I don't know how he did it, but Franky did an eighteen hour drive from Switzerland to Krakow, Poland - in just one day.
The only stops we took were to grab something to eat, and do the other stuff that one may need to do on a long journey!
We drove through a whole lot of beautiful Polish countryside, which was good to see - and not at all like I expected.
When we finally reached Krakow, we couldn't find the hotel.
Cut to a rather interesting telephone conversation between Franky and the elderly owner of the hotel we were staying at.
Evidently, the fellow on the other end of the phone didn't speak a word of English (understandably) and Franky didn't speak a word of Polish (also understandably) - so we were lost (basically).
Somehow, after driving around the city centre, somebody figured out that the hotel was actually on a boat - and we were right by a dock, - so . . .
There it was - moored at the dock.
Our floating accommodation for the evening, - which was actually an extremely beautiful barge - with only one problem - for Steve anyway . .
Steve isn't so fond of spiders, and the barge was absolutely filled with eight-legged creatures of all shapes and sizes.
Hundreds of them - from really BIG heavy lumbering beasties, to tiny small speedy-gonzales things.
Steve chose to sleep in the car for the night.
The rest of us bit the bullet and opted to sleep on the barge with the spiders.
At one point in the dark, I heard a clicking sound in my room - right next to my head, so I picked up my cell phone and shone it onto the wall.
There was a spider so big, it was actually making a scraping sound as it walked around on the wall.
I knocked it onto the floor, and went back to sleep, but after a while it came back.
Holy shit!
Even as a passenger - travel by conventional car in Poland was an interesting experience.
There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason or rules at all - and it all looks really fast.
I remember a guy fixing his (broken-down) car at a set of traffic lights in the middle of a three-lane highway, while cars and trucks just buzzed right around him.
Poland: Graffiti Club - Lublin.
After an interesting night's sleep, I expected an equally eclectic following day.
Franky once again put the pedal to the metal, and steered the beast in the general direction of Lublin, which was another 300km and four hours away.
Our hotel was extremely cool today. Comfortable rooms and a nice big shower. Awesome.
We had no idea what the venue would be like after our rather pleasant sojourn to the docks of Krakow, but it was beautiful. The place was pretty full-up, and it was banging from beginning to end.
Everything was taken care of by the one and only Marek. An extremely good dude who knows exactly what's what.
The stage and sound was killer tonight. These dudes knew exactly what they were doing.
Messenger's line-up had changed a little bit after their return to Germany.
Benny the bass player was now playing guitar (extremely proficiently, I might add) and the posse had been joined by one Gerard Sormani on bass.
Confusing, but what the hell. Gerard is a worthy addition to this tour.
A good man and a top class bass-player! Very cool taste in music too :)
All sets tonight were wickedly good, and the audience was on fire.
We hung out afterwards to catch up and chat with some friendly faces from the show, which was a good end to a good night.
Best wishes to Marek, and cheers to Tomasz. You're the man.
Poland: Madness Club, Wroclaw.
I think strangeness had finally caught up with us. The coffee was definitely strange anyway.
The venue was quite strange too, but not necessarily in a bad way.
The food was strange, but not necessarily bad,
Really friendly people though, and rock and roll through and through.
No arguments there.
I remember somebody had crashed out one of the Messenger bus lights in a road 'incident'
We came. We played. We left & had the first proper sleep in a few days.
Germany: Londoner - Gotha.
Another 500km and about 6 hours drive during the day, and we arrived at Gotha in Germany.
The venue was beautiful, but it was pretty quiet when we arrived.
It was Thursday night, and there weren't too many people about at all.
The whole place seemed very quiet.
Still - the people who DID make it were clearly very rock and roll indeed.
There was a bar / restaurant downstairs, and the very accommodating chef served up a good spaghetti for dinner!
Guinness too! What more could a person need?
I was cursed with technical problems tonight. Things just kept breaking down.
As soon as one thing was fixed, the next thing screwed up. Gremlins!
We rounded off a long day with an all-night drive to Belgium.
Belgium: De Rots - Antwerp.
550km and 6 or 7 hours later, we arrived in Antwerp at about 8 O' clock in the morning, and the caretaker let us in, and showed us to our rooms where we caught up on some sleep for a few hours until Messenger arrived that afternoon.
Shortly after, the camera crew arrived, and the day was underway.
Tonight's show was being filmed for a DVD recording, intended for release in 2012.
Everything went pretty fast after that. The day got crazy busy, and didn't really stop until it was all over.
Our friends Bruce & Nine surprised us, and made the journey from Germany, so it was super-cool to see their faces during the show, and catch up properly afterwards. Awesome people.
Dance 'til dawn, and even better - Silke and Selina were back to join the party.
Everybody was in high spirits tonight.
Belgium: Rockfort - Hoboken
The following day, we chilled with Messenger outside De Rots with a few beers.
Sigi gave me some very cool German language lessons, and I learned some important new stuff.
It should definitely come in very handy one of these days.
The last show of the tour was in Hoboken, which was just 20 minutes away, so we had the chance to really relax for a few hours during the day.
As soon as we got to the festival, some crazy folks in a people-carrier almost drove their vehicle off the edge of a 2 meter wall, so we helped them back onto the road again, and headed inside the venue.
My friends Nadja & Arnold had made the journey from Holland, and it was fantastic to see them after about 5 or 6 years! Unreal!
Bruce and Nine also showed up again after getting lost somewhere along the way, but they caught the end of the show, and we had the chance for some cheery drinks afterwards.
Apart from some spotlights exploding over my head during 10 Seconds - the show went pretty smoothly.
Everything was packed down in record time, and unfortunately - it was time to say goodbye to this tour, and farewell to Messenger and all of our friends for the time being.
It was truly great to get to hang out with good people every single night, and thanks a million to everybody we met along the way.
Looking forward to seeing you again somewhere soon in 2012!
