Hey there my Hive friends and followers!
Where to start? I don´t even know! I was already behind my Hive schedule before the HiveBeeCon and I´m even more behind it now but this is something I simply need to write now while all the emotions and memories from that epic Hive meet up are still fresh and vivid. I know that a lot of really amazing reports from this event have already been posted by some of the other participants and I will make sure to read them all as soon as I start working on clearing that huge backlog of engagement that I owe to the Hive community.
Maybe I should open this post with a little shameful confession. Even though I lived in Krakow, this mesmerizing Polish city, for almost two years in the past, I somehow never made it to @krolestwo aka KBK (Krolestwo bez Kresu or "Never Ending Kingdom" in English) run by Dawid aka @hallmann. Until now... But let´s start from the beginning.
As soon as @gtg and @hallmann announced that they were going to host a little alternative Hive meet up for those who couldn´t make it to the official HiveFest in Mexico, I knew I would love to go there but I couldn´t promise anything because my wife @liltammy (who actually wanted to go with me too of course) is deep into her final trimester of pregnancy so we had to wait until pretty much the very last day before the Krakow meet up to see if everything was ok with her so that I could go. Fortunately, she said that she felt good and thus gave me the clearance to go, together with her best wishes and greetings for everyone at the Con and for the city of Krakow that she loves as much as I do.
After pretty tiring eight hours on trains (still don´t know why it takes so long, considering that Prague is not so far from Krakow), I finally arrived to the Krakow Main Station where I was greeted by Przemek aka @deepresearch. We have been communicating on Hive a lot and it was really nice to finally meet him in person. Great dude who knows so much interesting stuff btw, his user name is no joke! :D With Przemek, we waited for another couple - Eva aka @evelynchacin and her husband Pawel as we planned to go Krolestwo together.
Eva is another Hiver that I have been a Hive friend with for a long time but we never met each other until now. She is amazing girl from Venezuela who moved to Poland last year. I always admired her courage to start a new life in a completely foreign country where she didn´t know anyone, didn´t speak the language etc. but Eva is such a strong-willed, positive and cheerful person and she has been handling all the challenges really well and now, she and her husband are even expecting a baby girl who will arrive at pretty much the same time as my and my wife´s daughter - what a lovely coincidence :) I know from my wife how difficult any traveling is during such advanced pregnancy but Eva still came to Krakow to spend some time with us and we all were so happy to meet her. They are such a cute couple and I´m sure that at the next Hive meet up, Pawel will already be a Hiver as well :D Tengo razon, Eva? :)
Once in Krolestwo, it all started to feel like one big happy family gathering. The total attendance of the HiveBeeCon was more than 40 people from many different countries and even continents. It was really incredible if you consider that it was originally meant to be just a little spontaneous regional meet up.
There are several rooms in Krolestwo and each of them was literally buzzing with lively conversations. Everyone was fascinated by the unique decor and very special atmosphere of the place so there was a lot questions about Krolestwo and Dawid was busy answering and explaining everything but he still somehow also managed to make sure that everyone felt like home. The kitchen / bar area was particularly popular as that was were you could buy drinks and meals for HBD (or for RCRT, the community token of Krolestwo). The menu was really cool and I got to taste many interesting Polish beers (the slight hangover that I had the next day would probably say even too many :D) that I paid for in HBD. What a great crypto use case!
Hours were passing fast and I got to talk to so many amazing people! I knew quite a lot of the participants by their Hive names but it´s always so nice to put actual faces to them, you know :) I was so happy to finally meet Martina aka @delishtreats and her husband Stefan. We have have been following each other for years so we already knew a lot about each other but nothing compares to some nice, real life, face-to-face chatting ad that´s exactly what we did :) Martina is such a lovely person and her husband Stefan is so much fun to be around! His cheerful spirit and joyfulness are literally infectious so everyone around him just kept smiling and laughing :) Stefan, I´m so sorry I couldn´t go after party clubbing with you! It really happens to me only very rarely to miss out on something like that but I felt dead tired and I would probably pass out in the very first club :D :( Next time mate, I promise!
Pauline aka @livinguktaiwan was another Hiver that I was looking forward to meeting so much. She came to Krakow with her husband too and they are both such nice people! They actually arrived a few days before the Con and I really wish I could be there for them to show them around the city as I know places that I´m sure they would love but unfortunately, my Krakow time was limited to the Con only but we still managed to talk and I´m happy about that :) Hope your following EuroTrip continues smoothly guys!
@blind-spot was the only person at the meet up who somehow (still don´t know how actually) knew immediately who I was, even though we never saw each other and I don´t post pictures of myself on the chain. Such a cool dude! We talked a lot, together with his friend and fellow countrywoman @priyanarc. They both originally come from Asia but they lived in Ukraine before the war and when the war broke out, they had to flee as their city got bombed and now, they are living in the Netherlands. Right after fleeing Ukraine, however, they spent some time in Poland too and @blind-spot even met Dawid and other members of Krolestwo who helped him in his first days and weeks in Poland. It was so interesting to hang out with @blind-spot and @priyanarc, they are such nice people.
Talking about Ukraine, I´m so happy that I could also meet @zirochka. I think we all read her authentic reports from war-torn Ukraine. Despite the daily bombing threats, she still lives there, helping her people to win this atrocious war. Regardless of all the adversities, @zirochka made it to the HiveFest in Amsterdam last year and she came to Krakow this year too. She is an incredible woman with such a big heart and courage. It was a pleasure ad honor to meet you @zirochka!
One of the highlights of the HiveBeeCon was definitely the piano concert by @mipiano. Oh boy, what a spectacular piano show that was! It was so amazing that I actually got embarrassed myself by applauding even in parts when I was not supposed to but I couldn´t help, it was such an impressive performance!
@mipiano´s concert, one of very few pictures that I took at the event, see below why
I got to talk to @mipiano and her husband @ph1102 later on during the evening and what else can I say than repeat myself: what lovely people they were! Coming to Krakow all the way from sunny Spain btw!
I also had some brief convos with Hivers like @llunasoul, @growandbow, @edje, @mynewlife, @szejq, @m31, @lpa, @asia-pl, @osavi and others and they were all super nice and friendly people.
I got to hang out with the hosts too of course. @gtg and @hallmann were all over the place to make everyone comfortable and I cannot thank them enough for making all of this happen. I think the HiveBeeCon exceeded all expectations. It was just hours and hours of pure joy, fun, laughter, togetherness and friendliness. The community vibes that filled Krolestwo that day were amazing and unforgettable. Thank you for hosting this event guys. It was a pleasure and honor to be there.
Dawid was actualy so nice that he even let me and Przemek stay in Krolestwo overnight so we slept like... well... kings! I really wish I could join some Hivers the next day too as I knew they met up again for a lunch and some other fun activities but I only had a few hours before my train journey back to Prague so I just visited some of my favorite places in the city and clicked a few quick shots for my wife. @deepresearch accompanied me on this little walk and we had more interesting talks on various topics. He even gave me these special Hive magnet stickers.
What a nice gift. @deepresearch actually promotes Hive by creating various Hive stickers and putting them on random places everywhere he goes, which is pretty cool way of "guerilla marketing", don´t you think? :)
I got back home on Sunday, late evening. Fortunately, everything was ok at home during the weekend. I was very busy on Monday but still thinking about the HiveBeeCon. Today, I could finally put my thoughts "on paper", I mean on the blockchain ;) Btw I really wish I took more photos in Krolestwo but this is something that happens to me when I get too excited and absorbed by something, I just forget to take pictures. The HiveBeeCon was extremely exciting so I ended up with very few photos but you can check out reports from other participants under the #hivebeecon tag. I need to check them out too (and comment on them, give follows to the new friends that I made in Krakow etc.) but I already know that there are some really great posts with a lot of pictures so feel free to visit them to get a better idea of what it looked like in Krolestwo that day. The group photo that I used here as the thumbnail belongs to Dawid. I asked him for permission to use it in this post but he hasn´t replied yet so I´m going to use it anyway and maybe buy him some nice baklažán as an apology later (inside joke, sorry about that :D)
The HiveBeeCon was absolutely amazing and unforgettable event. I enjoyed it so much and I would like thank everyone who made it happen and who came so...
Thank you HiveBeeCon, thank you Krolestwo, thank you Krakow!
CZECH / ČESKY:
Nedávno jsem tu informoval o Hive srazu, který se tento víkend uskutečnil v Krakowě. Nakonec jsem měl tu čest se ho zúčastnit, tak alespoň pár vět o tom, jaké to bylo. Naprosto úžasné. Celková účast se vyšplhala na nějakých 40 lidí, kteří do Krakowa dorazili z mnoha různých zemí i několika kontinentů. Na to, že to mělo být původně jen malé regionální setkání, je to opravdu neskutečné číslo. Hlavní část srazu probíhala v prostorách tzv. Krolestwa, což je komunitní centrum a nezisková kulturní organizace, kterou vede Dawid @hallmann, nadšený Hiver a skvělý člověk. Celý sraz se nesl v mimořádně přátelské a pohodové atmosféře. Účastníci si přímo na místě mohli za HBD koupit jídlo a pití, tak jsem poprvé v životě zaplatil svou pivní útratu v HBD :) Přestože jsem v minulosti v Krakowě žil, Krolestwo jsem navštívil poprvé a musím říct, že je to opravdu jedinečné místo s jedinečnou atmosférou. Takž pokud někdo z vás plánujete Krakow navštívit, rozhodně doporučuju se stavit i do Krolestwa. Je to v centru města, jen pár minut chůze od hlavního náměstí. A nemusíte se bát ani jazykové bariéry - Dawid mluví několika jazyky a mimo jiné umí i velmi dobře česky. Rád vás po Krolestwu provede a seznámí s ostatními členy krakowské Hive komunity. Scházejí se tam každý den. Jsem zvědav, jestli se nám někdy podaří něco podobného vybudovat i v Česku...
This post was created by me for the Hive blockchain exclusively. All rights reserved.
