on the road 2011 - usa - westcoast week 2

10th may

This was the day it was all starting for me .... I was gonna hit the road all by myself ... First me and my parents made our way back from Yosemite, which was a nice drive... Dropped mum and dad at the airport in san fransisco, one more emotional goodbye, I guess we've had quite a few this past year. All for the dive into the great unknown, filling up your days with new smells and sights, turning knowledge into wisdom and gathering some new knowledge along the way, it's evolution that counts, instead of running to stand still ... ..

So start all engines, lock your doors, seat belts on, 55 miles is 88km per hour .. no speeding here .. here we go .... First I went to haight ashbury for a cup of tea and some vinyl searching, ended up with a mint copy of U2's lp Boy, with the "altered" sleeve design. A picture of a young boys face was the design for all other countries, but this was not possible in free and brave america kaaaaa ..... so they changed it's photo for the sleeve to a morphed thingie of the faces of the four band members ....



After the record hunting and landing on earth from saying goodbye to my folks, and really realising that it had all begun ... it was time to hit the road, on to sausalito, just outside san fransisco. There I had spotted my first free and comfy parking spot a few days earlier. It is located right next to the first houseboats you see when you come off the highway and enter sausolito after you crossed the golden gate bridge. There is a small cluster of houseboats, or what looks like them in some instances, cause it is really messy looking and if you dont know better, some look as if they could sink any day ... anyway, right next to the last "hippy" colony sort of thingie, there was a small parking area, right by the water. That was gonna be my spot for night one, along with the guy that was sleeping it rough style, a few meters away from me, out of sight for anybody as he was behind some big logs of wood and tucked away underneath some blankets. I guess he had a full tummy as earlier that day I had left him the cans of tuna and some corn that was left from my parents and since I dont eat that stuff, he was a good "candidate"



Did some much needed re-organising of the content of the bus, stuffed all the books away inside the clothing compartments, and i was glad i found some room by the gas and water tanks, so with those out of the way I could easily fold down the bench, to make it into a bed for the night, without having to deal with a full stack of things, now it was a done deal in a matter of a minute. Then it was time to warm up the pasta my mum had left me, and have an early night, I was exhausted ...


11th may

Woke up all fresh and ready to go, it was a blue sky and straight away I made a major change of plans, after all it was day one, and from what I had seen the past copuple of days I was not gonna go on the major highway north, and slightly east towards reno, on the way to lassen national park as "planned" originally. Instead I decided to follow the amazing coast driving on the 1 and 101 north. This pacific northwest coast, you can not imagine what it looks like, especially with the spring colours and the sun that played along. So, highway 1 and 101 it was from then on ... on to redwood national park, and up north .. maybe ...or cut inlands to lassen np ... ?
After a great drive along the magnificent pacific ocean I found this amazing campsite where I had a very nice and huge campfire and peaceful night, even though I had to pay 20 dollars, I got a lot of "inner rest" so to say ...



This place also meant sleeping upstairs on the bed that sleeps like a dream ... unreal for a small camper van like this, the bed is modified with a proper matrass and wow ... the freshness from all outside air coming in trough the ventilation nets that you only have in the canvas that makes up the fold up roofs outsides all around. And the sound of the sea, making me fall asleep in an instant ...

no cops chasing me away, a nice spot for a fire, loads of wood to be scavenged in the forest right next to the campsite ... it was bang on by the sea with a nice beachline to be explored just before the sun was to set, and found a nice chair ... took some running for the pic .... ha ha ,..




no cops chasing me away, a nice spot for a fire, loads of wood to be scavenged in the forest right next to the campsite ... it was bang on by the sea with a nice beachline to be explored just before the sun was to set, and found a nice chair ... took some running for the pic .... ha ha ,..







12th may

today was all about the redwoods and the avenue of the giants, huge trees along the way, so impressive, making you feel like a little tiny thing compared to these monsters that are some 2000 years old. The camping was expensive in the park, as usual ... So I decided to continue a bit inland after the point where highway 1 had connected to highway 101 again, here was the huge jedediah smith forest, that was a national forest, this meant that you can roam around, and find a spot as long as you are not too close to an official camping. Ideal ... went to the ranger station to ask for some tips, and boy did I get some ... I made my way up a dirt road, into the forest and up the hill, decided to leave the first "spots" alone, as they were a bit too close to civilisation and made my way further up untill I found a spot right by the river without any possible room for any neighbours, perfect ... Build a huge fire again, by now I had a full set of clothes for campfires, the smell was too much to wear during the day, but at night ... things changed ... and after that nightly intermezzo this time it was not the sea but the sound of the river that made me fall asleep in an instant after I had once again, occupied the upstairs bed.




13th may

Decided to stay in the forest, it was amazing here. Did some more wood hunting but could not complete the entire route along the mountain, as there was a gap that was too deep and big right in the middle of the road, making it impossible for the bus to clear .. ah well .. it was ok, I had spotted my coming nights spot along the way a little while down the hill,bang on a bend in the road, giving you a clear amazing view of the mountains that embrace the jedediah smith forest.




Build myself a nice kickass campfire and made a nice office with a view ... music maestro please ... although it remains strange to have your headphones on while there is this amazing campfire that is making its own set of noises besides the occasional owl that was going off .... it was another great night after a relaxing day ...






14th may

Today I left the forest behind, time to head north. Along the coast again, small winding roads, going up and down the hills. Made my way to the drive trough tree, a huge sequoia tree with a man made hole so that you can drive your car trough it. Paid 5 bucks entree fee with the guy looking at the car and saying yes uuuh I think he will just fit trough uuuh maybe uuuuuh yes i think so ..... only to find out that the bus was too big to fit underneath the tree... grrrr ... tree still looked amazing though, one of the huge sequoias along the way. When looking for a place to sleep, it turned out that this was gonna be a bit more tricky to find myself a good spot ... as it was an area with only one real road and no ways leading off it, the in a bend where traffic slowed down there was a small parking area next to a closed and deserted coffee shop and from there I spotted this, on the other side, which turned out to be an exciting spot, great ... the ingenious cooking pot grabber did not what it was supposed to do when I was clearing the water from the freshly cooked pasta, 500 gr pasta down the bushes ...





15th may

Did a lot of miles today, finally ... after some days of slowly making my way up, today was a nice change. The coast was mesmerizing along the way. Also as I made my way into Oregon it was a joy to see the landscape fill up with lakes in all shapes, the population was definitely geared up for water. Most cars had the option to pull huge boats, or had big canoes on top, the outdoors was very much alive here. It turned out to be hard to find a spot today, so after some exploring in Newport Beach's harbour without any luck as everywhere they had signs up telling you it was forbidden to sleep there. Then I spotted a police man and decided to simply ask him, he should know ... . He refered me to some logging roads after you get out of town. Ok, that was an option but as I made my way to the outskirts of town I spotted my first Wallmart.



This meant a sleeping place as wallmart allowes rv's to spend the night on their parking lots.. It was not my preferred option, but when I saw I could hide in a quiet corner behind some of the garden stuff they were selling, it was ok.



Sometimes these parking lots are used by the local youth as a hang out and then you dont get any sleep ... But tonight that was no problem .. And next morning I would have a toilet close by ... sometimes wallmart rules.



16th may

Making my way north along the coast was a joy again, the sun was out and it was astonishing to see what water has done with the rocks along the way. Cape Kiwanda had a big parking right by the sea, it also has a big ramp allowing cars to get access to the beach so they can launch their boats into the sea. When I arrived there it was quite clear this was a bit of a magical place.



With on the right hand side a huge rock heading out into sea with at its land-edge a huge sand dune that could be climbed, I thought it was much more interesting to get into the rock that heads out into the water to see how the beach looked from there.






And I was not dissappointed, boy was it beautifull, I actually spend my entire afternoon there, even jumping into the ice cold sea, ha, 2 minutes at the most, longer was impossible as I was literally freezing, my legs were all tingly and I was glad there was a small camping not far from the parking where I could go to catch a warm shower, felt a different being when that was done ! Then made my dinner, let all of my pasta fall straight into the sand when I wanted to get rid of the water after it had cooked .. fuck me, secodn time that happened .. ... did it all over again and was extra carefull, succes .. in the end I could eat right by the sea, about one hour before the sun was to set. Then I spend the rest of the evening in awe as on one side the sun was going down with a fantastic colour pallette spread out over the ocean and the rocky coast. And on the other side the moon was coming up, almost full ... right above the hill ... picture perfect !





Slept like a baby at the parking lot, some locals had told me it was ok, ignore the signs and simply sleep there ... ha ha ok .... ciao4now ....

on the road 2011 - usa - westcoast 5th may - 10th may

It was the 4th may when I left for Brussels, I had planned to arrive around midnight at the train station as I had to take an early train to Paris the next morning. It was impossible to reach Brussels by train so early, so I went there the night before my actual departure hoping to find a somewhat comfy waiting area, one that you normally find at airports and some trainstations, but i guess not this one. Little did I know that the area where you could wait during the night inside the station did actually not exist at night time. It was closed from 12 midnight and opened again early in the morning, offcourse, belgium logics ...

So without any sleep I got on the 8am train to Paris, arrived at the airport smoothly and went to check in my luggage, only to find that the transport system for the luggage had broken down. After half an hour they collected the luggage in a big cart and told us to go ahead, it would all be ok .... You can probably guess what never got to san fransisco that day ! The fact that my suitcase would now arrive one day later meant that I had to sleep somewhere else than my tent, as that was inside my suitcase that was still in Paris. Luckily the airline gave us an allowance of 130 dollars to spend on things we needed as a result of the missing suitcase. So I booked myself a luxury hotelroom by the beach, and close to the rv park where my parents had parked their bus.



But again it had been necessary to show some persistance at the airline desk as not every one got to hear the rule they had about the 130 dollar allowance, neither were they given a comp toiletry bag with usual stuff like tootbrush and shaver etc but this one also contained a plain nice white tshirt, so I was all ok when I left the desk and went on to go see my parents, who must have been waiting for almost one hour.

The choice for a good hotel turned out to have been a good choice and ideal, with a great breakfast the next day although it was still hard to eat due to the excitment of what was finally unfolding itself ... .

It was nice to see my parents again, I guess I felt very fullfilled in seeing them have completed the panamerican highway, from argentina to san fransisco, more than 20.000 kilomters and on the road 6 months. I guess I felt proud too! Very proud actually, because it is quite something to travel together for such a long time in such a compressed space. I mean it is a vw transporter, and well equipped, actually pretty nifty in design as it has everything you could possibly need on the road: it's a tdi 4 motion, with foldout roof with double bed that sleeps like a dream, the bench has an ingenious slide and flip mechanism so it folds out to a double bed too.

Stealth mode camping requires me to sleep below, not allways, but only when far away from civilisation or well hidden from view and bears. It is bear country that I am travelling trough after all. Smiling .... It has a smal sink, a fridge, airconditioning, heater, nifty lights and a cabinet for your pots and pans. Also the clothes can be hidden away in the sides and it really feels like a little home on wheels.



So as me and my parents spend the first days in the san fransisco area we discovered a nice spot in sausalito, a little town just across the city right after you cross the golden gate bridge. There are loads of bigass houseboats, but few remain from as they were in the 60s and 70s but there was still one small area that felt different, and it turned out that the small piece of land in front of the boats, that served as entrance, the parking area was their own property too, so I was welcome to be their guest said a guy called Scout, who came to say hello and wanted to buy my dads bus ... and so this little encounter turned into me finding my first free camp spot.

As we drove around the bay area we visited my old dorm that was my house away from home and had soon turned into my home, along with 200 other students among whom loads of foreigners from all over the word. What a wake up call that was ... I am still very gratefull that I have been able to have had that experience, that realy threw off my blinds and woke me up.




So we also went to chabot college, to see the field I played at for their famous soccer team and worked in the bookstore to make some money to spend on my first raves that I was exposed to in 91-92 ha ha .. my house is your house and your house is mine.





Chabot college was nice to rediscover, bookstore had moved, canteen was still serving great food and drinks ... Berkely was again nice, and the 49mile drive was too ... including the crookedest street in the world .. lombard street with its 9 bends and my mum and dad driving down it with my dad hanging out of the window, and my mum waving with one hand whilst driving the bus down the street and me photographing it all at the crossing right below, I had gotten out of the bus as we had come down for the first time .. ...



We also went to dream out loud for my mum ... we went to see yosemite national park, I had booked a spot at one of the few campsites that was open that time of year as there still some snow in the park, so they said ... and so it was ... man, did it snow when we were there .. it must have been my brother sending us some snow flakes and perfectly round and soft hailstones that were perfect for making snowballs ... the huge sequoias were a perfect target .. trees that had been standing there for 2400 years .. some grown together with their brothers and sisters, forming a huge wide base and multiple crowns ... the crumbly red of the bark of the trees and green of the fresh leaves from the tress that had only just started to sprout, all in a layer of snow .. it was magical to be there, and as later that day we had the joy of the sun that accompanied us for some areas that we visited, magic pure magic ...



being on the right path can give you it all, just make sure you dont try to hard to get somewhere ... strange how nike made that into : there is no finish line .. just like they had brilliantly stolen the: just do it line ... ah well, as long as they print 1972 on their shirts, I wil buy one and even wear it .. (found some for 5 dollars a piece in the nike outlet store, sorry mum, more shirts on the way ...)

So after Yosemite for two days, it was time to head back to San Fransisco to drop off my parents at the airport, they were heading back home, leaving me with the bus to hit the road .... for 3 great months ..... And boy am I glad I am not driving one of these huge fuckers ... everywhere you see tourist who have rented one of these huge things, struggling to cut corners, or get their bus parked at the campsites or various tourist sites .... and here is me ... I guess the bus is the same size as the average pick up truck with 4wheel drive that most americans are driving here .. only big difference is that the bus does 25 miles to the gallon .. and these huge v8 engines drink fuel like water rusn down some waterfalls in yosemite after all this snowfall ....



So much for the first part ....

On The Road 2011 USA West Coast 2 East Coast

Finally it's time to hit the big one ... on the road for real ...

5th may I will fly from paris to san fransisco where I will meet my parents who by that time, will have driven from argentina to san fransisco in 6 months time, now their road trip will finish and they will fly home, where I wil take their bus (a vw transporter) and drive it to it's final destination New York .. this is gonna take 88 days as I have planned to visit several national parks and ancient forests etc while on the way ... also I have the luck that the Irish Boy band U2 is gonna be playing the states this summer, so I am gonna cross their schedule a couple of times without having to do too many crazy detours ...

I will go and show my parents where I stayed in 91-92 as I attended a college for a year, played semi pro soccer and discovered my first raves ... so the college and the dormitory will be cool to rediscover ... also San Fransisco will be great to see again as it is truelly a friendly place .... after that we will go to Yosemite National Park for two days and then my parents will make their way back home on the 10th may.

Then I will start my long awaited road trip ... starting in SF going to Reno, then North end east again to end up at Yellowstone national park and Teton national park, Salt Lake City and back to oakland (u2) then it's time for another dream place to visit ... I hope to find the spot where the famous joshua tree is resting ... I got some coordinates, some foto's and the recordsleeve ... then it's time to go to anaheim for two u2 gigs, then up to Las Vegas and hit east on the famous Route 66 ...
I might head up towards Denver, or find another interesting road on my way to Memphis and Nashville (u2) in Tennessee, then northbound to Chicago (u2) - Detroit -- into Canada - Toronto - Montreal (u2 double) and back to the usa to hit the famous East Coast where I will see my final U2 360 gig in East Rutherford and then have one more week to see some real life jersey shore uhum ... then get the bus into a shipping container to get it back to holland, surely my parents can't wait to hit the road again ... me neither .. ciao4now

hello from ecuador

I am high up in the ecuadorian andes today, enjoying the thermal baths of papallacta
tomorrow I will make my way to quito where I will be saying goodbye to my parents after having travelled trough peru and most of ecuador together for 3 weeks. It will be good to not have to put up my tent every day and finally sleep in a proper bed in a hotel for 4 nights, after that I hope to make my way to the jungle via lago agrio, from there its a nice canoe trip up the river before we hit the amazon. Still 2 weeks to fill with all sorts of colours sounds and adventures ... here are some of the past weeks .....

mad lines in the nazca desert ..... truelly awesome !!! planes were too dangerous so we stuck to the look out tower .....

amazing sunsets at teh westcoast of peru with my little red tent next to my parents bus ... we did need armed security here ... kind of mad ...

incredible animals at an island group of the peruvian coast, called islas ballestas
seals, pinguins, pelicans and tons of shit producing birds .... really smelly and luckily they missed my head ....

huge temples from pre.inca times, they needed 143 million adobe )mud) blocks for the sun temple .... thats how they paid their taxes ... creating a certain number of blocks per family..

sweet cats that remind me of home ... it wont be long muts ...

crazy banana plantations in ecuador .. ecological and very good for the workers and their family who get proper education and food ....

passing trough the andes above the clouds, over 4000 meters up ... luckily our /roetfilter/ has not caused any more troubles, lack of oxygen high up makes a different burning mixture in the enginem blockingh the carbondioxide filter ...

Macchu Picchu

Hello hello ...

Unbelievable what a trip sofar ... cuzco is an amazing city that is indeed the inca capital of the world, if only they would leave me alone instead of trying to sell stuff all the time .....

before we visited macchu picchu we slept in macchu picchu pueblo, so we could get up at 5am and take the bus at 5.30 in order to see the sunrise over this sacred place .... and wow .. was it worth the short night ... sad thing was that my mum was sick and had diarrea cause of some bad food, or salad that was washed with bad water .. luckily she managed to come later at 12pm ... my dad went along with the group, but I had to go up this huayna picchu from where you have an amazing view ... the trip is a huge steep climb, somewhat dangerous but so worth the effort ...








at the ned of the day before we headed back to cuzco I decided to have an icecream .... bad idea ..... it had been defrosted maybe cause of some powercut or something. and then frozen again, but I did not want to be an arsehole and return the icecream when I saw it looked somewaht deformed .... I should have ... really ...
cause it caused the biggest instant foodpoisoning I ever had ... throwing up and spraying diarrhea all over the trains toilet was only the start .... after that the 2 hour bus trip back to the hotel was broken up by multiple stops where I left my genetic code all over the countryside .... I never felt so bad ...
all I wanted to do was sleep, feeling totally dehydrated etc ... my mummie took care of me, and boy, did I sleep .... it took another day for me to feel better again, and as I am typing I am somewhat recovered .... never again ..... no more ice cream in peru, no matter what ...

right now we have arrived in nazca where we will not fly over the lines, as it is too dangerous, they even make you carry your passport on your body when you do decide to fly ... I wonder why .... too many planes have crashed in the past .. we shall do it by foot, and use the lookout tower ....

also we are happy to have left the amaizng andes ..... going over 4500 meters and dealing with loads of sliding stones and water flows as a result of the bad weather of the past days ....

Off to bed now after a day of too much input ... more later

ciao ciao

peru 2011

It,s 05am waiting at the airport in Lima for my connection to Cuzco where i will meet up with my parents who are driving the panamerican highway with their own vw bus ...

It has been quite a trip sofar .. Due to snow in NY my first flight was canceled from Brussels, I was pleased that they gave me a hotel incl meals in the mercure airport hotel. Otherwise I would have had to go back to Tilburg and then back to brussels the next morning ... no way ..... The next day I was hopefull that my flight would take me on the road, and it did, but 2,5 hours late which meant I would most likely miss my connection in newark, and as there was no other flight to Lima, I was gonna be stuck at the airport for 24hrs .. mmmm...... nottin I could do about it .. In Newark I had to collect my bags and go trough customs before I could re'check my bags for the next flight,and find out if I had missed my flight or not, there was a chance that the other flight was delayed also. The customs took ages, with very big arseholes behind the counters .... clearly treating coloured and muslims differently, also me with my dreads was made to wait longer ... luckily I have learned to shut up, cause if I would have said something they would have only slowed things down even more ... When i finally could re-check my bags, they told me the other flight was delayed, and i was gonna run, I would be abel to make it .. woeaaahhhhh ... yesss .... I ran like a madman across the airport to gate c 126 ... even managed to talk my way to the front of the Q for the next bagage scan ... but upon arrival at the gate, I was told the flight had left 2 minutes earlier .. fuck me ....

Totally out of breath, and with the sweat in my underpants I was very very pissed off .. they knew we were on our way, but still they left .. ok ... switch ... now I needed to make sure I was gonna go on the next days flight, which was almost full as the day prior, no flights had left Newark due to the snow ... also I was gonna see if they would get me a hotel again like in Brussels, cause I also realised that as my flight to cuzco was on the 30th very early morning I was up for another night at the airport (which is going on right now) which is not much fun as you have to watch your stuff and try to get some sleep ...

First they told me 4 times that all they could do was give me a list of hotels, but that they could not offer me a free night .... I could get a paper which entitled me to a distressed passenger rrate ..... which would still be around 65 euro ... or 80 dollars .... not acceptable .. that is what I told the lady that was helping me, or better, that ws trying to wave me off .... and again, she said the same thing .. and again and again ... so I decided to ask for the supervisor as I was not gonna accept this .--- 10 minutes later the supervisor decided not to come out but give the lady the green light to get me my room for free .. yessss ...... they tied to blame it on the weather ... being an act of god (wha ha ) so I told them that in brusseld i actually did get a room, with the same reasons for delay .. they must have checked that in their system .... cause now they changed their act ..
I also got meal vouchers again ... so I was ok with it all ....

Unfortunately I was too tired to go into NY city for couple of hours, so I decided to take a nice relaxing bath, have a good meal and get some proper sleep ...

And today I finally made my way to Lima, where I am right now, spending from 23pm till 08am before my flight to cuzco will depart ... 1 hour ago I could drop off my big bag, and with only 3 hours to go I decided to go for a coffee .. and get some help from the pc and the screen to keep me awake .... so .. here is the first stage of my 5 week adventure ...

My mum and dad have already arrived in cuzco, they also have setup my tent next to their bus and they will be picking me up in 5 hours time .... I am preparing for some bigtime altitude sickness as cuzco is way high up in the mountains .--- will need loads of sleep and some aspirine I guess .... acclimatise before I will be joining my parents on the way to Machu Pichu .-.-- we will go by train as the inca trail is closed in february for repair works ... will return another time to do the inca trail properly ! After that I wil jump onboard my parents bus to go towards Nazca and on to the sea and up towards ecuador .... Might get off the bus earlier but I think I will stay on board for 3 weeks untill I get to Quito where I will have to choose to either go to the jungle or go for a nice mountain trekking adventure ..

and in case you are ever flying with continental, please do not expect a veggie meal .... the fuckers managed to do this twice ..... leaving me with nottin but salad and bread .... good thing i brought some cheese and bread myself for the first stage and some leftover pizza for flight nr 2 ----

lets see what they will get me for flight nr 3 -------

ciao4now

wide awake in europe ep

boy, am I happy to finally get my copies that I ordered from the states ...
I ordered three copies as soon as the pre-order had gone "hot" ... never expecting to actually receive 3 copies .. there were only 5000 copies made and nobody knew where they would go, apart from independant vinyl stores .... one of the copies is for my "u2"mate and one stays in my cupboard ... the other copy has been played, it skips with i'll go crazy, and the sleeves have been damaged in the packaging process .. they have dropped the records too hard, both in the innersleeve, and the outersleeve .... or maybe they should have used thicker cardboard .... ?? anyway ... I dont care too much ....


wide awake no matter what ....

Slide projections for X-mas gala 2010

For the third year in a row I got to light up a small white chapel for the annual x-mas gala night for the Lions service club.

They raise money for a good cause and try to spread some fun along the way, I try to transform the location by projecting two huge x-mas balls on either side of the stage and then add yellow projections to the two walls next to that. Then there is the ceiling that consists of rows of long panels to improve accoustics, on the balcony I set up two sets of 6 projectors at either side to transform the ceiling from front to back with yellow / green-blue projections.

The actual glass-in-lead windows are lit up by plain building lights at the outside, simulating the sun in a way ... and then to top it off a mirror ball magically helps in creating a star lit sky at the back of the stage ...

This year there was a mobile hanging in the centre of the chapel, they were huge angel like figures holding various items, made of paper/cardboard, and ideal to serve as a moving projection "screen" ....

newyears eve ----

gonna be playing records and fresh homemade tunes from 4 - 6 --
we will be hosting a small room along with jitze and hans --
music from 12.30 till 06.00 doors close at 04.00 !!!

location: de hall of fame - tilburg -- there will be three areas -
variety of music on offer -- good vibes and unfortunately an entry fee of 7 euro presale and 15 on the night , max capacity 500 which will be sold out fast ... ...
c ya there

make some music ... please ....

saturday 06th nov 2010 somewhere in belgium ....

acid in the woods and system operator will join together for an evening of fun, food and music .... I will be bringing my liveset along for some musical entertaining ...

check your local network for the address

see you there

gone again

heya

sorry for the lack of updates .... it was busy and happy times !!

was on the road for a month -- st petersburg - moscow - athens and istanbul were amazing to explore and discover ....

now its time to hit the south ...

brussels - paris - san sebastian - sevilla - coimbra and then two more weeks on the road in north portugal and spain ... slowly making my way back home ...

I promise I will upload some more tracks when I am back ...
right now very busy selecting new music for the next accu releases and cant choose what to pick and what to let go via my soundcloud page ...

this will be my home for the next 4 weeks ...
see you on the road

U2 - 360 in Frankfurt

monday the 9th of august, waking up with excitement as today was the day that I was finally gonna go away again with my bus. Off to frankfurt as U2 was gonna play their second concert of this summer, after having seen the first one in turin, I was filled with joy, cause they were rocking like never before ... It took me some time to arrange my stuff, but then it was departure time .. speakers were blasting out old bootlegs from the 80's to get in the mood, as if that was necessary ...

It took quite a while to get to frankfurt as my bus is quite old, from 1975, quite heavy and big and therefore prefers a cruising speed of around 80 - 85 km. As soon as I entered the area around the stadium, I started looking for a place to park, but offcourse the goal was to get as close as possible, looking for a spot, I soon had entered the ring around the stadium for the 2nd time, but this time it was leading me back to the airport, another 12 km extra to go ... hmmmm so the next time I was close to the stadium, I parked in an area with houses I had spotted, about 2km from the venue, I got my bmx bike out, it was 00.30am and wnet off to the stadium to check things out. When I arrived I found the first nutters who were gonna sleep outside, all close together at one of the four entrances that were gonna be used the next day, each with its advantages and shortcomings. E5 was the only one "equipped" with a dixie and together with E3 the closest to the field entrance, so the least running was involved the next day, but rumours were flying that not all entrances were gonna be opened at the same time etc .. ha ha .. here we go ....

I decided to check out all different possibilities, but found out that there was no one at the other entrances so decided that the next day I was gonna go for E5 also ... but, as it was allready getting late I thought it would be wise to get a proper sleep first, after all I did not bring my bus for nothing ! Said hello to some familiar faces, and asked how to get to the big parking right next to the stadium, then headed back to my bus and quickly made my way to the parking to set up basecamp so to say ... Decided to hit the bed without my alarm clock set, reassured by stories that the germans are not as mad as the italians, where at 06.30am there were allready 700 people in line ... stressing out like mad ... (well, the first 200 were not, as they had been there the longest and gotten pretty at home around the venue, but from nr 400 up they were standing from 09.00am onwards, nuts, totally nuts .... as they did not get in untill 16.15pm)

ok, slept like a baby, woke up at 10 made some breakfast and coffee and got my camping chairs and umbrella along with some spare mats for those around me sitting on the ground, lets share the luxury .... Got nr 231 and felt pretty relaxed ... met Cathal again, who wrote the Me & U2 book and who is travelling around europe also this summer, got acquainted with an english man with his daughter and chatted time away .... Around 13pm I made some pasta in my bus, wich was ideal, and enjoyed lunch along with Leo, a spanish guy I met in torino who was gonna stay in my bus in Hannover after Frankfurt. Then it was waiting time again, around 15pm I moved all of my stuff back to the bus, as shortly everyone was gonna go and stand up and the Q was gonna get a bit more compressed, but it was very relaxed all teh time .. the germans are chilled !

Around 16.15 it wa stime to get in ... had all of my drinks and food prepared in see trough bags, so security could see easily, and it went very fast and smooth, no stress ... then it was running time ... untill we hit security again, who told us to take it easy, they were still shocked from the terrible thing that had happened at the love parade some weeks earlier (20 people died as they were all pushed together in one big tunnel, really terrible, so I can see why they were so "tense" it was ok ... we went with the flow ..) When I entered the stadium from the back (strange as normally we run towards the claw (stage)) I was aiming for my favouriste spot, in the centre at the rail outside the catwalk ... but saw some people there allready ... fuck me .. they had let the other entrance go in first ... ah well .... so now what to do ... either go to either side where there was still space, about 6 meters from the centre, or take a risk and go for the centre and hope I could fit in ... it was the last ... fast and furious I went .... and succeeded as there were two separate "parties" trying to block too much space with too little bodies .. also they did not need all the space, so I jumped in between, not without communicating at the same time, beacuse after all, I was gonna have to spend the entire concert with them as neighbours, I hate the wars that sometimes start at these tense moments ... but hey .. all was ok, apart from my left neighbours, who were really two big ladies, each weighing about 130kilo and they were not happy with me and Leo (he was following shortly after me) grasping the rail next to them .... but hey .. tough luck .... luckily I was not next to them, Leo was ... and he has had a tough evening with loads of elbowing and silent fights for space without any communication ... thats what can happen ... my neighbours on the right were dutch, three in total ... and very pleasant company ... The area was set up with an extra barrier, so that not too many people could get in one area, dividing teh field in 2 which was ideal, as they let only soo many people in, wristbanded them and then it was our space ... really cool ... cause we could easily go and eat and use the toilets, and come back ... it was gonna be a great night !!!

And so it was .... too many beautifull things to mention from the concert ,.. the crowd was amazing .. probably also loads of dutchies, as U2 does not hit holland this year, and frankfurt is close by ... they were doing teh wave and clapping like mad before showtime ... it felt better than Italy ... amazing ... never expected this .... but it took off like a rocket ....

U2 had decided to play new years day after opening with beautifull day ... yes yes yes , one of my favourite songs ... man ... the crowd went nuts, and so did I .... jumping like mad, happy as a baby ! The setlist rocked bigtime, with the guys ending up right in front of me many times .... mysterious ways with edge and bono ... and most amazingly, the crazy remix with bono doing the discotheque snippet improvisation 50 centimeters away from me .... if I was a girl, I would have fainted there and then ..... then he sat down on his knees and started Sunday Bloody Sunday ... ok, you could wipe me away then ... I needed some time to take it all in .... this was amazing ....

The rest of the concert went by like a dream and it was great, really one of the best shows I have seen out of the 17 -U2360 shows I have seen so far .... yup .... for real .. in germany ... ha ha ..... When it was over I said goodbye to my neighbours and friends, off to my bus, but not before I had scored a nice souvenir, one of the big posterboards outside ... its now in my bus, but way too big to hang on the wall .... ah well ... wil find a good destination for it ...

I slept on the parking again, which was nice ... no more travelling, or waiting for the cars to leave before you can get out ... the next day I walked into the stadium without any problems, so I could use the toilets, then made some breakfast and coffee ... while looking at the stadium .... nice ... waited for my passenger Hille, who was gonna drive along to Hannover, and around 14pm, left frankfurt behind ... what a gig !!!