On Saturday the 18th of March 2006, my friend Anke and I visited the book fair in Leipzig. Since we came as authors we were allowed to enter early (before 10 o’clock). Beside the experts (?) the Cos-players were allowed to enter early, too. The ones who came dressed up needn’t pay. The amount of interested people was amazing, even this early. After the regular visitors were allowed in, it got really full.
First, Anke and I visited our publisher (Monsenstein und Vannerdat, Halle 4, Stand 207) to look at the display of our book. At 11 o’clock we started our reading. Unfortunately, the organizers had put us into a room, a hall, for 260 people. We didn’t even manage to fill the first row. Still, it was a lot of fun and good training for further readings and we sold a book, too.
Finally, my mind was at ease and I was able to enjoy the fair. After lunch there were so many people in the halls that in some places it was impossible to move on. I didn’t mind the 20 min I had to wait on one of the glass-covered bridges that connect the halls.
At 3 p.m. not only my feet hurt. We decided to call it a day and left. We visited the Völkerschlachtdenkmal () which turned out to be someplace else than we had thought. Millions of steps up, I enjoyed a view that’s surely breathtaking on a sunny day. At 5 p.m. we left for home.
Next time we will do a lot of things differently. Still, it was a valuable experience and a very interesting day.