That's how you get kidnaped

When I joined steemit I was rather skeptical about ever seeing anyone in person from there. I mean I've been in multiple guilds for online games and nothing has ever come out of it.

Well so it happens that few months back when discussing a potential steemit chat meetup few brave souls (@escapist and @eveuncovered ) took the necessary first step and booked a hotel. I thought to myself - they seem to handle my terrible jokes in chat, I wonder if they can handle them in person. The rest just kinda fell into place and not too long after I found myself and @thebunbun on our way to Tallin, Estonia to meet people from Finland, Latvia, Estonia and Netherlands.

Have you ever used a chair to watch youtube?

As I grow older I somehow have begun to value comfort a bit more and more. I hate buss rides... They bore me the heck out! I can't read in buses either or else I get instantly sick. So we said fuck it, let's drive the cool buss!

And I'm glad we did!
I was able to spend my trip watching youtube on a freaking buss seat!
Yeah, the technology has been there for a while but to actually experience it in person and use it comfortably... how cool is that!?! 220V outlets to charge you phone? Check! Comfortable seats? Check!
The time flew by and I ended up watching a few movies as well on the trip back.

Setting up the base and meeting the gang

Once we rolled in Tallin it was time to drop off our things and meet the rest of the steemians. We managed to book a very nice place in the old town above a small Italian cafe. The looks, the atmosphere - pretty fucking cool.

Now comes the awkward part - seeing everyone face to face.
After the initial hugs and awkward "My name is..." we decided to stick to our aliases as it was sooo much easier to remember. After trying to get @rubencress to say my real name correctly I just said fuck it and was the beercake from then on.

Like a bunch of awkward teenagers who can't decide what to do, we decentralized decision making. The ones with the biggest cameras decided to head out for a joyride outside of Tallinn to get some juicy nature shots as you might have already seen them on @eveuncovered and @escapist.

The rest of us decided to PAAAARTAYYYYYY.

Tonight we dine in Hell!

Stories are best told on a full stomach so we went and traversed the labyrinthine streets of the Tallinn's old town to find a pub that wasn't completely riddled with tourists.

Thanks to my excellent navigation skills and intuition we found ourselves in Hell.

So me, @thebunbun @m31 and @celestal had a few beers and talked a bit about steemit. Our hopes and worries...

The interior really set the mood.

After having a couple of beers we decided to have a little sight seeing tour trough old town.
Really it was just an excuse to find another place to drink and eat.

Sip Sip Hooray

After eating and drinking we decided we need more drinking and less eating.

So @thebunbun had done some googling and really wanted to visit a place called Patcave. Now here's the thing... Patcave is a horrible mess. It's where student's would go to drink if they had no money and don't mind the mold in the air and lack of alcohol in your cocktails.

So we obviously got 2x 2L pitchers of Gin & Tonic for the 4 of us while we waited for the camera people to show up.
Yes it was a shithole, but it was our shithole and we liked it that way!

Picnic and the lovebirds

After some very late breakfast and gift shopping we all regrouped for a picnic! @kristves provided us with tips and maps how to find the best parks. And of course we had to get more gin and tonics. @escapist was kind enough to give us a taste of the amazing gin from Finland. Ruben somehow managed to make a whole cocktail while sitting in the grass.

We also got entertained by a newlywed couple who decided to have the most generic and banal photo shoot of all time. Watching ruben, eve and escapist suffer watching that and cringe was a true entertainment.
Not too soon after we got another entertainment in the form of a middle age couple making out wayyyyyy to close to us which made me come up with this poem:

Grass is green
Sun is hot
Adults kissing in public
Certainly not

_{I swear it was way more funny in person}

One last drink ... for real this time...

All things must come to an end, even the good ones...
We ended up back at the patcave where we managed to taste one of the worst cocktails to date. Some even had missing ingredients! Some were so watered down we had to add our own "special sauce". Of course I gained a lot of enjoyment watching @rubencress trying to teach the green bartender how to make the drinks and then watching @escapist tasting them in absolute horror.

I am absolutely amazed how well we all got together. Me, @rubencress, @m31 , @celestal, @eveuncovered, @escapist, @kristves and @thebunbun. We all laughed at terrible jokes, drank too much and ate too much.
These will truly be memories that I will hang on for a long time...
Thanks to everyone who came and thanks to steemit for bringing us together!
Special thanks to @Josie2214 for bringing me to steem in the first place.