The States

Dear friends!

Now that my boss has approved my request for taking a vacation it is time to officially reveal the BIG PLAN. I’m going to the States from March the 18th until the 31st!! Sometimes I still have to pinch myself and say ‘this is really going to happen!’ For quite awhile I thought the whole trip wouldn’t happen, because Agalloch’s tour still wasn’t certain in January. I shook off the hope and was actually at peace with the idea that nothing was going to happen. Until one mail from Milla changed everything. The tour IS going to happen and she still wanted to go. Well, all of a sudden I was overcome with a feeling of enthusiasm. I still wanted to go. I have work, so financially it wouldn’t be a problem and I started to look around for flights. To my big surprise, a return ticket to the States is only 400 euro’s at the moment. Much cheaper than I thought!

A little background information for those of you who are wondering ‘Why do you want to go to the States in March? What is Agalloch?’. It has been almost 6 years ago since I got to know Agalloch’s music. I am hooked ever since! When they came to the Netherlands in 2006 I went to all their shows and met them. They’re such nice people, very open, sweet… just great! The next year the band gave a gig in Belgium, to which I went as well. And there I met two other great people, by a complete coincidence (I love how chance plays a big role in life sometimes). Those two great people, Nik and Paola, came all the way from London to see the band. I gave them a lift to their hotel and we stayed in touch. Misha and I went to London in summer 2009 and in 2010 I went to Romania with Nik and Paola to see Agalloch’s shows there. It was such a great trip and the band asked us to come to the States for their spring 2011 tour. The three of us made a vow (somewhat) to really go for it and I’ve been thinking about the trip ever since! Now that it is really going to happen and quite soon you can imagine I’m quite excited!

The plan is as follows: I’m flying to New York on the 18th (a day before Nik and Paola), arriving at about 2 in the afternoon. Depending how much shit I’ll be getting at the airport (that was a disaster upon arrival in Canada!!) I’m hoping I can check in my hotel at the beginning of the evening. We’ll be staying in a Best Western Hotel in China Town/Little Italy. It’s a pretty nice and expensive hotel, but we don’t mind the extra costs. On the 22nd, the Agalloch gig will take place in New York so we’ll have a couple of days to explore the city. I’ve never been to New York before, so I’m quite busy deciding what I really want to see and what can be skipped. I’m going the skip the Statue of Liberty for sure…For now, I only know that I really want to see the MoMa, Guggenheim and Ground Zero. The rest is still unsure, tips are welcome! Nik and Paola have been to New York before and have family living there, so I guess I’ll be doing some of the exploring on my own. That’s okay. Oh, I’m also going to wander around a complete day just for photography. Of course my camera is coming along with me…

Then after the Agalloch gig we’re going to spend the night at the airport, because early in the morning we are flying to Chicago. We don’t have to stay in a hotel, because Nik has family living there. That’s the reason why we don’t mind spending some extra bucks on a decent hotel in New York. In Chicago we’re going to rent a car to drive to Canada for the gig in London there. We’ll be spending a couple of days on the road and in Canada, and I can’t wait to see my favourite country again. I fell in love with Canada when I spent a month there back in 2006. Then we’ll drive back to Chicago for the final gig on the 27th and we’ll have the remaining days to explore that city.

Ah, it’s really happening and I can’t wait! Travelling is so much fun, especially with people you love. I believe the gigs will be a special experience as always!

You can look forward to lots of photo’s, spam posts on Facebook about how awesome the trip is and posts on this blog. I’ll be posting updates for those of you who are interested, so keep an eye on this blog if you are!