#connichi

Last day at the convention started for be completely in the hotel as this time it was real hair time and I could fully dress up before getting to the convention hall.

It was quite early and I decided to head out for doll photos with Road - the only doll I had with me. The park itself was sadly full of garbage, I took Road out to some flowers and the morning sun helped with pics.

I picked up my friends then and we went to the convention meeting some more D.gray-man cosplayers and I actually got some photos!

I feel like there were even more dgm cosplayers on sunday??

After doing some silly pics with Red @adragonstale and I decided we wanted more and I remembered there was a carousel festival happening, after a quick google search we saw it was just a 10 minute walk from the convention location and...

Of course we got there. I got Popcorn which we shared later on, but ofc used for pics first.

I felt melanchony hitting hard during the afternoon, we checked some more vendors and I got a wig for a future teen!Mana cosplay from a store that sadly closes down now. As we sat down and I took a little nap while resting my head on my knees some creep wanted to take photos... between my legs. Luckily my friends were with me and told that asshole off. The worst is that this bastard wanted to argue that everyone "does this" and was offended my friend "ruined" his photo with pointing his middle finger into the camera.... seriously what is with Wiesbaden and those creeps?!

We headed out for dinner later on, the restaurant took forever we almost ordered take out there.

Then we went back to the con and did some more photos, slowly letting the evening end.

But it all came to a sudden ending as a swat team arrived and the whole city's police becauste some asshole called and told he would *do a thing* in the park.

That left a bitter taste for me as I was completely nervous then, it didn't help my hotel was next to a police station.

But well I was completely knocked out that evening.

Monday 4th September

Traveling back home, cleaning, cosplay aftermath, plans

Monday was the first day of the weekend I was sleeping long enough to actually need my alarm to get up. I traveled back that day, the drive back was actually shorter??? Like from the start it was told to be 30 minutes shorter to begin with. Weird.

The scenery was very beautiful.

Back home it was unpacking and seeing how much dirt I had collected with my cosplays. The cosplays were partially very stained and needed a good wash, especially the shoes.

Tested the wig I got very quickly and will work on my variant of teen!Mana later on.

I think I will finalize the cosplay for next year's bookfair, it's the same base as Nea but the wig needs some work and I want to make a new bag as Tim doesn't fit for Mana. I want to do a bag that looks like the Earl.

My next convention will be the Polaris in Hamburg, but just for one day (Saturday) - I will most likely doing an Allen variant, I will aim to redo his jacket for the runaway variant and hope I will make it in time.

I'm sure I need my friends closer if I will attend the Connichi again as I just need the emotional support and safety with those creeps and drug abuse around the location of the convention. It's a convention yes, it doesn't feel like the Connichi to me, the people were lovely though.

There are a lot of things that I truly missed about it feeling like the Connichi which starts with the fact we always got those cute tickets in the mail - since last year you had printed/mobile tickets; BUT last year you at least had the option to get a collector's ticket and got it via mail but this year they didn't even send it you had to pick it up... which felt very wrong having not the type of ticket you grew up with.

The missing main Manga and DVD publisher, missing small publisher and overall lovelessly arranged convention hall didn't help much. Yes you can spy on people when you go onto 2nd or 3rd level as the building is brighter with the windows and it's nice to have 3 entries and not just two (but wait we actually had 3 as well before covid, so, that's not even an argument), I missed the fact that the safety guards and medics checked the park, which they did in Kassel. I think it would have avoided a lot of called ambulances and that situation on sunday as well. I know they don't need to do that by law but ... well.

Also not having free public transport but a coupon for getting into a champange producer fabric tour doesn't compare at all (like wtf, then at least give us the Anime Cinema for free and not for an additional price). There is no free parking spots at all, you have to pay for all. Overall the convention is less central and more expensive while lacking a lot of things they had in before even within the programm. It has changed a lot and not all for the "omg new shiny building with space", if you lack the important vendors the space will remain empty and that is just very off putting.

It's nice to have more restaurants in a short distance but if the Matsuri wasn't lacking serious good food options this year we would have eaten at the con and not at restaurants. It was just tiny very overpriced snacks, last year you got good filling lunch/dinner options for an okay-ish price.