What started off as a hypothetical “What if we went to Steem Fest?” conversation snowballed into reality. Here’s how we made it happen:
First, we poked around online to see what plane tickets might cost.
The lowest we found at first was around $900 USD round trip. Ouch. Neither Jordan (@shenanigator) or myself have that kind of dough, especially considering the other costs we’d be facing (SteemFest ticket, hotel, food, etc.)
I remember the first night we just gathered general information.
I was checking things like US dollar to euro conversion, how to say “I’m allergic to peas, sesame seeds, and onion” in Dutch, and what exactly the weather is going to be like in Amsterdam in November.Jordan still makes fun of the fact that I said:
“It’s going to be 48° F (9° C) in the day and 39° F (4° C) at night!!? What type of eskimo clothes do people even wear when it’s 39°?!” In my mind, that weather feels like this:
I was serious.
Guys, we live in Phoenix, Arizona…. in the desert. It only gets that cold for like 2 days of the year. I’m much more accustomed to the 120° F (49° C) summers.
Make fun of me all you want, I’m a desert rat, born and raised. ;)
Now, if I can only learn how to say, “Ik ben allergisch voor erwten, sesamzaad, en uien” so my food allergies don’t kill me while I’m abroad.The Flight
Based on my year of traveling the United States in 2013, I knew that 6 weeks ahead is the optimal date to book a flight. We spent WAYYYYY too long trying to find the best deal, but it was ultimately thanks to the travel hack posted by fellow Steemit user @steemrollin that we ultimately booked two flights with WOW Airlines.Before we made the final purchase though, I imagined what it would be like to fly with WOW.
They promise to wow you, but no one eeeeever said it would be the good kind of wow.“WOW these seats are really tiny!”
“WOW they really try to nickel and dime you for everything!”
“WOW I can’t believe how much they charge for a drink!”
“WOW that was a terrible flight!”
All in good humor, of course.
But either way, it was at least $400 less than any other airline, even when we tried Jordan’s travel hack.Next, we bought our SteemFest tickets
(source)
For this, we followed the purchasing instructions on the SteemFest website. It’s a true testament to the generosity of the Steemit community that the range of ticket prices accommodate those who can’t afford the full price, but would still like to participate. A BIG THANK YOU to the users who made donations to make that possible. Seriously, thank you.
And the last step was the hotel.
We are staying at the SteemFest’s Volkshotel and followed instructions by @steemfest to book the room for a full week.
We’re REALLY looking forward to the rooftop hot tub...
...but definitely more excited to hear from the awesome speakers, meet everyone we've been talking with here, and then maybe a side order of partying and other shenanigans. ;)
