Monthly Archives: June 2007

So, let’s check out Barca

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I slept quite late – a hangover from Download – and missed breakfast. Instead I grabbed some bread from the “free food” drawer and heated up the tin of beans I’d lugged all the way from Birmingham. Beans on toast in Spain – smashing!

I then went for a wander to get my bearings and to trey and find Sharon’s hostel before she arrived that afternoon. I walked for more than three hours in the heat and enjoyed it. Barcelona is a very “random” city with streets of all sizes and at all angles. They all seem to have something down them as well. It would take months to catalogue every one.

One thing that struck me was the proliferation of ATMs. Unlike Jerusalem where I had to walk 15 minutes to get to one that wasn’t locked inside a bank, you can´t spit in Barcelona without smearing your phlegm over three of the things. Another thing is the seemingly mad mix of architectural styles old, new and bizarre. And the final thing is that Spaniards like dogs of all shapes and sizes and will happily walk them – off the lead – around a majpr city centre. Cool.

My main focal point for the day was the impressive Monument a Colom down near the port. It´s similar to Nelson’s Column back home but much more intricately decorated. You can climb it for a shade over €2 but I thought I’d leave that till Sharon arrived.

Talking of whom… I found her hostel and loafed there for a short while until she arrived. Sharon is the very kind person who put me up and drove me to Heathrow on my very last night in the UK before all this kicked off. She dumped her stuff, got changed and we went for a walk along Las Rambles amongst all the human statues and portrait painters. We eventually settled on a Tapas bar called Sinatras and ate very little food of very high quality for a very, very large sum of money. From now on, I´m sticking to fast food and supermarkets.

We bar-hopped until the early hours when I escorted Sharon “home” and then headed hostelwards myself. The crazy American/Canadian kids in my dorm didn’t do as good a job of waking me in the middle of the night as they´d one the previous evening. Thankfully. For them.

Hola España! (The proper post)

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A very rushed day. I woke around 11am and hung my washing out to dry, fed the cats and woke Anni which turned out to be the hardest job of all. We drove to the Post Office to collect a pedometer that Sheilah had kindly mailed me for use on The Walk.

Lunch was KFC – Wales is technically a new country on the tour, so I´m not cheating – and I notice they´re now putting a nice spicy sauce in the Zinger burgers. About time.

I also popped into a couple of camping stores. Kudos very kindly gave me a huge discount on a new rucksack and sleeping mat when I told them about The Walk. Thank you!

Back at the house I took far too longrepacking my things. Added to that, some roadworks on the M4 directing traffic along the route we were taking to the airport and I was fidgetty to say the least when we pulled into the parking bay. No need to worry though, as I was in good time. I had a short conversation with a little boy who wanted to know if the bridge in the blue star in my shirt was the Severn Bridge. And it turns out his dad was from Newcastle as well. He should have known better!

I wolfed down most of my snacks before boarding the flight. The security staff were as thorough as the Israelis but nowhere near as rude or rough with my things. The plane was fairly full, but we managed to take off on time and I only had to threaten the little girl behind me once with what I´d do to her if she didn´t stop kicking my chair. I can get messages across to children very well when I choose to.

Barcelona airport was a quick one to get through. Within 30 minutes I was on the train platform awaiting the express to Barcelona Sants (€2.50) and shortly after on a connecting Metro to Paral.lel (€1.50) before walking a whole two minutes to my hostel.

I thought I´d wandered into a nightclub, the music was so loud in the lobby/bar area. Definitely no problem with atmosphere! The noisy lobby is well-separated from the rooms and I dumped my stuff before heading back down for a litre of beer and an email check before bed.

Hola España!

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I’ll probably fix this post once I figure out how to speak Spanish but at the moment I’m contending with typing English on a Spanish keyboard with a very unfamiliar layout while my leg goes dead on a badly-designed stool…

I will also get the remaining two Donington posts done “when I can”. There is free internet here but only in 20 minutes slots, so I’ll have to write it up then type it up.

Suffice to say I am safe, in Spain, have half of a litre of beer in front of me (I’ve drunk the other half) and a very good friend flies in tomorrow. Catch you all when I get the chance!

Download – Day 3

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When I woke I felt like my right elbow had been cramped for a week, but at least the swelling on my left one had gone down. Anni looked like I felt (with less bruising) but we gathered our thoughts and packed up before emptying the breakfast buffet of pig parts again. We checked out and re-tried Asda (which was open on a Sunday so all the staff and customers will probably go to Hell) so Anni could get a camping chair and I could get some books. OK, the books were an accident. Anyone who knows me knows what I’m like when I see cheap books.

Courtesy of a nearby Sunday market (more hellbound souls) we were a little late getting to Download but in time to catch Chimaera and Papa Roach – more dents and gouges on my anatomy. Coby of Papa Roach gauged the crowd with “Who’s looking forward to the other bands? Mastodon! (cheer) Lamb Of God! (cheer) Stone Sour! (big cheer) Killswitch Engage! (very big cheer) Evanescence (even the tumble weed didn’t bother booing) Oh, right… Iron Maiden! (even the staff in the food tents quarter of a mile away cheered)”

Another great but too short set. Mastodon were OK and I skipped Lamb of God and Stone Sour (both on at Graspop in 2 weeks) to watch Paradise Lost and Napalm Death on the Dimebag stage. I’d not seen PL in years. In fact, the last time I was any of them was when I tried to talk Aaron out of buying an iMac when I worked in PCWorld.

Back at the main stage, Anni was nestled in her comfy chair when Killswitch Engage came on. Ah well, it’d have been rude not to go in the pit. Scariest man of the weekend was in there – naked except for a pair of David Hasselhoff underpants and a pair of trainers.

I needed a rest after that and thankfully Evanescence were so awful I could safely ignore them. They moaned their way through a dreadful set and failed miserably to ignore the hecklers. Instead of sounding put-upon, they came across as thinking they were better than they really were. And they’re not that good to start with. Finally they left. Thank you, good night and ____ off.

The field filled. Human pyramids were built. Plastic bottles were thrown at them until they collapsed again. The sun began to consider setting.

Maiden came on.

This is a band that really makes you proud to be British. From rousing songs like “These Colours Don’t Run” to classics based on history such as “The Trooper” this band (and 2 of its members) have been going for around 30 years now. The Number of the Beast is 25 years old this year, and they’re still going. Bruce revealed – subtley – that they’ll be headlining Download again next year as well, and concentrating on the Powerslave era. Oh, wow.

The only let-down was the lack of a post-show firework display. The enormous Eddie in a tank was eye-opening, though. I can only assume the missing sparklies was due to being unable to get permission from the nearby airport as planes had been flying over the main stage all weekend. Here’s hoping we get a display at Graspop at we did 2 years ago.

We said our goodbyes and as T & H headed tentwards, Anni and I followed the crowds to the carpark. It took us over 2 hours to get onto anything remotely resembling a road and gone 3am by the time we got to Anni’s.

Kit was dumped, a wash put on and I collapsed in bed with KK snuggled under my arm for the first time in 15 months. I think my cats remembered me. I like to think they did.

Download – Day 2

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And Saturday rolled around. Despite the fairly early night and comfy bed, both of us were exhausted in the morning. I demolished the buffet breakfast (have you ever seen a plate literally piled around 6″ high with bacon, beans and HP Sauce? It doesn’t last as long as you’d think) and we got to the festival again in time to catch Hellyeah‘s cover of Queen’s “Stone Cold Crazy“. It was only when the big screen showed the familiar face that I realised the drummer was Vinnie Paul – the brother of the guitarist that the second stage was named after.

We met back up with Tali and Hazel and sat through some decent sets by Shadows Fall and Aiden. Talia and Hazel went to watch Anathema, Gallows and My Dying Bride on the Dimebag stage while Anni and I enjoyed Bowling For Soup.

Whoever put Machine Head and Slayer on back to back with only a 20 minute break in between is a very cruel person in deed. Needless to say I was massively bruised and battered after that double bill. MH really know how to treat a crowd and Slayer’s sound quality was much better than in the warehouse in Perth where I’d seen them recently. The picture is of a random bondage-gear-clad girl I saw in the pit for both bands. Picture taken and published with permission! I have a video to prove that my camera is moshpit-proof as well, but you’ll have to wait till I get back for me to upload it.

T & H rejoined us before Marilyn Manson started and I have to say that he was rather disappointing compared to the show he put in in Leeds several years ago.

Linkin Park came on late, but this allowed a huge number of nubile (and not to nubile) young women to flash their boobies on the big screens. The biggest cheer went to one dark haired temptress who toyed with the cameraman for a good while before ripping of “her” wig to show “she” was a one of the numerous guys in drag floating around the festival!

Finally, LP came on and played a blinding set including the best version of “Push” I’ve ever heard… and left early. The songs were great, the light show dazzling, just the performance too short… and it clashed with Motley Crue in one of the tents.

As the spotlights dimmed, we crawled back to our tents-hotel. AQnni and I whized by Asda but we didn’t stay due to the stupid Sunday trading laws still forced upon England, which meant it had shut at 10pm.

Hotel. Shower. Crash.