Catching up

So we have reached Berlin in our first journey across Europe. This venue provides me with adequate net service to be able to update this efficiently. We had such poor wireless connection during the first show in Munich and no service available yesterday in Leipzig, but we are making due. And by "we", I mean me, because the rest of my band is caught in the stone age and are without computers. And by "stone age", I mean they get women while I hobble off to feed my nerd urge. And by "they get women", I mean none of them really get women.

I've got three days to catch up on here. Hopefully this won't be a recurring trend.

Right off the bat, we started this venture with a fucking overcomplicated flight itinerary to get to Munich. We flew from Newark airport in New Jersey to Dulles airport in Washington D.C. at 6am. This meant getting up and driving to the airport at 3am. We where then subjected to a 10 hour layover before our flight that evening to Munich. Boredom set in quickly, and anyone who has been to Dulles knows, there's not a whole lot to do besides ride those ridiculous shuttle/monster truck school bus/AT-AT Walker things between terminals. So that's what we did.

When we arrived in Munich we met up with Maurizio and the rest of Ex-Deo and shuttled to our nearby hotel. We spent the better part of the day recuperating from our flights and then drinking in the hotel's bar area. Crashride made friends with a drunkard who looked a hell of a lot like Rob Halford. He bought us a bottle of red wine and then we got him kicked out for being trashed. Boarded the tour bus the next morning and set a course for the first venue.

The kick off show was arguably the most important. Representitives from our record label where there and we of course wished to make a good impression. Show went great. The crew is spectacular at what they do. The professionalism that is exhibited shits on what was seen in the American Paganfest. Merlin from Eluveitie is our drum tech and he has got to be the most devoted person I have ever seen to his or her craft.

The tour bus is interesting, it is a double decker with coach seats and tables downstairs and 22 bunks upstairs. I was told by people working the American Paganfest that they would be worse to sleep in that then buses in the States, but surprisingly, the beds here are larger and more comfortable.

The catering has been incredible. In the States we would be handed money and we'd be on our own to find nourishment. Here, we are welcomed with a wonderful spread of food, practically anything you could want is at hand.

Anyway, the show in Leipzig was great. Really good crowd. Interestingly though, the venue is surrounded by abandonned warehouses and factories. I did a bit of exploring with my camera.

Today in Berlin we woke up fairly early and went into the downtown area of the city with Alestorm to check out the culture and such. We saw some left over parts of the Berlin Wall and the Brandenburg Gate. I'm looking forward to hopefully seeing more landmarks and such along the way.

I know the backstage beer info was a staple of my posts in the past. I haven't forgot about it, but I need to do a little research on what they were for the first couple days and get back to you...

But for now:

Backstage Beer Info:
Berlin:
Berliner Kindl Tubilaums Pilsener

~RedRum