As the new year looms on the horizon, I feel like it would be a good time to start looking into the potential idea of organising a CNTO meetup event!
We have often discussed different plans and ideas during casual chatting/banter on Teamspeak, but it would be good to get an actual thread made, so it is down in writing for actual planning.
I’d like to start by offering the idea of Tallinn, Estonia. It is not the most central for peeps living West of Germany/Poland, but from what I have googled, flights are not too expensive when booked ahead of time, and there are many ways to get here (direct flights, and also flights/boats/busses from Helsinki, Stockholm and Riga).
The location is also closer to our Scandinavian and Baltic members, who have not had a chance to take part of these meetups as often and others living near those regions should have an easy time getting here too in most cases.
Estonia itself, is definitely not the cheapest of the European countries, but it still should be cheaper than home for most, and I am happy to help find the best accommodation for everyone who would be staying here. If all goes well, I might be even able to get something for free for some?
Activities wise, there is of course plenty of great food and drink available here, with the booming food industry in Tallinn. The Old Town is also a UNESCO World Heritage site, for those interested in history, with multiple museums and whatnot. And with Estonia being a smaller country, the nature and other cities are a short ride away, and with the Soviet past having left it’s mark, there are also plenty of abandoned old military sites around to explore (they are sometimes used for Airsoft/Paintball games).
Who would be interested in taking part of a meetup and how flexible are you for the location?
Location doesn’t really matter too much to me (I like getting surprised by locations I go to), as long as we can agree on a location/date on time. A couple years ago we were looking at Greece and we waited so long on deciding the location, that by the time we did, the ticket prices were too high for many people. So I’m up for it!
Sadly, theres little to none flights from Lithuania to Estonia and if there are they cost over 100 eur, id either have to drive myself 7hr trip or take bus 9h or train 13h.
As the location seems to fit for the currently interested parties, I’m creating a second poll for the preferred months. I’ll skip January and February just to allow actual planning ahead, but if anyone stills wants to offer any plans on the date, let us know!
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
0voters
Best out these seasons for warm to too hot weather would be June/July. Nice cool weather starting from April and potentially August.
For activities, I’m happy to be a guide and I’d also be preparing a list of options from people who have done this as a job as well.
Doesnt the EU have laws as to mobile prices amongst other EU nations? I.e. that it’s supposed to cost the same everywhere?
But we also have prepaid sim options, free wifi is available at almost all public places or establishments and I can also just be a moving hotspot myself, as it’d be free for me.
Yes there is a law that forces Mobile compagnies to have a part of your phone plan usable in EU yes. The quantity available is designed has: reasonable quantity.
So if you have a data plan, you should be able to use a part of it (for me it’s a supplementary quantity, not depending of my own data reserve), and phones calls and SMS should be free as well. By free I mean not overtax.
Sadly nope, i have to buy a seperate plan if i want internet outside of LT, Had no internet in either Latvia or Italy.
Bananacar is paid hitchhiking but on an app, u can see how many seats left and where the driver is going
At my job I need to give in the full weeks I want off at the start of the year, so my availability is already kinda set. That said, I’ll just see when we end up doing it, if I can make it, I’ll be there, if not, I’ll see y’all on the next one. I would also recomend doing during a Hiatus (summer or winter).
As we have had nearly a month now to vote on our preferred month, I think this would be an okay time to start discussing WHEN in that month we are free.
August is the top voted month, so now we can start voting on the dates and the length of the event as well. I assume we will have one main meetup day, however, if anyone is planning to stay for a longer time, there are other fun activities that could be done as well.
When are we going to put the stamp down on then when of it? Also, maybe we should put some more propaganda on this topic on the discord. Maybe slap it into announcements so people can make sure to vote and get time to plan their leave.
As it looks like right now it would be 12-18/19 august, but only 4 people voted.
