fiki.me

Sometime in July 2013 I ran across this site and it being a bit close to the dates promptly sighed and forgot about it. A month or three later I ran across it again and dates for 2014 were there. After a little bit of discussion with Sarah (and a vain attempt to recruit other interested parties) we booked flights and accommodation (quite a large discount for early accom booking) and the long 9 month wait began.

And boy, was it worth it.

Please note: This post may drag on and be disjointed so for the uninterested reader I will say if you enjoy boardgames in a super relaxed and friendly atmosphere and wish to combine that with a beautiful country to visit you should give this event the utmost consideration.

We set off for Croatia a few days before the festival and stayed in Split. For anyone with a sense of history or interest in Roman times this is a must do. By all accounts the entire Croatian coast is just a Roman era treasure chest but the only one I can attest to is Split. The centre of the town is founded on and around Diocletian’s Palace. While not as well preserved as other sites (Dubrovnich was mentioned to us), you get a real feel for the evolution of the city with modern architecture sitting on top of medieval levels with Roman walls at the base. Also, the Archeological Museum had some of the most amazing and best preserved Roman exhibits I’ve ever run across.

We bussed down to Sibenik the day before the event to get settled in, etc. The resort is a few miles outside the town and is a under 10 euro in a cab. The site itself has a range of accommodations from camping/mobile home to 3/4 star hotels.

From chatting with others staying during the week the camping facilities are excellent and the onsite supermarket very well supplied with fresh produce. Due to the fact that it was only the two of us and it was our first long holiday in 2.5 years we splashed out on the top level 4*+ with half board. This gave us a few perks (access to the indoor pool, champagne with breakfast) and the nicest rooms in the resort as this one is the only hotel onsite to have been completely refurbished to a modern standard.

The outdoor pool had the usual sun holiday issues with all the loungers being covered in towels in the pre-dawn hours.  Luckily for us, being the known sun worshippers we are,  the lounger under the parasol under the trees out of the sun was free. And was right beside the pool bar. 🙂

We located the indoor pool connected to the Spa centre the next day and this fit our needs much more. Was also substantially less busy (except for the time with the French Aqua Aerobics class).

Oh! Question – Does anyone else feel it inappropriate to have camera/camera-phones in the pool? Am I getting that old? (Points will be deducted for answering rhetorical questions.)

I was a little apprehensive approaching the event itself – what will the language barrier be like, will it be easy to integrate with new people, etc – No need.

The event organisers were super friendly (and spoke better English than I do) and introduced themselves promptly. Within a few hours everyone in the room had at a minimum said hello to each other and were happily playing games.

Attendance was small (~30 people over the week with a 15-20 around most of the time) but I think this just enhanced the relaxed atmosphere. It was enough that over the week we got to play games with nearly everyone. In addition there was enough people to always get a game.

A few tournaments were organised (of which I only took part in 2 – TtR and 7Wonders) but were very much optional. Everything else was free play. I managed to get in some games I had been wanting to learn for a long while and huge kudos to Stephan, who was just a walking boardgames lore machine, for imparting a huge amount of rules knowledge over the week.

A day trip to Krka national park was organised for us and with some games in hand a majority of the attendees piled into cars for the 20 minute drive. The little bit of Krka I saw was quite beautiful and with a small history lesson thrown in by Tin made it a great day out. Throw in some games in the open air while having a bite to eat or a coffee and it just got better.

During the week I got to play loads of new games and meet loads of really nice people. Some of the stuff I played had been sitting on my shelf, rules unread, for months. Of these Russian Railroads will be brought out again for sure. Others I had not played before and the one to go on my shopping list is most likely Istanbul (though I sort of enjoyed Twin Tin Bots which is like RoboRally-lite

All in all a big thanks to everyone (Jurica, Barbara, Tin, Eva, Sinasa, Jasminka, Jelana, Mislav, Slavica, Bart, Kelly, Dave, Ilka, Bo, Francoise, Christian, Paula, Raimond, Stephan, Keef, Claire, June, Janice, Dave, David, Sarah and anyone I’ve forgotten) for making it an amazing and memorable week, the likes of which I look forward to repeating with you all again in the future.

Gender balance was the closest I’ve ever seen to 50-50 at any gaming event. There were a lot of couples, but I don’t think this was detracting to the few singles as most of the couples were happy to not play together most of the time and very rarely did one game follow into another with exactly the same people.

Child friendly – there were two young children (5+7 I’m lead to believe. Let’s just say they were better than I in the games I was challenged to) and a few brief visits from some younger ones. While some people would not like this I think it really added to the social nature of the event with most people playing a game involving them at least once.

Criticisms (the bit I don’t want to write) – I had an amazing time.

I will definitely attend again within the next 2 but cannot at this point guarantee which. I don’t think the event itself has a lot of faults as it delivered what it said it would be and far more beyond. I hope the festival manages to maintain the ‘we’re all friends’ atmosphere it has managed to harness as the event grows. As such my main criticisms points are to do with other aspects of organisation and are hopefully helpful to them. These should not be thought of as detractions from the event. These were also made in person to various organisers over the week so I don’t feel like I’m nitpicking for the sake of it, though other parts of me are saying I am 😦

Attendance fee – Make it a round figure. Adequate change can be difficult to hold onto. Also, specify on the website that the euro value is a rough calculation as payment will have to be made in Kuna.

Free advertising – There are loads of social media outlets that can be utilised for this. Join some larger forums and groups and post info.

Website – A lot of content still relates to year one. Especially the questionnaires.

Bus travel in Croatia is easy with all the major cities of Croatia linked by multiple services. Travel further afield (neighbouring countries) seemed well serviced also. Booking tickets in advance (even just a day or two before) is advised, but online

bookings bring their own issues (like seat reservations issues and the requirement to print your ticket) – use the ticket offices in the bus station when you arrive for booking the next leg.

Cost – While accommodation is on a par (possibly slightly less) with much of Western Europe the cost of food and drink is noticeably less.

Language – As most of you know I make a fair hames of English at the best of times. That said a majority of my dealings were without hassle with English being well understood pretty much everywhere we needed to interact with anyone.