Looking Back at Gustav Euro Tour 2017: Part 1 (of 5) Why and How The Trip Happened
- Gustav Davila
- Jun 18, 2018
- 6 min read
NOTE: If you are reading this on a desktop computer, hover over all pictures for additional anecdotes! There doesn’t appear to be a way to read the captions on mobile browsers that I have, though.
Other Parts of the Series: Part 2 - The Concert Leg
In October 2016, my #1 favorite band Depeche Mode announced their Global Spirit Tour to promote their new album Spirit. I remembered that in 2013 when I saw them previously, that I made a vow to see them in Europe at the next opportunity. So I called my dad after I did some researching and told him I was going to Europe for 2-3 weeks to watch Depeche Mode (as well as Coldplay, who were also touring Europe around the same time) and he was really excited about the idea of me travelling and agreed to help me purchase a flight. I decided to see Coldplay in Paris, and see Depeche Mode in Spain and Romania as those were logistically the best ones to do. Each one was about 6-10 days between each other, giving me time to get a train ride to each location AND see a few stops around the way. I went with July over May and June for a few reasons, but one was that I wanted to see the Oakland A's play the Atlanta Braves as they were the final MLB Team I never saw play in person.
The original route was going to be Paris to Bilbao, Barcelona, a few Italian cities before returning to Paris. Then I would head over to Romania via Munich, Vienna and Budapest (This one was the only part of the original plan to make the final one). After going to Cluj-Napoca, I'd go to Bucharest. From there, I'd go to the Ukraine and Russia before making my way to Warsaw, Berlin, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Oslo, Amsterdam and Brussels and go back home from Paris. (I didn't want to go to the UK because of Brexit). This would have been about a month exactly with each city only being for one night.
A few days later, one of my choirs (the UC Alumni Chorus) announced that in July that they were going to do an 8 day tour of Norway. Amazingly, those eight days fit snugly in-between the concerts in Bilbao, Spain and Paris, France (I had already booked the tickets, so if the Norway tour was even a day or two different, I probably would have had to skip it). My dad and I decided it was best if I do it, so I told them I was going to attend the tour. A while later, Radiohead announced a European tour but I had already booked my flight to Paris, and the only show of theirs I could do was their Manchester show less than a day after arriving in Paris. I decided to just go to it anyway, but this along with the Norway tour did cause me to heavily re-plan the entire itinerary so that I could hopefully still see places like Barcelona, Rome and Berlin.
There was one disagreement though, I had planned only to see the concerts, try and see a few other notable cities and then go home. It was my dad who told me that 3-4 weeks wasn't going to be enough time. I really didn't want to spend too much time away from home. It was the summer and I was going to miss a lot of Oakland A's games (Which meant less time with close friends that I only really see during baseball season, and some girls I had feelings for) and although my dad wasn't into sports he understood. So I did decide that, after the Depeche Mode concert on July 23 that I would map a route that would allow me to see nearly every major European city. After finishing that route, I determined I could return home on September 5 and still see a dozen or so A's games after my return. It also meant I would be home in time for Cal Football's home opener which was on September 10.
It would turn out my dad, and most people I talked to, didn't want me to be constantly changing my destinations. They’d rather I find a handful of cities to stay in for a week each, or even one city and find a temporary job or class. I was already committed to my style of travel, though. As I will write later, there were a lot of faults with my way.
Due to the complexities in booking trains and hostels, plus the uncertainties of life in Europe (what if I liked a city too much? What if I met a girl?) I decided to stop booking after Bucharest, Romania (July 25) and make every stop after that a play-by-ear decision (except for needing to be in the UK in September). For the most part the only real addition in the itinerary was Sinaia, Brasov and Bran in the Romanian leg. I also re-visited areas like Munich and Manchester because my first times there weren't very substantial. Some countries I hoped to visit like Switzerland, Portugal, Belgium, Finland and Poland were cut entirely. There was also a third visit to Paris that was planned that I wound up cutting. The final route is below. (Click on it to view it full size)
The trip was mostly funded by my family as a reward for graduating from UC Berkeley and The Academy of Art University in 2012 and 2016. My dad paid for every flight, mom contributed $500, and her parents contributed $1000. I also used money I had saved from various jobs and loans to pay for the Norway tour and other things. The entire trip cost between $5000-$10000 when everything was considered. The only real expensive places I stayed were in Amsterdam, Barcelona and Copenhagen (About $65 a night). I had an easy time finding cheap hostels or AirBnBs (Under $35, sometimes even under $20 a night) in every other city. I had family in Paris where I stayed for free. The flight to Paris was about $350 and the flight home from London was around $250. All the flights, buses, and trains within Europe were inexpensive except for Bilbao to Trondheim (and even that wasn't so bad).
For trains I bought a Eurail pass that I used for all train rides between July 19 in Stuttgart to August 24 in Berlin. The train rides in Central Europe (especially Germany, The Netherlands, and Austria) were free with the pass but I did still have to pay for trains in Italy, France and Spain (including a really expensive ride from Milan to Nice, about $70). I also paid roughly $1.25 for every ride in Romania. Since the 35 day Eurail pass was roughly over $1,000 and I was very bad at doing finances during the trip, I never figured out whether the pass saved me any money or not.
The best part about concerts in Europe was that standing room in front of the stage is very inexpensive. (Less than $100) Compare that to the $500-$1000 it costs to buy a reserved front row seat at Coldplay’s Levis Stadium show and DM’s Oracle Arena show a few months after my return.
Not every concert that I found out about was able to work on the trip. Erasure announced a tour but none of the dates logistically fit with my plans. The Foo Fighters, Gorillaz, Lorde, and Arcade Fire had a few dates I could have done if I had booked my outgoing flight a week or two earlier but they stopped performing before I arrived. New Order announced a special set of shows in Manchester, but none of them worked with the dates I already had. If they had announced it sooner I probably would have went to one of their shows instead of seeing Depeche Mode in Bilbao. Halsey, another favorite of mine, performed in the Netherlands around the time I was going to be there, but it didn't work out. Of course, as I'll mention in the next post the Radiohead show didn't even wind up happening... Green Day, Gorillaz and The Decemberists announced Bay Area shows in August after I purchased my flight home. If I knew about them sooner, I probably come home earlier.
The next 4 posts on the trip (which will come as I make them, I could even do them all within the next 48 hours) will be about the three "legs" as I called them. The Concert Leg (July 4-23) where I saw the concerts. The next leg (July 24-August 17) was called the "Beauty of Europe" leg and was where I saw historic cities like Athens, Rome, Venice, Nice, Barcelona and Madrid. (To even out the lengths of the blog posts, Barcelona and Madrid will be in Part 4.) The third leg (August 18-September 5) was the "Future" leg where I visited Germany, returned to Scandinavia and finished up in the Ireland and UK (The latter two will have its own post for the same reason). I called it the Future leg as every city I visited were cities I could see myself moving to for career reasons. (Though, certainly I would consider moving to cities I saw in other legs too.) I hope to include pictures and possibly even video from various stops. I will also preview the sequel coming up next month - Gustav Summer Tour 2018.
Enjoy!
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