August 20, 2005
uten
tag. As I write this information, I'm sitting in a convention hall in
Leipzig, Germany. I've been sent over to do the "press" thing
for our EU folks, and I'm having a lot of fun. I haven't been in Germany
since about 1969 (yea, I know, most of you weren't born then....) and
much of it is the same. Of course, the trip over was grueling, as I decided
to leave my car at home. This prompted me to get up at 3:30AM, so I could
get picked up by the limo/cab at 4:30, to make it to the airport in time
to get through customs and checked in for my 8AM flight. In fact, it went
much quicker than expected, and I was actually sitting at my gate by 6:30
AM.
After leaving from San Diego, we flew to beautiful Newark, where we had a 3 hour layover, then on to Frankfurt, where we had a 4 hour layover before catching a plane to Leipzig. Now, with that amount of layover time, you'd think they could have gotten both of my bags onto the appropriate planes, wouldn't you? :) Fortunately, I only lost one, and it was lost for about 5 hours. However, I've been eating out every night, at all sorts of neat little restaurants, and having a grand time. The German people are incredibly kind and welcoming. Leipzig is a great town with a wonderful convention center, and it seems that a significant portion of the town's economy is based around the convention business, so they certainly may be "trained" to be kind to visitors, but they do it well.
The show runs from 9AM to 7PM daily, and today it runs until 8PM. This show is a bit different from E3, as it is open to the public, which I'm finding quite refreshing. At E3, there's a ton of public in there, but they're all pretending to be press or buyers. Here, it's open. The first day was for press only, and was a nice warm up for the rest of the week. The crowds are incredible, but polite just the same. We've got a couple of guys helping us out from some German guilds and fan sites, and they're incredibly helpful.
Tomorrow morning, most of the folks are flying home, but I'm sticking around, renting a car, and driving around looking for things to take pictures of. I won't be back until after labor day, so you won't likely be hearing from me for a while.
Be good while I'm away!