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In just over three weeks time I will be starting my journey to Lisbon for Steemfest. I have been looking forward to this since winning the air fare in a contest held by @theprophet0 months ago. My good friend agreed to come with me and we booked our flights, hotel, and bought our Steemfest tickets. Then last week we learned that the airline, Monarch, has gone into receivership and ceased trading. As the flights were booked on debit cards, we cannot claim back our money. 

My buddy has recently moved house and would struggle to find money for another flight. I thought my Steemfest dream was over too, until a couple of extremely generous people stepped in and helped me pay for another flight. This new flight, to keep the costs down, does not go directly to Lisbon. On the way out I will fly to Brussels first, where I will have a twenty three hour stop over before continuing to Lisbon. On my return I fly to Prague, stopping there for sixteen hours before returning home.

My accommodation has been changed too: originally I was to share a twin room with my friend - the cost of which we would split. As I am travelling solo now, and because I haven't found anyone else to share it with, I have changed my hotel for one with a single occupancy room. Luckily it is not too far from the HF Hotels being used for Steemfest.

Although apprehensive about travelling solo across Europe, I am quietly excited. I have never done anything like this and I am really looking forward to it. If nothing else it should provide me with plenty of blogging material for my blog here.

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While at Steemfest I will be doing my upmost to promote The Writers' Block and to bring it to the attention of the many influential Steemians there. For those that don't know, The Writers' Block began life a couple of weeks ago when @Rhondak and myself, along with the rest of the fiction workshop, left the Minnow Support Project. In the meantime it has expanded from just fiction to incorporate a poetry and a playwright workshop. Non fiction has since been added as well as a technical writing workshop, to cover all bases when it comes to the written word. At the heart of The Writers' Block is a vision for creating the first publishing house entirely backed by cryptocurrency. The @SFT fiction curation account has followed along, as well as @Rhondak's http://www.steemshelves.com/ where Steemians can link their serialised posts for easier access. 

Our membership grows daily and we are shocked that in just two weeks we stand at over 120 regular members who wish to learn more and to polish their writing skills in the various disciplines we have on offer. The team of editors does a brilliant job working with writers to add that extra little shine to their work and as a testament to their great job, we have regular visits by curators from not only my own curation team, @Muxxybot, but also from @Curie and @acidyo's @OCD.

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# <center>Are you a writer or a keen learner? Do you wish to join a community of likeminded individuals who can help hone your writing skills in the fields of fiction, non-fiction, poetry or playwriting? Join us at [The Writers' Block](https://discord.gg/5Jre9BA) on Discord.</center>
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