We decided to head to Frankfurt today. Our friend Ania has a friend there that's agreed to let us spend the night. It's nice to be able to depend on the kindness of strangers. That's about it. A LOT of driving today and not much else but getting ready to go...
We decided against going to a squat anniversary outside of Bochum, Germany. We stayed in Berlin instead. We figured out how to work out the money situation for the rest of the tour so that put my mind at ease so I went to ride the metro.
I am alone, sitting with my empty glass...
Get it, Berlin...The Metro...
Anyway, it was a quick way to see the city. I was surprised at how comfortable I was just getting on it and going wherever. I didn't know exactly how it worked. I sure as hell didn't pay for it. And it turned out okay.
In the evening, Lenin told me where the gay quadrant was so I decided to head there on my own around 10:30 pm. I didn't find anything even though I walked around forever! It was disappointing but I came back to Lenin's place around 1 am and drank with his housemates. Then we all went to a bar for a while where drag queens were the bartenders.
Our last show.
We played at the Tommy Haus in Berlin. It was okay. I sold my t-shirts for four euro just to get rid of some. I sold four of them so I was happy.
Before Riot Cop played, I went to the restroom just off the courtyard and got stuck in the bathroom for about fifteen minutes. I started to freak out a bit because nobody was responding to my yelling or kicking of the door. Finally, someone saw the lights flicking off and on so they came and opened the door. Fortunately, Lenin and his housemate Liza each got locked in there too so I don't feel like an idiot alone.
It's bittersweet that the tour is basically done. We were waiting for it and ready but now that it's here, it's sort of sad.
We played at the same venue here last year, Skyleten. It's weird to come back and see the stickers that you put up the year before.
I walked around town a bit before the start of the show. It was a full moon and just gorgeous. Shortly after we finished playing, we headed back for the ferry.
Again, I love the ferries. This time I didn't sleep. I just stayed awake and read "The Golden Compass" which is AWESOME. When the ferry was close to docking in Rostock, I felt like a kid on a ferris wheel. I didn't want to get off. I just wanted to keep riding it.
We always get lost in Stockholm.
GPS does you no good when you don't have a definative address. We played at Fullersta, a squat-like house that keeps getting displaced and then the people have to start over again in a new location. Dominic played at Fullersta with another band but it was at a different house. I guess they just take the essence of the house with them and get pushed further and further out of the city.
When we finally did find the place, we were greeted by Amyl and Kenko, two of my favorite people from last year. This year, Amyl is about 7 months pregnant. Sarra, her bandmate from Abductee SD now has a child as well. His name is Freddy after Freddy Mercury. I LOVE babies so it was really cool to see them at a show. They said they toured with a baby once too. They're really responsible and won't bring them to a place that's smoky or near the loudness of the band. Sarra said that Freddy is really soothed by just being with her and the distant bass of the band. Plus I think it's good to have punks exposed to babies as well. Sarra said that she wouldn't bring Freddy there on a weekend night. Fortunately for us, it was a Wednesday. Yay babies!
This morning, Al and I hung around the kitchen for a while and did nothing but relax. It was great and I felt so at ease.
We were scheduled to head to Sweden today. Unfortunately, we have next to no money. The ferry to get over there costs 130 euro and then there's gas to buy when we get over there. I presented the idea to the guys that we just don't go for those two gigs. Ultimately, it was decided that we see it through.
We left Berlin around 7pm to drive to Rostock so we could board the ferry. I love the ferries. Last year, we took Scandilines. This year, we took TT Lines for the first time. They still had a sauna there but no solarium or relaxation room. Rough.
We have a day off.
I love Berlin. Knowing that I had nothing else to do today, I put on my headphones and simply explored Berlin. The only thing I HAD to do was exchange our Czech money for Euros. The nearest place anyone believed a currency exchange place to be was at Alexander Platz. They told me simply to walk to the gigantic mirror ball. There's a TV tower here that we've been staring at through the kitchen window everyday that resembles a mirror ball. I was pretty excited to walk to it just to see it closer. Plus it was a towering landmark that would be easy to find. The city is gorgeous and I was thrilled just to walk around it.
You never wish for trouble along the road but these are the things that make for the better stories afterwards.
We were 10 km from a Czech/German border, just outside a tunnel when the van died. Lenin cussed for a while and then went out to look under the hood. A part by the fan belt became detached and needed to be welded back together. Those who know me will understand why that's all the information I can give on what went wrong. Whatever it was, it left us stranded for several hours.
Lenin put on this bright orange vest and hiked to the tunnel where there were emergency phones. He has the European equivilent to AAA so he called for a tow truck. After hours in the van, a Czech tow truck came and the grumpy old man driving it said he would take us to the border and then we'd have to call a German tow truck.
We went to the border and squeezed together in the van to ward off the coldness. It took about an hour for the German tow truck guy to get there. At first, Lenin insisted he take us to Berlin because we may have a show there. The guy protested for a while and then agreed. We called on his phone to confirm that we did have a show there. It turns out that it was cancelled. The next option was for the guy to bring us to a hotel which AAA would pay for until they could send out a mechanic in the morning. This was the option I was rooting for. Unfortunately, we went with door #3 which was going to the tow guy's friend in the nearest town, Dohna, where he would try to fix the van.
We spent a few hours at his shop and he eventually got it welded back together. We drove until we got to Berlin. I rode in the front because that's where it was warmest.
Slovakia is postcard country. I couldn't stop taking pictures of the scenery we saw on our drive from Bardejov, Slovakia to Prelouc, Czech. Unfortunately, we couldn't stop the van much either. We had a tremendously long way to drive. The above picture was taken behind a gas station after we passed by a castle.
The castle is powdered in snow and I'm looking towards it, over this small Slovakian village while the church bells ring through this valley and I was just awe-struck by the beauty of it all.
Like I said, we had LONG drive to Prelouc. We were planning on getting to the venue a little after the show started anyway but then we found that the main road there was blocked with construction. Lenin's GPS directed us to a few off-roads that we all dubbed the Scooby-Doo roads. I was just waiting for us to meet the Harlem Globetrotters on the side of the road. Ruh-roh!
Bardejov was our best show last year. Bardejov LOVES Riot Cop. The show was a lot of fun and we got to see Pharoh, our host from last year. He was one of the main people I was looking forward to seeing again. He's like the best host ever!
One of Lenin's friends (the brunette in the pic above) hung out with us in Bardejov last year and sang all cookie-monster style at the end of Riot Cop's song War. She made a repeat performance tonight, accompanied by a girl with a pink mullet who was also very sweet.
Fortunately, Pharoh didn't make us drink as much this year. He did have some liquor ready that was a first (and LAST) for me. It tasted like black licorice and soy sauce.
I love Slovakia. We got to Zilina early so we walked around to find the Honey Bunny Pub where we were supposed to play. I was shopping around and I stumbled upon it. It was cool because I rarely can locate the pub.
It was raining outside slightly. We waited inside, each with our book and/or journal. I bought a hot chocolate with peppermint schnapps to spoil myself some. The place was so rad. The guy who worked behind the bar was cool to us too.
We played with Krupaya, a band from England. They got the crowd all warmed up so that when Riot Cop played, people were stage diving and all that. Pictured above is our host for the evening, Peter along with Lenin at the disco party afterwards. They also had the best beer I've had so far there, pictured just below Peter and Lenin.
This is a picture of the Cesky Tesin centrum in the morning. Dom, Al, Lenin and I walked around. First, we went for vegan food. It was super cheap here. I got a whole sackful for less than 10 euro! Whoo hoo.
Then we drove to ?, Slovakia. I should know the name of the town but I don't. It's something like Bansky Bottica but I could be wrong. Anyway, we played to a few people at a place called the Cactus Bar which was okay. Nothing too memorable. Afterwards, we went back to these guys' apartment where we watched this stop-motion animation show called Pat and Matt which is hilarious!
In contrast to the show in Ruda Slaska, the bar in Cesky Tesin was VERY political. I loved it although I had to sell merch in the hallway.
Cesky Tesin is a border town in between Poland and Czech. People were walking across the border without getting stopped. We were told that people head over the border to buy groceries several times a day. However, we got stopped for over a half an hour. We were only 100 meters from our venue and we were late because of the border patrol.
The bar was cool and we had a fun disco party afterwards! Disco!
We got to go to Poznan todaz, home of the Rozbrat squat. A few years ago, Krystoph from the squat toured the US and stayed at my place for a week. He was real cool and the squat sounded awesome. I was real disappointed when I didn´t see him here. I asked some people about him but everyone I talked to hadn´t lived at Rozbrat very long.
Rozbrat is pretty big, kind of like a high school campus size or maybe the size of a retirement village. It´s surrounded by a fence and there´s a huge gate at the front. We were the only band so the guys played for quite a while. I guess it was the 13th anniversary of the squat so it was really an honor. Al was stoked on the show because, a few days ago, the founder of the squat was back with his band and sprayed pepper spray on the stage. The smell still lingered and Al started gagging in between songs. He said he had always wanted to play in the mist of pepper spray though.
