Representing a nation! Part 2

Saturday arrived. The anticipated day. And we had to get up at half past 4, urg. Abena helped me with the body paint and together we went to the dressing rooms at the convention. Then the morning rehearsal followed and after that the last finishing touches to the cosplays had to be done.



Spain was eagerly awaiting their turn as I slowly felt a bit nervous. After all over 15.000 people is a rather large amount. And the anxiety caused me to make a lot of mistakes since I'm not used to having stage fright... But I did go up there and did my best.



And I love a lot of the pictures that came out of it!



After the finals we relaxed - now the pressure was off! Some was filmed, some was photographed. And when the winners were announced I held Bell's hand as she got the solo 1st price - she didn't quite believe, so I had to push her a bit to make her go accept her price - and watched as my fellow Danes won a well deserved 2nd price in the group category!



By then we were all pretty tired. The vans had picked up us at 6.30, so everyone had been up at least at 6 o'clock. And then we had to wait forever for the vans to take us back to the hotel. It was beginning to get really cold and I could almost see the sickness approached but thankfully some of the more warm-blooded cosplayers lent their furs to the needing, haha. Abena looked so gorgeous.



After some hours of rest the European Snack Gathering (the ESG) opened to the selected public present and we all - organizers, helpers, former ECGs, etc. - enjoyed the fantastic mix of Spanish crackers, Dutch cake, Danish liquorice, Swiss chocolate and other national sweets. Everyone got a bit drunk and the atmosphere was light and happy.



The next day I went to tour the convention centre with my Danish ladies. They bought some much wanted figurines and I bought some French manga I'd been looking for forever. We took things very slow before heading to the dressing rooms.




Hardcore with Dragonball, Mona hardcore with Sakizo and hardcore at lunch!




I nearly fainted at the sight of that Amidala costume. She must be my first ever costume crush because my mom has a drawing by me aged 5 in this costume.
I took some snapshots of Sørine's lovely Misha and Abena's beautiful Tiana too!



And they took some of my flowing Leetah robe! I hung out with Diana with Sørine and Abena in the afternoon and got to know her a bit too. It was a lot of fun, her being all zombified, hahah.



After I de-body painted myself we went to the dinner-goodbye-party-thingy. We were a larger party than the club had been expecting, so they did not have enough chairs for us. But after a lot of exhausting days we just had to sit down and eat, so we went to....




... true and faithful McDonalds.... Yeah. But we had a nice time and returned to the club when our reserves were filled with energy once again.



Patrick and Ben said a few words of gratitude and we all had a nice time. And riiiight before we had to leave the real party vibe started to appear, but it quickly faded in the bus towards home, haha.



The talks that last night was so nice though. Grounded and filled with appreciation for the experience we had been given. I am so happy I got to meet so many wonderful people!!



The next morning nightmare à la change of hotel began. We got up WAY TOO EARLY after the week we'd had, waited for the delayed transit bus for almost an hour and got to the city. We had a bit of trouble fitting all of our crap in the train... That is me, holding on to the 3 paintings the girls won as their price from an exhibition at the convention, and 4 pieces of luggage in front/on/behind me. And oh yea, sleeping in my student cap. Fabulous, I am aware.

<3**

Representing a nation! Part 1

I qualified for the ECG last November and finally it was time to depart from dear old Denmark and head to Paris! Team Denmark arrived early Wednesday and decided on some napping before heading down to the info meeting followed by the introduction party in our very own PARTY BUS.
It was my first time in one of those buses and I tell you - it was awesomeeee! And it reminded me so much of the graduation wagon trip too, so it was a bit surreal having two of them in one week.




We drove from the hotel to the city centre. It was such a good idea, since it allowed us all to actually comprehend that we were in PARIS and not just participating at yet another convention. All of the 20 participating groups + extras being former ECG participants in from of dear Louvre.



It was a great way to get thrown together and just start talking right from the start. After that night we'd already learned a lot about each other. Who had been to Paris before and seen l'Arc de Triumf and who hadn't.



They served food too! But everyone was too busy making memories to eat a lot. I think maybe half of the food was left behind - but pretty much all drinks were cleared out because of the heat inside the bus! Gosh, it was fantastic to have those breaks outside so there was time to get a bit of fresh air.



I got to try of Swiss Solo Nicolas' Daft Punk helmet, which was a pretty tight fit! He has a small a fuck head. And Naomi is probably one of the prettiest girls you'll ever encounter.



I don't know if you've noticed, but cosplays were mandatory. I wore my Raven for the first time in ages and it actually felt really good even though it's super old. But the others mostly wore old/updated cosplays as well, so no biggie there. Plus I was super happy with my make-up for her this time around.

Dance the night away, du du duu... Or at least until bedtime at 1? 2? or was it 3?



Thursday I went to Japan Expo alone (meaning sans the rest of the Danes) and teamed up with Naomi for an exhilarating tour of the location. And I was desperate to find the LEGO booth just to see if they had the Hogwarts model again this year. WHICH THEY DID. So after that we happily moved on.



Around breakfast before going (I think at least?) Eri from Belgium came over and handed me this envelope with my name on and inside this shiny card and the squirrel key chain lay. I was really touched that she'd thought of bringing that with her to France for a person she had yet to know.
Then the representatist vans arrived and took us to the expo where I talked and listened to France and Switzerland in French for about 2 hours (my head was spinning at the end, but it's good practice) before going around with Naomi. Remember what I said about Naomi being pretty? GOD, she's adorable in this one.



One of my fave booths were definitely the Ghibli one! I mean, pastel green with adorable things inside. A solid winner, haha. And Naomi and I went to half a concert too so that she could see the stage and lighting before the finals. I really liked their beginning behind those coloured see-though screens.



Before going back to relax at the hotel we stopped by the cosplay area only to see one of the most horrific things. Benjamin in a superbly manufactured Sailor Moon cosplay... I am now scarred for life.



Naomi had to assemble part of her Chocobo birdie as well that day to make everything easier for her the following days. It was really interesting to watch! And we had a blast with the other participants present before going back to the hotel.



While Friday was happening it seemed sooo busy but looking back we really didn't do a lot. We hung out, chatted along and asked about cosplay details. How did you make that?, have you been partners for a long time? etc. A lot of people hadn't been to the con Thursday so this was the second time we were all together.



We were presented first on the main stage and later on the cosplay stage. ECG participants from DENMARK, SPAIN, GERMANY - you get the picture. And a lot of the countries had planned great introductions such as Portugal who'd brought a flipping flag. Everyone was like WHY DIDN'T WE DO THAT TOO, ahha. But the girls looked so fabulous doing it <3



This Tintin was just amazing. Can anyone say took my breath away? I'm so happy I got his photo taken! And another completely gorgeous cosplay item was the almost completed Chocobo. Cutest little fellow.



In the evening we had our first rehearsals for the finals and it went sooo bad for me, so I had to make some alterations to my cosplay that night. Ahead of us lay the ECG FINALS!

<3**