Sweden at this time of year is surprisingly cold, despite its northern lattitude. It even snowed on the final night of the con, which made for a magical fursuiting experience to end our time at Nordic Fuzzcon, the largest furry convention in the Nordic countries and joint third largest convention in Europe.

Rusfurrence 2013 was my favourite con of the 14 I had attended so far, so I had high hopes that Nordic Fuzzcon would be another fantastic experience, particularly as the attendee numbers (around 250) were quite similar. Perhaps Russia set the bar too high as it didn't quite live up to the awesomeness of our winter in Moscow, but it was a good solid con and I had a good time.

Unfortunately, events in Crimea somewhat overshadowed the Saturday and Sunday of the con - this is a part of the world I have visited and I have friends in the region - it's amazing how immediate something so far away becomes when you know people involved. I spent a lot of the weekend sat on my phone or watching the news, assessing updates and speaking with my Ukrainian friends across the country, following the situation closely. My Russian is not quite strong enough to understand every word of the reporting but it has improved, while the English news services were running extensive coverage too. The situation is still fragile and desperately complicated but I hope things cool down and normality can resume soon. I'll watch the situation unfold with interest and trepidation.

I did quite a lot of fursuiting at the con, which was its usual fun experience but unfortuantely quite draining as the hotel heating was a little too high. Consequently, fursuiting outside the hotel became the most preferable option, which proved a good call as it allowed more interaction with the general public, something I find more rewarding than interacting with other suiters. There was one particular school party who spotted me from a distance and all charged towards me, allowing me to have some fun running away from them. Furthermore, when we went down for the fursuit photograph, on a curly bridge near Handen railway station, we managed to meet and entertain more kids.

Inside the con, the discos were quite sparsely attended until the final Dead Dog night, where the equipment was set up in the bar area rather than a separate room. This made sense really, as this is where most people were and the con was too small to justify a separate area for the dances. I went and supported Jari for the final hour of his set and managed to encourage some people onto the dance floor for the rock/dance set on the final main night despite being the only fursuiter (and indeed attendee) there for vast swathes of the time. The Dead Dog turned out to be the best night, with fursuiters dancing along to cheesy pop (me with an inflatable penguin), mingling with other attendees as we did. I liked the inflatable penguins and spent a while hitting myself in the snout - and other people on the head - with them. They were part of the Furry Zoo event, which took place after the fursuit photograph and entailed fursuiters playing with dominos, toys and inflatables. I also managed to suit at Fairlight's Banner Brawl, where Panthras (as Juniachi) and I became the mascots for the two teams (I was the girl's mascot, being pink, and they had to draw me on their picture. Yeys!). Sadly this had been moved into the restaurant from the main stage, but the intimate nature of this room actually enhanced the Brawl I thought and it was a thoroughly enjoyable show.

On the Friday night, I got to try a cooling vest from EZ Cool Down, with its special PCM chemical padding. This was a Godsend in the hot hotel, and I was surprised just how good it was, so much so that I made a £235 purchase the following evening. I had been skeptical beforehand, maybe even slightly cynical considering the price, but it made such a difference to the fursuiting experience that I am looking forward to wearing it more often going forward, particularly during the summer months when it can get quite uncomfortable when fursuiting.

Another highlight for me was the Eat Sweden event hosted by Pinky. This was a culinary smörgåsbord (see what I did there) of local food, where we got to try three different Swedish dishes while Pinky gave us a talk about their provinence and their cultural links. We had herring in mustard, Tunnbröd with reindeer meat and lingonberries (I loved the richness of the pate combined with the sharpness of the berries) and Ostkaka, a cheesecake which is quite different to the American version as it's more like rice pudding. This was served with cloudberries and again, the balance of flavours made this a wonderful dish. Sadly there were no local drinks served at the event (this is something I have suggested but could be prohibitive due to the cost - this event cost additional to the con itself) so we settled for the delicious local craft beer Södra IPA, a 7.0% craft beer that somehow didn't get us drunk, even though we drank 10 bottles of the stuff on the opening night. We also bought some alcohol from the state-owned monopoly store Systembolaget (just look for the green and yellow signs which look a bit like Morrison's ones) where I was asked for ID at the age of 31. I was most happy and spent the rest of the evening telling everyone about it! I was happy to see BrewDog there (Trashy Blonde no less, a brand discontinued here) while we also picked up some Swedish beer whose name I have sadly forgotten.

The food at the con was solid, with the breakfast in particular being excellent. But then I have always preferred cheese, meat, pate and crispy bread for breakfast rather than the usual English fare. The hotel also put on some special themed nights - I went to two, The Sausage Fest and the Swedish Food Night. If I was being honest, the sausages were a little too fatty and rich for my tastes, nor were they particularly Swedish, but the SFN was rather good as in addition to the aforementioned dishes we tried at the Eat Sweden event, they brought out some fresh herring and salmon, some gorgeously creamy mashed potato, some succulent Swedish meatballs and Jansson's Temptation, a potato gratin style casserole made with anchovy. You can't taste the fish, it's there to add saltiness, but it was deliciously crispy and had a very rich deep flavour, making it one of the culinary highlights of the trip.

It was great meeting with some friends I hadn't seen in ages - particularly Jari and Hukkax from Finland and Bert from Russia - as well as meeting some new people too. I didn't get chance to meet with as many new people as I would have liked, sadly I was afflicted by my usual sense of social awkwardness at these things and was on edge for parts of the convention but meeting the likes of Swedefur (who knew me from somewhere but we never managed to work out precisely where) and Koryak was great while sampling the range of Swedish beer they had. The bar had put on some special cocktails for the con (which sadly I never tried), while some of the beer I feel was reduced to 40-50SEK (about £4-5, which is quite cheap by Swedish standards). We stuck with Södra IPA for most of the time, at 62SEK (£6.20) but I did try a couple of other beers while I was there, namely Falcon Export, Åbro, Åbro Premium and Eriksberg. All of these were standard lager/pilsner type affairs while a couple of beers had been rebranded specifically for the con, including a dark malty variety called Midnight Howl. Sadly I didn't get to go to any room parties this year - I was invited to two but was always occupied elsewhere - but hopefully I'll get to some at my next convention, which will be ConFuzzled. Speaking of which, it was also great meeting a few southern-based UK furs, some of whom are on CFz staff, at Nordic Fuzzcon and catching up with them. I was also surprised at the sheer number of people who recognised the fursuit, calling me the Pinkest Puppy quite often ^^

The con theme was A Steampunk Murder Mystery and there were some events relating to this. I think next year, they will try and crank it up a notch though as they will be in a new hotel and the theme - Swedish Fairy Tales - has an awful lot of potential. It is also a rare theme that I can actually dig, so I may look into attending next year. It's certainly a con I would go back to - it's relaxed feel was particularly Scandinavian - but whether it will be as soon as next year, I'm not so sure. If I do go, I may try and run a few writing panels - these were conspicuous in their absence - as I feel a few more events would significantly boost the convention. Like with Rusfurrence, there wasn't a lot scheduled, although that is largely down to the size of the con and the number of volunteers they had to run stuff. Next year, I would be happy to get involved if the desire is there, even though now I rarely go to SIGs as I have pretty much done all of the ones of interest. It's something to think about anyway.

Wolfie unfortunately picked up a fever at the con which has lingered with him ever since but this didn't cause issues on the Sunday, Monday and Tuesday where we spent a little time exploring the city of Stockholm, doing all of the cultural and touristy things. I'll update you on this, later in the week.