Partial Recall: Parcon

A couple of weeks ago Jukkahoo, Juha T., and I traveled to the Czech Republic to attend Parcon, their natcon, held in the city of Plzeň. The whole trip was a lot of fun, the convention was small but nice, the locals welcoming, and the Guests of Honor great. The city was surprisingly pretty (and a curious mixture of old Europe and Soviet-era eastern block styles), plus it had great pubs, nice (and unbelievably inexpensive) restaurants, and a 24 hours cigar shop—what more could you want! (Well, maybe besides having a common language with the locals…) I would have written a longer report, but Jukkahoo already said pretty much everything I would have in his excellent report, so go read that one instead. I’m just going to post a couple of pictures.

But first I want to say hi to all the people I met at the con, like Marta (hope to catch up with you again sometime when you’re not totally tied up with organizing duties), Jan, Jolana, Frederic, and all the others whose names I can’t reproduce here (either because of my lousy memory for names, or because I haven’t got a clue how to spell them—sorry about that). And especially big hi and thanks to Peter (without him and all his help this trip probably wouldn’t have happened) and Teresa (who graciously helped Jukka and me to indulge in our fancy and took us to a walking trip to Plzeň-by-night to find some cigars)! And of course hi to Ann, Jeff, and Hal—it was so great to meet and spend time with all of you again! (And sorry to the organizers for making Hal miss his speech by hijacking him to the bar…) Last, but not least, thanks to my traveling companions Jukka and Juha—had a blast, must do this again!

The con site, a local school of transportation (I think). We stayed at the school dorm, which was conveniently located in the tall building attached to the school.

The hallway didn’t look too promising at first, but once we got to our room, it turned out to be perfectly fine.

…and the view wasn’t too shabby either.

We realized we hadn’t eaten much of anything in the last ten hours. Luckily the restaurant, Knight Lochoty, was just on the other side of the street. After a lot of confusion and gesture language, we managed to order food and beers. Which were pretty good. We never found out if the knight actually had any historical significance.

The PUB. Here’s your table, there’s your tap—when you’re leaving, pay your bill with your table number. Ingenious! And extremely good beer too!

I think it’s fair to say we were all envious when we saw the amount of good sf published in Czech for sale at the con.

The opening ceremony. Don’t ask—I haven’t got a clue. It was all in Czech. But the locals laughed, so it must have been funny.

Signature Session. That’s Ian R. MacLeod, Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, Hal Duncan, and Edward Miller. Quite an impressive lineup for a convention this size, not located near to where any of them live.

The art show.

The elevator of Doom. Wall-to-wall carpeting (and I don’t mean just on the floor), shabby lights on the ceiling, thick metal doors that went CLANG when you closed them… we used the stairs a lot.

At The PUB again. Our international (pictured here, an American, a Brit, a Frenchman, a Czech, an Italian—who’s really a Scot—and a beer of another Scot, plus three Finns) gathering was a great company to spend an evening with. Lots of fun was had. Lots of beer was drunk (when we arrived, the scoreboard showed all of the top 10 having at least 14 pints’ head start on us. When we left, we were at the fourth place—on the nationwide score).

The entertainment. As Jukka said, the minstrels were really pretty good. But the room was very hot.

The Sunday morning breakfast buffet. The Czechs were coy with their offerings. I think they just wanted someone to eat their pickled sausages before they told anyone they might have some baguettes left too.