Paris Update

I am back home since Wednesday already but got a nasty surprise as soon as I came in. No water. Apparently the landlord made a mistake with paying the bills for water and used his office account instead of the normal one, without adding a reference number. So the company disconnected the water. The landlord came back to bring me a big can of water so I had something and today (Friday) finally in the afternoon I got my water back! First thing I did was take a hot bath and it felt so good!

I did not have time to write about Paris yet, but that was a really bad trip. In Belgium there were no trains or buses driving, there was a big strike throughout the country, so I did only get to Maastricht. Luckily there was a regular bus from Maastricht driving just across the border. There were some others who needed to get to Brussels like I did and we decided to get a cab in Visé where we were stranded, and the driver drove us to Brussels. Quite expensive but because we were with four people it was okay. In Brussels I was stranded once more at the airport. I took a bus to Brussels North trainstation (this bus was going, good for me) and checked if I could find a bus going to Paris. There was one but it would leave at five and take four hours to get there. So I would miss the whole Battle Beast show and I wasn't planning on doing that. So next I found a metro that drove to Brussels Midi trainstation and I am so thankful the Thalys was going to Paris from there. It had a big delay but it was going so I knew I would be in time in Paris.

The ride with the Thalys was great, I could finally relax a bit. In Paris I had to find my way to the venue, bought a ticket for the metro to Oberkampf station and got out. Once I walked there I felt like I was on holiday! After a minute I saw some well known sweaters and recognized Tero and Tapsa from the crew. Yelled at them and they stopped and told me where the venue was. Walked over to the venue and waited until I saw another familiar face. The first one was Larry Longsleeve and I asked him if I could go inside with my pass to drop off my luggage. No problem, and inside I met Guy the busdriver and Denis, a french guy who also worked with Nightwish and Amorphis and whom I met a couple of times already. They all seemed pleased to see me and that felt really good. Bought myself a Battle Beast girlie since I felt bad for not supporting them yet. Still need to get the cd though!

The Sonata guys were outside for dinner and I went outside again as well, waiting for a friend of mine who would be there that night. While waiting Battle Beast passed me and I got a warm hug from Noora. I think she liked that there was a familiar (girl) face between all those strangers. They were on their way to have some dinner as well. Soon my friend came over and we decided to have a drink at the bar next to the venue. We had some great talks and soon it was time to go inside the venue again. I saved her a spot in front and we enjoyed another amazing show. Actually two, because Battle Beast rocked again! They must be the best support Sonata ever had I think. I like that the French are a bit louder, more enthusiastic than the regular crowd I see at concerts. They are also waiting outside with many more people. I felt a bit bad they were all standing in the cold while I was inside hanging out and staying warm. Did not feel like getting out to support them though!

After a long time inside, chatting with Denis and some bandmembers of both bands we all went outside and fans came over to take pictures and ask for autographs. I thought it was weird that there was this guy who took lots of pictures of me but I assume he thought I was with the band, a crewmember or something like that. At first I thought he wanted to take pics of Marko because I was talking to him when this happened, but when I moved away the guy still took pics of me. I wonder what he must have thought.

Had a nice conversation with Marko outside, and then it was time to go. Had a nice hug, bumped my head into his head and with a little bump on my head but very happy I left with my friend to her home.

The next day we spent making nice food together for lunch and dinner and talking about everything we could think of. It was very nice and I felt so welcome! On Friday I left in the morning and again it was a very long travel day, although trains were driving again this time. In Paris I had to wait for 1,5 hours for my train but unfortunately there were no nice shops in the area so I just waited and walked around a bit.

In Brussels I had to wait for another hour because my train left without me, I could not find where they sold tickets for outside of Belgium and it took me so long I missed my train. When I was searching to buy a ticket I saw an ice cream store of Häagen-Dazs and so I got myself a cone with pralines and cream. Very delicious so it was worth waiting another hour! I arrived in Sittard around 19.10 and had only about 5 minutes at home before I had to go to class, but I made it! Did not really have energy to sew but I really needed to tell one of my best friends all the stories so I went anyway. So far it had been a great European tour!

That's it for today! Next time I will tell all about my holiday in Austria and the last two concerts of the tour. If I have nothing else important to share of course!