Road to Steemfest | My expectations for Steemfest3

I somehow managed to miss @anomadsoul's post about this, I have no idea where my mind was, but here it is, finally, my Road to Steemfest post for this week. The topic was – your expectations for Krakow and the social activities during Steemfest.

Well, this one's a bit easy, isn't it? I mean, if I expected it to be awful, I wouldn't want to go so much, but I do. I want to go to Steemfest precisely because I think it will be great. As I've said in my previous RTS posts, I am not really a people person, you know? If you gave me a choice between staying at home, cuddling with a book and a cup of coffee and going out to meet loads of people, I'd choose the former.
And of course, I have a choice here – I have a choice in going to Steemfest and despite what I just said, I'm choosing to go because I expect that a lot of cool people will be there. From the ones I've met on this platform, I'm kinda right. There are a lot of amazing people on here who are going to Steemfest and who I'm dying to meet. So, I expect Steemfest to be like a big reunion, because you already kinda know the people from the platform. Naturally, they can be quite different in “real” form, but I think that's gonna be interesting too – to see who is who.
@tarazkp made an interesting post about this a few weeks back, about how going to Steemfest will help one see if the people on here are really who they say they are or not. Because it's kinda easy not to be an asshole in writing, but IRL for 5 days, not that much.
So, I expect to meet a lot of new friends out there. And I expect it to develop my social skills a bit, you know, maybe I will be more of a people person by the time Steemfest is over.

As for Krakow, what can you expect?

From the images I've seen, both on Google and here on Steemit, it seems to be a very beautiful city. I've never been to Poland and I'm really curious to see what the country is like. What the people are like. I love that the last two days of Steemfest are for discovering the town and enjoying yourself and all that. I think that's really great because that's how you see a city, in my opinion.
Sure, you can check all the museums and palaces and whatever, you know, all the tourist attractions, but in the end, that's not where it's at.
It's far more interesting (to me) to see the grafitti in that city or see how the locals act and interact with one another. I love finding the by-roads. One of my nicest tourist memories is walking the streets of Milan. I was there very briefly and I thought it'd be kinda pointless to make this big list of things to see, as I didn't know if I'd have the time.
So instead, I just walked the streets, which were empty – no tourists, just...Milanese. And I got lost and then I found my way again, all by myself, no Google Maps, no nothing. And that was awesome, because that's how you truly see a city.
When I went to London some years ago, I did the opposite. Being a huge history fan (particularly English history), I raced through all the museum, palaces, halls, churches etc. And yet what I remember most is a walk by the Thames. A bookstore. The rain.

Because all those palaces and churches and everything – that's not the city. That's the city the tourists see and it's cute and all, it has its beauties. But not like just being. I think a huge part of going somewhere is taking a moment (or a few hours) to just take it in. To feel the atmosphere, to understand the soul of the city.
That's my expectation of Krakow, or rather, my desire. That's what I'll do, if I do make it there in November. Take in the place. And I expect it to be great.
All cities are great, in their own way, even if they're small, even if they're dull, it's just fun to see what the place and the people are about.