I spent most of the morning signing autographs and taking pictures with fans here at FedCon. I got some lovely gifts, including a cake that was made to look just like a The Wesley Crushers bowling shirt. I don't usually accept food at cons, but this was so amazing, I couldn't say no. I took pictures that I'll put onto my Flickr when I get back home.
When I was finished, Robbie McNeill and I went with Stephan to the old city here in Dusseldorf. We walked along the Rhine, ate lunch in a wonderful Lebanese restaurant (it was awesome to eat until I was full, instead of eating until I just wasn't hungry #firstworldproblems), and wandered around looking at the old buildings. If I ever get to come back to this con, I'm totally going to spend an extra day here, just so I can tour the countryside a little bit so I can see and feel Germany; the couple of hours we had just scratched the surface, and now I really want to see more.
The hotel is right next to the airport, so I figured we should take the tram back. I mean, how hard could it be to get to the airport?
Not very hard at all, it turns out. We rode the subway to the main central train station, and then took a train straight to the airport. While we stood on the platform waiting for our train to arrive, I looked down the track, and saw five or six other tracks all winding off between houses and buildings, electrical wires strung over them all. A train arrived just as another one was pulling out of the station, and I said to Robbie, "This is what Germany looks like in my imagination."
He said, "We do shows on Chuck where he goes around the world, and I wish I'd brought my camera with me to capture this. It would be a perfect background if we ever send Chuck to Germany."
The train ride back was pretty cool, and I kind of wish it had lasted twice as long as it did, because just as I was starting to get that feeling that I was really in another country, we pulled into the station.
We all parted ways once we got back to the hotel, and I took a nap before meeting Kate Hewlett and her friend for dinner, which was — I am not making this up — a tofu hot dog covered with some kind of weird relish and crispy onions. I don't say this lightly: it changed my life in many unexpected ways. In fact, I think I'm going to have another one for lunch today.
Before I forget: the Cosplay here is phenomenal. I've seen a Wampa that was easly 2.5 meters tall, a couple dressed as Major Asshole and Dark Helmet, a Storm Trooper who I'm pretty sure was with his son, who was dressed as a miniature Scout Trooper.
The coolest thing, though, was a group a women dressed as Cat Nurses from Doctor Who. I looked for The Face of Boe, but he was nowhere to be found.
“… I took a nap before meeting Kate Hewlett and her friend for dinner, which was — I am not making this up — …”
I totally expected you to describe her who her friend was at this point for some reason, which made me laugh, thinking her friend was a tofu hotdog, or dressed as such. Am I the only one?
Hi Wil,
this is Kai (webmaster) from the BIG BANG FORUM – http://www.big-bang-forum.de/ – “BBF” for short, which is THE German “The Big Bang Theory” fansite and geek/nerd community.
We already tried to get in contact with you at the FedCon (among others through Brigitte Scherr, FedCon official) in hopes of you having 3 minutes of our time you could spare for us to receive an award we wanted to present to you (and also an honorary membership in our forum, where you get your own special member account).
The reason was that we recently started a poll amongst our BBF forum members on who is their most popular supporting actor on the show “The Big Bang Theory”, and as it turned out, the vast majority voted for you! 🙂
And because we knew you would be present at the FedCon 2011 we tried to arrange a short meeting through the above mentioned FedCon official to be able to present you with this award in person.
Unfortunately the whole communication thing with the FedCon officials turned out to be a bit difficult, because they are all, understandably, pretty stressed and I just heard that even some prior arranged meetings, for whatever reason, got canceled shortly before and the like.
Anyway, I really hope you are reading this while you’re still at the FedCon to make you aware of what we had planned, and maybe thus you could find a way to reach out to the FedCon officials who then would get you in contact with us, to make this short presentation possible.
But if your schedule is just too packed to make a short meeting possible we really would like to forward you the mentioned award to an address of our choice, maybe to your agency or wherever you see fit that it is ensured that only you personally receive our parcel.
Here are two images for you to check out of what the award we created looks like:
http://www.big-bang-forum.de/images/wilw/BBF-Wil-Wheaton-Award-1.jpg
http://www.big-bang-forum.de/images/wilw/BBF-Wil-Wheaton-Award-2.jpg
As you can see, we really put a lot of geeky love and effort into creating it. 🙂
Therefore, it would be a real shame if there were no way to send you this cool looking award.
Concluding:
If now no opportunity arises to hand you the award in person at the FedCon would you then please be so kind and contact me personally to let me know to which address in the States we should forward you the award.
My e-mail address reads: webmaster [at] big-bang-forum.de
We, of course, are following you on Twitter with our http://twitter.com/#!/BigBangforum account, so that would also be a possibility to get in contact with us, via “Direct Messages”, if you then would follow us.
At this point I would also like to thank you very much, and on behalf of all German “The Big Bang Theory” fans, for your brilliant contributions to the show, YOU ROCK big time! :->
Wil, I really do hope we can make something feasible so that you will receive your well-deserved award. 🙂
Like I said, as a last resort please contact me personally (e-mail/Twitter) and we’ll then send you the award within a parcel to the States.
Best wishes from Berlin (Germany),
Kai
(webmaster, forum nick: “Dr. Sheldon Cooper”)
Glad you had such a great time in Germany. 🙂
Next time you see Robbie McNeill, tell him to research the German on Chuck better. There was an episode earlier this year where this hilarious microwave appeared (short scene of some Russian spy in Germany). Clearly someone had sat down with a dictionary and translated word for word rather than meaning.
Speaking of Dr Who, have you been able to see this season’s shows yet?
Glad you liked it over here, have been living in Ddorf for 9 years now and I think it’s a very pretty town. You weren’t talking of these girls by any chance? I took a pic with them last year because I was so impressed by the make up! http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v11/DaniShian/14096_420190782274_566787274_5406091_2381168_n.jpg
I had a hot dog in Iceland with the crispy fried onions and the weird relish. It wasn’t a tofu dog (you don’t want to know the animals Icelanders include in their hotdogs), but my heavens was it delicious. It makes me sad that I will have to fly back to Reykjavik to get another one. The dangers of discovering tasty food abroad.
It’s good to hear that you had such a wonderful time in Germany. It was great to have you and I totally hope that we’ll see you pretty soon again. 🙂
Oh yeah, and I’m thrilled that you liked our costumes that much. I was one of the Cat Nurses. 🙂 We wanted to do the Weeping Angels as well but it didn’t work out as planned so we’ll do that next year.
Hi Wil!
Here is the photo of the cake…I hope you came to Germany again!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/41851595@N07/5679362754/in/photostream
Thank you! I was one of the Cat Nurses and I was the one who did the make up so… thank you so much! 🙂
It was just so much fun to have you here in Germany! I really enjoyed getting your autograph and the picture taken with you.
I definitely hope that you will come back to Fedcon/Germany one day, your panels (solo and with Marina) were my favourites!
Sadly I missed the Sisters of Plenitude while being in my Ood costume, it would have been amazing to do a group picture.
It’s wonderful to hear that you had a great time and it would be great if you would come again.
And it’s nice to hear that you liked our costumes, I was one of the Cat Nurses. The Face of Boe was just to big to bring it. 😉
And we wanted to do the Weeping Angels as well, but unfortunatly that wasn’t possible this time. But we’ll wear them next year! I hope you’ve seen the TARDIS as well.
As I’m one of the Sisters of Plenitude, maybe we can take that picture another time. We wanted to have one with you as well, but we couldn’t find you. Maybe next year with us as Weeping Angels?
Thank you! I’m another one of the cat nurses, glad you liked it. Yes, we’re the same ones. 😉
hi Mr. Wheaton,
Excuse the bad translation processing but I can not speak English / American I use the google translator.
I want to tell them how wonderful I found it on the fedcon xx come to Germany / Dusseldorf are. I was and am still so happy that I could see them and could get me a autograph and picture. they have no idea how long I’ve been waiting for this to come to us after Germany. I have hope they have their low point at the beginning of fedcon xx left well behind. But they made no impression on me very happy when I picked up my autograph I’m one way, to the group that gave them the cake I made WHILE which the photos. :o)
I hope we were not too intrusive.
when I shot the photo with them I wanted to ask her if I could hug her, but I’m not married and it was indeed all that fast.
I was really happy when they “hi ” they said to me before the shoot.
for me it was bad but I could not see in their panels because we were just there Friday and Saturday, it made me very angry. and otherwise I have not seen it.
well, I now have my photo and autograph, and I will continue to worship as I’ve already done a teeny.
I hope I did not write angry with my
sounds like a plan. I was thinking about doing a weeping angel as well at one of the future FedCons… I need more space for luggage. We’ll see 😀
if u liked düsseldorf u will LOVE cologne!!
I took this cake to the final dinner we all had on Sunday night, and put it out with the dessert, so everyone could enjoy it. I thought you'd want to know that it was completely gone by the end of the meal; everyone loved it!
Portal 2? No no no… Lord of the Rings, get on the Crickhollow server and look for Natil. *nods nods*
Wow your blogs are very entertaining! So glad I stumbled upon it! My husband and I so thoroughly enjoyed the Guild and when I saw who played Fawkes I was like – WHAAA!??? Little itty bitty Wesley Crusher… it canna be! I just had to start poking around to see what else you were up to.
We’re looking forward to the Guild’s next season! Keep justifying us geeks! We’re with ya all the way!
That cake is amazing. Nicely done!