London To HiveFest
This is the thing. I want to attend Hivefest this year for at least two reasons. First, it’s in person, the first time since the great pando sent us to the virtual world two years ago. Second, it’s not too far away from me. In fact, Amsterdam is a couple of train rides for me - tube to the Eurostar station, and train to Amsterdam. I have two choices; either directly to Amsterdam, with one stopover in a Belgian or French city.
That’s the great thing about Europe - the interconnectedness of the cities by land, sea or air. Folks on the eastern coast of England can jump on a ferry. From London, it’s a short flight from three of our airports, including City Airport, which is bang in the middle of the city as the name suggests. Heck, Amsterdam is closer and much more accessible to me from London than many cities in the UK.
I have finally managed to accumulate enough HBD (in exchanges) to buy my ticket to the event. I’ve done this by earning and selling some tiny cryptos here and there, not Hive though, and converting to BTC. This has been quite fun and satisfying to do actually. I like the idea of getting something tangible out of my cryptos, including $BAT which I earned by simply using the Brave browser over the years. A little here, a little there, all add up eventually.
Alas! The unfortunate thing about having Hivefest in a major European city is that we have major-European-City prices to look forward to. While the actual Hivefest tickets are very affordable and an incredible deal for what you get, the other costs are astronomical! Accommodation, if I want to stay by myself, which is the way I like it, is nearly comical in Amsterdam. That’s the largest cost for anyone attending I can imagine. The transport cost from London is also quite high, especially if you want to travel by train - my preferred mode of transport. I can’t believe how much Eurostar wants for this trip. Ironically, the cheapest mode of transport is by air! Well, as long as it’s one of those budget airlines like EasyJet. KLM wants 3x as much as Eurostar, a price that nearly made me spit out my coffee when I saw it. Besides, I’d still have to get to the airport.
I noticed I can also go by bus, which is an 11 hour journey approximately. The cost is comparable to going by air, but with obvious disadvantages. It’s the most uncomfortable, the longest and least safe way to get to Amsterdam from London. Having said that, I’ve never travelled by bus across Europe before so it may be more fun than I imagine. I have family members that only travel by bus and are happy to do so rather than fork out the airline charge. Another does it because he has a big fear of flying. Of course, in reality, flying is orders of magnitude “safe” than the roads, especially over such long distances.
As a side note, we need a competitor for Eurostar, who’s enjoyed monopoly status since the Eurotunnel opened decades ago.
Back to the accommodation. The last time I attended an event in Amsterdam, I booked some “cheaper” accommodation somewhere far from the event. I ended up having to take a cab or bus, depending on how much time I had, to and from the event - which defeated the entire purpose. False economy. I may bite the bullet then and just book the fancy expensive place right where HiveFest is. After all, it’s an investment in network building eh? How does the saying go again? Something about ”network” and ”net worth” 😅
So are you going to HiveFest? How much is it costing you to go?
Peace & Love,
Adé
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What about Dover - Calais ferry? I entered the UK that way and it was fun, plus the cliffs of Dover are super cool.
I'd still have to get to Amsterdam from Calais though. I'm a big fan of convenience 😂
Bicycle xDDD
Hope you make it, will be good to connect with you finally.
Fingers crossed. We missed the chance in Krakow. It's hard to believe that was 3 years ago 😮
Almost 4 years (Nov 2018), I remember both of us picking up the crap during Clean Planet, that's about it!
Holly crap! That's right
I am arguably waiting for the day I will also attend one hivefest
Hopefully we'll have one in Ghana or Nigeria one of these days.
Well, Hive fest isn’t in my priorities for now, I would be happy to visit such an event and maybe meet some of the people who are always around the place (the virtual one).
It’s very interesting as you mentioned that there are some ridiculous prices for transportation in Europe. It’s sometimes very cheap - in the 10-20$ range to fly a budget airline in the close to mid range (up to 2 hour flights) and going by your own car would cost you about 5x more. And international trains are ridiculously priced too! In Bulgaria though, train is maybe the cheapest possible form of public transport!
Have fun at the hive fest!
Thank you. Still yet to actually book though.
I'm taking the train there. I think prices have gone up since I booked. I've not done Eurostar before. It seems the leg from Brussels to Amsterdam is not running, so I've booked an alternative. I've messaged Eurostar for a refund on that, but no response so far. Will ask when I check in.
I went for one of the 'official' hotels for convenience. It's not cheap, but Hive has paid for it and I consider that a good investment to save on travel time.
I agree with the investment part. The networking that will happen in person will more than make up for it.
I think I've crossed off the idea of going by train now. The prices are way too high now. The bus thing will have to be an adventure. Maybe I'll find an overnight one to arrive in the morning of the 15th.
Enjoy and be sure to take lots of photos. It would have been fun to try to attend, but alas, I just couldn't make it work this year. Would have loved to check out Amsterdam however.
I don't think it can match Krakow, but lets wait and see. Those were some core memories formed in Poland.
I'll be there. Flying from Poland, then a train from Eindhoven. Not too expensive flights, but the accommodation... yes! I'm staying in a hostel but still pricey for what it is. I think I'm within walking distance to the main action but we'll see. An adventure either way ;)
Hope to see you there!
Nice. If only I could cycle (properly), I'd go for that. Travelling through Amsterdam by bicycle is really easy. I'd have opted to stay even outside Amsterdam and cycle in.
Yeahhh if you are going to make it we will finally meet again dude! My whole trip + stay is at around 500eur + the ticket at 220eur because I am a very small fish :P But it will be absolutely worth it! My plan was to get there by car but unfortunately I can not park it somewhere semi-safe without paying more money than the train from Hamburg to Amsterdam and back costs. Hope you will make it. Peace!
There's no parking in Amsterdam man :)
There's something to learn everywhere :D