Day 1: Fly from Seattle to Salt Lake City. Transfer to Detroit. Detroit to Rome. Day 2 starts because of the time change. Get waived through passport control with a hearty "Ciao!" Drink unbelievable coffee from a vending machine in baggage claim. Cram 9 people into a van and drive several hours north to Umbertide. Sound check. Wander around. SHOW! Jet lag and exhaustion. Sleep while the band stays up jamming on acoustic instruments.
Day 3: Wake up. Amazing breakfast with mind melting espresso. Drive back to Rome. Check into a schmantzy hotel. Wander around after a nap. Paris and Amy score an impromptu gig because of course they did. The rest of us go out for pizza that will disintegrate your brain and then gelato. Sleep after killing all the annoying little flies in the room.
Day 4: Get up early. Call Kasia. Wander around our neighborhood in Rome. Drink all the espresso. Switch hotels. Go to venue. Soundcheck. Dinner with The Banditi. Small crowd, but the band performs like champs. Party a little bit. Sleep.
Day 5: Rome. Get up. Another amazing breakfast. Pack all the shit up. Drive to Modena. Check into hotel. Head to venue which is a circus tent at a state fair kind of thing. Have an amazing dinner where I am introduced to Lambrusco and given several bottles. Wander the fair and get some shiny things for Kasia. Band performs to a small audience, but kills it as is their MO. Raid the green room for snacks and booze. Sleep.
Day 6: Drive from Modena to Ljubljana. Pick up some gear at Metelkova. Eat amazing pizza at Trnovzki Zvon. (Yeah yeah yeah. I know Tea Šentjurc. You showed me better in November). Drive from Ljubljana to the Slovenian/Croatian border. Get hassled by Slovenian border guy because none of us have EU entry stamps in our passports. He lets us through. Croatian border guard holds us up for 2.5 hours and rifles through all of our shit. Total power trip by a bored authority figure. Drive from the border to our hotel outside Motovun. Meet an adorable, but terrified stray dog. Feed it snacks. The hotel is Stalinist looking, but kind of like The Shining on the inside. Show promoter brings us to the show venue. A film festival in a castle on a hill. They hold a restaurant open for us where I had some incredible risotto... only to find out after getting home the place is famous for truffles! Tour the castle. Drink until about 3 am. Sleep.
Day 7: Wake up late. Wander around. Feed the stray. Drink all the espresso. Val Kiossovski introduces me to the glory of Schwepp's Bitter Lemon. Charge the camera batteries. Offload footage. Pack luggage into van. Take shuttle to the film festival. Eat first cevapi in the Blakans. Watch a movie about Irish grudge match boxing. Take a shot of rakija with the director. Go to the show venue... IN A FREAKING CASTLE! Set up the GoPro and Flip cameras. First Balkan show. HOLY SHIT! This is insane. Italy shows were sparsely attended and fairly polite. First Croatian show is GLORIOUS MAYHEM! I know these songs and recognize the faces, but this is a different band! FUCKING A! 4:30am... tractor finally brings gear back down to tour van. 5:30 we're packed up and on the road to Sarajevo.
Day 8: 14 hours to Sarajevo. Long but uneventful border crossing where I am introduced to the glory of Balkan truck stop espresso. Several more hours to Sarajevo. We have scare along the river as we're trying to pee... possible landmines! Culture shock with Kultur Shock! Sarajevo! Check into hotel. Sleep for an hour. Soundcheck. Find a funny photo of Gino from the 80s! Cevapi in Sarajevo! Show is out of this world. Met some very nice people. Met a bunch of Gino's high school friends! Sleep.
Day 9: Late start, but I had a bed to myself for a few hours. Shower. Lunch with Gino's mom in the apartment he grew up in! Holy crap can Desa cook! 2 hour drive to Mostar. I wander around Mostar drinking all the coffee. Interview some fans. Meet and get to really like the staff at the venue. SHOWTIME! The band kills! The crowd is insane. We drink with them after the show. Get fairly hammered before wandering the streets of Mostar early in the morning looking for the Bruce Lee statue. We find it... there's nothing there. Just a marble block with his name. Back to the Pavorati squat for some sleep.
Day 10: Ouch. Slow start. Say goodbye to the amazing people in Mostar and then drive to Zadar. Drop Saso off at the airport. Check into apartment. 4 days off. Pizza on the beach.
Days 11, 12, 13 Go to beach. Drink way too late into the night. Swim in the Adriatic. Go out for dinner in old town. Family dinner at the apartment. Hangover and recovery.
Day 14: Pack up. Head to Osijek. Check into hotel. Soundcheck. Outdoor show in the rain. Decent crowd. Largely uneventful day.
Day 15: Controversy! Conflict between band and show organizer. We meet Saso at the Serbian border and wait for instructions on where to meet in Belgrade. we get the call. Belgrade! We drop off all the band's cash with Gino's cousin in Belgrade and keep enough cash to get us through the next day. 4 hours at a restaurant called simply "?". A deal is made. We finish the drive to Zajecar. It's midnight. Great dinner, but everyone is super tense. go to the venue. It's 1:00am. Gino does the press routine. There are 5000 people waiting for the band. 2:15am the band walks on stage and slays everyone. I have the luxury of a photo pit from which to work. Some really drunk dude decides to spit on me and try to take my camera. Bouncers dispatch him forthright. Go to hotel. Text with Kasia. Sleep for 2 hours.
Day 16: Eat possibly the best yogurt and tomatoes I've ever had. Play with a super energetic dog next door. The band gets stiffed 600 Euros. Looooooooong drive to Rijeka! Band's playing in a small castle again. Small show, but a great crowd. I bust my elbow helping unload the bass cabinet from the stage. Amy's apothecary helps. We get lost finding the hotel. Huge fight between some band members. We go to sleep wondering if there's going to be a band in the morning. The hotel is SHITE! I sleep with my legs hanging off the bed so I'm awakened if someone tries coming in because the door won't lock.
Day 17: Whew. There is still a band. A little sleep was all it took. Breakfast. I almost cried when I was given a bottle of Tobasco sauce. We drive to Vinica, Slovenia, only to be turned away about 1000ft from our destination across the river. Drive an hour and a half where passport control can handle processing our paperwork. Go to hotel. Grab gear. Go to giant outdoor event. I meet Tea Šentjurc for the first time! Band closes the evening. Great show on a huge stage. Thousands of people! Hotel! Sleep!
Day 18: Long drive from Vinica to Zrenjanin. Stop in Ljubljana to drop off some gear and the trailer. More pizza. Saso is fed up with Croatian borders crossings. Proposes staying in Schengen bu driving up through Hungary on their "new EU highway"... it doesn't exist and we wind up drinking Medica, singing Kansas and dodging owls. Smooth border crossing into Serbia. Get to Zrenjanin. Rooming with Val tonight. Check in. Bathroom is flooded. Get new room. Raid the mini bar. Drink all the Pelinkovec and jelly beans. Val learns from Lana that they're getting a new special needs dog. Now the whiskey is gone. Sleep.
Day 19: Decent breakfast. Leisurely day. Wander around a bit. Take a lot of pictures. Sound check. Meet the promoter who owns a bar down the road. Listen to a heated discussion between band members about a possible concept album. Meet a friend from Seattle. Feed a bunch of stray kittens. Show is incredible. Introduced to and interviewed a local fan who turns out to be NUUUUUUUUUUUTS. Hang out after the show at the bar until the cops show up at 5am. Head back to hotel. Sleep.
Day 20: Breakfast with Chris, Val and Guy. So exhausted. I'm smoking two cigarettes at once. Gino comes in and relates tale of his and Amy's crazy fucking night. Seriously crazy night involving the local woman I interviewed. There's a short film in this! It's nuts! We say goodbye to our local friends and head out for Sofia. Tire busts at one point. We change it and then have lunch. Val gets a Plijeskavica that's dripping in hot oil that fries an unfortunate fly that decides to land on it. Paperwork mix up at the Bulgarian border. It's pouring rain. Val and I take a cab to his mom's place and have a really good late dinner. Apparently, the cab driver is super racist! Sleep to the sound of wild packs of dogs wandering thepark outside.
Day 21: Drive to Sozopol. In the middle of nowhere Bulgaria, the anxiety panic sets in. I hadn't been alone since Sarajevo and that was only for 4 hours! I'm starting to get home sick and really miss Kasia and Lucy! Val checks in on me and leaves me alone when he hears the SLAYER i'm blasting to help me cope with the anxiety. It's a borderline hurricane in Sozopol. I can't do another night sharing a room. Val finds me my own rental. The band goes out to a metal bar and gets recognized. Much Mastika. Me? I'm watching Futurama dubbed in German and subtitled in Bulgarian as I do some sink laundry and stretch out across the length of my own bed in my own room for the first time in weeks. I get 8 hours of sleep.
Day 22: I wake up refreshed. It's early. I get coffee, pastries, and a box of raspberries while wandering the market. I spot a nice dress for Kasia. Val texts me where he is. He and Nika are at a cafe on the beach. Val looks like Keith Richards on a bad day. We get soup and wander around town getting gifts for loved ones. That night, we go to Burgas where the band will play tomorrow. I meet Oggi Kiossovski for the first time. See Suicidal Tendencies and meet Mike Muir. Watch a great British ska band. Then we go to this party on the beach. It's all club music and long lines for drinks. I hang out on the beach with all the dogs until Val finds me and we head back to Sozopol. Sleep.
Day 23: We say goodbye to Sozopol and check into the hotel in Burgas. Pack up our work gear and head to the show. It's the final night of the tour. Full moon as the band plays a blistering set to the Black Sea. The tour is done! Lots of hugs and we can finally turn on the air conditioning in the van! Back to the hotel. Sleep.
Day 24: We all meet up in the hotel cafe. I meet Nina Kiossovska for the first time. Oggi is there too. We spend a long time chatting and drinking coffee. Goodbyes all around. We begin the long drive to Sofia. We get off the main road by accident. We're starving. We stop at a roadside restaurant. Leisurely lunch. Gino decides to interview me on camera for 40 minutes. Finish the drive to Sofia. We stay at Oggi and Nina's place for the night. Nika and Saso say their goodbyes and head back to Ljubljana. Over 24 days, these two people have become family to me! We have dinner at a local restaurant. Band has a long business discussion about future direction. Val doesn't really sleep as he's the only one that speaks Bulgarian and has to get us transportation to the airport in the morning. Everyone but Val and I are not feeling well from the lunch.
Day 25: Sofia airport after almost no sleep. Val is questioned about his citizenship and passport. His Leatherman is confiscated. Everyone else feels like shit. Val and I are fine. Sofia to Paris. CDG is a nightmare airport. I almost have a scene with their security officers. Gino and Val to the rescue. Val gets me to a smoking section before we board the plane and I chain smoke like a pack and a half before boarding the plane. Paris to Seattle! Relaxing flight with lots of space to stretch out. HOME! Kasia and Lucy! Naturally, we go to Solo so I can recount tales of the adventure.
Day 26: Sleep... at home.... in Seattle.
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