Mittens 2016: Orust, Sweden 30 July - 06 August

[AGA]

Mittens will be from Saturday 30 August to Saturday 06 August on the island of Orust, Sweden, please read!

Info from Andail:

Okay, just updating the thread with some travel info.

From Gothenburg, buses depart from Nils Ericsson-terminalen, which is right next to the central station.

You take Stenungsund Express to Stenungsund station, where you change to bus Orust express which will stop at Edet on northern Orust.
Here's a site that will allow you to check the times.
http://reseplanerare.vasttrafik.se/bin/query.exe/sn?ld=fe1&OK#focus

Esseb will hop off at Uddevalla and take the Orust Express directly to Edet, which is a much quicker trip.

Once you get off the bus it's a 5 minutes' walk to the cottage, and I'll put up signs.

I'll drive up there on the 30th with my car, which has room for 4 passengers, so give me a shout if you want to tag along.

We will have to leave the cottage in the morning of August 6. If you need to stay another night in Gothenburg for connection reasons you can use the guest room of our apartment, but we won't be there ourselves until midnight or so, since we're going to a wedding that same day.

Planned activities for this Mittens:
* Mittolympics (with events such as archery with historically accurate bows, ring-tossing with historically accurate rings, darts, croquet etc)
* Beer and sing-along around bonfire
* Board games
* Board game jam (we'll form small teams and construct our own board games using a plethora of cards and pencils and other stationery I've probably nicked from work)
* AGS show and tell (bring memory sticks)

Since there's no booking or renting involved, you're free to show up with just a day's notice, but signing up late means you'll probably get to stay in a tent, depending on participation (which will probably be all time low, considering this is basically a plan B mittens).

Do post here if you have more questions!

Attendees:

• 2ma2
• AGA
• Andail
• Chrille
• Esseb
• Monsieur OUXX
• Tamara
• yamipanda

(8)


It looks like the Caribbean is a good option for many of us this year.  The Australia idea we can maybe come back to next year.  Please see this post for some possible Caribbean destinations.

So the idea of Mittens 2016 being in Australia was raised at this year's Mittens.  Quite a few people seemed interested, but since I appreciate Australia is a loooong way away for most of us - and quite expensive - it might be good to have this possibility on everyone's radars sooner rather than later.

We didn't really discuss a time or a place, beyond the suggestion that it might not have to take place in the traditional July or August Mittens timeframe, now so many of us are grown up and not at school or university (with their associated summer holidays).  I mainly wanted to start the discussion now, and to make people aware that it costs around â,¬1200 to fly to most of eastern Australia (I checked Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane) from Europe so you should all start saving!

Australia seems a fair idea, since over the last 14 years we've had 9 in Europe and 5 in North America.  Maybe for the 15th anniversary we should try a whole new continent, one which many of us will have never visited before!  Plus of course our lord and creator Chris Jones will likely be there, since he emigrated to Aus last year.

[Quintaros]

I'm keen for Australia next year.  I don't have a preference for location as I'm sure I'll spend an extra week or two after Mittens to see more of the continent.  Timing is more important to me as I'd prefer to avoid the peak temperatures.  I think March/April or October/November would be my preferred timing.

[AGA]

Our summer is of course their winter, so what we consider peak is actually 15-20 degrees in Sydney for instance...  The months you mention are actually more mid 20s.  Sydney doesn't seem to get that hot overall from what I can see though.  The other cities may of course be much hotter!

[Quintaros]

Yes Sydney looks to be pretty moderate year round but other areas less so.  The months I specified look good for most areas. 

Plus I prefer to spend my summers at home and do my travelling abroad during the colder local months.

[Disco]

I am very much up for going. Will almost certainly not be able to go if it were scheduled earlier in the year, but anytime post-August should work fine.

[Snarky]

I'm also very interested, but wouldn't be able to go in the (NH) spring; late 2016 is a much better possibility.

[Layabout]

I'll go.
My vote would be either Melbourne or perhaps northern Queensland, like Ayrlie Beach or something.

[sonneveld]

That would be amazing. I would definitely go.  Any chance of it being in Sunny Canberra?

[AGA]

Okay, so, it's now 2016.  Due to the higher than usual cost involved, and fact that many of us are likely to want to take two or three weeks off work to make the most of the trip, it might be a good idea for us to start planning...

Questions are:


Who's interested in attending?
Where should it be?
When should we do it?

[Slasher]

Brompton, Gillingham, Medway. Kent, UK

[AGA]

Brompton, Gillingham, Medway. Kent, UK

You're 12 years too late to attend a Mittens in the home counties, I'm afraid.

[Grundislav]

I would not be able to make it to Australia this year.

If this is the case with the majority of attendees, might I suggest somewhere in the Caribbean as an alternative? It's been something that's been discussed several times before, serves as a nice "halfway point" between the US and Europe, and can be done in the summer. Only issue is it's right in the middle of hurricane season. Just a thought!

[Disco]

I am definitely up for an Australian Mittens. If location/distance or cost is an issue for most folks, I would prefer an alternative that would best suit the majority.

[Adeel]

Make it Melbourne, Australia and a new person might actually come and join you guys!

PS: It's not me.

[AGA]

Make it Melbourne, Australia and a new person might actually come and join you guys!

PS: It's not me.

Does this person not have access to airplanes?

[Snarky]

I'm up for Australia, as long as it's in the fall... err, spring... later in the year, anyway (and not the last couple of weeks of August).

[Adeel]

Make it Melbourne, Australia and a new person might actually come and join you guys!

PS: It's not me.

Does this person not have access to airplanes?

I doubt this person even possesses a car, let alone driving himself to work. Having access to airplanes is obviously out of the question.

Or is it?

[LindaBelle]

Oh( with great pleasure I`d like to visit Australia( But I`m afraid that the airplane tickets are too expensive and there I don`t know where to stop..Hope next summer I`ll be able to go to Australia.

[Disco]

It seems that there are about five or six non-Australians willing to make the journey at this point.

Perhaps this year we could spin an Australian meetup into a separate event and have it later in the year? We could take Francisco's idea of having Mittens in the Caribbean (another popular idea from years back), and make Australia a northern winter/southern summer destination for those interested. This allows extra saving time, and we could have Mittens Prime sooner rather than later.

[AGA]

There are arguments for both sides really.  For Europeans European Mittenses are relatively cheap, the same for North Americans at NA Mittenses.  People from Australasia and south Asia however are forced to spend crazy money in both those cases, (and end up never actually coming...) so isn't it fairer the rest of us make the trip over at least one time?

I'm also wondering just how much stuff there is to do on a Carribean island aside from sunbathing and drinking Bahama Mamas.

There have already been a few small scale Aussie meet ups I believe, but never anything on the scale of Mittens.  Maybe having a larger group, for a longer time, would encourage more Aussie AGSers to come out of the woodwork and come along.