Respected thoughts

We arrived at Nordic Fuzzcon late on the Wednesday evening, with something of a sour taste in our mouths. What we hadn't realised that we had if we wanted to pick up our con badge after registration had closed, we needed to do this in advance. This was a new thing and I had thought to enter the main con area on the Wednesday evening, no badges were required. This had been the case in previous years, but was not the case this. This meant that by the time we realised we would be frozen out of the con until the Thursday, it was too late, as we hadn't noticed this due to travelling. The trip itself was fine - we took an Uber from Pudsey to Manchester Airport on account of Manchester Piccadilly being closed, resulting in rail replacement bus services. This meant we were at Manchester Airport a good three hours earlier than we needed, so we had a lot of time to kill. Most of this was in The Bridgewater Pub, while the slight delay to our SAS flight meant we were there even longer. Fortunately, it was in the much better Terminal 2 and thus it was a semi-decent place to be. Interestingly, I was stopped at security and had my bag searched as according to the attendant, my snoot set off the alert. That's the first time I've had that happen and I've taken my fursuit head through many airports over the years.

Getting to our hotel was easy enough, although the cancellation of one train over the Oresund Bridge to Malmo meant we had to hang around Copenhagen Airport for the best part of 45 minutes. This saw Wolfie get a bit tetchy, but once on the train, it was smooth sailing and we got to our hotel, The Comfort, at around midnight. We were initially put in a room the size of a postage stamp, with the bed being pushed against the wall so one of us would have to clamber over the other in the middle of the night should they need the toilet. Upon getting to the bar and getting a drink at extortionate Swedish prices, we bumped into Coal, who we hadn't seen for a long time. Procyon popped along a little later and so we ended up having a few nice drinks instead of needing to go over to the main con venue. Indeed, the Comfort acted as an auxiliary overflow venue with panels and events there too. Furthermore, its proximity to Valhalla made it the ideal place to be. Wolfie also managed to speak to the nice lady on the desk and we managed to snag a bigger room, with this proving more than adequate for our needs. We even invited Coal and Procyon back there for an impromptu room party, having grabbed four cans of Brooklyn IPA at the airport in Copenhagen, fearing we wouldn't have much drinking opportunity that evening.

The con itself was much more drinky than I thought it would be, but then I hadn't really planned any sexual or kink-based activities. On Thursday, I headed down to the Padded Social at Valhalla, where I got to chat with loads of friends including Marbles and Foxxy. Indeed it was those two I ended up spending most of the day with, as after sharing a few of the adequate furry-themed lager that had been brewed by the Hyllie Brewery for the con, we ended up going for dinner together. This was at a place called Spoonery in the main town. Marbles had been there the night before and had hit it off with the server, who was a gay guy from Swansea who now lives in Malmo. He was really chatty and friendly, so much so that I didn't mind the twenty-minute wait just to get a table at this small establishment. Indeed, we had to cobble something together where I had a high chair while everyone had a smaller one around a table in the waiting area. Still, it worked. The bibimbap had sadly sold out so I opted for meatballs which were served with potato and cranberry in a brown gravy. This was fantastic and definitely a place to check out next year.

The plan was to visit the After Bark Market after this. This was in Valhalla too, so we made our way over there after dinner. Alas, the queue to get in was quite long and so we grabbed a drink in the Comfort Bar in the hope it would die down. Indeed, the close proximity of our hotel bar to Valhalla made this a viable option and reduced the amount of time we had to stand in the biting cold, with the bitter wind being the worst aspect. The queue had moved on a little so at around 10:30pm we stood in line and got through relatively smoothly. Alas, we were told the dealers' den queue was over an hour in length (and we weren't allowed to join it anyway) while the dance just sounded awful. There seemed to be little else going on there - it was just an opportunity for people to wear gear, but for me, wearing gear is part of foreplay to something else - so we headed back to the Comfort Bar a little dejected. Still, we made the best of it and it was fun socialising, before I went to bed at the quite early time (for me) of around 1am.

We have started getting up for breakfast and then going back to bed for a few hours, what with most of the con happening in the afternoon and evening. This was the case here too, particularly once we realised that the final half hour of breakfast was absolutely rammed. Getting there for 6:45am on Friday when there were only two other people there made it more a relaxed affair. The breakfast itself was an adequate selection of hot food (bacon, chicken sausage, scrambled eggs, beans) with some very nice cold cuts. I had pate and crusty bread every day, while it was great to discover this was available from 3:30am should we want it. 

The bed gravity had been strong on the Thursday - I only got up at 3pm needing to register, fearing being locked out of the con again - but I was more spritely on the Friday. This was partly because there were some interesting events going on in our hotel, which meant I didn't have to go out into the cold. The first was a detailed history about French animation, starting with The Tale of the Fox from 1937 and La Bergere et Le Ramoneur from 1953/80 and going through to the present day. The Intermarche wolf of course featured while I learned a great deal about how French animators had influenced Japanese anime and manga. I also discovered a lot of interesting films that I hadn't heard of before, which I will definitely have to check out.

The second panel was an introduction to Ancient Egyptian animal deities, which I thought would be fun as Televassi has been introducing me to these through his excellent erotic stories. This covered a few of the main deities, but of the seven that featured heavily in the talk, quite a few were the more minor ones that I hadn't come across before. Wawepwet was one I had though, again through Televassi, and it was great hearing more about the Opener of the Ways.

In between these two events, I had an hour and a half to kill, so headed over to the Dealers' Den, which was again in Valhalla. Al Song wanted me to pick up a comic on his behalf, but when I went to the vendor, he was away. I hung around for around half an hour for him to return, only to be told that he had sold out of this particular title. He did say it would be available online soon though, so I hope Al wasn't too disappointed. I did pick up an Anubis mousemat for him from Ultra Violet's store, while he also asked me to procure some Bubbs candy, which I managed to do too. Meanwhile, I also picked up a light blue puppy t-shirt with the phrase 'Fragile, Handle With Care' on it. I had seen these at ConFuzzled last year, so was glad to finally be able to pick one up. There were loads of cool stores in the Dealers' Den, with the apparel and fursuits being particularly good, but it was a little sad to see not one furry author nor bookshop represented. There were a few comic books for sale, but I didn't see a single novel or short story collection. I hope this changes next year.

The deities talk ended slightly early, so I headed back upstairs to see Wolfie. On the way, I realised that many of the parties on the fourth floor of the Comfort weren't that accessable as you needed a keycard to use the lifts. I had already tapped someone in earlier in the day, while this time there was man stationed downstairs asking whether anyone needed assistance. Once back to the room, we decided to grab some food, with Wolfie taking me to a fantastic sandwich shop selling a wonderful pork belly sandwich. He had visited the place the day before with Procyon, when I was at Spoonery, and he said it was worth a visit. This was certainly true, although I could have done with the cucumbers which formed the base of the sandwich (they did add some much needed acidity to counter the richness though). The sandwich shop was in the food hall - which had extended opening hours due to the con - and we managed to perch right on the counter and watch the chefs at work. We also grabbed some smashed potato covered in unctuous cheese and a delicious, if expensive, west coast IPA. It was a truly fantastic meal and set us up well for the rest of the evening.

Wolfie disappeared at this point, but I bumped into Blue Otter in the main bar of the Clarion. I had an hour to kill before Grimner and it was great catching up with him. I then joined the queue for the folk metal band's show, but the signposting was odd and I entered the start of it rather than the end. Upon hearing that the show was postponed by an hour, Baloki suggested we go to the Terrace bar to grab a beer while we waited. This is an outside bar and there was currently a snow blizzard going on - while my t-shirt and skirt ensemble wasn't the best clothing for the conditions - so we just sat inside instead. I got to meet quite a few of Baloki's other Manchester friends and soon we were back in the queue for the show. I had actually spoken to Grimner earlier that day - they were doing a meet and greet in the Comfort bar and I saw Trax speaking to them. Once he disappeared, I was kinda left alone with them, so got chatting to them about their influences, what they thought about the furry fandom and why they decided to come back. I also got a photo signed, but only by three of them, not realising they were actually a six-piece (despite having seen them two years ago and despite there being six of them on the card they signed). I get in a panic I guess. Anyway, the show itself was incredible, with a hearty and robust moshpit. At one point, they were all rowing, while I was stood right on its edge quite near the front. I was on my own for most of the gig, with Wolfie going up front too, but it was another overwhelming show. They came out in fursuits, while I shouted 'come back!' when they talked about the Vikings invading England, which I think amused them. The show itself was lively, fun, bouncy and incredible, taking me on quite an emotional journey. It was one of the highlights of the con.

After the show, I was tempted to go to the Littles Disco. I thought that was over in Valhalla, but it was actually in the main hotel. That would have been more convenient, but I didn't have my gear with me, so in the end, we just grabbed a few drinks and hung out in the Artists' Alley section. The ale we had here was particularly poor, but it was good annoying Notefox with puns while she tried to edit the photos she had taken during the furry opera (which sadly I didn't see) and other events. We hung here for a couple, seeing Grimner enter too, before Wolfie and I headed back to Procyon's room to share some special beers he had brought. It was here where we were reacquainted with his roommate Ethan, who I had first met back to Nordic Fuzzcon 2014, and he enlightened us about a place in Edinburgh that serves vegetarian haggis curry. He was looking to go to bed, so we didn't stay too long, just enough time to share three of the four cans Procyon had brought, before we headed back to the main hotel to grab pizza and bed. I would have preferred to have taken the convenient shuttle bus between the Clarion and Valhalla - which conveniently drops us right outside our hotel too - but the last bus had been and gone by then so we had to walk back in the snowstorm. We bumped into Shiyan on the walk too, so chatted to him a while. We never once did use the bus.

Saturday was due to be my fursuit day but I awoke to the news that the Parade was cancelled. This was disappointing, but the sludge-covered roads would have ruined my new paws. This meant that I didn't get to fursuit for the second con in a row and I am going to have to work out what I can do to incentivise myself to get into suit more. The lack of decent hand and feet paws was a good excuse, but with that now resolved, there really is no excuse at all.

This meant that Saturday was a pretty easy day up until 5:30pm, when I had agreed to meet up with Evi and Namonium for our usual Furry Brew Crew drinks. Brewdog Malmo was the venue and before heading there, I ambled around the con space looking for the con shop (which I was unsuccessful at) and stumbling into the Creators' Corner which was effectively a modestly-sized art show. The works here were all pretty decent, but none jumped out at me. I also chatted to Kitty Sam while standing outside in the bitter wind and sludge, but it was good to catch up and compare notes on the cons we had attended and the cons we are likely to attend. With a little time to kill, I ended up back in the hotel room around 5pm and picked up Wolfie before heading to Brewdog via Pressbyran for a hotdog. We went French style, with the sausage wrapped in a condom of bread, and it was a delicious pre-drinking snack.

We arrived at Brewdog at exactly the same time as Procyon, Evi and Namonium. I had invited a few others, but it was only to be us five for the evening. This made getting dinner later easier, although sadly there was no space in the Hyllie Brewery Taproom. I had wanted to try the fish and chips here - discounted for Nordic Fuzzcon attendees, one of the many offers for furries across the city - but we did end up at a place called Ukrainian Beer Bar where we had lard on brown bread and spicy sausage soup with olives. I would have thought the olives would perhaps make it too salty, but this was not the case. The beer at the Ukrainian Beer Bar was all from Ukraine too, while it had a vibe very similar to Ambrosjia in Bradford before that closed. Indeed, it very much reminded me of the restaurants we visited in Ukraine and I reminisced with the owners about the three trips I had done there. In the urinal, there were also Putin and Trump figurines you could piss on, while the toilet brush had a Putin figurehead too. Above the urinal there was a Carlsberg sign.

This was a great way to end our evening, which began at Brewdog Malmo as I had said. This was surprisingly busy with a strong guest tap list, making it reminiscent of Brewdog of old. It was odd to think, with the company collapsing, that this was probably the last time we'd be there but we went out with a bang with some good beers and company. The barman was particularly friendly and gave me a free pin badge for being an EFP, while it was great chatting properly to Evi and Nanonium again, having only seen them briefly at ConOps prior to the Grimner concert. After our trip here, we decided to go to The Bishops Arms, a British-themed pub chain that's big in western Sweden. The beer list here was even better - with Leeds Pale and Ilkley's Joshua Jane on hand pull too - and while we weighted up getting food here, in the end we went to Hyllie (then the Ukrainian place).

We split up after this, with everyone but me heading to the Clarion and I heading back to the hotel room. I wanted to check out live furry metal band Wildpact in Valhalla and after having a short snooze, I bounced over there at around 11:10pm. I was about ten minutes late, but they were playing a metal version of the Pokemon theme tune so I was sold quite quickly. They did a lot of covers, albeit slimmed down versions of them, and their musicianship was fantastic. There were a few awkward moments, but it was a fun hour and a half set, with Fonz doing the whole thing in his bunny suit and Pepper Coyote as a partial coyote on drums. Aerials by System of a Down and Sonne by Rammstein, were the two highlights for me. The whole theatre was pretty much packed, and it is great to see metal is finally getting some recognition in the furry fandom. Nordic Fuzzcon is very much the music con and their diversity was great in this regard.

Jev had asked whether I wanted to join him and Kitty Sam for drinks in the Clarion, so after the concert, I headed over there. I was going to go to the inflatable panel on my way out of Valhalla, but the animals were all flat on the floor and looking sorry for themselves. Therefore, I skipped through the slush and headed to the main bar, which was very rowdy. I found my friends near the bar, grabbed a drink, and chatted to them for a while. I also managed to catch up with Pinky too, before ending the night having a heavier chat with Procyon over a few beers. I was sat in front of a giant LED screen board that burnt my retinas, but it was a good chat nonetheless.

I am now halfway through a seven-hour train journey back to Berlin via Copenhagen and Hamburg. It's running smoothly enough right now, although it was an absolute free-for-all in the Danish capital. There are loads of furries on this train with luggage and a last-minute platform change from 5 to 7 meant we all had to traipse up an escalator to go back down another one. I feared there would be no space for our bags, but we got lucky. The 25-minute delay shouldn't affect our connection to Spandau either.

Despite the issues, particularly regarding communication (the NFC app kept adding random events that weren't there before, while it wasn't until halfway through the con that I realised I had to toggle the Explicit section on the mobile website to see the NSFW events in the app), it was another great con. I didn't get to do half of the things I wanted though, largely due to timetable clashes, and I probably drank way too much. Indeed, it's been three weeks of heavy drinking what with Scotiacon, visiting family and hanging around with friends on the Tuesday before NFC too, that my guts are in a right state. I have also been concerned about my weight, so the next few months, I'm not going to buy any alcohol or snacks for the house and reduce my consumption outside it. If I can get slimmer for SinFur in early May, I think it would help with my body dysmorphia and self-confidence issues. I did enjoy the unicorns in the circus tents that were littered about all venues, but otherwise the theme was quite muted. The blip game was always fun, even if I only blipped about eight times. NFC in particular has loads of side challenges and other things going on that I'm sure I missed out on something, but then I barely had any time to fit anything else in.

Whether we go back next year or not, I'm unsure. Fortunately, there is a three-week, rather than a two-week, gap between Scotiacon and Nordic Fuzzcon next year that will help. Also, we must arrive earlier than we did this time around, probably on the Tuesday. I'm happy to miss Dead Dog, but it's clear there are loads of cool things happening prior to the con starting and I'd like to do some of them (the Hyllie Brewery tour being one of them). It's still a lot of money though and the cold weather makes wearing skirts that much harder. I spent more time in jeans than at any con over the last few years and that does suck a bit. Still, the events are unique, there's always loads to do and maybe I can do things like the Maid Cafe again next time. That was fun but I didn't do it this year so I could do the Parade instead, so it was sad it was cancelled. Indeed, doing the Parade would be fun as I've never done it in Malmo yet. So, lots to consider, but it's definitely on the list of possibilities. I guess we'll know nearer the time.