EVE General Discussion

I have contemplated attending fanfest for several years however other then the mineral hot springs, shopping and touring the historic sights the wife really would rather go anywhere else for a vacation.

I know there has to be some excellent stories from previous fanfests. Tell me some, that I might relay them to the wife with the hope of trying further to convince her to come with me to Iceland. Did you take an excellent tour? What was your most enjoyable moment? Would you do it again?

If you have any good ones about drunken parties, unknown tattoo appearences or sucker punching a ganker you met in real life tell those as well. I will just selectively omit those.

Hey why dont you tell your wife about all the guys that get EVE related tattoos there!

Im sure she will go in a heartbeat then!

Why not just bargain with her?

Go to iceland this year then next year she gets to decide where to go.

I cant say anything about the SOE stuff but i have heard good things about it.

That being said my better half and I went there last year for our honeymoon and it was really worth it.
First off its not the kind of place that "everyone" goes to, so that alone makes it a more unique experience. Showing pictures to friends and family and having them go "ohh" and "aww" even a year later is a big + in my book at least

Please note that im also assuming that your wife dont play EVE thus she will have no interest in the actual FF events.
Honestly, that wont be a problem.
While some of the FF events are interesting, chances are you will just pick a few and go to those and skip the rest, which leaves a lot of time where you and your wife can go and do other things.

We were lucky enough to have our own "local guide" in the corp that drove us around, and we saw everything from fields filled with Icelandic horses, volcanos, the hot springs, geysirs, beautiful waterfalls and the general country side.
I know that one couple that is going this year is also signing up to go diving, and i think there is also things like whale watching tours (we had already been on one, so dident go to that one).

The town is also very small, and while some areas might look more.. shabby and run down the main parts are very cozy and its nice for calm walks and window shopping.
If you drink (im a non drinker so cant say much about this) there is also plenty of regular bars and if i remember correctly there was also one place that was more specialized in wine.

There is also a lot of restaurants to choose from, varying in price and location and also what you are looking for.
For "romantic" i would highly recommend Argentina, which is sort of middle of the tree price wise, but very good food and very memorable together with great service.
If you want something more special (and more pricey) i would say stop by Perlan which is also an unique experience.
However, i will admit that out of a party of 5, 3 of us got food poisoning after eating there, but we suspect it can be related to the free appetizers
But even with that, was worth going there just to see it, but it is more of a "dress up" place so bring a tie

But all in all... Iceland strikes me as the kind of place that offers so many options, some less obvious then others, that you can go back over and over again and find something new every time.

So your best way to convince her...
Make it clear that while there is FF stuff you would like to attend, your time together is still priority, then sit down and look for things and events that you both could enjoy.
Personally i would have loved to take one of the tours that are done on horseback but trying to drag someone who has no interest in horses to something like that, especially since the one i looked at lasted for 3 days, was not an option

They have a penis museum.

Ha!

Umm..keep the wife away from CCP Explorer.

I went last year to Fanfest on my own and did enjoy it. Whether I would go again I don't know. Bit's n comments:

1) Iceland is pretty expensive especially if you are coming from somewhere like the UK where the currency value has literally fallen down the toilet. I guess/presume Icelandic people earn a lot more per hour than us. I may be wrong.

2) Don't know about the Sisters trip to see the sights but the other one for us capsuleers doesn't give you much time to see the sights. At the waterfall stop I recommend going to see the waterfall first - go right to the far end close to the waterfall. (Which I didn't do ). Probably a better idea to arrive a few days before in Iceland and pre-book or book trips there to see stuff.

3) It's worth looking around the museums and shops. I wouldn't go to the national gallery as the art there is a little strange. Personal taste probably. I didn't try any of the stranger local cuisine such as fermented shark or whale. I'm a veggie but I did try some of the more 'normal' fish meals which were very nice. I recommend the ice cream! nom nom.

4) Better to stay in one of the hotels nearer to the Harpa up near the marina-ish sort of area. I stayed at the Natura near the airport. It was a nice hotel but I ended up walking a lot when I didn't catch the bus. If I can do something wrong I will.

5) Breakfast in hotels is pretty expensive. I bought a lot of fruit from one of the supermarkets.

6) I've stopped drinking alcohol (I wasn't an alcoholic. ) but I gather alcohol is pretty expensive as well. Up to you what you do on that front.

7) I recommend Fanfest for all extroverts. I'm a very shy introvert but I still enjoyed all the Fanfest related stuff.

8) Go to the workshops too and get involved. They are even more fun than the main talks.

Think that's about it. Oh. Buy something traditional made out of wool to wear to keep you warm.

I too would waste thousands of $ to fly to Iceland and get drunk with mediocre programmers and eat rotten shark......






Oh wait, I can do that here for a bit less....

My wife went just as a nice thing to do for me. She really wasn't into it at all and she doesn't play Eve. When we got off the plane in the middle of nowhere during a snowstorm (it looked like Hoth) she was miserable and actually crying. Over the next few days, we had the best time. Hanging out with friends, going out to bars (Pub Crawl is not to be missed) and enjoying Iceland. The food was great. I think she'd be happy to live at the Blue Lagoon. The local people were all super nice. She didn't enjoy the SOE tour very much, tbh, but otherwise had a fantastic time and she is dying to go back. She's been trying to convince non-Eve friends to go as well, she really loved it that much.

While we're not going back this year, I'm pretty sure we'll be back sometime in the future.