Crash Tour

Just so you know, I am fully aware that tonight is most likely gonna suck, AFI-wise. But it's still gonna be one of the highlights for me. They play in my hometown and I'm gonna spend the day with people I love more than Starbucks so what's not to love about that?

We're gonna meet up for lunch first and catch up. Some of these people I haven't seen in ages. I'm getting so excited now!

I spent the past couple days trying not to be miserable about missing AFI shows. I am especially miffed about Poland. On the one hand, I am happy for those guys because they've been waiting to get AFI there for so long, they deserve an amazing show. But then again I am a terribly jealous person so I'm gonna spend the next two years or so hating every single soul in attendance.

But I had fun anyway. I finally got to do a little sightseeing in Vienna which my mom is very happy about because it's her favourite place in the world - turns out she has something in common with Adam, after all. Well, at least he likes it a lot, too. I didn't get to ride on a horse carriage because they're effing expensive which was a bummer but oh well... Then I also spent some quality time with Maja in Munich because it was on the way and served as a good rest stop. I joined her and some friends for a drink or two and despite my anti-social self and fear of getting sick, it was a very nice night. Even though I pretty much collapsed into bed the moment we got home.

The drive home was long and tiring and enraging because I kept meeting rude people at rest stops. One refused to let me fill my tank unless I gave him cash first. It took a while for me to realize he meant the card machines weren't working and he never even said that. The way he informed me about it all sounded like a personal attack, like surely I wouldn't be able to pay because I was a girl in sweatpants and an AFI shirt. Seriously, people, if you can't be bothered to inform customers, just put up a sign. It's more polite than getting all sarcastic! 

But I made it home and was delighted to find my Beautiful Thieves vinyl as a reward....

Spending the last two days felt weird considering the tour isn't through yet. Leaving home to go to the last gig will feel so strange. 

 I am back on German ground which is already part of an ending. No more leaving the country this tour. It is both a relief and disappointing. But it means free Internet on my phone and a relative lack of fear of getting into a border or traffic control and having to explain why I'm travelling without a driver's license and car papers. We came close on our way into Austria and I was wetting myself.

( Under the cut as usual )

 Finally, I am in Vienna and enjoying Alice's wifi. I don't think I ever wanna leave again. We drove from Zurich to Vienna yesterday and despite my poor geography skills telling me it'd probably be right around the corner, it took us some eight or nine hours to get here. Thanks to the volcano in Iceland, Tanja couldn't get her flight back to Berlin from Zurich so she came along to Vienna. Too bad! ;) It's certainly more fun than driving alone - especially with the Japanese duet of Miss Murder to keep us entertained. Seriously, the first couple times you listen to it, you're like "Eh?" but after listening to it a few dozen times we now can't stop giggling when the songs come on, even at the gigs. Hilarious!

( Click the cut )

 Finally I am getting a chance to write a proper update thanks to xblaux 's wonderful wifi connection!

I am in Munich right now and it's the day after the first Give It A Name show. 

But let's start at the beginning, shall we?

( More under the cut to save your friend pages from getting spammed. )

in the cold Hamburg morning.

I'm a little bit bummed because I was planning to arrive late at night to finally have a peak at the infamous St. Pauli nightlife. But it wasn't to be and I arrived sometime after six. Which seems insane right now as well because it is so fucking cold and despite everything I heard about this place, it is not any more or less dazzling than any place in the early morning. I was offered drugs, though. If only the guy knew that I am already way more drugged up than he'll ever be in his life! Havok save Vomex and Tramal!

I do wish I had slept more and I'm quite clearly realizing that my plan of sleeping a couple hours before the show will probably be sabotaged by the cold. I'm scared I just won't wake up anymore.

Will it all be worth it? Of course! Will I live to see that? I'm not quite positive...

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

in the cold Hamburg morning.

I'm a little bit bummed because I was planning to arrive late at night to finally have a peak at the infamous St. Pauli nightlife. But it wasn't to be and I arrived sometime after six. Which seems insane right now as well because it is so fucking cold and despite everything I heard about this place, it is not any more or less dazzling than any place in the early morning. I was offered drugs, though. If only the guy knew that I am already way more drugged up than he'll ever be in his life! Havok save Vomex and Tramal!

I do wish I had slept more and I'm quite clearly realizing that my plan of sleeping a couple hours before the show will probably be sabotaged by the cold. I'm scared I just won't wake up anymore.

Will it all be worth it? Of course! Will I live to see that? I'm not quite positive...

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

 So, due to health issues, I had to cancel the UK part of the tour. Which is about the hardest decision I've ever made and I'm pretty sure that a small part of me died just there. But it just couldn't be done.

Also, Poland is sort of in limbo right now. Due to more changes, I will be going there alone if I go and I'm a little iffy about that so I am gonna decide about that spontaneously. Depending on how I'll feel by then, I will either go or spend a couple days more with Alice in Vienna. Which would also be awesome because I get to see her so rarely and I've always wanted to see more of Vienna. So we'll see.

The only upside so far is that I'm saving a ton of money. Only two hotels and gas will have to be paid for anymore.

So I'm sorry but expect the first updates from the road not before the 14th. :)

Bought a couple outfits for the tour today. Now I'm enjoying a footbath and doping myself with Vitasprint. Hopefully I'll be back to proper health in two weeks then.

 I am in a tough situation right now.

As many of you know, I was just released from hospital. I still feel weak occasionally and frankly, I am shitting myself over the thought of going to Nottingham on my own. 

I still really, really want to go and will probably do so anyway. But in case someone reading this would like a free trip to see AFI, hit me up. I'd love to have some company that keeps me talking and distracts me during this trip. Of course, it'd have to be someone from round here or on the way. I'll be going to England from Dunkerque, France. Everything is already paid for and I won't be asking for gas money, either. I'm going there in the afternoon of the 4th and will be back around 10 AM or something on the 6th, no hotel sleepover. All you'd have to take care of is getting a ticket to the show.

So...in case someone would like a bit of spontaneous fun, let me know. :)

This tour is becoming more and more exciting and scary. The newest addition to my tour planning was the purchase of ferry tickets. Usually, I've gone with P&O from Calais to Dover. But since their new website is a total failure and won't allow me to book online and their customer service won't seem to have a reply to my enquiry, I was forced to look for an alternative.

So Tanja and my co-worker both suggested Norfolkline. I've been to their port in Dunkerque before but forgot they still exist. Seeing as their tickets are also a bit cheaper, I decided to give them a try this time around.

The only problem is that they only seem to set sails every two hours at night. This means I had to book a ferry back at 4 a.m. on the 6th, meaning I will have to leave Nottingham relatively soon after the gig. It makes me a little sad because I have such fond memories of waiting for the band there in 2006 but it's better than nothing. I don't think Norfolkline allows you to miss your ferry and board the next one for free like P&O usually does - and even if they did, taking the next one at 6 a.m. would mean I wouldn't be in France before 9 and I'd be way late for work the next day. I'm already gonna be late in favour of going home for a quick change and shower before work anyway...

All together, I think my determination of making it to Nottingham will probably come and bite my ass. With the current planning, there'll be little to no sleep on Sunday and definitely no proper sleep (as in: in bed) til Tuesday night. Then it's sleep the hell out of that night and a part of Wednesday night before I'm off to England yet again. Oh man!

Okay, I'm in the middle of tour planning which has been haunting me for quite a while. It's the nasty bit I keep trying to push off.

Now that I have a rough idea of when I'll be where and what place to go from, etc. I realized that our car isn't always full. This isn't a huge problem, I can as well go alone or with one other person but I figured maybe some people are still looking for a cheap ride or don't know how to get to one place so here's the offer:

The following is a list of all the routes I'll be driving and the free spaces that are still left, along with your share for gas you'd have to pay. If you are interested in any of these, please mail me at xafireinsidex@gmail.com (please don't do this in a comment / message because I'm trying to keep this as organized as possible by having its own tag for this in Gmail).

There are only a couple rules I am making for this / for myself:

• max. 4 people per ride including myself
• max. one big or two small bags per person
• everyone pays their share of gas and other charges (i.e. ferry tickets) where needed
• I have done all the planning and won't change it completely which means you have to be there in time and I'm not gonna take a huge detour. Dropping you off somewhere along the way is alright, though.
• all of these are 'first come, first serve'
• everyone who has been promised a space already, won't need to message me again
• where it says '3 spaces til, 2 spaces til', if you want to go from the starting point to the final destination, you'll have to pay the sum of both routes, i.e. from Nottingham to London, it's 10 EUR but from Nottingham to Duisburg, it's 40 EUR

Duisburg - Nottingham: 3 free spaces, 40 EUR per person (incl. ferry)
Nottingham - Duisburg: 3 free spaces til London 10 EUR per person, 2 spaces from London to Duisburg, 30 EUR per person (incl. ferry)
Duisburg - Glasgow: 3 free spaces til London, 30 EUR per person, 2 free spaces from London, 20 EUR
Glasgow - Manchester: 2 free spaces, 15 EUR per person
Manchester - Newcastle: 2 free spaces,  10 EUR per person
Newcastle - Birmingham: 2 free spaces, 15 EUR per person
Birmingham - Hamburg: 2 free spaces, 50 EUR per person (incl. ferry)
Hamburg - Munich: 0 free spaces
Munich - Milan: 1 free space, 20 EUR per person
Milan - Zurich: 1 free space, 10 EUR per person
Zurich - Vienna: 0 free spaces
Vienna - Warsaw: 1 free space, 20 EUR per person
Warsaw - Duisburg: 3 free spaces, 30 EUR per person

Please note that all of these are only for the ride, no hotel room, no food, etc.


Some more info:

Departure times: I'm leaving these out in order to keep this somewhat clean and organized so please ask me if you need specific times for one or more of these routes.

Company: For the same reason, I am not writing down all the names of the people already signed up for the ride - and also to keep this a little anonymous in case people don't want their names on a public blog. If you need to know who you'd be riding with for whatever reasons, ask me. Note: I'll always be in the car. ;)

Driving: If you have a valid license and are sober (hehe), I'll be grateful if you agree to drive for a couple miles here and there. Don't worry if you cannot or do not want to drive another person's car, though.


Anything else, please ask.