I have never been to Mexico before and I always love to visit new countries and places. When the Hivefest announcement came out I was very happy that I could add another country to my Pinmapple travel map. I did some homework about going to Mexico. It would be quite a long flight from UK to the west coast of America but that didn't put me off. Accommodation at the HiveFest venue was a lot more affordable compared to Amsterdam last year and the hotel looked really lush. Given I'll be travelling some distance, and I will be going with my husband, I wanted to go someplace else after HiveFest to make the trip even more worthwhile.
Mexico would be nice but Yucatan was at the other side of Mexico on a 4 hour flight. America was another option of course, it's been quite a few years since I've been. The last time I was in the States, was 2012 (wow, I didn't realise it was that long ago!) I went to San Francisco and Las Vegas. I've also been to New York previously. The problem with America, is that if you don't drive, your options are very limited. I mean I do drive, but us Brits drive on the other side of the road, or the wrong side as everyone else might say, and I've never driven on the 'right' side. I couldn't find many drive free places in America, so my road to HiveFest Rosarito was over even before it began.
With Mexico out of the window, I started planning another trip. Maybe closer to home. After Covid, most of the trips I've been on are cruises. Those who read my blog regularly may know cruises aren't my cup of tea. They are convenient and very affordable in the post Covid world, plus I was too lazy to organise my own trip.
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This time I was ready to travel with a bit more freedom and not be constrained by cruise timetables. Hubby had always wanted to go to a particular country in Europe and I started to plan around that. Then suddenly one day a wizard asked if I would like to go to Krakow for pizza. What??!!! 😬🍕 Turns out that instead of @gtg and @zirochka crying on each other's shoulders over not going to HF this year, the wizard decided to get more people together so we can have a cry party a European meetup. Luckily I had planned my trip around the same time, so I quickly changed my itinerary to fly into Krakow as my first stop.
I've been to Krakow before, in 2011 (Wow! that's even before San Francisco and Las Vegas). It was a long weekend, and we went to Auschwitz and the Wieliczka Salt Mine. Auschwitz is a very sad place and it made a big impact on my understanding and view of this terrible period of history. I think it's a place you have to go once in your life time if you're in Krakow, but I wouldn't return. It's just too painful. For our HiveBeeCon meet up, @gtg is arranging a trip to Wieliczka. It will be nice to revisit again particularly with my new Hivesphere friends.
So far I've booked my flight into Krakow, accommodation for a few days and I think I'm near the Royal Route somewhere. And I've also booked my flight back home from another city. The 10 days after Krakow is still not booked yet, as I've been a bit busy recently. I hadn't realised HiveBeenCon is only two weeks away. In fact, less than that for me as I'm flying out a few days earlier. I'd better get moving and book the rest of my accommodation otherwise I might end up living rough in Europe.... or I may hunt down a wizard and stay with him 🙃
HveBeeCon is open to everyone, if you can make it please feel free to join us, the more the merrier. Saturday 7th October is the day. We plan to go to Wieliczka Salt Mine in the morning followed by a meet up later on during the day where @mipiano will be performing for us in the evening (yep, we have our very own Hive pianist). Quite a few of us will be in town before Saturday so maybe we can organize something else as well. You can find all the details here @hivebeecon
Hope to see you there and I can't wait to see those who have said they will attend !!!
