Vienna, Budapest, Cluj Napoca, and Bucharest

Day 7:

Vienna-

Running late in the morning we jet to Vienna, a 6 hour drive. We make it in pretty good time with very few stops. A quick sound check and then we eat dinner. The days that run smoothest are probably the most boring to read about. No sightseeing, just sound check, dinner, show, wifi party, laundry, then sleep. 

We have a short drive tomorrow to Budapest, then two shows in Romania, then our first day off after Bucharest. I'm not sure where we're staying for the day off, but it will be nice and relaxing...hopefully. 

Day 8:

Budapest-

Stopped off at a local music store. It was a pretty fancy place. Zach and I needed to replace the snare head since it's getting pretty best up already. I also got a new stick bag since mine is already falling apart. I also got locking cymbal...uh, caps? Is that what they're called? I'm not sure. The top screw that keeps the cymbal from flying off the stand. 

Anyway, a nice shirt drive today into Budapest. 

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The day is beautiful, and we're playing in the bigger room at Dürer Kert, which also has the nicer green room that is attached to the stage. 

Our dinner was curry chicken (plus a vegetarian curry option), felafel, and pita to put everything in. We devoured it. And after that, the wifi party began. 

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We stayed at a hotel where the wifi was only accessible from the lobby. The rooms were typical dorm style (more like a hostel than a hotel), and the bathroom looked like a cross between a high school bathroom, a psych ward bathroom, and a prison bathroom...but was still pretty nice. 

Day 9:

Cluj Napoca-

The drive to Romania was long, hot, and there's only one 2-lane road connecting everything...and it's mostly under construction. 

The border entering Romania was fairly easy getting through, it just took longer than we'd have liked it to. 

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A single winding 2-lane road is what we took, and there was a lot of construction, but the scenery is beautiful. We also last a time zone, so we lost an hour on our way to the show. 

We got to the venue, and it was in the heart of Transylvania across the street from a beautiful monument/castle-type building. The venue itself is an old bomb shelter, built to protect people from American bombs. Ironically, it now is host to 8 dirty American musicians. 

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The show was fantastic, though there were some slight snags when it came to dinner and being payed. Apparently the promoter who setup the show didn't bother to show up, so someone else took care of us, and did a pretty good job...till it came time for settling payment. 

In big bold letters on our rider it clearly says, "No Pizza" but since this fill-in promoter had probably not ever seen the rider...we got pizza. We were fine with it, kind of. Pizza once on a tour won't kill us, but at the end of the night, instead of settling things the way they needed to be settled, the fill-in promoter handed a stack of cash to one of the girls that greeted us when we arrived (she was taking picture all night, and was also a very big fan). We felt bad for her, because these douches pretty much just stuck her with the bill and peaced out, leaving her €200 (or the Romanian equivalent) short of our guarantee.  She felt awful, and we felt bad that she had to work with such crappy people. The show obviously did well, if the amount of people in attendance is any indication. 

Despite odd complications, the show was awesome, and it was definitely a place we'd want to play again in the future. And the city was beautiful. 

Day 10:

Bucharest-

Not too long a drive today, in theory, but since we're taking the same one 2-lane road, it'll be interesting again. 

The scenery is still beautiful, but alas, more construction. I think closer to Bucharest we get highway, and then leaving Bucharest it's all highway, but for now, we have to deal with bumpy back roads. 

The mountains are steep, and the turns are sharp, also, the 'gypsies' tried to sell me a bucket of fruit...and pretty much anyone else that rolled into or passed that specific gas station. The scenery is beautiful though. 

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Just to give you an idea of how fancy this venue is in Bucharest, the hand soap in the bathroom smells like coconuts, and they have orange slices in the urinals. 

The show was incredible, and possibly the best show of tour so far. Everyone was really excited and into, both north and Rosetta played really well, and we're all also completely stoked about our day off tomorrow, so we'll be exploring the city tomorrow. 

Day 11:

A day off in Bucharest-

We started the day by sleeping in till noon, and we all got up, dressed, and headed out into the city in search of food.

We happened upon a Turkish restaurant. The food was delicious, and crazy enough, not too expensive. We then made our way to a bar called '100 beers' and sat for a bit having gelato, water, and others had beer and ciders. We also made a quick trip to a Starbucks a couple streets down and got some iced coffee...well, we wanted cold brewed iced coffee, but they were sold out, so we had iced americanos, since apparently Europe doesn't believe in iced coffee. 

After the sun started to set, it was a bit cooler out, and we wandered around the city a bit, then finished the day at a very fancy restaurant. I'm not sure exactly what it was called that I ate, but it was little sausage-link type rolls with fries and mustard. They were delicious. 

We returned to the hostel and slept the night away. Tomorrow we're off to Bulgaria. 

Warsaw & Wroclaw

Day 5:

Warsaw-

The drive was fairly short, but it being around 80 degrees fahrenheit and crammed into a van with 8 other dudes, it gets a bit crazy. 

We had sandwich fixings waiting for us when we arrived, then we loaded on the stage and sound checked. 

We were offered dinner, but none of thought it was a good idea to eat before playing or we'd get sick. So I had a salami and cheese sandwich, and we did our pre-show exercises.

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Even before playing it was already extremely hot and humid, and I was sweating buckets. So I knew the stage while playing will be the ultimate heat. Luckily though, we got the fan this year. 

The polish fans are always some of the craziest fans. They went bonkers throughout the whole set, and for our last song in particular, there were much anticipated stage dives. They even all sat down for the quiet middle section of Wake, and then blasted back up for the finale. Poland is always crazy fun to play. 

We slept in the hostel next door to the venue. It was extremely hot still, with very little air movement. I chose to take my shower in the morning because I end up sweating through the night, so taking a shower at night was futile. 

Day 6:

Wroclaw-

Still hot this morning, and very humid. We made a stop off at a Tesco, which is like a grocery store combined with a small mall-like structure. We got some breakfast for ourselves. I had sushi, and it was nothing spectacular, but it was nice having an all inclusive meal with fish, veggies, rice, etc. 

Now on the road to Wroclaw. Still hot, but we hit a bit of rain clouds, and I think we saw that it's going to be cooler in Wroclaw. This is our last show in Poland for the tour, and in the city, and at the same venue we first played ever in Europe in 2009. So a bit of nostalgia, and a mess of good fun. 

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The show was awesome and crazy, and we had a lot of fun. People seem to be down with our new 'no encore' policy, but you have to understand, we do it not because we don't about the fans hearing the songs they love. It's about curating a set that we think fits the crowd, and then playing it to its fullest intensity up till the very last hit. When we are requested to do an encore, all our energy has been already spent on our planned set, and now you're getting a half-assed attempt to muster whatever energy we have left to poop out another song, and we felt that instead of that scenario, we'd just plan for s longer set, play the songs to their maximum intensity, and leave the crowd with an awe inspiring performance rather than ending on a low less energetic encore. 

Sleepy bye time at a pretty nice hostel in Wroclaw. Off to Vienna tomorrow. 

Berlin & Gdańsk

Day 3:

Berlin-

We were able to do laundry last night, which was helpful, but not completely necessary. We need laundry done later in the tour when we're running out of clothes rather than the second day where I've barely worn one set of clothes. No matter, it was still nice. We had some sandwiches and fruit for breakfast, some coffee, and then we hit the road for Berlin. A mostly smooth trip, around 6hrs, but a bit of traffic slowing us down at various points. 

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We got to the venue and immediately loaded in and onto the stage. I made a bee line for the bar to get myself a club-mate. Delicious energy tea/beverage. 

We had barbecue for dinner. Some very large sausages, grilled cheese, veggies, and steak.

The show was quite toasty, but luckily we have out trusty fan with us. We were all stoked when Armine asked people to not smoke during the set or it'll start hurting his throat (and the rest of us wouldn't be too happy about it either) and people actually listened and didn't smoke. 

The only real bummer of the day was when we got to where we were sleeping and there was barely enough room for all of us in an unventilated room. I slept on one of the couches in another room, along with Armine and Matt, and our driver Mike slept in the van. The toilet backed up almost instantaneously, and there was no plunger in sight, so it stayed like that. 

In the morning we had to be let out of the building because the front door was locked for security reasons. 

Day 4: 

Gdańsk-

We're now on the road to Poland. AC running again since it is almost 80 degrees outside. The  Poland countryside reminds me of Nebraska. Lots of farms and fields and nothingness. Pretty, but boring.

We got to the venue in Gdansk, and it's huge. It looks like a place where they're having s festival, but only using one section. 

On the down side of things, looks like the crappy room some of the dudes slept in last night had bed bugs...I'm super glad I slept on the couch (as did Matt, Armine, and Evan from North), and our driver Mike slept in the van. 

Currently sitting out in the middle of the main stage area (which is not in use) using the wifi since it doesn't actually reach to the backstage. We're staying at a hostel tonight, and then onto Warsaw tomorrow. 

The 2016 European adventure begins.

Day 1:

Philly to Frankfurt to Brussels -

Our flight out of Philadelphia was more than smooth, and we had no problems once in Frankfurt airport, however Norths' flight was delayed by about 4 hours, and we ended up being late to the show in Brussels. Thankfully we made it just in time to throw our gear up on stage for North to play. There was a hard noise curfew of 10pm, and we made it with 3 or 4 minutes to spare. 

We were also fairly lucky that all the gear worked fine, and we didn't have any broken or missing pieces for the gear. We couldn't figure out how to operate the keyboard stand we had gotten for Armines' sample gear, but we'll have enough time to figure it out tonight in Essen. 

Our sleeping situation was pretty nice. We didn't have to load out after the show since the venue had beds in the building. I was able to wake up and shower, and they had breakfast waiting for us. 

Day 2:

Brussels to Essen -

Only a short while into our drive we pull off the highway to use the bathroom, and there are police waiting to flag is aside. This will mark the first time Rosetta has ever had the van weighed on tour. 

When the policeman opened the side door, he noted we had no seat belts on. Obviously not, since we're about to hop out and use the toilet, but we weren't going to argue with the police. 

They had us pull to the side, and checked our passports. They then weighed the van and said we were 900kilo over limit (around 2k lbs). Along with the seatbelt fine, we payed around €630 just to stop and use the facilities. We were pissed. Only the second day of tour, and we were already being hassled by police. 

A nice sleeping spot, food, and vegan chocolate awaits us in Essen. Till then, we just enjoy the scenery and traffic on the drive. 

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The green room and sleeping spot at the venue in Essen had improved significantly since last year. The show was on a different stage than last time, but considerably better. 

We got vegan chocolate, and it was awesome, and pretty much all of it was gone by the end of the day. We got our exercises in before our delicious pasta dinner, and then rocked out. I got to take a shower, and we're doing laundry. On to Berlin tomorrow.