My time at ITB in Berlin

After spending a hot week on St. Kitts and Nevis islands in the Caribbean, I decided to attend ITB in Berlin – the biggest travel trade show in the world. It was a lot bigger than WTM in London I went to in November and no matter how much I tried to prepare for it mentally before, I still got a bit shocked when for the first time I got to Messe Berlin building where ITB took place.

It literally took almost half an hour to walk from one end to another so I was happy I didn’t make many appointments, took it easy and just walked around. Yes, even that peaceful walking around ITB meant I walked a few kilometres on the 7th March and a few more on the 8th.

I was still jetlagged as after the 10 hour flight from St. Kitts via Antigua to London, I changed the airport from Gatwick to Luton, flew to Berlin, changed the outfit in Plus Hostel where I was staying and walked straight to Tweetup party with other bloggers.

If you are a blogger, been to any other non-travel related conference, or even read my post about TBU and TBEX and TBE conferences, you can imagine how tiring all these conferences and travel markets are.

The whole day of networking, a lot of walking, talking, explaining, not enough food, and then parties and not enough sleep. Or let’s be honest, hardly any sleep.

I took part in speed dating on the 7th and 8th March to talk to some potential sponsors for later this year, went to say hi to lovely girls at German Tourist Board who I met 2 weeks ago in Belgrade and used free wifi at their spot. They just released the Youth HotSpots app with the best places to visit in Germany and also restaurants with wifi, so if you are visiting Germany, feel free to download it to make your life easier.

I also talked a bit to my friend Vladimir who I met in Belgrade too. So much fun!

The rest of my time in ITB I spent drinking healthy fruit juices to stay fit when traveling and most of all getting business cards of tourism people.

drinking fresh juices at ITB

a hot almost naked guy at ITB – wtf?!

All these conferences like ITB are interesting also because you can experience a bit of different cultures and all in one day in just one building. People wearing traditional costumes dancing to traditional local music, tasting local specialties, learning new crafts or just getting amazed by little models of famous buildings. Same as when traveling, at ITB you have to expect unexpected. I even spotted an almost naked guy

That’s what ITB was for me. It was just super crazy but I went there mostly to spend time with my fellow travel bloggers as many of them became my best friends in the past 2 years and all these conferences are the easiest way to meet them all at the same time and have a blast.

making cigars at ITB

I only spent one and a half day at ITB and then the rest having an unforgettable time with other bloggers. I was also invited for pub crawl with GetYourGuide on Thursday night, on Saturday night we celebrated my friend Budget Traveller‘s birthday at Sebastian’s apartment (super lovely Sebastian from Off the Path) and then six of us went to photo workshop with Katrine James for a few hours on Sunday afternoon.

celebrating Budget Traveller’s birthday

with Nadine, Peter, Jeanette and Kash

With my friends Nadine from TheNadWork, Peter from Travel Unmasked, Jeanette from Love & Passport and Kash Budget Traveller late night after a party. I mean very early morning

with Nadine and Kash

ITB for me was also about good Italian food which is probably my favorite cuisine. ITB in Berlin meant luxury to me too as from the Tweetup back to our hostel we used new phone Uber app and ordered a limousine to drive us. I decided to get the most comfortable drive to the airport when leaving Berlin too and hopped on one of the Uber limos. Oh yeah, baby! For all the other transportation around Berlin I used Berlin WelcomeCard.

Uber limousine in Berlin took me to the airport