I have just recently returned from my Norway roadtrip, but guess what? The next trip is already in the horizon, because you're one and only dried fruit guy is bringing some more juicy stuff to the next Steemfest! That is for certain, because the plane tickets are already purchased and they say I'm landing in Bangkok on 3rd of Nevember at 3:40 pm, local time, and leaving 2nd of December. Since Thailand is so far away, I thought I might as well stay there for full 30 days that is allowed without any visa for Finland citizens. Staying there for longer than the event is going to be fun also, because there are going to be many other Steemians staying in Thailand for a while, I'm sure, so it'll make for fun times ahead :)

For those who don't know why the hell my name on my blog page is 'the dried fruit guy', well, we have to go down the memory lane to find how did I exactly made myself kind of a meme. Those of you who know me, will get a good chuckle from the whole thing, and those who don't, well, you might question my sanity, or just get a good chuckle as well. Maybe both.

It all started with a phone call from my friend who works in a warehouse:

"You want some dried fruit? There's a batch of them given away here."

If you don't know, I never say no to free food, so I said "yes". More precisely, "yes, bring me 5 of the 12,5 kg boxes". Why 5? I guess I like the number five... and over 60 kg of dried fruit, apparently.

^{This is how it looks.}

^{And this is how the interiors of a single box look like.}

Now that I had 60 kg of dried fruit, I was thinking "what the hell am I going to do with all of this", because even I can't eat all of this, not in a very short time at least.

So I got this wonderful idea that I would bring one box with me to Steemfest 3 and get rid of it there. And because being the genius I am, I brought it with me on a skateboard.

Long story short, I dragged it along with me to a boat going over the gulf of Finland to Estonia. Then I hitchhiked (this was my first time, btw) with a Latvian guy called Janis who agreed to take me exactly where I was going for starters: Riga.

Later, I dragged my 12 kg heavy skateboard with a rope around the streets of Riga to a hostel where I stayed couple nights, met cool people, laughed with them, talked about all kinds of things together and taught each others' languages (I learned Korean alphabet, though I doubt if I can remember it anymore).

From Riga I got lazy and took a bus, but hey, it was only 50€ and went straight to Krakow, so not too bad.

Finally in Krakow I started my mission of getting rid of my box of dried fruit: I opened the box and put some of them into small 1 liter mingrip bags to make the distribution of dried fruit (omg, I should make a dried fruit token on Steem-Engine!) easier.

^{This wasn't exactly what I was going for, but that's how it came down in our AirBnB.}

Some people had read that I'm coming with bunch of dried fruit and reserved themselves a portion of it. One of them was @revisesociology, so I found him during the opening drinks and gave him a bag. Ask and you shall receive. Simple. @zlatan-spielberg (from the same AirBnB) was another fan for the high fiber content of the fruits and its health benefits on the stomach.

But sometimes it wasn't a matter of negotiation whether somebody would get dried fruit or not, like was the case with @blewitt when I found him and his backpack in some hole under the ground late at night somewhere in Krakow.

When I saw his backpack I just deliberately opened it and stuffed one bag in there, and I must say that @blewitt's reaction to that was priceless :D

But the pinnacle of the dried fruit saga was when @ned tasted some of my fruit. Yes, the used to be Steemit CEO Ned.

He was already sneaking away after briefly chatting with people, but just in time I grabbed his attention and managed to get him to taste some of my fruit :) This whole situation was a bit absurd, I think, because he was looking at me as if trying to pinpoint whether I'm funny or just lunatic.

~~~~~~

This whole silly dried fruit saga though was just one of the countless stories and events that occurred in Krakow during SteemFest 3. I'm browsing through old posts of mine and others, pictures of shared moments and the countless people I met, and getting nostalgic about it all. There's so much to tell that it's impossible to put it in a matter that would do justice for the experience.

Lately though, there seems to be an increasing amount of negativity on Steem. It's not that there wouldn't be anything to improve with how Steem operates, but sometimes it seems to get over proportion when looking the big picture and realizing we are in the infancy of the whole industry. But all the reactions tell rather just about the uncertain nature of crypto and blockchain at the moment, and how it's hard to manage. This is not for everyone, not during it's infancy at least, but that's exactly the reason why I think Steemians are such amazing people.

The point I want to make, especially the people in mind who are yet to experience Steemfest, is that the relationships you have here are real, and become even more so when you get to connect usernames to faces in the real life. There are not many online communities that are so tight and passionate in the real world as ours.

You might hesitate to come and be afraid to talk to all the new people you encounter, but trust me, there's nothing to be afraid of. Don't worry if you have nothing to say – you can only just come and say hi to a content creator you know and you're presence will be appreciated.

I'm not usually the most talkative person in the house, but I still managed to get out of my shell during the event. @soyrosa and @eveuncovered noticed this and commented how they noticed it happening during the event. This is why it was so meaningful to me; it was a progress towards the free soul I think I am beneath the surface and the adopted behavior patterns that somehow managed to stick with me like a tick when growing up. Anyway, I'm shedding my skin, and now I'm rather excited of what SteemFest 4 has to offer than being anxious.

See you in Thailand!

^{Don't forget to find a blond Mohawk and ask for some dried fruit ;)}

_{PS. Special thanks to @anomadsoul, @tarazkp, @abh12345, @luzcypher, @raj808, @guyfawkes4-20 and @zlatan-spielberg whom I got to know and hang out in the "Frat House" in Krakow.}