Going Up North

It appears we have hit the middle to last few weeks of the Eastpak Antidote tour. We have almost covered half of Europes landscape so far and I can honestly say it is nothing short of beautiful. Minus the lack of sun light, occasional dirty rest area, and cold, stormy/overcast weather. So maybe it doesn't sound that beautiful, but throw some sun light on the situation and you have some beautiful scenery. We drove through a good portion of the Alps which is some of the most amazing mountain sides and tops you will ever see.

I'm not quite sure where we left off from last time, so I'll start off with Vienna, Austria. This city and country has tons of history. So much that it was nearly impossible for me to wrap my head around. We met a great guy the night before that our friends Kalle and Laura hooked us up with, named Phillip, who was from the city of Vienna. He let us crash at his place which has only happened literally 3 times previously on this tour, so it was fantastic to get to sleep under the roof of an apartment instead of the roof of our spilter van. Him and I sat up for a few minutes that night talking about music and what not, and he helped me come to the realization that people in Europe who are into "punk rock" have a wider perception of the genre than people back home. Any band that is somewhat involved with the huge world of the punk rock genre and sub genres is for the most part excepted and ok to call a "punk band". Anywho, it was a cool conversation and interesting to think about.

The next day Phillip took us around the city and was a great tour guide for us around the city of Vienna. He showed us everything from some of the oldest chapels in the city to their Parliament and some Christmas time market places. He knew such much about his city, country, and culture and it was so interesting to hear what he had to say. It was also really cool how much he appreciated and how proud he was to be from his country. Don't see that in everyday life.

We just got finished doing a few German shows which had been fun. We had a day off in Munster the day before we played at their venue, Skaters Palace. We walked around with our friend Larry who techs for Sum 41 and some of the guys and crew from The Black Pacific. We did a little walking around the city, which was a very industrial place. Hit up a few Kebab shops, thought about going to a movie then backed down on the thought of, "we might not understand anything they are saying". So we ended up where anyone on tour would end up on a day off... a bar. But not just any bar, a pub in fact that was built in the 1640's! We all fell in a found ourselves with a big beer (a cheap beer at that) in our hands and some drinks. We all had a great time recapping the tour and talking about what we are doing when we get back home. That night our friend Kalle let us crash in his hotel room which was another first and very awesome.

Now that we are winding down to the last few days we are about to head up north. We hit a ferry this morning and are now in Copenhagen, Denmark. We are traveling through Sweden tonight to leave for a ferry tomorrow to head to Helsinki! This will be the farthest up north we have ever played! Its going to be an adventure and a challenge but we are ready to take it on!

We that's that. We will hit you with another blog by the time we get home or right before we head back. Thanks for checking in!

Brad