whatever you are expecting

XOXOXO
Meepledrone

07/10/2022

Dear Meeple Diary,

I want to retrace my steps on early Friday! You'll see why...

It was 08:30 again when left the hotel. We followed a different route and we stopped at a bakery shop to get some breakfast to go. I picked a raisin bread with a spiral shape, an apple pie with a spongy dough and an orange juice. Vitamin C - YES! At last I could get something suit for breakfast!!! The sky is the limit!


Artistic photo or how to take a picture while grabbing your stuff with your teeth

This was a real improvement over my beakfast on Thursday! We strode to the Fair while eating our breakfasts in silence as long as it lasted. Big bites to finish it up... Who cares!

XOXOXO
Meepledrone

08/10/2022

Dear Meeple Diary,

Today is Saturday and the weather forecast said it was going to rain, so I added an umbrella to my backpack just in case.

This personal breakfast challenge seemed under control. But wait, I was again put to the test...

We left the hotel at 08:30 again. We took the same route as on Thursday and stopped by the MacD again...
Oh dear! Could I succeed this time? Well, yes and no... I picked some scrambled eggs with bacon and some bread. As soon as the bread and the bacon was over, the rest of the egg concotion seemed impossible to finish... dry, unjuicy, somewhere between lame and bland... After I returned the tray, I discovered under the cardboad egg basket a couple of tiny bags with salt and pepper... Duuuuuh! I could have also asked for some ketchup to ease it down...

But no worries, the prize was at the horizon... I ordered a yummy cheesecake with oreo sauce. This changed the perception of reality as we know it. Sweeeet and comforting! I got some extra forks for the guys just in case the wanted to try it... But nobody dared... Can't remember if they spotted that Gollum look in my face.


Food stating, whatever... but it was a decent cake...

XOXOXO
Mepledrone

09/10/2022

Dear Meeple Diary,

It's is Sunday! Yestaerday it was a gorgeous day... No rain, climatic breakfast, fun day... I know you wanted to know about my breakfast too... Don't be so impatient.

We left the hotel at 08:30 and we... yadda yadda yadda... Yes, again had breakfast at the McD down the road to the Fair. Could I have mastered the whole thing? Maybe discern what was important in a balanced diet? Let's see...

My order was a Egg McMuffin and an orange juce again... "Better the devil you know"... and a straberry cake... My face says it all... Ectasy at first sight...



What could go wrong now??? NOTHING!

XOXOXO
Meepledrone

[Willem]

I love how we all described our days at Spiel, games we bought, challenges we won, people we met.....
 and Meepledrone was more remembering his breakfast every day 

[Meepledrone]

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, isn't it? We should honor it as it deserves... 

[Challa007]

Really nice to get your report in "slices"   

[Meepledrone]

Ha ha ha!

If you read each installment with a piece of cake, it may even taste great!

[Challa007]

... or get me really fat... 

[Meepledrone]

 

[Challa007]

Are you finished @Meepledrone ? 

I was waiting for more … but @Willem seems to be right:
Breakfast WAS the most important thing in Essen for you, right? 

Ok, I agree, „Essen“ means „eating“in German,   

+1 merit from me, this is the most hilarious report of all!

[Meepledrone]

Ha ha ha! Thank you!

Not finished yet!

More to come in time... 

[Challa007]

Oh, good, more slices to come then