What time is it over there?

I'm drunk as hell in Amsterdam, so I'm emotional. I'll get to the good things first and then maybe I'll hint at why I'm upset, although I know it's silly.

We left England two days ago and played our first show on the mainland yesterday in Liege, Belgium. You want weird? A crazy fucking woman doing smack in the bathroom, the stupidest noise music I've ever heard, they made me keep my guitar at around 4, hookers getting picked up by our van . . . the hostel wasn't a very happy place either, but the next day was much better. The next day being today. We were in the town center in Liege and I had a real Belgian Waffle! At least I think I did. I had a waffle in Belgium and the lady spoke French, like everyone, so it could have just been a tourist waffle. But I think it was authentic and it was enough for me.

We hopped in the van and went to Amsterdam. We had a good show, our last one for three days. Yes!!! And now I'm staying the night in a rad punk rock squat, I can't even begin to try to understand the language around me (I actually did OK with the French, I can make some painfully small talk but it's not so bad) and now I'm in the office part and it's 6 a.m. here...

Yes, it's 6 a.m. here. I've been drinking for several hours and I think that's why I'm so emotional. It's really silly to go into why, but all I'll say is, sometimes I really wish I liked guys. The woman who runs this place, Romie, said it best when she said instead of AA, I need a Gay A.

Anyway.

So reflecting on the trip so far . . . the first wing was a very full-throttle sink or swim kind of situation, and as I tend to do, I swam. Things seem to have turned around but it's still a trip every day -- a new adventure in a new city in a new country where I've never been where I have to go to the venue, unload my stuff, get into a dominatrix costume and put glue in my hair and play a punk rock show, get the stuff back into the van, rush to where we're staying and maybe hang out and have a good time there, go to sleep, wake up and hustle to the next venue in a new city or new country.

Yeah, this is the best way to learn about a place, and probably the best way to learn about yourself -- it's a struggle to get to a telephone or Internet and I'm with the same five people all day and night. I didn't really know what to think of everything coming in but I don't know if I expected it to be quite like this. Still, every moment is amazing, and there are some wonderful times and there are some really crazy times that aren't so good and . . . there is a total dog orgy going on to my left. And apparently two of them are brothers. Romie: "He's boning his brother, and it's not hot." I probably needed that.

So yeah, as I was saying, three days off in Amsterdam. I don't remember where we go after that, I think Rennes, France and then Paris. I bought a phrasebook and I'm not lying when I say I'm in trouble with money. The venues feed us but beyond that I'm living off of peanut butter and crumpets from Tesco. I have Christina's travel acoustic and I'm hoping the people of these towns are generous enough to humor me a euro here and there when I go busking tomorrow. It's really scary to go around a foreign land without money, but at the same time I know I'll survive. Especially when I stay with the group.

That too -- We've done a lot of bonding on this trip, another thing I wasn't expecting being the one in the band's who's always kind of ripped on for one thing or another. But it's definitely great to get to know my bandmates better, they're really cool people. Speaking of which, I better go check on one of them. She's been drinking like a fish. Like me, I guess. I should be careful.

--mk