London To HiveFest

EUROPEAN CITY, EUROPEAN PRICES

This is the thing. I want to attend Hivefest this year for at least two reasons. First, it’s in person, the first time since the great pando sent us to the virtual world two years ago. Second, it’s not too far away from me. In fact, Amsterdam is a couple of train rides for me - tube to the Eurostar station, and train to Amsterdam. I have two choices; either directly to Amsterdam, with one stopover in a Belgian or French city.

That’s the great thing about Europe - the interconnectedness of the cities by land, sea or air. Folks on the eastern coast of England can jump on a ferry. From London, it’s a short flight from three of our airports, including City Airport, which is bang in the middle of the city as the name suggests. Heck, Amsterdam is closer and much more accessible to me from London than many cities in the UK.

I have finally managed to accumulate enough HBD (in exchanges) to buy my ticket to the event. I’ve done this by earning and selling some tiny cryptos here and there, not Hive though, and converting to BTC. This has been quite fun and satisfying to do actually. I like the idea of getting something tangible out of my cryptos, including $BAT which I earned by simply using the Brave browser over the years. A little here, a little there, all add up eventually.

Alas! The unfortunate thing about having Hivefest in a major European city is that we have major-European-City prices to look forward to. While the actual Hivefest tickets are very affordable and an incredible deal for what you get, the other costs are astronomical! Accommodation, if I want to stay by myself, which is the way I like it, is nearly comical in Amsterdam. That’s the largest cost for anyone attending I can imagine. The transport cost from London is also quite high, especially if you want to travel by train - my preferred mode of transport. I can’t believe how much Eurostar wants for this trip. Ironically, the cheapest mode of transport is by air! Well, as long as it’s one of those budget airlines like EasyJet. KLM wants 3x as much as Eurostar, a price that nearly made me spit out my coffee when I saw it. Besides, I’d still have to get to the airport.

I noticed I can also go by bus, which is an 11 hour journey approximately. The cost is comparable to going by air, but with obvious disadvantages. It’s the most uncomfortable, the longest and least safe way to get to Amsterdam from London. Having said that, I’ve never travelled by bus across Europe before so it may be more fun than I imagine. I have family members that only travel by bus and are happy to do so rather than fork out the airline charge. Another does it because he has a big fear of flying. Of course, in reality, flying is orders of magnitude “safe” than the roads, especially over such long distances.

As a side note, we need a competitor for Eurostar, who’s enjoyed monopoly status since the Eurotunnel opened decades ago.

Back to the accommodation. The last time I attended an event in Amsterdam, I booked some “cheaper” accommodation somewhere far from the event. I ended up having to take a cab or bus, depending on how much time I had, to and from the event - which defeated the entire purpose. False economy. I may bite the bullet then and just book the fancy expensive place right where HiveFest is. After all, it’s an investment in network building eh? How does the saying go again? Something about ”network” and ”net worth” 😅

So are you going to HiveFest? How much is it costing you to go?

Peace & Love,

Adé