I’ve been delaying doing this post for several reasons. One being that I didn’t take many pictures with people, so I’ve been just waiting for other people post pics and I can steal the ones I’m in. Another thing is that it’s really hard to try and compress all the most amazing people I had fun with into one post, and try and decide which interactions are worth writing about, when I think all of them are. The last reason why I have been putting this off is because I don’t want to let Steemfest go, and doing this post feels like writing a memoir and leaving it all to the past, which I don’t want to do. I’m trying to comfort myself in the knowledge that I will for sure be seeing a lot of these people again, and even when some of the interactions were only one night stands, I will cherish the memories.

I need to start this by talking about @Anomadsoul, the Mexican on the first picture with me. If you wonder what happened to his lip, see me missing one claw and you can count one plus one. I’m kidding, we vibe well together. Our Steemit journeys started approximately the same time and we were both in Lisbon for Steemfest 2, but we only started to talk somewhere early this year, and have been in contact quite frequently ever since the first time we talked on chat. He was one of the people I was most looking forward to meeting in real life, and as soon as we did, it was like we had already been friends for a long time. You are my favourite Mexican, but I know why you were hiding your brother @zlatan-spielberg from me, he is pretty darn cool too! I can’t wait to meet you both again, which I’m sure will happen, soon.

_{Eve sandwich taken by @llfarms}

Next I want to mention @llfarms, who I got to know a bit through the Road to Steemfest initiate by @Anomadsoul, and who was the first Steemian I actually met during this years Steemfest. I was super nervous, standing in front of the Qubus lobby when our eyes met through the window and then she rushed out to hug me. It was all very romantic, like you can imagine. I stole a few of these pictures from her, and I’m gutted that we didn’t get a picture together! She is such a sweetheart and super fun to be around, a real cool girl. A great addition to my collection of Americans, I find them so fascinating.

_{@blewitt, @escapist and me.}

Another American to my growing collection is this absolute darling @blewitt, I’m sure most of you who were at Steemfest already know him as the comic book guy. We met during registration on the first day of Steemfest and immediately clicked. I have to mention my travel buddy @escapist here too, because me, Esc and Blewitt formed a triangle pretty fast and during the whole Steemfest, we ended up spending a lot of time together. I’m so happy to have met Blewitt, and like I’m pretty sure everyone noticed, he is an absolute joy, and always taking care of the people around him. I think I heard him say “What’s that baby?” about a hundred times when I squeaked something with the remnants of my voice and he would always lean closer and make sure he heard what I had to say, so precious. And every night he would be such a dad and made me and Esc text him when we were safely back in the apartment.

One of the most amazing things about Steemfest is that you get to talking to people who you wouldn’t necessarily find on Steemit, but get along so well in real life. I don’t read comic books but I could hang out with this comic book guy when ever possible!

_{@tarazkp, me and @blewitt.}

Another daddy to me and Esc was @tarazkp, who would also make sure we got home safe every night. He is a fellow Finn, or Australian but has lived in Finland for a long time, and I was l very much looking forward to meeting him finally. He is a writing machine, one of the smartest people I met and someone who I look up to in terms of creating content. His posts are a huge inspiration to me, and he is one of the reasons why I write more these days instead of just taking pictures. He is a family man, yet he has always time to write quality posts several times a day, it’s incredible. I wished I had more time to have a conversation with him, but I’m sure we can arrange something in Finland to talk more, without having 300 Steemians around the same time.

_{Picture I took of @gandalf and his cool Steem vest in the salt mines.}

Third daddy type, (yes I have an obsession), I had the pleasure of being around was @gandalf, who is more like a wizard really, doh. I met him briefly last year, and got the joke around with him a lot more this year. He is our number one witness, so a busy man by default, yet he always has time to be attentive and talk to us mere mortals.

_{@abh12345 and me by @llfarms.}

Most of Steemfest, I was playing power games with @abh12345, it was fun! He was playing Tinder so much that he was always running out of power and his cables were melting, so I needed to lend him mine. I got a lot of extra power, I don’t mind sharing a little to those who deserve it. Can we all appreciate the fact that he is soon turning 40 and looks like 30, like damn, we all need what he is having.

@Adetorrent, you fantastic freak, we had so much fun together! He was such a ball of energy, laughing and dancing all the time, and sober while doing it. I don’t know how he could stand us drunks. We got to talking some interesting business models and if the markets keep going this way, I will soon need to hit him up about selling my dirty socks. It’s a real thing apparently!

Next I want to mention my favourite teenagers; @celestal and @guyfawkes4-20, sadly I don't have any pics of us together. I already know @celestal from real life, and even though we have only known each other for less than a year, I’ve seen him grow up so much during that time. I’m so proud of seeing him come out of his shell and I think all the wonderful Steemians (and @techslut’s weed) play a big part in that. I think I might need to promote you as an adult soon, you are growing up so fast.

@guyfawkes4-20 is a different kind of teenager, he is the obnoxious type, so freaking annoying! Always bugging you for attention and being loud. Try having a conversation with an adult and have this boy jump around begging for you to take him into your lap, there is actual video proof of that somewhere on @Evecab’s blog. But for real, he is also a very sweet and good boy, if he wants to be. So no flags for him!

_{The Eves, picture taken by @evecab's hubby @el-cr.}

Meet the other Eve @Evecab. If you hear Eve doing something bad, it was the other one, I swear. I’m sure she will say the same. I wonder how many rumours there are going around about an Eve that is in two places at one time and doing all sorts of things. I wouldn’t mind if people think that I have BJJ skills, that would keep the creeps further away. We didn’t get to hang out that much, but I hope at some point in life, we will meet again, preferably in Panama and not in Finland.

_{Thank you @daniel.errey for snapping this picture of me and @vladivostok.}

I am gonna throw this wild card here in the end, because don’t we look damn fine together!? The man in the money suit is @vladivostok, and I had to ask him to take a couple pictures with me because we were the few people that dressed up for closing drinks.

You need to follow all these people because they have the Eve stamp of approval!

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Woosh, that turned out to be a really long post, and I feel like I wanna talk about so many more interesting people I met and funny things that happened but I need to draw the line somewhere. I have already been writing this for about 3 hours, christ. If you didn’t make the list but we talked more than just in passing for a few seconds, know that you are precious and I didn’t forget you, I just decided to keep our conversation a secret just between us. There are so many of you that I feel like I vibed really well and could have talked for hours on end, and to some, I did. I’m not sure with what time but I did have very long conversations with some people, and I will keep some of those as a secret.

I love you guys, until next time! Hopefully sooner, rather than later.