SteemFest in Lisbon: a crazy five-day long party!

I had a pleasure of attending SteemFest in Lisbon last week. I still need time to process and internalize all the impressions from this intense five-day long partying with amazing people from all over the world, delicious food and excellent Portuguese wine in the middle of a three thousand year old city that is Lisbon. I think writing about it will help me decompress and actually remember all the great people I have met, the beautiful sights I have seen and the conversations I have had which right now are kind of a blur due to the high intensity of the experiences which were somewhat overwhelming at times for an introvert such as myself. Plus, it will give all of you who haven't attended SteemFest an idea of what it was all about and what you have missed;).

We arrived in Lisbon on Tuesday afternoon after a short train ride from Sintra where we had stayed for three nights. More on Sintra in the next (overdue) post.

Wednesday morning, @hkjn went to the hackathon while I spent the day exploring Lisbon and visiting the National Museum of Ancient Art. Even before I went to SteemFest I already met a fellow steemian, @basilmarples, a cheerful fellow, in our airbnb apartment. In the evening, we went to meet other steemians at the welcoming drinks night at the Hotel HF Fenix. That night I met @oscarcc89, a young artist who came all the way from Venezuela to SteemFest. He won a competition with @cervantes, a Steemit Spanish-speaking community which sponsored his trip to SteemFest. This was his first trip outside Venezuela and I was glad to see that he was really enjoying it! It was fun talking to him in Spanish which was easy to do after a few glasses of wine.

The next morning, @hkjn and I took a shuttle along with other steemians to the Cultural Center of Belém, a venue for the first day of presentations and is the largest building with cultural facilities in Portugal. It was a somewhat gloomy morning with heavy rain and more rain to be expected later that day.

After a cup of espresso (which became my favorite day drink since my arrival in Portugal!) and chatting, we went to the welcome speech by @roelandp, who was, in my opinion and that of many others I spoke to, the star of the entire show.

He and his small team, led by @firepower, did a fabulous job of organizing and running SteemFest. The choice of venues, entertainment, food and drinks was impeccable. The shuttles took us to the places we need to be, the staff was polite and professional, the wine was flowing, and the food just kept coming. All we needed to do is to relax, socialize, eat, drink, talk and watch.

I mostly skipped the presentations and spent the time chatting with people and consuming alarmingly huge quantities of coffee. I hung out with @oscarcc89 again and met lovely @nelyp, a curator for @cervantes.

I also met a fellow Swede, @markwhittam, who had to flee Sweden because the government threatened to take his children from him for wanting to homeschool them. Considering that homeschooling is legal in countries such as Denmark, Estonia, India, Taiwan, Finland and France, and often appears to be more effective than going to school, I think it is unreasonable of Sweden to have such a harsh reaction to parents' wishes to homeschool their children.

I also met @yoganarchista who radiated inner beauty and playfulness, and was one of the steemians I would love to stay in touch with if I can. I guess I have to visit Berlin soon!

On the first day, I attended two presentations that I found somewhat interesting. The first one was by @jexblackmore, the national spokesperson for the Satanic Temple, who shared her work with us. Although her presentation appeared somewhat innocuous to me and quite playful, a few in the audience got freaked out by it. I guess the word "satan" has a very strong negative connotation, especially among those with a Christian background. It was amusing to see those reactions. As far as I understand from the talk, the Satanic Temple is an organization of atheists and agnostics who like to make people in power and those with strong convictions uncomfortable by drawing their attention and that of the media to themselves through satirical theatrical performances. They also have politicsl campaigns promoting religious freedom.

The other talk was by @dollarvigilante, a stylish man who seemed to have positively influenced quite a few people and brought them to Steemit. His talk mostly focused on some flaws that Steemit has and offered vague suggestions, one of which included hiring him to improve their marketing.

I had great conversations with a few other steemians such as @joythewanderer, @cryptofunk, @starkerz, @jerrybanfield, @mynewlife, @juanmiguelsalas and @ana.telepova who, along with her partner @anasya founded flacoin.io, a social media platform for women.

@joythewanderer

Having had enough of talks and chatting, I decided to take a stroll and explore Belem in the afternoon. By that time, the weather cleared up and the beauty of Lisbon was revealed to me in the sunlight.

Of course, I had to see the Belém Tower built in the 16th century, a UNESCO world heritage site which had an important role in the Age of Discoveries.

Having had my second lunch at a nearby restaurant, I went back to find the drinks and dinner waiting for us.

On the way to dinner, I met @ramengirl in her beautiful traditonal Korean dress.

That night, I had great conversations with @ebarakos, @eroche and @demotruk over a nice dinner of bacalhau (cod fish) and excellent wine. Once the dinner was over at around 8pm, many continued to socialize at Snookerclub Lisboa but it was enough for me for that day.

The next morning I had a nice conversation with @tarekadam, a designer from Germany, while waiting for the shuttle to take us to Montes Claros. Once again, I skipped most of the talks and spent that day eating and drinking for two, and talking for ten Arunas. I had a nice chat with @andrewmcmillen, a journalist from Australia, and cool guys from Hamburg, @medicinemanriche, @cryptorious and @blackywhite.

I attended three talks that day: one by @quinneaker, another @cervantes and the third, hackathon where @hkjn was presenting a project along with his teammates @dana-varahi and @antonchanning.

My favorite talk was by @cervantes representative Pablo. I was really impressed by the efficiency of the community in publishing, spreading and maintaing high quality of information for Spanish speaking users, as well as rewarding high quality content, such as by @oscarcc89, which allowed him to attend SteemFest.

A talk by @quinneaker was interesting, but even more interesting was his outfit which drew a lot of attention due to being stylish and designed and created by @quinneaker himself.

The previous day, he was all in black.

Now, I would like to mention the lunch which was really delicious. We had butternut squash soup, sandwiches with roast beef, a bowl of pasta and a wonderful dish of bacalhau. Bacalhau is very popular in Portugal and apparently there are dozens, if not hundred, different recipes for the codfish. I had a great conversation with @aaronkoenig who had a cool jacket.

Having eaten two portions each of the lunch (which I am both proud and slightly shamed to mention:)), I took a short walk in the area and took a short nap on one of the benches outside.

After the nap, I chatted with a group of great guys from Slovenia who are developong a decentralized YouTube called view.ly: @stefanfurlan, @jurglic and a cool guy from Macedonia whose Steemit name I didn't manage to write down.

The dinner that day was really great. I have to share the pics:).

First, the soup...

...then, the main course which is duck and spaghetti for vegetarians and vegans...

...followed by a cheesecake for desert (which, unfortunately, I couldn't eat).

Once again, the wine was really good, both white and red. Most importanly, the company was wonderful as well.

At our table sat @pjo, a 16 year old guy from Lithuania who is an amazing photographer and very mature for his age, @ludorum from South Korea, @dana-varahi and @antonchanning, a sweet couple from Ireland, @hkjn, @philmesnier and his sweet wife @staycmez, @vaelriey, a young aerospace engineering student from Malaysia and a Malaysian guy whose Steemit name escapes me at the time:).

After the dinner, the shuttle took us to Suspenso for more partying. On the way there, I met a great Russian guy who is currently living in Sweden, @oleg326756 who shared a lot of interests with me such as love of languages and other cultures, among other things. We got to talk about Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, esperanto and other cool things.

We did not stay long at Suspenso, but it was fun to see short films presented by @aaronkoenig.

On Saturday, I had a great yoga class with @saramiller who has a deep knowledge of yoga. Unfortunately, I did not make it to the art exhibit which I regret now. Oh well, one can only do so many things before feeling completely overwhelmed.

Sunday dinner was a wonderful ending to these long festivities. It was held at Estufa Fria, a botanical garden, which gave the whole party a magical feel. I had a wonderful time talking to @ramengirl, @maa, @ludorum, Luka, @markwhittam and many others. It was also great to dance and just have fun!

Overall, these five days were really memorable. I met amazing people, ate tasty things, enjoyed some of the talks, marvelled at the beauty of Lisbon and admired all the wonderful work that @roelandp, @firepower and their team had done to create a fantastic experience for 300 people. I left the event feeling that there is a great community of supportive, kind and creative individuals.

There are so many wonderful people I have talked to at SteemFest who I have not managed to mention in this post. All made a great impression on me. Thank you!