June 2009

So, last December I bought a ticket to see Morrissey in Paris. Well, he fucking cancelled. Anyways, I convinced Noah to meet me in France—and we stayed at his dad’s flat above Republique. This was my first time in Paris, so Noah and I just checked out the city—Notre Dame, Renzo Piano’s Centre George Pompidou and the Louvre. I went by Piano’s workshop. Every time I go to mainland Europe, I realize how stupid it is to live in England. We spent a lot of time outside. I was back in England for another week before finally leaving for the summer—we went out in Sheffield for Ken’s birthday, down to London to see his band and even shot some hoops.

I went up to Manchester to meet up with Phil—I was catching a ride to the Netherlands with him and some other guys to see TrashFest. We spent the night out drinking, before driving to Dover early the next morning for our ferry to France. We grabbed rations in Calais before heading to Gent, Belgium. Everyone was pretty tired, so we hooked up with Steeno from A Den of Robbers for a place to crash. I had met Steeno during my first week in England when his band played Sheffield. The next day we continued to the Netherlands, stopping in Antwerp for waffles.

We were staying in Steenwijk—a small town just over an hour from Amsterdam. The fest was pretty sick—Graf Orlock, Fast Point, Damaged Goods, Reproach, and Limp Wrist.

I spent a night walking around Amsterdam on my way south to France—I had a 3 week course in Rennes with the kids from my course. Rennes is a medium sized city, but there wasn’t a lot of time to do anything besides some of the projects assigned. I got to know the city pretty well—ate oysters, checked out the markets around town and went to Mont Saint Michele. Troy and a friend were traveling Europe and they came and hung out for a couple days—including my birthday. Oh yeah—I shaved for the first time in over two years.