Today is the third day of the Maintain and Heartbreak Kid european tour. Pardon any punctuation or spelling mistakes in this blog "hoo ha" the euro keyboards are quite different. Our new German friends in HBK have been so great to us, the van they picked up is a monster VW there is plenty of room for everyone to sit, a dvd player, and more than enough room in the back for all our equipment and personal belongings its even pretty good on gas considering its size, you could stand up and not hit your head if you wanted. They made us feel instantly at ease and we became fast friends which has made the experience thus so far that much better. After waiting 2 hours in Logan, flying 6 to Frankfurt, sitting for another 2, flyzing 1 to Hamburg, and waiting 3 hours to then drive 6 into merkplas, belgium to our first show it was well worth it. the venue had a great sleeping place upstairs for us with couches and blow up mattresses and they fed us a hearty meal. The kids there were so gracious and accepting, the venue was run by guys around our age and everzone hung out into the wee hours talking after the show. Our set was great, they cheered for an encore which never happens. The second show was also in belgium, I took a long walk through the town though it was mostly closed down by that time. The show went fairly well, we did not sell as much merch and took a little less from the door but regardless we are well on track to cover all our costs hopefully by the halfway mark. last night and tonight we stay at this great loft where they built a room with 2 rows of bunk beds for bands plazing at the "bastard club" around the corner. well see how that goes tonight. Everzone is feeling great and having a wonderful time, weve had to spend very little of our own money on meals and water here and there. as a band weve never been treated so well, not by a long shot. as a person i feel so comfortable and at home in the places weve been to thus so far and weve had the opportunity to see the diversity of cities such as antwerpen where we spent the day wandering about the primarily turkish neighborhood.
As someone who has never really travelled or left the US before this has so far been an incredible experience and i know already ill want to return immediately when i get home, but its home that i miss when the day slows down. The people, the comfort, the monster kittens, all of these things that make me feel at home. But for now I feel so incredibly fortunate to be having this experience, its funny how a place to sleep and a warm meal and the chance to play each night has made us all feel like kings.
