Munster was beautiful. I hope to return. Until then!
BIKESTOCK ‘11
One of the coolest things I came across in Munster was the bicycle lock-up that was outside of the closest subway stop. It was probably the size of a small parking lot and had to have contained a couple thousand bikes. Jamie and I used some nearby scaffolding, climbed up for a better view, and snapped pictures of the monstrous assembly. It blew my mind, there were bikes as far as the eye could see. It must have been a real bitch if you forgot where you parked.
“Now remember, we’re in the Itchy lot.”
LAUNDRY DAY!
We all walked our bags of soiled linens through downtown Munster to the Laundromat. It was right next to the old part of the city, too so there was plenty of lovely sightseeing while we waited. Jenks and I went for a nice, long jaunt through the historic part of the downtown, complete with cobblestone, churches, and what appeared to be some sort of creepy, hanging torture devices at the top of one of the steeples. Human-sized cages hanging at the top of the clock tower. We assumed that’s where suspected witches or maybe non-believers went when they were captured, to sit and starve. Kind of like how gays are treated in North Carolina.
I also did quite a bit of walking on my own this day. It’d been a couple weeks of touring around hungover, eating very little, and drinking a lot. I needed a little recharge along with some alone time. So I went to a restaurant near the laundromat and ordered a cheeseburger, fries, and a beer. It was amazing. I sat quietly and ate the biggest meal I’d had in a while and fought off the little bit of homesickness that I felt coming on. Those cheeseburgers work miracles!
When I returned, I was delighted to see Jenks had decided to join my moustache party! I walked up to Flo’s to see Jamie using an electric razor to shed Jenks of his beard, leaving a big, black caterpillar on his lip. Needless to say, he looked like a god. Jenks would receive quite a bit of razzing for his flavour-saver in the coming days, but I was proud of him for going the ‘cookie duster’ route.
After a nice long night of pool, drinking, and little bit of music, we left the venue and loaded up, headed to Flo’s for a nightcap and beddy-bye. We parked just around the bend from Flo’s house, dropped our shit off, and went for our ritualistic post-gig chips ‘n’ meat. Back at the pad, Flo offered up a very gracious amount of whiskey for us to indulge in.
So we did.
Tomorrow, because it was pretty much the halfway mark of tour, we would go do laundry! I was pretty stoked for this because I was running out of clean undies. Jamie and Jonny on the other hand, had been rockin’ the same boxers for about a week, so I had nothing to complain about.
After the whiskey was almost all in Jesse’s belly, I found my way to bed. This marked the only night on tour when I hit the sheets first. I think I even beat Miles to bed…
Munster, Germany
After a lovely visit to the North Sea, we drove most of the day and arrived in Munster in the early evening. The gig was at a pretty big cafe/community center. In terms of venue, this may have been the best space we’d seen so far. There was an abundance of room at this place. Like, a lot. Just the stage and dance floor area was larger than a lot of the venues we’d been to. On top of that, there was a nice big section with tables and chairs, couches, and even a pool table. When we arrived, I was pretty stoked about the night we were going to have here.
As per usual, we were directed, by our new host Flo, toward a few large crates of beer and some hot, fresh vegan eats. We got our eat on, and before very long the pool had started. I partnered with my tour billiards cohort, Jenks. Tim and Miles assumed their role as the villainous opposition. We had quite the tournament going after a little bit. I had no idea Pillai had a pool table at home, so his shot was pretty deadly. Along with his stance, a position I wouldn’t feel comfortable taking but effective nonetheless. Tim used his ageless patience to win his fair share, Jonny got on a disgusting hot streak, and Jenks and I maintained our mediocre-but-optimistic play. The highlight was definitely when Jenks and I, two shots away from another loss to Miles and Pillai, stormed back, sinking all our balls after a rare miscue by Miles. It was the kind of comeback you only hear about on ESPN8.
So, we’d killed a couple hours with pool before growing tired of it. By this time, it was probably best to get ready for the set anyway. There was one, tiny problem, though. We were still the only ones at the venue. The ten of us, Flo, and the bartender. It wasn’t too early either. The boys talked to Flo and they decided to wait a bit longer for some people to arrive. Flash forward an hour, one person had arrived for the show. It was Mikey’s friend Marc from Bonn, who had driven to see the show. Marc was also the promoter for the show in Bonn we had the next night.
So, with Marc, Flo, and I watching in the middle of an empty dancefloor, the Arteries, Slow Death, and Mikey Erg played their sets. Sarcastic golf claps from three sets of hands followed.
And that was that. Back to beer and pool.
BRING ME THE WORLD: Online Photo Gallery
So, as you know, I held a photo exhibit in Toronto based on the story and photography of my trip. Now that the actual gallery is done, I’ve uploaded all the images to my website where you can look at them!
Enjoy,
Rory
That’s all, Cuxhaven! G’night.
Cuxhaven, Germany
After the snake shots. We stumbled home, ate every potato chip in the house, and fell asleep to Mrs. Doubtfire.
The next day we were all able to have a nice hot shower and shave. We clambered into the vans and it was time to start the daily routine again. This time, we had a touristy stop to make for a change! Since we were at the northern-most point of Germany, we were told by Denis that we should drove to the coast and check out the North Sea. So we did.
It was an amazing view. First we had to walk up a huge hill before hiking across the plain to the water. The coast was massive. It was super windy and the waves came right up to the wall and crashed, one after another. It was a nice, therapeutic moment for everyone, I think. We so rarely just stopped and admired scenery on the trip, let alone all of us at once. There was even a one-eyed dog! Check out this panorama, too.
Feeling better after some fresh air and scenery, we hopped into the van and headed for Munster.
