This year I’ll attend my first TBEXcon, that’s abbreviated mumbo-jumbo for Travel Blogger Exchange Conference and I’d be big-time fibbing if I said I wasn’t nervous. At such a massive gathering (per TBEX publicity, “the world’s largest gathering of travel bloggers, writers and new media content creators”) meeting fellow writers goes from fun to fear in the sixty seconds it takes my eyes to count the crowd uncountable or decide that I’m inappropriately dressed.
Of course, it’s an hour away on the fast train. On a slower train, the time spent in transport creeps up, and that’s without adding in time for the delays that are par for the course with RENFE train service from Barcelona to anywhere. Which means I’m going to be up before the completely unacceptable hour of 6am tomorrow to make it in time to register and attend the opening which means I won’t even have time for coffee before I leave.
I’m so smart. And by I’m so smart, I really mean, I guess I didn’t think this through so well. But hey, I can buy a cup of terrible coffee to get me by on the train, so all is not lost.
And since I did in fact sign up for this conference to learn new things and connect with new people, I will do my best to do so. Even if it means catching trains before sunrise and doesn’t involve free drinks and eats (in a castle).
Copyright 2010-2012 Chris Ciolli. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce texts or images without written consent.
Chris Ciolli is a Barcelona-based writer, translator and artist with Midwestern roots. She shares her escapades as a Missourian in the world at Midwesternerabroad.com, and writes about Barcelona from a guiri-gone-native perspective at Barcelonaforidiots.com. A closet foodie and self-proclaimed art addict, Chris typically blogs about the drinks, eats and other cultural attractions she encounters on her travels. In her spare moments, she reads obsessively, slurps excessive quantities of coffee and tea, and plays with art supplies and kitchen tools. Oh, and travels as much as humanly possible.
