Jimmy & The Sounds

Day 5 / 6 - 20th / 21st / 22nd

‘On and More-On’

Unfortunately a couple of gigs were cancelled for reasons out of our control and as such we decided on a new plan of action. After Snowy and I went for a walk around Cologne town centre - including a quick session on the monkeys bars of a nearby playground - we hit the road towards our new destination, Munich.

The journey passed without incident, the roads were fine and we reached the Meininger Hostel just before midnight. The hostel itself was top class, the reception staff were helpful, the rooms clean and spacious and most importantly, the bar was still open and well stocked. Augustiner Pilsner has now comfortably secured it’s place as my all time second favourite beer, ranking snuggly behind Brooklyn lager. We ordered Pizza just after midnight and relaxed listening to a large group of Chilleans playing tig and a small gang of Americans presumably talking about working out to the max and high fiving each other. As an example of the startling intelligence of one of the American women, after the German barman made her a cocktail he then - in perfect English - mentioned that if she so wished, there was salt on the table. For the next five minutes she - in a rediculous ‘talking to foreigners’ accent - repeated the word salt back to him as if she had no idea what it could possibly mean. Only when he actually pointed to the salt on the table did she realise that salt suprisingly meant salt. High five.

We woke up after a good nights sleep and after looking at the map dedcided we’d stop off at Belgrade on the way to Macedonia.

*What follows contains some disturbing events that may worry parents and loved ones, do not worry*

Two thirds of the journey from Munich to Belgrade went without a hitch, the scenery was breathtaking, the roads were clear and we enjoyed every minute of it. However, whilst driving through Croatia the snow began to pick up and before long we found ourselves in a complete white-out. This meant we had to drive at half our average speed and as such added hours on to our journey. Our spirits still remained high though, this was an adventure. We were only an hour away from the safety of our hostel when we reached Serbian border patrol and everything got a little bit frightening.

When we pulled up to the booth we handed over our passports and everything seemed fine, we’d had the standard ‘chuckle at Snowy’s surname’ and everything seemed okay. The armed guard then demanded to see our Green Card for Serbia. We were unsure exactly what this was but showed him all our insurance documents explaining that we had checked and that we were definitely covered in Serbia. He disagreed. A small breakdown in communications then followed as we clearly had no idea what was going on and had showed him all our documents where he began to get angry and uttered the following line…

‘Listen very carefully, I will say this only once’

We know the comedy value of this line but rest assured he was not joking. He basically explained that if we did not do what he said we would be forcefully turned back into Croatia. The end result was Anth and I being led into a makeshift camp behind the overnight lorry park that contained nothing but a few dimly lit portacabins. Here we were made to hand over 110 euros and sign some document that would allow us into the country. The staff in the portacabin feigned ignorance but we were reasonably sure they understood every word of English we were saying. We gave the armed guards our fresh documents and headed to the next booth where we stopped again, this time by a hawk faced guard who made it clear that it he did not like our presence in his country. He spent the next five minutes searching the van but luckily did not make us empty if fully due to the raging snow outside. We left border patrol as quick as we dared.

The snow continued to hammer our windscreen but finally we made our way to Belgrade.

After navigating our way into the city centre we pulled up on the street where our hostel was meant to be located but to our horror could not see it anywhere. We spent the next half an hour searching the nearby streets, the others in the van whilst I looked on foot but could not see it. On a personal note I found myself alone in a foreign country whilst a guard with the largest doberman I have ever seen patrolled a park only a few metres away from me. Good times. In the end I found a small black sign for ‘Manga Hostel’ that seemed to lead to nothing but a wrought iron gate bathed in darkness. I was beginning to think - scam. It turned out you actually had to go through this gate, across the pitch black courtyard to the hostel that was nestled like a beacon of hope in the far corner. We were tres relieved. Turns out the hostel itself was amazing, we slept well, had a warm shower, had breakfast - half a loaf of bread and marmalade for me - and I even managed to get a free deck of cards out of the receptionist. We’re on our way to Macedonia now. Here’s to hoping they aren’t quite as ‘frosty’ as their Serbian neighbours.

Thanks must go to Anth for driving such a long stint without complaint and to Snowy who drove like a pro in completely treacherous conditions.

tour

Day 4 - 19th / 20th

The Knowledge, The Charm, The Humour, The Testosterone, The Medic’

16:53

Just finished soundcheck at the ‘Blue Shell’, feeling good about tonight. It’s a cool venue, nice size with a good vibe. We’re staying above the venue in a little band flat that’s really clean, airy and has everything we need for coffee in the morning. Time to get changed and head for Pizza with our German Ambassador, Jan.

12:01

Just woke up after an amazing night. We headed for an Indian instead of Pizza and after that hit the beer back at Blue Shell. By the time we went on stage the venue was packed. We played an 11 song set - including an encore - the crowd were awesome and we really enjoyed it. Merch flew out as well. After that it was back to the beers and a ‘Mexicano’ (Tomato juice, vodka, tabasco, salt and pepper) at a place called Stereo Wonderland. Ended up getting to bed at around 5am.

tour

Day 3 18th / 19th

‘Benzine Dreams’