Things are bound to go wrong on a tour. We’ve been lucky so far but you can never really plan for the little mundane things in life that just happen. We were going back to our flat in Berlin to collect our equipment for the gig; We were cutting things fine as it was but when the key for our building snapped in the lock we really started to worry. Our hearts sank. We had to buzz to random flats and try to persuade them (in English) to let us in. We then called our host and she told us we needed to go round to her friends house to ask permission to borrow the spare key which was another, awkward pain in the ballsack. Finally once it was sorted we walked a gruelling 20 minutes to the nearest S-Bahn station loaded up with all our heavy gigging equipment running very late for our show.
We finally got to the venue with only 30 minutes until our stage time. We hurriedly apologised to the host of the evening (Nate) and got ready for our sets. The show was a bizarre set-up. We were playing through a window out to people sat in the front garden. I thought it wouldn’t work and played my set like I was background music. I played well, really well but didn’t perform as much as usual because of this. (I Will Find was probably the best I’ve played it all tour.) I came outside to watch Chris’ set and instantly kicked myself internally because the venue looked so good and the whole performer indoors / audience outdoors actually really worked. Chris played a blinder as always and we met members of the crowd, some of which had seen us perform before at The Whiskey Jar (a bar we both play in regularly in Manchester.) I enjoyed the Berlin gig, I just wish I could have had another shot at it, which is a really frustrating feeling to have when you come off stage. I shifted 3 CDs and we got €64 in the hat (a system they use out in Europe where the audience donates to the act, it’s a cool idea, people are really generous with it out here. It can impact merch sales though which is a bit annoying; I’d rather people own my music rather than just donate, but hey ho. If they want to give something and get nothing back, that’s totally fine by me.)
After the show we said goodbye to David and Ally and headed back to our flat in an Uber with Nate. Once we got back we decided to hit a late night takeaway called Burgermeister just across the water from where we were staying near East Side Gallery. We crossed the river and wolfed down a phenomenal takeaway burger (UK needs to dramatically raise it’s takeaway game) and got offered drugs countless times before heading back and crashing out.
The next morning / early afternoon we set off to Dresden, where we would be spending our day off in a castle (an incredible AirBnb find.) We had a fairly smooth drive (despite Chris legit nearly killing us just outside of Berlin.) and arrived at our accommodation and by god it did not disappoint. We were greeting by a topless German man with a HUGE bloodhound who showed us around the castle. It looked VERY haunted but I watch far too much American Horror Story for my own good and in hindsight it was immensely beautiful. We spent the evening taking pictures and live streaming with Brendan at the castle then thoughts turned to food and how to acquire it, so we planned a little trip in to Dresden to grab a meal. This proved to be harder than imagined however as our hosts had closed up the main gate to the castle and we couldn’t find them. What happened from here was basically the first time in my life where I’ve genuinely felt like I was IN a horror film. We split up and looked round the house for the owners, it was pitch black in some parts of the castle and deathly silent. Paintings and suits of armour hung from the walls but you could literally not see outside of your torch light and your imagination started doing backflips. In the end I found a number for our host and they emerged but not before we had searched basically every dark corridor in the castle. We were the only people staying I must add, so it was really spooky.
We went into Dresden and ate and took some night photos before heading back, leaving the car outside the closed gate and clocking in for the night. I slept surprisingly well and woke up the next morning to get a full all you can eat German breakfast, a cuddle from the dog and a divine shower. I love all animals. Chris and Brendan aren’t overly bothered, but I bloody love them. We went for a walk in the morning by the river and ate ice cream in an American themed bar in the village and hit the road.
Onwards!
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Joel's Side Of The Story 
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