SteemFest 2.0 - Ballers on a Budget!

Hey Steemians!

As I was scrolling through my inbox this morning, I got super excited when I saw we had a new SteemFest update. Then I realized, oh yeah - that thing called SteemFest that's happening next month is coming up soon. Like, really soon.

15 DAYS!! EEEEEK!

I'm so excited to share that @richardcrill and I will be going to SteemFest again this year! We went the to the first SteemFest last year in Amsterdam & it was one of the most life changing experiences for me. Too many to list here, but I'll share a few -

• My first time attending SteemFest was also my first time to ever travel outside of the country 🙈
• I arrived at SteemFest not knowing any other Steemians (besides my boyfriend) and I left feeling like we'd made lifelong friends that we had already known for years!
• I saw WAY more of Amsterdam by attending SteemFest than I would have done on my own (#introvertproblems)
• You get to see & experience the vision of Steemit with your very own eyes! The exchange of knowledge & information from speakers, and even fellow SteemFest attendees, is priceless! I already liked Steemit before, but I really believed in it after attending SteemFest.

This post is probably too late to convince anyone if they're not already going, but I'm sharing how @richardcrill and I are making it work to get to SteemFest 2 in hopes that I can encourage anyone that might be on the fence about attending to jump in with both feet! And if you're also a baller on a budget, I'd love to know how you're making it work to get there!

Finances 💸

Full disclosure - we're using STEEM to fund our travel expenses to SteemFest this year! Most of the STEEM actually came from attending the first SteemFest in Amsterdam. Just for going, we each got 1900 STEEM (1,000 was the advertised amount we would receive, but they threw in an extra 900!!) Long story short, we held that STEEM. And it grew - like, a lot. That first investment to attend SteemFest has more than paid for itself & this trip to SteemFest 2 - pretty cool, huh? Moral of the story - HODL. (I don't think they'll be giving away free STEEM this year, BUT they still have the Travel Reimbursement Fund - you can read more about it in the latest update)

Flights ✈

As soon as the dates for SteemFest 2 were announced, I started the hunt for cheap flights to Lisbon - I quickly realized that wasn't a thing & direct flights were not in our budget. Instead, we'll be flying into Dublin on Halloween (yes!!) and flying to Lisbon the next day. Going a little bit out of the way will allow us to buy TWO plane tickets for what it would have cost for ONE direct flight to Lisbon. Dublin has always been on my list of places to visit, so I'm not mad about it. I just hope they're ready for @richardcrill's Bob Ross costume :)

Lodging 🏨

Airbnb all the way! The hotel packages that were put together are phenomenal, but since we're extending our Europe trip beyond SteemFest, we're trying to stretch our dollars. Luckily, we found an awesome Airbnb in close proximity to the hotels, so we can just walk over & take the bus with everyone to the conference. We don't mind a little extra walking - plus, you get to see more of the city that way!

Activities 💃

We like to save on things like lodging & flights, so we can spend more on experiences & FOOD! We're pretty much following the planned activities for SteemFest, but I'm not sure what we'll be doing on the weekend. We know we want to make it to the closing dinner - we missed that last year & totally regretted it! We're thinking a trip into Sintra to explore the castles - it looks gorgeous there! We really love nature & would love to find some hiking spots!

What do you have planned that weekend?

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Thank You!

Huge thanks to @roelandp & all of the volunteers that make SteemFest happen! Last year's SteemFest was the smoothest, most well ran conference I had ever attended & I'm sure this year's will somehow be even better! :)

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