EXCERPT. You are just 6 months old. Never mind walk, you have yet to find your voice. So what do you do if your mom brought you to Essen Spiel, the largest board game convention in the world?

Plane and train before Essen

Essen is thousand of miles away from my home. And we need to get into this “large flying plane” that’ll take us to this faraway magical land.

A little bit of apprehension at the beginning.. then I realized you could just sleep thru the entire flight! #nodrama

We landed in a place called Frankfurt. Next thing was to get onto the trains. We actually had a short trip in Bremen before our Essen adventure, but the Bremen trip is another story for another day.

Pappa asked me to remember these tracks well… as “trains rush thru them to rust”. I don’t quite get what he meant. Hmm…

Anyway, follow-along as I recapped my first adventure in Essen, the city of Spiel!

What I did in Essen, the 6mo version

First thing I did when I reached the Messe Hall…. sleep.

Har-lo.. a 6 mo like me needs a lot of sleep la.

Mommy was trying to show me the “latest hits” for that year for eg this wonderful gem-collecting game called SPLENDOR.

But as I’ve said before… the most important thing a 6 mo like me needs is SLEEP.

So I guessed Mommy did the next-best-thing ie take pics of me with those wonderful “latest hits” (even tho I’m asleep).

When I awoke.. I saw this tall German fella!! Apparently he’s Pappa’s good friend from Dusseldorf and they always meet in this fair.

Yeah sure. But why wake me up for this? A 6 mo needs sleep. Yes you are beginning to get my point. tsk tsk.

btw Uncle Dietmar is a nice fella and I like him.

Oh gosh. Do you think that baby turned green becoz he’s not getting enough sleep? [worried look]

Yes I know I’m adorable. Stop staring at me.

Mommy and Pappa then had a meeting with this well mannered gentleman. French ppl do carry themselves in a certain elegant way. He’s demo-ing his game about cute doggies to my Pappa and Mommy.

The game reminded me of my doggies Macy and Bebe back at home, thousands of miles away. I wonder how are they doing now?

There are some interesting games and toys here. But Pappa said I’m too young and can’t play with these yet. I think he didn’t want to pay for them gua. Need better excuse leh.

I like very much the COLORS of this booth!! Well, this is actually something that Future Me said will play a very important role in the future of my Board Game journey. Hmmm..

That seems like FUN! How I wish I can join them? Mommy said I first need to learn how to walk.

“Walk”? What’s that?

Why need to “walk” when you have folks to carry you around? tsk.

Oh… sand!! Now this is the type of booth I like!!

Well, that’s about it for the day. Mommy & me left sometime in the afternoon. When? Har-lo.. I’ve not yet learnt how to read time la, how do you expect me to answer you.

Anyway Pappa stayed back in the Hall, he said he still has more work to take care of. I think he’s staying back to play games la, what work. He’s really bad at making excuses. 😛

Next Day(s)

Same same.. but now the adults have “learned” to let me sleep in a bit more in the morning at the hotel before they bring me to the Messe Hall. So you’ll see less pictures of “baby sleeping in the Messe Hall”.

I suppose it does not reflect well on them if all pics of me they took are of me sleeping. 😛

Why does the morning always have to start with photo-shoot? Okay la I oblige.

Aiyaya.. I’m not sure if this Pappa knows how to carry me properly. I’m not feeling very safe. Isn’t there a course or smthing to get these people properly certified before they are allowed to carry fragile babies?

Alrite, this is better. You gotta learn faster, Pappa.

More of those “take pic with hottest game” moment. Yawn… what game is this?

Something new today.

Beside taking pics with those “hottest” games, I get to meet some of the “hottest” designers. Ah.. now we are talking. Who’s this fella btw? He looks very VITAL.

Hey … whoa Pappa, I’m slipping down!! Hold me properly wei!! Why did you think this is a comfortable position for me? Jeez.

Stop moving about, Pappa… I can’t read this rulebook if you can’t stand still.

I’m reading this rulebook coz Pappa kept going on and on about how GREAT this game (Wildcatters) is. I wanted to see what’s the fuss about.

Oh.. more “hottest” designer. This is getting interesting. Oh this is the fella who designed the game (with Andre Spil) that Pappa has been going on and on and on about.

Pappa said this is the booth of another of his good friends. He’s from Korea but he’s not around now. Eh.. not around still need to take pic meh? Of what? Oh.. his booth? Ok ok…

This fella Pappa said is not a “designer” but like I care. I’m oh so interested to see so many different people around.

After spending the best part of the morning in the Halls, Pappa finally took me to the open space they called The Galerie. This place spelt FUN in full caps!

Apparently you need to learn “WALKING” before you can join in those fun. Alrite so I now have an objective when I am back in KL.

Pappa told me to be careful of these creatures. But I dun find them scary oh.. I think they are scary only to adults, and they love cute little kids like me.

Hmm.. okay, I think I need LONGER arms if I’m to touch them.

Now, one thing I felt a need to complain is the lack of FOOD. It’s all walking, and meeting either “board games” or “designers”. Don’t the adults need to eat?

But finally Pappa brought me to a booth where they’ve food! Well, I did hear him and this uncle Jeroen mentioning “food” a few many times during their conversation and they may think I dunno how to spell/read but I’m sure that – F O O D – on that box means it contains food. Lots of them I bet since Pappa asked Uncle Jeroen why was it so ex-pen-sive. 😛

I hate to break it to Pappa but… I’m infinitely MORE COMFY when Mommy’s carrying me – especially in that swaddle.

One of those games I personally think is CUTE AND FUN la… the box even said “Fun”. Hah.

Blocks! All babies love blocks!

Pappa told me he has a nice surprise waiting for me! Turned out he got this “commemorative postcard” for us to take a picture together. Jeez… almost 1000 new games and he got me a postcard?

And he asked me why did I look so grumpy? #unbelievable

Alrite that’s a wrap of my adventures in the Messe Halls. But Spiel is not just the Halls, there are plenty of fun stuff to do away from the Halls eg in the hotel room.

Things to do outside the Messe Halls

In the room, the Adults made a makeshift “wall” around the edge of the bed, using (of all things to make walls with) the blanket!

Do they seriously think if I wanted to, I can’t scale this “blanket wall”? They were pushing naivety to a new level. Jeez

Oh look… the “wall” is so tall I’m so unable to scale it. [slaps_head]

Mommy was busy packing games to be shipped back, and she asked me to observe/learn how we can pack “four games” into “one” in order to maximize shipping volumes. She’s a #propacker. I’m much impressed oh.

Learning, learning…..

My first board games!!

Om nom nom time… the “worms” looked delicious…

The obligatory Family Essen Picture. 🙂

Good-the-Bye! Thanks for following me on my first Adventure in Essen. See you again next Essen Spiel.

For more Essen Spiel reports:
https://boardgamecafe.net/category/essen-spiel-2/

For more photos of our Essen Spiel 2015 trip,
visit our Flickr Spiel15 Collection.