Don't feel that

21.5.2011

The weekend was off to a great start with a couple of big news and relaxing b-day party of Eme. And it was to get even better, as we were travelling to IRELAND! Why so serious? I mean happy. HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY! Ten years ago I made a presentation about Ireland, don't know why I picked that country, but when I was looking at the pictures of the greener than green countryside it had become my dream to go there. And watching Once and PS. I love you the need of going there became even bigger.

In my to-do-list we have:

1. Lay on the grass in the countryside of Ireland.
2. Travel by train around India.
3. Listen to Scar Tissue and rest of the Californication album in a convertible across the Californian desert.
etc.

Well, I can already say that I haven't had the chance to cross any of those by now. Some of you might think why not the first one, when I went there, but more of that later.

So, good mood to get even better, not even the NS (Dutch trains) being delayed bothered me. But as they say from high above the only way is down. Thank you RyanAir for delaying our flight with almost 4 hours. Wasting our afternoon in Dublin. I've always wanted to hang out at Eindhoven's airport. I planned to check in as soon as we got bored of the otherside, so seeing something new would give hope. Still, I could have slept longer and eaten all the food in the fridge. Some hippie started to laugh at me when she heard that and told me not to feel that way. What can I do when two of the most important things are taken from me. Sigh.

non-EU people checking in

As we finally got into the plane and arrived in Dublin airport, I completely had forgotten that it's a rainy country, they drive on the opposite lane and they speak also Irish. But the rain didn't bother me, just wanted to be like Rocky when he runs up the stairs, that was the feeling I had; at last I made it. I wrote in my early entries that until end of 2011 I would have visited 20 countries all in all, and what better way to do that than visiting Ireland. Éire.

We took the double-decker to our hostel, never been in one before, but unfortunately couldn't go up due to our luggage. It was kind annoying that you have to pay the exact fare for the ticket.

It was quite late when we got to our hostel, and chilly outside, but we had to have dinner. There weren't any Irish places open at that time, so we went to an Indian restaurant called Surma (in Finnish first-degree murder). They had excellent food, and looking at the check, you didn't have to pay for water. DOUGH! I'm already so used to paying for water and small bottles in The Netherlands, that I forgot it's not the case in every country. Well, next time. After that we headed back to our hostel for a good night sleep eagerly waiting for the next day.

The most annoying faucet system yet.

Eindhoven + Foo Crystal Castles Fighters

15.5.2011

2 months and school should be done over here. Why oh why does time have to fly so fast :( And why of why does Wikipedia say that Eindhoven can be in the future the 5th most dangerous city in Europe? Well, that I just had to go and explore! Alone.

Didn't have much time before Liverpool's important match against Tottenham started at five. So, I used that time to visit the Van Abbemuseum, which took an hour for me to find, because I took a wrong turn. The museum wasn't that interesting in the beginning, but when I found more floors in the building, everything started to fall in place.

a guy sewing his mouth

"i asked the assistants for yellow paint, then forgot what to do with it"

After that I had to search for a sports bar, which the centre was full of! Now I understood the high crime rate. But the bar tenders told me to go an Irish pub in order to see the Premiere League. Liverpool lost, it was a bad game, so this weekend hopefully they will win and Tottenham lose. The pub though had a signed Liverpool jersey.

I still had some time before I had to meet Andrea for the gig. Walked around the centre and visited outside the PSV stadium, which is so close to the train station!

"He who wants freedom, must give it others."

Finally it was time go to the Effenaar for the gig. Queens of the Stone Age had been playing there the day earlier ÜÜÜÜÜ.

But now it was time for British/Spanish indiespanishfolkelectrorockpop group Crystal Fighters to perform. Before that though was Benelux a quite cool funky Dutch group. I didn't take much/good pictures, I was too busy jumping. I didn't want to listen to the Crystal Fighters at first, because the name reminded me too much of Crystal Castles (and a friend just added the Foo in front, hehe good one Tipu) but I'm glad I did! A lovely debut album they released. The songs' stories and the band's name comes from one band member's insane grandfather's written opera. Nice.

Just can say that I enjoyed it very much, and hope to see them again, even though the gig had to be paused when "I Love London" was about to start due to audio problems. But all in all kick-ass gig!

When I got back home I noticed people posting on their Facebook that Finland had won the world championship in ice-hockey. I had a feeling about it, but still USKOMATONTA (=UNBELIEVABLE)! Second gold after 16 years, and I'm in a country, in which people don't play hockey on ice.

The girl with the voice in the city of ups and downs

April 2, 2011

My second Domino artist to see within the same week made me think it was Christmas already. Anna Calvi, the Italian-English freakin’ talented guitarist, who released her debut album in January, was to play in Nijmegen, the oldest or second oldest city in The Netherlands (there’s this eternal dispute about Maastricht being the oldest). Anyways, I went there with two of my flat mates Jazz and Dorothy and Jazz’ friend Jimmy. During the train trip they found the nature to be incredible and went “ooo” every time they saw cows, goats etc, when I was about to fall asleep of taking antihistamine earlier. Very good, very good.

They were fixing the rail ways which meant that we had to hop into a bus at some point, which made the trip even more everlasting. I wondered why Dorothy and Jimmy kept talking about gay people, but apparently “kai” means chicken and “homosek” delicious. 

As we arrived to the central station, I started to wake up slowly again and the first thing to do was to get some döner. I was really surprised that there were some “hills” in the city when we walked around. Probably, because Nijmegen is close to the German border? We wanted to visit the only bike museum in The Netherlands (weird that there’s only one bike museum here), but we didn’t have time since all places were closing, but we had time to take loads of pictures. That’s one thing I realized; Chinese people like to take pictures. 

The outside of the venue, Doornroosje, was really nice with all the cool graffiti. 

I consider myself lucky to see Anna Calvi performing in quite a small venue, because I’m pretty sure that she’ll be huge in a couple of years, considering that at the moment she has many sold out gigs all over Europe. And that you seldom come across with pure unique talent in the music biz nowadays. The first time I listened to her music I thought; if Twin Peaks would be taken to this decade, her music would go with it perfectly.

The performance was hypnotizing. What a charismatic artist she is. Okey, I was disappointed that she was able to play the guitar in only two songs (injury), since I do think that her guitar skills are just mad. Though not concentrating too much on how she works her guitar, I got to realize even better how powerful her voice is. Later at home when I showed Judit the pictures, she said “Oh the girl with the voice!” and did a poor imitation. All of us are still amazed of how her speaking voice differs from the singing one. I guess that’s one of the reasons, which makes her really fascinating, I mean it seems that there are two different persons. 

The gig felt short, which left the audience craving for more. I think that it’s only the second time that I haven’t gotten enough from a gig, which is always a positive sign that surely I will go see the artist again, when I'd have the chance. I was hugely happy to get the set list, which Calvi herself brought to the stage. But what makes me happier than that was the forty-something man who reached out to take the piece of paper from the stage and not keeping it to himself, but giving it to me. And yes the audience was full of middle-aged people, which I can’t see in Finland at all. Before going home I just had to buy the signed CD too. If you have the chance to go see her, then do it! She’s going to perform at Ruisrock this year, so Finns there’s your chance. 

In general; ÜBER SATISFIED.

Fat Mates have Easter Dinner

April 18, 2011

We haven't really done much together as flat mates, so we thought that an Easter dinner would be the best way to start doing something all together. Though a week earlier than Easter since Jazz had to leave to Paris. All I can say that the dinner was GRRRREAT! A relaxing evening of bonding and feasting. For starters we had garlic soup and salad, main course was rice with garlic curry pork thingy and for dessert anything we found which looked Easterish or had "Paas" written on it.

to be sacrificed or to sacrifice for

They wanted to hear some Easter music, so I put Jesus Christ Superstar's soundtrack on, which I have taken as a tradition to watch the movie the Saturday before Easter Sunday, but the music was too dramatic for them. Then I put classical music, and this is what happened.

Spain (Sara) turned 22 the next day, so when midnight came we sang to her or actually let Stevie Wonder from Spotify do that. 

 

PS. Stream the new Explosions In The Sky album here:
EITS - Take Care, Take Care, Take Care