Europe Tour III - Day 1

Day 1

(Sidenote: I wrote this days ago and just now realized I never posted it. whoops...enjoy)

We just finished the longest day ever. I first woke up Wednesday at 7:40am, central time. Got on a plane at 11:40am, flew to Dallas. Then sat down on a plane in Dallas, set to take us to Frankfurt Germany at 2:15pm. Then began the great sleeping fest. I woke up only to eat some lunch. Then slept again...for 6 hours (That's the kind of in-flight sleep that happens only after staying up till you're falling asleep while at a computer finishing your taxes at 6am). After a couple hours of flying and some mystery chicken in strange gravy amidst some sort of mashed potato substance, we landed in Germany. And suddenly I was forced to pretend that there really are only 9 hours from a Wednesday afternoon to 7:30am on a Thursday morning. awesome.

Lets skip all the driving and surprise mini snow falls to our arrival in Hannover, Germany. Finekost Lampe, was the venue. It's a small place, run by two of the friendliest people I've ever met. The inside feels like a cozy living room, couch seating, low ceilings and dim lighting by way of many many lamps. Here we met our new friend Greg, who opened for us and will catch a ride with us back to his home in Berlin. The owners made us dinner and shoved Club Matte into our hands. I think about half of us are obsessed with this bottled mystery caffeinated drink. It's some sort of tea-lemonade fusion that's pretty delicious. But it's only in Germany! so we're takin it while we can. Anyway, the show! So, so nice. Our set went pretty well--sold out crowd, double encore, a few questionable moments, but mostly really, really fun. Few times have I been a part of a room so crowded.

Afterward, we hung around and sold some merch, signed some things. Michael did one of his incredible van parking moves and somehow squeezed our 8 seater Sprinter through a path with only inches of breathing room. such skill! We spend the night with a man named Ralph, who we stayed with a year ago. He seemed to like us pretty well. He's had probably hundreds of bands stay in his home. I think we all got beds and pillows and some internet time, and awoke this morning to a mini breakfast buffet of breads, cheeses, eggs, fruit, coffee and teas. Now we're in the van, most of us in headphone land, leaving things quite silent and me on the verge of sleep again. Feels good to have the German countryside filling my windows. Next stop, Berlin!

-aisha