Recently I organized the thrid "Loli Pott" lolita meet-up, this time in Herne and Bochum. As there had been less and less meet ups in the eastern Ruhrgebiet, I started this row of meet ups. It will take place about every second month in an other city.
For the frist Loli Pott we visited the museum of "Kunst and Kulturgeschichte" in Dortmund in November and went for dinner afterwards. On this meetup it wasn't raining, but it was freezing. Luckily we were indoors. But we forgot to take a grounp picture that day...
The second meet up was in the Unperfekthaus in Essen. We had a Swap and Buy and chatted a lot. It was snowing badly that day, but we got to the house by underground and it was just a short walk before we reached the dry shelter.
 |
| group picture of the 2. Loli Pott |
But there also is a long history of me oragnizing meet ups, that fell through because of the rain. Or like we say in german: literally fell into water. Jülich: There was so much rain, we had to take our group picture, as the rain stopped for a few minutup es. Rombergpark Dortmund: It was raining in the morning, so we weren't able to have a Picknick.
I would say, I never had good wheather on a meet-up, when it was me, planing it.
Normally I therefore have a backup-plan. This time the back-up plan was to go into the museum in the castle Strünkede, when it would rain. But the problem was, as soon as we arrived in Herne, it started to rain heavily, just like we asked for it. And the museum wasn't opened yet.
We headed towards the next cafe in the park of the castle, but though it should have been opened by that time, it was closed. The only good thing about it was, that they had a tent in front of the cafe where we could shelter for a while.
Next backup plan was a greek restaurant on the other side of the road. It was big enough for more than twenty lolitas and it was open. Just as we arrived, the rain which stopped for a moment, began again. But we were dry and warm and drank some coffee, tea and soft drinks.
And it I took the chance to take some group photos, worring we wouldn't have the time afterwards.
In the restaurant it was not problem to find room for 22 Lolitas (including me. I also want to sit and drink).
The problem was the little cafe to that we wanted to got later that day. It is really small and I only reserved for 19 people, though I thought, that with this amout of people two or three more wouldn't be a problem.
After a very stressful meet-up where half of the attendents (about 8 people) spontaniously agreed to come to the meet up the night before, I decieded that the attendend should announce that they will come to the restaurant at least two days before the meet-up.
But sometimes you cannot plan. So two people weren't able to come at the last minute, but four (or so) people decieded to come.
As expected it wasn't a problem to be more people than I reserved for. But we had to take the last chairs to give everyone a seat.
Back to the meetup. After having a drink, going to the loo and being warm again, we headed to the the museum.
As the rain stopped again for some time, we quickly had our group picture.
We had so many cameras that it took a while.
 |
| group picture of the 3. Loli Pott |
In the end, it even started to rain again. So there was no chance to take pictures in the park. But there were some beautiful photo locations inside the museum too.
Inside there was an exhibition of old stuff like furniture, some informatons about the region and an exhibition of artwork of Cornelia Funke, a famous German childrens book author.
As always, we chatted more than we looked at the exhibition, took some photos and admired the location.
The most impressive thing was a skeleton of an ancient stag.
Next on the programm was the most important part: Food!
We went back to Bochum to visit a small cafe near the main station, the "Cafe Besonders Bunt",
They were really excited when we entered and even a bit upset, that I didn't tell them it was a Lolita meetup. How should I have known, that they know what Lolita is? It's not like its a common fashion style or that everyone is into Japanese stuff.
All in all they were really friendlich and the food was very good and compared to other cafes the prices were more cheap, which pleases the purse.
One by one, a Lolita left as everyone had to go home at some time. In the end, we were only seven people left, that decieded to have a falafel for dinner.
I told them about an snack bar I read about on the internet. I never hab been there, but I knew they made libanese food, that I know is very good.
No sooner said than done. We headed to the snack bar. It was far more little than I expected, We took the whole place but the food was good.
And the owner was so happy that we came, he gave us drinks for free on top.
As we headed back to the main station, it was raining. As I got home, it was raining.
But it was a wonderful meetup. I met so many new people and finally learned the names of people I already knew.
I hope to see you all on the next Loli Pott in June/July!
