Looking Back at Gustav Euro Tour 2017: Part 2 (of 5) The Concert Leg

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 this Series: Part 1 - Why and How

Part 3 - The Beauty Leg

Part 4 - The Future Leg

Part 5 - Ireland & the UK

I arrived in Paris in the afternoon of July 4. It was still morning back home, but by the time I arrived at my family friend's place it was close to evening. Knowing that if I fell asleep I'd likely not wake up anytime soon, I decided to just walk 45 minutes to the Eiffel Tower. Despite being dead tired (no more than two hours of sleep during the 11 hour flight) I made it over. I also was able to climb close to the top of the tower (there was an extra fee to go all the way to the top that I opted not to do).

Due to my hasty decision to head to Manchester to see Radiohead. My first stay in Paris was brief. I knew I'd be returning for the Coldplay concert, so I didn't feel pressure to do too much. The shuttle to the airport was close to the Arc de Triomphe so I was able to check that area out before hopping a shuttle to the far-away Beauvais airport.

Unfortunately, due to the terror attack in Manchester the two Radiohead concerts at Manchester Arena on July 4 and 5 were consolidated into one show on July 4 at the Manchester United stadium. Since I was unable to change my flights, I had to opt for a refund. So essentially I lost a night in Paris and was going to walk around Manchester with not much to do. It got worse, due to a bomb threat at Manchester Airport, I was stuck in the airport for nearly 3 hours. Once I arrived in my destination I also discovered (for the first time) that getting your passport checked through customs takes forever. What was supposed to be a 4:30pm arrival at my AirBnB was more like 9PM. This means I would have for sure missed the Radiohead concert anyway had it happened (and probably wouldn’t get a refund!). At least I learned my lesson not to book flights so close to a show time. I already knew it was going to be a race to make the concert when I booked the flight but it was around $40 less than earlier flights. Being frugal doesn't always pay off. Plus, it was cheap because it was Ryanair, the Spirit Airlines of Europe. I mostly avoided it the rest of the trip, but they'd give me fits in 2018.

I still went out to downtown to check out the city for an hour or two, although I forgot to bring my phone charger and it wound up dying early (so no pics were taken). I was taken away by how beautiful and lively downtown Manchester was, even late at night.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to make it to the Manchester Museum that had a New Order exhibit. I was really excited to see it and thought I wasn't going to get another chance to look at it. That is, until I saw a banner for it walking around town. It said that the exhibit was open until September 3. Just my luck! I knew I was returning to the UK at the end of my trip, so I made plans to return to Manchester in time to see the exhibition. Hooray!

So the next stop was Bilbao, Spain. I had to wake up really early, so I didn't get a whole lot of sleep. (This would become a theme...) After arriving at my AirBnB I was able to get some rest before heading to the BBK Festival. I got my wristband downtown and then took a train to the shuttle bus meetup.

It was here that I saw my first European festival. I watched Cage the Elephant, The 1975, Depeche Mode, Spoon, Justice, and Gus Gus that night. I wanted to see The 1975, the last act before Depeche Mode, although they were on a different stage from each other. This unfortunately meant that when I got to the main stage when the Mode started, I was pretty far away. Nonetheless it was still an exciting show. (A future blog post will review all the Depeche Mode shows I attended in 2017-2018)

The following day I walked around downtown Bilbao some more, including the Guggenheim Museum.

Then it was back to the festival. I was able to watch, among others: Explosions in the Sky (awesome instrumental band), Royal Blood, Fleet Foxes, Phoenix, and the Killers. Since Phoenix went long I was stuck watching The Killers from far away, so none of my pictures turned out to be any good. I also was introduced to Trentmøller, who I knew from his remix of a Depeche Mode song. I really loved his stuff and made a point to get a bunch of his stuff on my Apple Music account. The first thing I did on Day 2 was sing at the karaoke booth, pictured above. I did "Enjoy the Silence" and everyone who saw it loved it. I have no video of it, though.

Unfortunately due to the Norway addition, I did have to skip the last night of the festival (which had acts like Two Door Cinema Club and Die Antwoord) but there weren't any acts I desperately needed to see so it was fine.

The festival went very late and I usually got to my AirBnB around 3am both nights. It was another early flight to Barcelona, where I'd connect to Trondheim, Norway. I didn’t get much sleep if at all thanks to a loud moth in my room I was never able to catch, but caught up a little bit on the two plane rides. Despite some minimal delays I made it to my choir's first performance in time. All I missed were some early rehearsals for our second performance, which I was able to learn anyway.

Norway was the longest part of the tour, and Trondheim specifically was the only place where I spent more than two nights. Unfortunately about two days in I started to get sick. It was very minor and didn't affect my singing, but made it very hard to breathe through my nose. I didn't fully recover until my last day in Oslo.

We spent a good amount of times visiting museums. The first was the Ringve Museum, which had lots of musical instruments from around the world and especially Norway.

Later we saw the history of Norway and Trondheim in the Sverresborg Trondelag Folk Museum where we saw old architecture and learned about their way of life through the centuries.

It was in Trondheim that I did my own performing. The festival my choir participated in was the Coralua festival. There were three concerts where our Choir had our own set. Plus the big aforementioned second concert (midway through the week) where we sang altogether as a group. I can be found in the furthest left of the back row. Shouldn't be that hard...

Other stuff I did in Trondheim was take a nice look at the pretty architecture and homes, plus I had pizza in the Tyholt Tower.

Midway through our trip we stopped in the winter resort town of Oppdal. I took a gondola up to a high mountain, which even in July was very cold.

The Trondheim and Oppdal stops were the only ones where I stayed in a fancy hotel. Each morning I was spoiled with juices, deli meats, and (in Oppdal only) all the smoked salmon I could eat! This was great since eating out at any restaurant during the Norway leg was very expensive. Basic meals tended to cost double or triple what they would cost back home.

Upon returning to Trondheim for the final show, I was joined by my dad who wanted to see one of my shows. We did our own exploring of Trondheim prior to it, and then I performed near the main church (Nidaros Cathedral) of the town.

The next stop was Oslo. Dad joined me for that as well but due to planning we stayed in seperate places, which was a mistake. (His AirBnB was plenty big and my Hostel was out of the way) Nonetheless I was really impressed with Oslo. The central area reminded me a lot of Los Angeles.

My dad's AirBnB was in a college part of town, so it felt a lot like home. He made salmon which was very good (tasted exactly like the ones at home) and I got to try some various candies and snacks native to Oslo. That included soups as well, as I was still sick.

The Oslo museums I visited include the Viking Museum with lots of cool old ships. Then I went to the Kon-Tiki Museum where I learned about Thor Heyerdahl. I bought a T-shirt with a quote of his that resonated with me and the trip. (see above) I still wear it today. The last one I spent a lot of time in was the Fram Museum, where I learned about polar exploration.

I only did the museums with my choir, then I left them for the day and did exploring with my dad. We watched "A Little Night Music" at the Opera House, and then dad showed me the University and the Royal Palace exteriors. Although it was almost midnight, it only appeared to be sunset in Norway on a summer night.

At the last place, I went to the Holmenkollen Ski Museum where, among other things, I got to ride a zipline! That wound up being my final act as I headed to the Airport to Paris right after.

Well, alright. I did one more thing. In Oslo I stood in front of the main train station and sang a few songs from Nik Jam EP. No one really listened, but it was still a fun thing to do.

Back in Paris, I didn't do a whole lot except sleep. The next day was my big Coldplay concert. I tried to do other things the day of the show, like visit the Louvre but since it was Tuesday the museum was closed. I did get to have Lebanese food with my family friend, which was phenomenal.

So I just went to the concert very early. I was able to get a good spot for the show. Lyves and Tove Lo opened for Coldplay. The whole night was very good.

Unfortunately my family friend was supposed to join me but got sick. Then, on my way home I got lost trying to find my way back to the train station. (I went out the opposite exit of which I came in for some dumb reason) I was so lost that by the time I found it, the last train had already left. I was forced to wait for a bus to take me home instead but one never came! So I wound up paying about 40 euros for a taxi. That was a big disaster and I got home at around 3am... not good when my train heading to Germany was leaving before noon. This would cause a big domino effect...

I reunited with my dad in Paris at the train station where I said goodbye to my dad and my family friend for the entire trip. It was the last time seeing anybody I knew for more than a month and a half. It was a very scary time.

The train went from Paris to Stuttgart (a city I was supposed to visit in 2005 but cancelled... long story) and then from there I would travel to Munich.

Once I got to Munich I was so tired I left my freaking bag on the train. It took me about 15 minutes to realize it. I freaked out and ran around the train station but couldn't find my train (I knew that, since it was the last stop, it was likely still there). Eventually I calmed down and did some sleuthing to figure out my train and the bag was still there! The ordeal wore me out and by the time I got to the hostel I was so tired I just stayed there for the rest of the night. Luckily it was a very good hostel (known simply as “The Tent”) with lots of games and outdoor activities. I did some socializing and ate some really good food and beer.

The next morning I did get to try a Bavarian restaurant and I also saw the Nymphenburg Palace. I even met a fellow Oaklander, who recognized my Warriors shirt. However I only saw her while I was checking out... Oh well. It was off to Vienna.

There was a layover in Salzburg. I didn't leave the station despite there being yet another lengthy delay. It wound up being an adventure to my hostel, but I didn't want to just stay around this time. I was able to get to downtown Vienna and I was blown away. Easily one of the prettiest locations I saw the whole trip. Unfortunately the stay was very brief. I was able to see the Mozart Orchestra perform a tourist-friendly set, I did some "partying" at a nearby club, and then went back to my hostel.

What was a memorable night turned out to be very sad as I returned to my hostel and found out that one of my favorite singers, Chester Bennington, had died. I still mostly associate that night with that news. I hope to return to Vienna during a Winter Europe trip with my dad in 2-3 years.

Rather than go straight to Budapest I took a quick detour to Bratislava, Slovakia instead. This way I'd be able to scratch one more country and city off the list, but it was just for a few hours. I visited the Bratislava Castle and then went downtown.

After arriving in Budapest I only had time to hang around the hostel once again. But unlike the other stops I had a long time to wait until my next trip. You see, once I arrived to Budapest I looked into train rides to Cluj and discovered there weren't any that were convenient. So I wound up discovering that there was an overnight bus to Cluj the next day. Plus the bus stop had a bag check! That meant my visit to Budapest would be extended. I took the most out of my full day in the city. I crossed multiple bridges, climbed the famous Gellért Hill, bathed in a bath house, and ate lunch in the Old Town. I also walked by a guy who looked a lot like Hasan Minhaj??? Maybe he'll see this and confirm!

Eventually it was time to head to the bus, which was of course, delayed (by like an hour) This wasn't too big a deal since I was going to arrive in Cluj extremely early and thus would have some time to waste before I could check into my hostel. Unfortunately, as was part of a theme this trip, I did not get much sleep at all on the bus. Once I got to the hostel (several hours early) I was not given much of a chance to nap. I took a nearly two hour walk (roundtrip) to Iulius Mall where I could pick up my Depeche Mode ticket. This, along with the park nearby the stadium, was really the only proper exploring of Cluj that I got to do.

Finally it was time for the concert. I chose this one because it was the final stop of Depeche Mode's first European leg, and it was lead song writer Martin Gore's birthday. Plus, Romania isn't a stop most people who go on European vacations do, so I wanted to be exotic.

The show, my first stadium Depeche Mode show, was very memorable. Since the previous one was during a festival they cut about seven songs. So this time I got to hear the entire set. The crowd was a lot livelier than I've ever seen before, and it was so cool to be a part of singing happy birthday to Martin Gore.

The only downer was that the lack of sleep started to take its toll and I passed out as soon as I got home. There was a big party a nearby nightclub full of Depeche Mode fans and I totally missed it. If there's any consolation I don't believe the band was there, but people I talked to online said it was really fun.

The next day I planned on visiting the Turda Salt Mines, then making my way to Bucharest. Unfortunately in Romania there's a lot less transportation so all train rides were pretty slow. (Trains to Bucharest took about 11 hours) The original plan was to go to Bucharest and Constanta and then go down to Greece. But after talking to some other travelers in the hostel, I decided to add Brasov to the tour.

That concluded the Concert Leg of Gustav Euro Tour 2017! The next day would begin the Beauty Leg!

NEXT - PART 3