The two people who maybe care about my thoughts and adventures (jokes on you, my life is actually incredibly boring) might have wondered, what I have been up to lately.

Initially, I intended to write this post more than a week ago, but then #hardforkgate happened, the whole Steem blockchain suddenly behaved very weird and my dreams of publishing got crushed quite heavily. In addition to that, a lack of motivation (and time, really!) prevented me further from finishing this draft. Lorem ipsum, here we are. I finally managed to focus some of my creative energy towards writing again (aka I threatened myself with eating pizza containing pineapple – which no sane person would ever do).
So, this post will be a summarization of all the fancy things I recently did. I hope the two guys I’m writing this for are able to appreciate it – otherwise I’m forced to enjoy myself. Wait, this came out wrong. This one as well. Screw it. Luckily, my mind is not as dirty as yours.

Some of you may already know about the @steemstem and @utopian-io meetup which happened a few weeks ago. A few people who are more important than I am, already wrote their impressions about the whole event. Like Suesa’s food watch (ok, there’s a bit more) or Sco’s #notimeforthis recap, Techslut’s selfie-guide through Italy and Alexdory’s weird idea of me being trustworthy.
My take will be a bit different than theirs, mainly because I’m a weird guy. And there will be no pictures, because I rarely take any, especially not selfies or anything related. Have fun reading. Or not. I can’t force you. Sadly.

A few days ago, I crawled out of my hole in my cosy apartment and went on a trip to meet a few weirdos I’ve met on the internet. Remember kids: meeting with strangers you encountered online is always a good idea, because nobody ever wishes you harm.
Strengthened by this belief, I gathered everything I needed in order to survive this adventure.

And an adventure it was. Initially, I had a flight booked from Berlin to Bologna on Wednesday the 19th September – but first, I needed to get to Berlin. Which turned out to be trickier than expected, because my bus connection from Dresden to Berlin was delayed by more than an hour. Naïve as I was I didn’t book a connection with enough time to compensate this delay, and so I needed to book train tickets to be able to arrive in Florence in time. Fast forward: a considerable amount of money, a relaxing journey and thirteen hours later I finally arrived at my desired destination.
As I got out of the train, I was wondering why all these people around me only wore shorts. They probably never heard about the possibility of sudden rain, snow and climate change. Luckily, I felt perfectly safe with my long, black coat and roughly 25°C outside. No snowstorm would surprise me.
@Suesa and @reggaemuffin gave me strange looks when I arrived, but their ignorance about the possible dangers out there should not shake my convictions.
And in danger I already was. The acid in my stomach started to search for something to consume – because somehow, I managed to avoid food for the whole journey. Based on that experience I can wholeheartedly tell you: not a good idea, don’t try this at home, kids.
But help was on its way. Or better: we were on the way to get help in form of a restaurant. Since I’m not your typical “OH MY GOSH THERE IS FOOD – I NEED TO TAKE A PICTURE OF IT” Instagram blogger you won’t see any pictures of what we ate there from me (but @suesa took some, so just check out her post).
After a decent meal (I think it was, but my relationship to food is somewhat spoiled anyway, because I’m a McDonald’s regular) and a lot of talking I headed towards my Airbnb to catch some sleep.

The next day I woke up incredibly sleep deprived and miserable – which led to me barely talking to anybody for most of the day. So, if you ever happen to meet me and I’m not talking to you, it’s most likely not because I think you are the most disgusting person I have ever met (I would probably tell you this anyway) – but during my private time I tend to behave like I really feel and not what is expected of me. I already need to do this during work and class time more than enough.
Anyway.
That day we were set for a trip to the VIRGO labs (again, no pictures #sorrynotsorry, check the other posts) but had to struggle with Italian traffic and “on time” mentality a bit beforehand. During the introduction lecture at the labs which was mainly about gravitational waves and why researching them is quite useful, they showed us a video about two black holes merging with each other: