Due to some recent personal technical issues, it's been a while since I last blogged but I'm back now and I'll try to be as interesting as I possibly can!
A few weeks ago I went to Cologne in Germany for the biggest open gaming convention in the world, Gamescom!
Being press, I got to play a ton of games and meet a lot of dev and management teams for games like Guild Wars 2, GunZ 2, Everquest Next, Planetside 2, The Witcher 3 as well as peripheral companies like Razer.
We flew out at 8pm I think.
The drive from Stafford to Essex was about 3 hours long and we got 20 minutes from Essex before we realised we'd forgot the passports...
To cut a long story short, we lost every shit we could've possibly lost. I called my Mum because she is the single most reliable person to us on the planet. Well, she got a courier to get our passports and drive to her house were we could pick them up (her house is about an hour away from where we were suppose to be, to better to do 2 hours driving though than 6 and not make it to our flight)
We drove through a little village near Enfield, which was full of amazing houses and shops that sold kittens, puppies, bunnies and reptiles. It was almost like England was begging us to stay, showing us shops that sell happiness and sunshine.
NOPE.
We got our passports, got to the airport with about 15 minutes to spare and we were on our way to...Cologne.
When we landed we had issues with train tickets, kind of like I did the last time I went to Germany.
Do you buy a ticket from a machine that clearly explains how to buy a ticket? OH NO. That would be too easy!
Basically the system of this whole thing was:
> Attempt to buy a ticket with the machines they provide.
> Oh you can't find where you need to go? SORRY. no one speaky die Englisch hier!
> After you miss the train you're suppose to get on, you get on the right one to find out from a bunch of fellow Brits that you need your ticket stamped. Otherwise you get shouted at, and fined like 20€.
> GREAT WHAT NEXT.
> Hope no one asks you for directions, because there's no possible way to say "What's that in English?" politely.
Turns out the only people on a train at 11pm are Snooki look-a-likes and those guys you can't tell if they're drunk or dead.
We got to the hotel (which was really nice actually), turned on the TV, realised the only English channel was Sky news in repeat, turned the TV off and went to sleep.
To Be Continued...
The drive from Stafford to Essex was about 3 hours long and we got 20 minutes from Essex before we realised we'd forgot the passports...
To cut a long story short, we lost every shit we could've possibly lost. I called my Mum because she is the single most reliable person to us on the planet. Well, she got a courier to get our passports and drive to her house were we could pick them up (her house is about an hour away from where we were suppose to be, to better to do 2 hours driving though than 6 and not make it to our flight)
We drove through a little village near Enfield, which was full of amazing houses and shops that sold kittens, puppies, bunnies and reptiles. It was almost like England was begging us to stay, showing us shops that sell happiness and sunshine.
NOPE.
We got our passports, got to the airport with about 15 minutes to spare and we were on our way to...Cologne.
When we landed we had issues with train tickets, kind of like I did the last time I went to Germany.
Do you buy a ticket from a machine that clearly explains how to buy a ticket? OH NO. That would be too easy!
Basically the system of this whole thing was:
> Attempt to buy a ticket with the machines they provide.
> Oh you can't find where you need to go? SORRY. no one speaky die Englisch hier!
> After you miss the train you're suppose to get on, you get on the right one to find out from a bunch of fellow Brits that you need your ticket stamped. Otherwise you get shouted at, and fined like 20€.
> GREAT WHAT NEXT.
> Hope no one asks you for directions, because there's no possible way to say "What's that in English?" politely.
Turns out the only people on a train at 11pm are Snooki look-a-likes and those guys you can't tell if they're drunk or dead.
We got to the hotel (which was really nice actually), turned on the TV, realised the only English channel was Sky news in repeat, turned the TV off and went to sleep.
To Be Continued...
