Otakon Report

Thursday:
I took the metro with my friday-saturday roommates from 30th street station to the Penn Station in Baltimore. It was originally thought to be 30 dollars but it was 69 bucks. >.< fail on my friend's part when she was informing me of some parts. Like how the distance from the station to our hotel wasn't that far as well as the distance from the hotel to the convention center wasn't far either. We stayed in the Mount Vernon hotel.
Anyways we decided to head to the Baltimore Convention Center in hopes of getting our badges and pre-reg. stuff early.  Bad luck for us. Pre-reg didn't open til 3 PM for us and it started to thunderstorm. I was very unfortunate since I had a white shirt on; luckily a vendor nearby was selling rain ponchos. Everybody got really soaked and their receipts became invalid. It was about 3.5 hours of waiting and slow moving until we finally got our badges; where we then got food at the Hard Rock Cafe(it was expensive!not going there anymore) and then we crashed back at the hotel changed and skipped dinner. I didn't feel like sleeping on the bed so I made a bed on the floor in the corner and slept there.

Makeshift Bed

Friday:
Woke up around 5:30 since I had sensitive hearing  and one of my roommates were snoring. Our hotel was having a deal when my friend booked it so we got complimentary free breakfast. After eating breakfast, Rob and I changed into our costumes pretty easily, but Theri had problems with hers, so we didn't leave until 9:30ish. But even then there were long lines already outside the con center for getting badges and entrance.

This was the end of the line that looped twice!

But eventually I made it in. And proceeded to wander around. I was in my Izaya Orihara cosplay from Durarara! that day, but it wasn't til I met up with my friend Cody that I got mobbed with photos. I called and asked where he was since I pretty much finished exploring the general areas of the convention center in 5 minutes (I have fast walking skills), and decided to hang with him since I had nothing better to do. So we went to a panel for the Miyazaki movie Ponyo. We at first thought it was in Japanese, but thankfully it wasn't. Otherwise I would be reading the subtitles aloud for Cody since his shades weren't prescription.

After that it was pretty much wandering around the dealer's room and resting with Cody's roommates. And I mean a lot of resting. Since the both of us had to walk around in dress shoes and hot clothing, and deal with people snapping photos of us inside and outside. This was mainly to kill time before the Durarara! photoshoot; which wasn't until 7 PM at the outside fountains. So we got some substance in our stomachs, (not too much in Cody's case because his metabolism was messed up with his sleep) which was Water Ice, and then in my case sharing a forced upon gyro from one of Cody's roommates because she couldn't finish it (which I was secretly grateful for; since I didn't really have lunch). And then before we knew it, it was time for the photoshoot.

There weren't alot of people in the convention center dressed as Durarara! characters, but at the shoot there were tons. Pictures were normal combinations and the typical expected stuff; as well as some small requests. For example: stomping on phones, Shizuo vs. Izaya, etc.

Duel!

Then the charge of the photoshoot got some strange requests, so then Cody and I decided to leave. We went to Aunt Auntie's and got those lemonade mixer stuff. Which then as we were walking across the street a person decides to take a photo which was slightly amusing according to him, since the characters that my friend and I were dressed up as are rivals and fight a lot; so the sight of them drinking something together as friends was funny I suppose. Anyways it was pretty late by then so we took a small sitting break, which failed because strangers kept talking to us inside the con, and then eventually headed back to our separate hotels to rest. We both didn't bother with the rave that was happening because our feet were too sore.

----will continue Saturday and Sunday summaries next post----------------