2016 – In review
I really don’t know where to begin with my review of 2016. To a lot of people this year has been terrible, what with all the deaths of famous people they don’t personally know and political events that probably wont significantly change anything. For me this year has been a watershed moment where I proved to myself what I was capable of, lost some friends to death and one of my most meaningful relationships to time. I traveled to more countries in the last half of they year then I have in the last 10 years of my life and…
Montreal: The End of the Line
Chris and I arrived back in Portugal with just a few pennies in our pockets, a bottle of gin and a few grams of hash. Our only plan for the rest of our stay in Portugal was to lay low, find a hostel where we could tan the gin and cook ourselves dinner then go for walks in the afternoon smoking pipes of hash and stopping for Mojito’s on the bay of the river along the way. Our plan played out perfectly. One of my final memories of Lisbon was getting absolutely pissed in the hostel, constantly quoting memorable moments…
Boom 2016!
I decided to sit in front of the ride taking us to BOOM land. Whatever it was that had cause me to puke all over the same spot of the airport twice already this morning didn’t seem like it was settling anytime soon. All I could hope now was that I could make it to the festival without further disruption. The last heave contained the grapes I had for breakfast. There was nothing else I could have possibly left to bring up, aside from the water I was drinking in attempt to reconcile for the amount I was heavily sweating.…
Ozora
Of all the stops on my festival Odyssey Ozora was the one I was least looking forward to. 8 days of militant psy-trance – a genre that I have never been a fan of and that I was going to have to tolerate entirely alone. I very nearly considered bailing on the whole thing. It was the first festival since my 2 and a half-week break and in that time I was taking great pleasure in wondering around foreign cities aimlessly, making new friends in hostels and trying and failing to chat up a series of Parisian women. All this…
Poland to Portugal
I did a good job at not letting the panic set in, although when I think back it was probably the fatigue of next to no sleep and the comedown and hangover of the night before that had depleted my desires to give a fuck. I sent out a few texts to people back at the house about my lost bank card. All I really needed was the security digits on the back and I’d be set to top up my now empty Travelex card, failing that I also had Al on the line, who gave me his card details…
Glastonbury 2016
‘WHERE THE FUCK IS THE A36!?’ It was 04:30 on some seemingly infinite road in Somerset. The rain started falling about 40 minutes earlier and the 105 mile estimate for the pre Glastonbury cycle has turned into 110 and both Dave and I are running on borrowed fumes to get us to the Beckington roundabout Travelodge. His battle cry ignites my last spark of life that jolts me over the finish line. The cycle itself had been smooth and ahead of schedule. We’d managed 40 miles in just under 3 hours and it was only until a flat tyre and realisation…
The Reeperbahn and The German Capital
‘Thank you very much’ I said gratefully, shaking the geezers hand as helped me get my bag out of the boot. ‘No problem’ he replied then got back in his car and drove off into the night. He very helpfully dropped me off at a metro station on the outskirts of town, so my only challenge now was to figure out just where exactly the centre of Hamburg and what was I to do when I eventually got there. Just an hour and a half earlier I was left wondering whether I had just made my very last terrible mistake…
My Festival Odyssey Part 1 – Barcelona, Netherlands and Hitchhiking
So after 77 days, visiting 6 festivals, 10 countries and 16 cities over 2 continents it’s time for me to return to the mundane. Back to London to my new home in Woodford and to the job that was the reason I was able to save up for such an adventure and I am pleased to say that I am very ready for this. Don’t get me wrong my trip had such an abundance of fun, excitement, hilarity and new friends that I’m still trying to process the whole thing. But what I’ll really remember it for is just how…
Dour 2016
‘DOOOOUUUURRREEEEHHHHHH!’ Was the chorus that greeted me as I got off the shuttle bus from the train station on the final leg of my journey to Dour. I’d set off from Barcelona that very same morning and everything from the flight to the train ride had run like clockwork. I was especially excited for this one. Dour boasted a hench, eclectic line up and whats more my fellow festival general Petch and my very dear friend Deirdre were what made up my own little festival dream team. What’s more Petch had very kindly forked out for the Glamping experience…
Nowhere 2016
I’d spent the traditionally crippling 5-day Glastonbury comedown preparing for my festival odyssey. It wasn’t that the usually demobilizing period was difficult or that it was hard to get myself orientated for my biggest adventure yet, just exhausting and flowing with waves of doubting anxiety. The night before I was due to fly out the same chain of thought kept oscillating in the carousel of my mind… ‘Why am I doing this again? Why did I think an entire summer of festivals in foreign countries would be a good idea? Exactly how am going to get to middle of…