I leave the apartment this morning, lock the front door and go to work.
I feel the sharp edges of the new pendant I got from my Hive friends on my palm.
And now I definitely know. It wasn't a dream.
I was at my first Hive Meetup.
The handshake during the introduction at Nikola Tesla Square in Apatin with 
I met my previous online friends, with whom I shared some of my experiences, observations and thoughts through posts, comments and interesting online live performances, live.
It was not a situation like when we see someone for the first time...
Even before we shook hands, it felt like we knew each other.
But after getting to know each other, my Hive adventure, which until now was exclusively online, turned into a different, new experience.
Now I understand the desire and need of Hivers to travel to the locations of annual Hive Meetups and Hive Fests, and to meet and socialize with other online friends at those events.
It started to rain and we quickly agreed to get out of the square and meet another Hiver in a nearby cafe.
It turned out, there will be two of them.
And how it all started
In one of the posts, ph1102 announced his arrival in Serbia on vacation and suggested a meetup in Apatin.
As I missed last year's meetup in Novi Sad, I immediately booked the date, took a day off from work and that day, early in the morning, headed to Apatin.
The rain that followed me for most of the way did not sway me, but it made my journey a little more difficult and made me arrive at Nikola Tesla Square a little later than the appointed time.
The road signs I saw through the wet windows indicated that I was on the right track, and the kilometers on the car clock were increasing, making the meeting place closer every moment.
A large sign with the name of the city indicated to me that I was soon at the meeting point.
I was late just enough for the sky above Apatin to cloud over and I didn't see the beautiful blue sky above the fountain on the square where the hosts of this meetup were waiting for us.
Only later did I see from their photos that, while they were waiting for us, it was really sunny and clear.
In a cafe with a cute name (mipiano says that's not why she recommended it) we waited for the rest of the team and the #HiveMeetup in Apatin could start.
When I finally confirmed the arrival, I had in mind that it would be nice to make a gift for the Hivers who will attend, which will remind us of this day (a t-shirt, a mug or a badge), I also came up with a design, but I didn't get to put that idea into practice.
And that's why now here, I'm sharing what should have been found in those subjects, so that we can have it online, when we don't have as a gift 🙂
When we sat down in the cafe, I was glad that mipiano took out a plasticized flyer from her Hive tote bag - we will still have some kind of poster, with the Hive Meetup Apatin logo.
And I liked it even more when I received my first Hive physical gift as a gift, this small pendant that was immediately placed with the keys.
My excitement during the first hour we spent in the cafe was great. It's always like that when I find myself in the company of people I see for the first time, although it was strange because I still know them 🙂
As if we were old acquaintances who had seen each other after a long time, the conversation flowed and time passed quickly.
It didn't occur to me to pick up my phone and take a picture, but I saw in mipiano post and ph1102 post what it means to have serious experience, which they gained at the Hive meetup they attended. I didn't even notice when they took so many photos 🙂
When we went for a walk, with the continuation of the conversation, I took the phone in my hands and started taking pictures.
Only now, from my photos, where I always trotted for the four of them and took pictures behind their backs, I realized how right bil.prag is when he says that it is not wise to take pictures at events like this, because the person taking photos is always late and slows down the group.
This group was not big, and I take pictures on my phone, so I still managed to catch up with them every time 🙂
I would not now look back on all the interesting things of Apatin and my impressions, I will leave that for another occasion, and I will share with you only a picture of this steel sculptures, which Apatin is full of, which is called "Portal" by the hosts of Apatin, and to me it has a symbolic meaning - by passing through this portal, I put myself to a new Hive level, meeting new friends offline.
A whole day of hanging out, we brought it to an end with the sunset and this is the last picture I took at this Hive Meetup.
We passed through Apatin several times that day.
We visited a lot of interesting and beautiful places, and yet the strongest impression of this day will be that I met these four fantastic people.
Thank you for that experience and I hope to see you again, if not at some international Hive Meetup, then at least again on "home" ground.
