So what do a bunch of bloggers do when the food arrives at the table?

Pictures of course!

(In the photo: @stabilowl, @travelgirl, @quochuy, @ratticus, @phamished, @ohboy, @chrisdavidphoto)

The Day

Not really knowing what to expect I tried to convince Hubby to take the train. I don't drive which means he's always the designated driver, and we're going to the Bavarian Bier Cafe = shots paddle. We've never come here and not gotten a full paddle. But not being a fan of public transport and the Blue Mountains line not particularly reliable he insisted on driving down.

We left home at 12pm. Hubby said it would take about an hour and a half to get to Parramatta and he was spot on. Despite driving past several accidents on the road by 1:30pm we we're in our fave carpark within a short walk to the venue.

The Venue

It's been a long time since we've been here and most times were at night so I wasn't sure if this gorgeous mural was new or not.

It caught my eye straight away when we arrived filling me with awe. I stared at it and tried to get my head around it while I had my Midori and lemondade.

We were early which was good, it gave me time to get a drink in and relax before everyone arrived. I jumped on the #teamaustralia channel on PAL that morning and have been in touch with most of the attendees and knew who's coming. Not long after we arrived I got a message from @ratticus saying he was there.

I spotted him straight away even without his ponytail. And really you guys, ain't nothing like doing a big "HEEEYY" wave to an almost stranger across tables seating people, who looks over to you like you done gone nuts.

I gave Rat a big ole hug so happy to finally meet him in person and it wasn't long until we settled into our reserved table in the church (in front of the bar ~ like how I pictured it) and @Rustle flew out of Rat's backpack to give Aunty Arly some

Hugs.

And kisses.

Then straight to business.

While he was getting his drink on and Rat and Hubby were chatting I decided to look around the room and take in the details that made it so very special.

Like these stained glass windows. Two of the many that lined the walls.

The epic bar and how the high ceiling makes it look more epic. Let's also take the time to acknowledge the 2L beer tubes lining the counter.

@Rustle came in really handy being the most recognisable Steemian in the group and it didn't take long before the others found us.

The Slush Fund

If it had occurred to me to raise the slush fund earlier I would have promoted the meet up more in the first week. But thanks to the generosity of the kind people of Steemit and a big fat upvote from our @TeamAustralia witness @ausbitbank. I had a meet up post that was over $100 that I could cash out in time for the meet and allocate toward everyone's drinks for the afternoon.

So we got a couple of tubes

And of course shots! And hell yeh I took a video!

(And hell yeh I asked him to shake that cow bell one more time! 😁)

The plan was to get most of the alcohol out of the way before the food arrived so people had time to sober up.

Amazingly it went according to plan. I honestly thought we would need more drinks for the table when I saw the tubes almost empty but everyone was so sensible about it.

What did shock me was that they ran out of butterscotch schnapps. When they told me this, dead set, not even joking around, I was like "Whaaat?" and thought straight away, they need to get their Bavarian Card revoked 😳. That was until they gave us what butterscotch schnapps they had left for free and I thought awwww.

The Food

Once the shots were done and dusted, the talk went over to the food and we decided to order share platters for the table.

(Bloggers being bloggers. How adorable is @Phamished with her camera. She's on full pro blogger mode with that thing.)

I'm glad @ratticus and @phamished and co were organising the food otherwise I would have stuck to getting my pork plate and wouldn't have been able to try the sausages. I did say I wanted crackling and they were so awesome they made sure I got crackling, and it was delicious!

Everything I had was as I good as I remembered. The pork was moist, the crackling cracked, the sausages were new though. I had always gotten the pork tasting plate and this was the first time I tried their sausages and they we're juicy and tasty. I loved the spicy one in particular not sure what it was called. I was busy chatting to @stabilowl and Hubby was shovelling food on my plate making sure I eat.

Initially I thought perhaps we didn't have enough food but we ended up with a small amount of left overs which was great. I didn't want people to leave hungry.

The Meet Up

This is my first Steemit meet up and it's definitely not my last. I had a lot of fun and I really enjoyed spending time with everyone there, which is probably why I'm keen for my next meet up.

Even though we went over 2 hours it still felt like there was not enough time to talk to everyone. I know I missed conversations down the other end of the table, and a conversation about Diablo.

I did manage to sit down with @quochuy and hear his thoughts and ideas in real time. I have to say I'm really impressed with his projects and his efforts to help the Vietnamese and Australian communities. So much so that I voted for his witness.

We may not have had Steemit signage (I'll be rectifying that for the next meet up) but we were Steemians through and through as the conversation went from crypto, "Where does the money come from?", #promo-steem, witness transactions (thanks @quochuy our witness in attendance), #dlive (thanks to our local dlive celeb @travelgirl) to the all important question "What colour lambos do we want?"

We all parted ways soon after we finished our meal. Hubby and I walked the short stroll to the carpark while the others headed towards the train station.

We arrived home close to 7pm with a tired little cockatoo. Poor little fella, he's had a big day and a wee bit to drink so I tucked him in bed.

And he's still in bed! How much did he have to drink?!

The Meet Up Bug

I'm pretty sure I caught the meet up bug. I am actually trying to organise the @TeamAustralia Christmas Party right now.

If you want a great Christmas Party venue, you need to make a move quick! This I learned from my office days.

I want exclusive venue hire for the night, with good food, plenty of drinks, a dance floor, a DJ and in a great location.

When I say great location I mean something that would look fabulous in everyone's blogs no matter which angle or where on site the photos are taken.

I already have a place picked out and may need about 80 people to make it happen. Current price per head is $145AUD but I'm hoping we can raise funds for it so we can lower price per head or maybe completely fund it with Steemit.

If you're interested in coming to the @TeamAustralia Christmas Party in Sydney leave a comment!

If you've never been to a Steemit meet up before you need to attend one. Only Steemians know the Steemian life and it's so comforting to be around people who can truly relate. It's also great to be not the only person taking photos of the food.

When I saw everyone taking photos instead of eating I thought "These are my people." and y'all are.

Thanks for coming to the meet up @stabilowl, @travelgirl, @quochuy, @ratticus, @phamished, @ohboy and @chrisdavidphoto and making my first meet awesome.

Special thanks to you Rat for getting the meet up ball rolling, helping with the organising and bringing @Rustle out to see me for cuddle. Much appreciated mate.

HUGE thanks Hubby for driving me around and looking after me so I could mingle. You're the best ❤

Last but not the least, thank you Bavarian Bier Cafe, Parramatta for your hospitality. You didn't disappoint.

If you're reading this wondering if you should make the Bavarian Bier Cafe, Parra your venue. The answer is Yes.

I'm going to go see if @Rustle is up yet. Might have to make a strong cup of coffee and wave it in his face to see if he'll wake up.

Happy Monday Steemit!

🍺 Arly