Current Location? Athens, Greece

Soundtrack til now? Doobie Brothers/Steely Dan (yes, I'm a 70's Child)

Countries seen? Holland, Belguim, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Germany again, Switzerland, Spain, France, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Sebria, Macedonia, and Greece. Still have to go thru Venice Italy and drive over the Alps to get back to Germany and then across Germany back to Holland to complete the trip.

Today is Sat May ....17th?? I've kinda lost track at this point. I have no clock either so I just go where I am told when I am told :) We have 5 more shows left including tonights, 10 more days left and I COME HOME! YAYAYAYAYAYYAYAYAYYAYAYYAYAYYAY I miss everything and everyone!

So since last I wrote, my attitude has improved. The 4th week of tour was the hardest, it's gotten a bit easier since then! I have to take out my tour boook to reference where we've been... I've lost track.

Spain - We played in a few more cites since I wrote last... La Coruna on the far tip West Coast of the country, which was the most beautiful out of all parts of Spain, right on the Sea. I ate dinner alone!! and watched the sunset... it was wonderful. The soundguy at the tiny little club we played wouldn't let me touch his vocal PA, so it was like a night off for me... boring more then anything to just sit and watch. Then onto Burgos and Vitoria... both were very very old towns with beautiful old buildings with tons of new growth. So much so it really messed with our GPS system... couldn't figure out the town since there were so many new roads... got lost alot.

Then we had 2 1/2 days to travel to Slovenia thru Southern France and Italy. Let me tell you, Nice and Cannes are lovely even at 90 mph :) Cannes reminded me of Beverly Hills back in So Cal, thou it was a tad more populated. None the less it was beautiful. We drove briefly thru Monaco as well, where Monte Carlo is.... did you know this is it's own country? It's no bigger then the city of Portland and it's an entire country... it was lovely, as was the Mediterrian Sea that we saw... gorgeous! I would sure love to go back to these parts and spend some time there. A few too many bridges on mountain sides, but still worth going back to. Italy was lovely as well... thou most everything is starting to look the same at 90mph.

Slovenia - Ljubljana was the city we ended up playing in. Worst hotel of the trip but the most gorgeous place I have seen yet. pretty big city in the middle of farm land and not much else. But old as hell it was, canals everywhere, amazing statues and old buildings. I loved this place and didn't wanna leave. We played in some old Army compound that after the War turned into a squat and is now all legal and used for nightclubs and such. Pretty cool, thou it's still dirty as all get out. I spent about 4 hours walking around the town cause I couldn't get enough! From here we drove to...

Croatia - Zagreb which is just a hop skip and a jump thru 2 of the most uptight borders. Since neither country is in the European Union nor do they like each other... thou right next to each other... we spent more then an hour to get thru the 2 borders. Croatia was ok, nothing fancy or special... kinda dirty and drab. Some cool buildings, thou the people we really nice, we weren't there for too long. From there we had to drive thru the rest of Croatia then down to Serbia...scarey...got thru Sebria in about 5.5 hours and into Macedonia to sleep before the final haul to Greece. We were a spit away from Bosnia for alotta then final parts of that drive. All of the country side in all of these countries is very very very lovely... the cities leave something to be desired... like Belgrad in Sebria... yuck is all I can say. No thank you. Oh and the Yugo is a very popular car still in these regions... since the made them there before the War. Macedonia was the last country we had to drive thru that wasn;t in the European Union... borders we ok, but again a nice long wait and lots of questions. I got at least 5 more stamps in my new passport ;)

Greece - Thessaloniki (pronuonced Slow- nickee) Remided me of Mexico, a bit crowded and dirty but still lovely none the less. I met a nice Canadian (to whom I got to speak in English too!) that told me of the lovely parts of the city. The club was cool and it was in sort of a compound in which they had restuarants, other clubs and bars. We were there on a Friday night (yesterday) thou it was pretty dead everywhere. There are no rules on the roads in this country, ANYTHING goes... and I mean anything, these people drive like maniacs and honk like madmen. Everything is under construction and all streets are one way... so it's rough to get around... expecially when the GPS gets confused from all the concrete buildings everywhere... kills radio waves completely. We got lost quite a bit...needless to say. Thessaloniki was on the east coast of Greece..sort of... on one of the Seas... I saw it for a brief moment when we made a wrong turn ;) From there we left this morning to drive to Athens, where we are now. I saw Mt Olympius on the way... it was HUGE and still had snow on it even thou it's pretty hot down here... thou not as hot as Portland this week ;) And as we drove into Athens I looked up and there was the Acropolis. I plan on making the trek up there to see it in person tomorrow since we have some time. Stoked :)

From here we drive down to Patra Greece... very bottom of the country on the west coast of one of the islands... to take a ferry arcoss 2 or 3 Seas to get back up to Venice, Italy to drive back up to Germany to play 3 more shows there. I hear we will have to drive over a portion of the Alps to make the trip...stoked... cause I've seen then a bunch from afar.. but now it'll be personal! Then the last show we play after Germany is back in Groningen Holland... stoked for that cause..well you know ;) Holland rules! Then an 11 hour flight over the top of the world to get home.. I leave on May 27th 11am and I get back on May 27th at 10am... go figure.. I live the same day twice coming back... makes up for losing a day on the way here! Looking forward to coming home, just in time for the 1st day of Rose Festival... Yay! Some amazing shows coming to Ash St in June... look for that on our website, and remember to support your local rock!

With much Greek Love,

Heather

Current Location? Barcelona, Spain

Soundtrack til now? The band I'm mixing on tour Pierced Arrows, formerly DeadMoon

Today, May 5th 2008 is my anniversary for working the mixing board at the Ash St, 8 frikken years. Oi..Thou I can say I am extremely thankful to have a job in an industry that I love and the support of people like Trish and Mike that own the Ash St Saloon. Here's to many more years at the club.

Hi everyone,

Hanging out in the hotel in Barcelona today, just left France this morning. We're a bit outside the city and no disrespect to Spain but it's too frikken hot and crowded out there to venture forth. We're a bit outside the city's center and with no car access to travel back to the city, the air conditioned hotel room makes for a nice hiding place, plus I'm alone for the first time in like 4 weeks. Praise the Lord ;) Since I last updated we finished off Norway, went onto 3 major cities in Sweden. Then back down to Germany for another 5 dates, then onto Switzerland (yuck) and over to France then down to Spain. Our First show in Spain is...Wednesday? I think... in Madrid, then onto the west Coast of the country and all along to Northern border for several more shows. Then to Croatia and some country I cannot pronounce and then down to Greece.... then back to Germany (yuck) via Italy and back to Holland to end the tour (yay!) that Yay is for Holland cause it rocked the most so far.

Sweden was cool... there is a Db limit for how loud bands can play at concert, which was not cool when you are mixing a rock-n-roll band like I am. I guess they fear for the publics hearing loss, isn't that what ear plugs are for? And choice to wear such products? I hear Sweden used to be the most Liberal country, not anymore. If you smoke in a hotel room there you get a $250 fine... needless to say, I smoked outside. We were in Gothenburg (don't call it goatburg, they get mad), Lund and Stockholm. Stockholm was by far the best city to visit, thou it was at the top of the country and was our last show in Sweden, we had to drive all the way down to Germany...over 10 hours and 3 countries later we were in Lubeck Germany. Mind you we had to cross a 15 mile bridge and go thru a 10 mile underwater tunnel. Travel over here is.....well....different.

Germany..let's see... was...fine and dandy, I'm just over it. Been thru there twice now for a bulk of the tour date and I wanna eat so GOOD food, thank God for France ;) The best city we've been to in Germany so far was Tubigen, below Stuttgard, GR and right above Switzerland. It was Bovarian country. Basically how you would envision Germany to be was what this little town looked like, very quaint and old. I bought an honest to goodness beer stein here... totally worht the $50 it cost...32 Euro ;) the exchange rate on USD sucks ass.

We played one show in Switzerland (thank God) in Winterthur. Which if you look up on the web, looks like a quaint little rolling hills town. I can tell you first hand it's a shit hole. They too had a Db limit for bands.. which means how loud is can be... not even able to get it loud enough to rock. Thou I did my best to cross that limit a billion times during the set ':0. No one spoke English at all and no one had fuckin Ice cubes anywhere. I love ice and am sorely missing them these days. I will say that the side of Switzerland that borders France is much much nicer and prettier then the part that touches Germany. Depending on what part of SW you are in is to what language they speak, very very confusing.

France...welll the only reason we were in France was to get to Spain, sort of a stop over country and we only drove thru a small section of it. But if you know my last name you know I'm French by decent and was stoked to be there regardless of the reason. We stayed in a cute little town called Valence on the Eastern border of the country and ate some awesome food, which was deserved after all the crappy food in germany. Woke up early this morning and drove the rest of the Eastern border to Spain.

Spain... Barcelona is FUCKIN HUGE and I'm told where we are headed, Madrid, makes Barcelona look tiny. We drove thru it on about 16 freeways to get thru to the outskirts where we are now. Saw LOTS of awesome old building and Castles and such and tons of Graffity everywhere (thou most all countries have it). We play Madrid in I believe 2 days from now, then onto the coast on the west side at a club that is ON the water, look out the door and see the ocean I am told.

4 weeks of touring down, 3 weeks to go and I'm ready for my creature comforts back home! I miss Ice cubes, the English language, and clean clothes. Just to name a few. Am I glad I came? Yes, now I know where I don't wanna go again ;) Honestly the landscape of everywhere we've been so far looks like a mix of California and the Pacific Northwest and I've driven from the top of Europe to the frikken bottom. In the states if you drive from Oregon to Nevada you see different landscape the whole way, in fact most every state in the US holds a different natural wonder and landscape. This place is getting redundant and makes me miss home. If you knocked me out and I woke up in Germany I would l think I was in Portland...except I can't read the signage. Sorry if I sound bitchy but after 4 weeks in the van with the same 4 people you aren't full of sunshine anymore. 

Please remember to continue to support the Ash St, since it is my home away from home I want it to still be there when I get back! Leaving an 18 hour a day work load was a relief but I'm surely ready to come back to that now after hours on end in a tiny little van with stinky cheese being eatten in the back seat!

Ciao!

Heather