first evs avangard movie

Once upon an afternoon we, the three bored
EVS volunteers - Miha, Zoli and Ieva,
sat down to create some art.

Here's one of our masterpieces.
A documentary/commercial for our beloved
boss's band "Nina Bulatovix".




much love
happy božič

EVSers

Time traveller

After almost one month I still feel I’m young again. And it’s great! Sometimes I am as a little kid … I learn to speak, I explore the city and I look everything as a child looks at first time. Other times, I live the same life when I was around 20. Here is a party on every 2nd day, much time with friends and without my family … as a long term college :)
Right now, I’m 14 years old. I got my ID and my credit card … cool.

ieva moves again

...not only to another flat
but also to another new blog,
that I found easier to work with.

uncensored,
simple as that
here it is
[of course, I won't stop bugging you also through this space]

http://potatoesandcottagecheese.blogspot.com/

lep dan, moje drage slovenske prijatelji!

Ieva*

First impressions

Hey, I'm Zoltán (or Šaca, or Zoli) the one of new EVS volunteers in Pekarna.

My train arrived to Maribor on a wonderful Friday around at 9.30 pm, and almost immediately I have been started to integrate to the local community. I met many people, and I saw many places in the city.
The first was Gustaf (concert hall of Pekarna), where I could know some members of Pekarna, among them Ieva too who showed me the city. We were in "the cheapest and most visited" pub near Gustaf, in Satchmo, in Pekmez Gallery and finally we were in MARŠ nuclear submarine too :)
It is a dangerous place where the safety is really important. You must wear immunizing cap and gloves there, but after you have these, you can see every secret things on the board of nuclear submarine.... if Klemen (the most crazy pirate) shows you :) So, it was a great night.
In the next days I started to explore the city, and to see how works the things in Pekarna. And already now I can say, I like this city and people around me.

Of course, I have to get into the habit of several things. For example: the green light by the crosswalk is usually too short and without flashing, here is no non-stop shop, the ketchup and the mustard or the flour and the sugar and the salt aren't next to each other in the shop, the "kaki" is a fruit, not a shit, and the local beer if often more expensive (and not so good) than the imported.

Well, I think it will be great time for me in Maribor. You are hearing from me! Adijo!

balkanske sadje

Hello my dear EVS blog reader.
Today I'm going to tell you about the project, that I tried to make only 2 weeks ago.
Well, not tried.
Made it more or less better.
So...

[ all the stories are only my personal memories of what happened ]

• Band – ska melodic punk emo frizura band „Mango”.

• On board - me ( kind of the mom and neverending panic ex/double bass player), Krists (walking nonsense driver of the van trombone player), Janis ( person who knows everything about everything, at least as far as he thinks so, the drummer), Oskars (his brother, my substitute for the tour, the co driver of the van, the oldest and supposaly wisest person on the board), Janis a.k.a. Kuhar (the noob and the soft heart sax player), Reinis ( somehow undescribable pussy magnet,
  neverending smile guitar player) and Kostja (always quiet but very tricky person on the board, the vocal and guitar player).
• Equipment – 9 seat Volks filled with dirty socks, wet towels extra shoes, full backline and intruments covered with the banner of the band ( so nobody is suspicious and in a want to steal the gear (logic, there’s none)), and a torpedo on the roof for extra stuff, which most of the time was acoustic guitar, half eaten food and all the socks and towels and sleeping bags that didn’t have place in the rest of the van, and, as far as I heard – 6cd’s – some pop punk compilation, cd of „Rise Against”, Frank Turner, Offspring’s „Americana” , newest Alexisonfire „Old Crows Young Cardinals” and some weird compilation of salsa and funk music.
• The plan – a week around Balkans – Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia and back in Slovenia.
• A very fast insight - http://www.souvizija.si/video/fix_latvijska_sadna_solata_z_vodko/?show=f5257d4aa2c8d9b56a4e3efa831bd27e&search=mango&search_type=s

******************************************************************

08.09.

Dear friend,

Me and a friend were cooking for the band, when I received a message, they are already here. And, as fun as it is, not in the theritory of „Pekarna”, Maribor, but downstairs to my block house, after somehow managing to enter the ramp of the yard that lets in only the people who live there and have the key to it.

A big chaos already striked in.

6 guys in my flat chaoticly taking a shower, beating each other with towels, eating like animals, sleeping in my bed, fooling around with my ukulele and speaking all at the same time.

Concert.

Afterparty.

Guitarist is lost, vocal and trombone player playing guitar and singing out loud, sax player again expressed his monkey abilities by climbing up the roof of Gustaf, while team of brothers - drummer and the bass player were somewhere in Kurd all the time skating and falling off the skates. Later on band showed a bit of the skills, when vocal who never had skated managed to make a kick flip on the board.

I lost my keys and stayed a night in the container.

09.09.

Dear diary,

I found the keys but wasn’t able to wake up guys, so I went home.

When I came back I met bunch of zombies eager to get some icecream and pile of coffee.

After nearly and hour long zombie parade/walk to a radio „Marš” to make acoustic performance, we did it with a success with even 23 people listening online and one calling to the studio. We didn’t reply in an angst of a person being scared away by our trombone player who was all day strangely aroused and eager to know from everyone „how they like cottage cheese”.

I couldn’t keep them together, after the show they again invaded all the Pekarna’s theritory singing songs, riding in shopping carts and exploring the distance of talking on walkie talkies they found there.

As Janis was 100% sure that „Satchmo” is a jazz FESTIVAL, where he can find lots of fine local ladies, I took them there.

I am pretty sure we are banned there, though the drummer found fine local habitants - so small, but therefore a success.

During this night we also had a jam session, followed by improvised and filmed play called „Last day of Marry Poppins”:

• Konstantin – Mary Poppins
• Me – the killer
• Kuhar – the voice
• Krists – podvorskij huligan ( backyard hooligan).

The story is very short – Mary Popins walks around with his (her...?) umbrella, thinking about the children of the world, gets killed by bike driver and after that beaten up by podvorskij huligan who, as all of them, are always keen on picking on the weakest. End.

10.09.

Dearest notebook,

Driving off to Novi Sad, „CK13”

Guys forgot to purchase „zelena karta”, we also didn’t have Ata Karnet, so it was kind of lottery game wheter they will or not let us in.

They did. On both Croatian and Serbian borders.

We got fascinated by the fact that on each border weird people are following us – they were all wearing suits, and they just got off on every border out of their fancy cars, shaked each others hands, got back into their cars and drove off.

Needless to say, we tried to do the same.

Dear friend,

I have to go a bit back in time to explain this, but I will try my best.

...when I first got the cabel TV, I was so fascinated by foreign TV channels – most of them were in German. I was most impressed by, as I kept him in my mind, an all time German hero called „Viele Mehr”. His name appeared everywhere and I was so eager to finally see, who’s that mistery man, taking part in everything – including music, sports, movies etc.

After some time somebody, of course, explained to me the meaning of this combination of words, therefore my dreams went down.

Today, in Serbia we sightseeded the local „Viele Mehr”.

We went into the first petrol station after the border to purchase cigarettes and coffee, when a cd/dvd stand attracted our attention. Mostly because this DVD with big colourful letters saying „ŽURKA” caught out attention ( in Latvian Žurka means – „a rat”).

But, after we took a closer look to this cd and some other compilations of music around it, we sightseed this interesting view.

A bald guy with a same picture being on allmost all of the cd’s.

What’s next?

This?

Or this?

And who is the designer of these cd’s anyways?

Are they for real?

Same day around 20:00

Even though we did our best to promote the gig – the mormon approach – meet people, give them stickers and say that they just won’t be able to live normally without visiting the gig, the place was not as full as expected.

Anyways, we created a good party and even better afterparty.

Total score of the night:

• Created a big acoustic gig in the centre of Novi Sad (vocal lost his voice) and attracted some local photographer to follow us allthrough the night and take with every minute even more and more embaracing photos
• During all night lost 3 members of the band
• Me, Kuhar and Kostja invaded bushes of the local municipality. Too bad we saw too late that they are rose bushes. Me and Kostja did the straight dive in, Kuhar had always to be different and did it in the back flip therefore causing a bigger damage for himself.
• Brothers Janis and Oskars had a fight and Oskars ended up throwing his shoes and the band money and his passport all over the street, fighting with a building and later sleeping in a fountain (it’s called Latvians vs rakija vol 1)
• Me and Kuhar developed a new friend (first we thought he wants to kick our asses), but later we all sat down ate some icecream played guitar and went back to the club to sleep. Serbians are tricky. Their friendliness can be most of the time mistaken for agressivity, at least, when it comes to us, „the cold blooded northern habbitants”.

11.09.

Dear pieces of sheet written on my pc,

4 of us, who didn’t get lost woke up in the two person bed.

Others still missing.

After around hour they show up with big hamburgers and saying „You can buy it this big only for 100 shits”. Yesterday for them – covered in the past.

Oskar’s arm after previous day’s fight with still unrecognized building had became two times bigger.

I come back on board as the second bass player.

Same day around 2 pm

Road. Guys insisted we have to stop by the road to buy some fruit from the farmers.

I was against, knowing that in the best case 3 grapes and 1 apple will be eaten and after that it will be only another collection of a weird smell and a seperate microlifes living in our van.

But we did that. Just for the experiment.

And also because while they were purchasing fruit, me and Kostja sneaked to purchase home brewed rakija.

The most exhausting road ever. Only 50 km, but on the curving national road.

We entertained ourselves reading some article on vintage croatian porn magazine about the most sensitive parts in the woman and man’s body.

Why is the eye in the place nr 5 in the scale from 1-10 (the least sensitive to most sensitive parts)?

CONTEST OF THE SILLY FACES.
....guess who's leading....

Playing on the streets. Gaining some money for the gas.

Four fighter planes passing over Belgrade very low, followed by helicopters.

All of us allmost peed our pants and were quite ready to cancel the show and spend a night in a fright for our lives in some bomb shelter or something.

But it turned out it’s normal there.

After that we got 5 2 litre bottles of beer and 7 different bureks for the concert.

Good wellcoming.

Same day around 23:00

After that all of the band went to some party on the boat.

Me and Oskars stayed in the club to finally get some rest.

A rest is a rest. Nevermind it’s in on the floor of the club surrounded by smoke of cigarettes.

Kostja came to sleep to the club the last.

He thold me that only some minutes ago a homeless guy with a stick

was chasing him while screaming out something in Serbian.

12.09.

Hello there again, my little friend,

Woke up at 9.

Packed all the backline back into the buss.

Everyone had faces blown up twice their size, eyes like vulva of the mouse.

Also all as one had gained cold, some special ones – even a fever.

Me, Konstantin and Kuhar developed a club „Scorpion”.

A little jamaica on the buss full of stressfull band members.

In our illeagal backseat bar, only with a help of hiding under the seats you could taste some marvellous serbian beers, homebrewed rakija and sniffing tobacco.

Same day around 4 pm

Passed the Macedonian border. First border we were asked for both – zelena karta and ata karnet.

Paid last 40 eur for karta, that is valid only in Macedonia (stupid birocracy) and declared all the backline and instruments on a piece of paper, in addition bribing them with our cd.

Skopje

There were 5 nicely strange things about this country:

1. they serve hamburgers with french fries already stuck in them
2. the albanian part of skopje looks like a big kitchen covered with huge rock tiles
3. none of us ever heard the calling to the mosque, so we got kind of scared while having a lunch and then this undescribable something in the speakers around the town.
4. they have strayed cats who look too domestic to be strayed. Also too friendly.
5. they drink hot rakija with sugar and honey.

By this time we are also all ill to the tops - while others are sharing the beers and other drinks, we are sharing the pills and the drops for the nose.

Konstantin ,who, as I wrote before, started to lose his voice, gives up whispering and torturing his voice and goes full retard – walking around with a piece of paper and a pen.

And after the show – finally a decent sleep (more or less).

After the shower we devided beds, and our club, Scorpion,gained even a seperate room, in which the rest of domestic rakija was emptied along with eating some black bread on it and followed by various nonsense performances.

I kept my nerves about naked guys dancing around me.

I lost them only when Kuhar trapped himself in a sleeping bag and was hitting on every piece of the furniture in the room following his performance with only one sentence in a girly straight enlish pronounciation:”Oh, I’m so clumsy”. ( it’s called Latvians vs rakija vol 2).

13.09.

Dear keyboard,

We took a walk around Kumanovo. We called it little Cuba.

Guys bought a postcards for their girlfriends.

I’m still amazed that they are pretty sure, that if they talk with people in russian, they actually understand them, because languages are „so similar”.

Oskars and Janis found a guy who was making cars. Their favourite one was a car who was going forward with a help of a huge mower.

On the way back, on the Macedonian border, at the moment the guards saw our bus approaching, they already started to sing our songs. Fun way to get a new fanbase.

Serbians were different.

They asked for all the exact papers we don’t have, and took our passports.

We had to pay 110 eur or go back.

We took a map and with a help of an eye, of course, not the gps, counted the way around Serbia, decided it to be the best option – to go through Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary instead of paying this fee.

We took off.

We stopped only somewhere a bit out of Sofia, Bulgaria, to finally have some meal throughout all the day–middle of the night, dark as hell, as far as I understood, somewhere next to Donav, accompanied by some strayed dogs and a local dumpster.. All of us like wild animals fighting over bread and beans with ketchup. Some of the guys just eating raw meat. Cover it all with beer to handle the psychological trauma about this meal, and also, just as a medicine to fall asleep in the van.

14.09.

Dear diary,

It’s 3 am and guys just allmost drove into Donav. GPS showed there’s a bridge, while actually there was a ferry, that wasn’t even there at the moment. They stopped at the very end of a ramp just because the pavement looked oddly blue.

At 8 am friendly guard of Romanian ferry woke us up.

In a way of tourist attraction Romania has definately something to do with a person who is working in the same field in Croatia –

Croatians welcome you with long lines on the borders, therefore making you curious as hell, what is there, that is kept under such a big lines, and Romanians do it more easier – to get to it, you have to pay 40 eur for ferry.

Romania surprised us with two bloody carcrashes on the road, two half an hour long traffic jams, guys driving in front of us on their sick animals called horses, and pile of strayed dogs.

We also lost additional 60 eur for speeding.

We surprised Hungary with killing 3 hedgehogs and one fox on the highway.

We also came 4 hours late to our gig, but we still somehow made it.

And I think I’m somehow already allergic to this album of Alexisonfire, because it was rolling all night through in our van.

Suggestion for the travellers –you cannot always trust GPS, but you also can’t trust your eye while considering if the road is short enough to make it on time.

15.09.

Dear reader,

It’s oficially the last day of my duty as the second bass player.

Oskar’s hand has healed (allmost) and Ljubljana, Metelkova is my last place to be with my boys on this tour.

We woke up in the squat of „Medika”, the club in Zagreb, surrounded by also some never seen people.

I hadn’t had a shower in 2 days and all of my parts felt odd. The clothes? I would just like to take them off and burn them. It would be the easiest way around.

I tried to persuade guys to stop in some petrol station on the road, to take a shower.

After an hour long fight we finally did it.

15 min long shower costs 3 eur. So, me and Kuhar, as being the most femine people in the band got the longest time to shower – 7 min each.

Other guys bought another 3 eur 15 minute shower time and shared it 2 guys at the same.

System was easy – all of them got naked in a parking lot, 2 are in the shower – while one is under the water, another one is soaping himself up, and then they just change for the next 7 min, while other duo approaches. Janis was the official pioneer of the shower, who stayed there for two times in a row, just exchanging the co-shower-people.

After that I guess, it was first day in allmost a week, that we could just chill-out. We took out cards and a bottle of water (as the day was finally neetly warm in Slovenia), and chilled out.

The only thing bugging us was the „lighter problem”. We all had one lighter at the start of the tour. In the end only two of us had them, and, therefore these two people got bugged every 3 minutes.

As soon as we got to Ljubljana, and ended up setting up the stage, we went on a tour/search for a place for guys to again play on the street, to gain another extra money, that we lost in the marvellous surroundings of Romania.

Too bad it got invested in other „first aid things”.

The concert was officially the best one we had during the tour.

( I’m not saying others were bad, we just voted this one to be somehow over the tops. Also, as I mentioned before, probably because finally there was no stress before it.)

The sound, the audience, the vibe, and of course, the afterparty, who was the craziest, even though it took only one place – surroundings of Metelkova.

**************************************************************************

In total:

Around 500 eur minus

The van slightly stinks, as Kuhar quoted – of a piece of paper that used to be wet but then again got dry and is mixed inbetween dirty socks.

More or less feverish feeling.

Lots and lots of a new friends, that we all have to thank for just being.

(And we DO thank them).

The most drilled phrases through the tour:

„Do you like cottage cheese?”

„I’m so clumsy”

„Nice VAAAAA” (this you have to pronounce in a slight animalish voice. „vaaaaa” stands for...the red animal collecting the nuts)

„Dobra dan” (exact pronounciation of the guys)

„Balkan, Balkan!!!” ( this is actually performed most of the time after the shower in the underpants jumping around and clapping hands, basically, a dance of a minimal, but very important happiness)

„Can I have number 10” (refering to the vintage porn magazine article)

„Don’t forget the bejner! (baner of the band)”

„I forgot my maks (wallet in Latvian) at home....”

The most drilled songs through the tour:

Frank Turner – The Ballad of Me And My Friends (usually sang as an acoustic song, friends hugging and kissing and „definately going to hell”)

Rise Against – Hero of War (usually sang along to one of the most listened cd’s and performed along with a movement explaining the happenings in the lyrics)

Misfits – Last Caress (this song usually just sneaks out of nowhere and is sang karaoke with all the parts of the instruments done a-capella)

Another obviosity

“Working restrains us to the lathe, carves us into the shackles of compressed pants and reduces the size of penis with every work hour per week.”

Well, so does the real life, that’s why I have so many problems with it.

And, as the summer time here is almost over, I have to move to another apartment due to some problems with the flat keeper, and I have some problems with my neediness towards people around me, I am putting my travel bag on a stick and going on the road for the next two weeks.

Good, that it at least somehow goes hand in hand with more or less work – being co-boss of the tour of my band, otherwise I would feel a bit worse about myself.

The road will somehow go down into Balkans.

By the way - here's the lovely poster. Once you've seen it, you have to come, otherwise bad luck and lack of warm slippers will follow you allthrough the winter time.

By now I can’t quite define if I’m excited or anxious about that – it always somehow mixes in my head, due to my bad temper, that needs the world to go two times faster and more righteous my way, than it does.

Anyways, my only hope is that the bus won’t break down, that the border guards will be nice enough and that we won’t end up in the middle of nowhere without gas and food sucking on strayed grasshoppers.

I hope my mind will stay straight enough to make some pictures and remember some funny stories that need no censorship, and if it happens – they will be posted here.

Also as soon as I will get back, Pekino restarts – for now there are already 3 movies on my mind to show to wider audiences. I can only say – as fun as they are, they also might be a bit distracting, but, God damn it, you have to somehow fight with “Udarnik’s” programme, that even included the artiest softporn of year 2009 – “Antichrist”.

p.s. just sent an email to the insurance company about the procedure how to get myself a glasses.

If everything goes right, autumn in Slovenia also should strike on me with a perfect sight and classic 70's wide frame glasses (I sooo hope for that).

Be prepared.

People go hibernating, and I go full retard.

Ah, and the song. To keep it all balanced.

http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=Sg036E-UKL4

i am bad at formating. anyways - trip home. /of course, the only EVS now - Ieva/

The day we left Maribor was so not looking like it –

we kept on sitting in the kitchen and drinking coffee and just chillin till mid-day.

At around 1, not quite willingly me and the other girl, that came to visit me, left the flat with those big tourist bags and a tent, that also was not quite willing to stick to my bag as good as it should.

Total equipment:

• Bag full of unneeded shit (basically-clothes and clean underwear)
• Toothpaste, toothbrush and a deo
• Specially unshaved legs for kinky truck drivers
• Ukulele
• Food (two cans of beans, pack of bread and a pack of cheese)
• Tent
• Bed sheet ( I’m not suicidal – sleeping in sleeping bag is a murder this time of the year)

Yes, by the way. NO MAP OF EUROPE.

At the start it went very slow and unpleasant, because the first car, that picked us, was autobahn police, that took us to middle of nowhere a bit outside Maribor and tried to get some money from us, because of overt-stepping the law.

I said :

„Look, if I had money, do you really think I would be here with my thumb up?” and they just went away. Bad day for them, I guess.

So, further, with a help of 3 cars we got stuck in Vienna. There are two places that you, as a hitchhiker never want to go – Vienna and Poland. Vienna is big and complicated,

Poland is just big (way too much).

At around 7, when the sun started to slowly go down, and we already started to make plans, where to put a tent ( actually I didn’t , I was running around with – „I have a plan – each day – 3 countries, I’m not satisficed, we’re not staying here!!!”), a car picked us up. Some really tired lawier, who took us outside Vienna. But again – on autobahn. There I felt like Braveheart just pushing other girl forward with the same saying – „I’m not satisficed, we’re not going to stay here, keep marching even if it will be 20 km or more!!!”. And we didn’t have to do it long, cause the car stopped and nice guy from middle east took us again outside of Vienna, but this time to supposingly middle of nowhere.

As it was dark, the plan about the tent again striked. BUT NO.

There was one bus, I JUST HAD TO walk up to it and ask if they have free space for two nice latvian girls, and...haha. They were going exactly to Brno, Czech Republic, and later, they not even took us to Brno, but also gave us a room to sleep, and a breakfast next morning.

I was surprised why people are so kind and nice.

It turned out that they were some christian organisation.

Oh well, at least a pleasant one, and I even didn’t have to keep biting my tongue not to refer about anything in the Bible, because they even didn’t bother us with preaching, unlike most of people involved in this, that I’ve met.

Realy nice and realy pleasant.

Next morning I just couldn’t resist taking a photo of it.

I asked the owner of the organisation if realy ever nobody wanted to add „LED” to this mark. He remained silent. I think he didn’t get the joke, but who gets my jokes anyways.

The next day we went out of Czech with a speed of light, but then...we got stuck in Poland. I mean – nothing can get worse than that. Even if you drive through it with no stop, it feels like you’re stuck in it, but we were just stuck and that ...you know what is that.

Our moms started to send us hysterical sms. That they worried where we are (common, we’re in the middle of nowhere!!!) and that we’re two girls on the road ( no kiddin, I forgot about it, while I was all the road keeping the knife safely hidden but close to me).

We went to a gas station to find some car, and also to buy some local pre-payed card to call our mrs’s moms. Thank GOD, my grandmother taught me something some long time ago in polish. With a big gestures and pretty poor polish after only half an hour i purchased it. Success.

And soon after that we hitch-hiked one car. And it turns out that polish drivers have the same nice system as russians – they have radio in their cars and they just message each other about police on the road, or anything else...so, therefore they kept on messaging each other about two latvian girls going to Warszaw and needing a ride. After this car – hitch- hiking wasn’t even neccesary. We just sat from one to another car.

I again started to hold my hidden knive when it got dark and we took road around Warszaw together with one truck driver. I’m paranoyed of them. And he was too silent. And during the night there was nothing else around then just flat woods, romanian hookers and old drunks fighting IN THE MIDDLE OF FUCKING NOWHERE. That’s how interesting polish roads are.

But things changed when I somehow managed to gather all my poor polish knowledge and played on the truck driver’s feelings. I remembered one song from a polish movie „4 Tank Drivers And A Dog”, and kept on singing it, till he sang along, so the....night was saved from aqward silence. Here’s the movie, anyways - http://www.ww2incolor.com/forum/showthread.php?4139-Four-tankers-and-dog

And a song that saved us. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrQYLUShV0s

We got dropped off 200 km from Polish-Lithuanian border. Again a gas station in the middle of nowhere. No hope. Packed out our dinner/lunch and were prepared to sleep a night at some gas station, on the table next to it, surrounded by strayed dogs and sleeping truck drivers.

We left stuck some letters and the trucks that had Latvian number, and whose drivers were taking their nice night sleep.

And then, one car started to move. Latvian number.

Turns out it was some driver from Latvia, who just took a nap before long road back home. He picked us up. A nice man, who works for some gardening company in Latvia and is on is way to deliver some freshly bought plants. Not only he drove us from this middle of nowhere at around 1 am, when we completely lost all our hopes – even me, the braveheart, to Latvia, but also gave us the best latvian beer, food, stories about the times he was still a truck driver and later didn’t even bother about us not keeping the company, but just sleeping next to him in the front seats.

We reached Latvia, and the seaside at around 9 am.

Totally exhausted, stinking and with a one hour sleep.

Ok, maybe two.

Of course, the way home was spectacular.

I mean – walking the same roads towards home.

And there it is – more beautiful then I remember it.

Hidden between green trees this grey-blue building.

And as in a fairy tale – my mom and grandmother sticking out of the window and waving.

My grandma’s cooked food was never better.

The coffee was the best.

My room was the best.

My cat's Mizzy and Vaseline were the best.

Kisses of mom never felt better.

I didn’t take any additional sleep, just, after I had a talk with parents went out and

met most of the friends.

The next day I took a bus back to the seaside to meet other part of the family.

So typical for me – to spend a day at the seaside and not even bother myself to go to the beach.

I spent whole afternoon playing with a kid of neighbours, with a dog, a family and then a bus home, an

d straight away bus to the festival side.

I spent a night before festival at my friend’s country house. It again felt like a dream come true – all the tractors, cows, the dogs, the bugs, even the snakes, THE WILDERNESS. I felt like a little kid and even didn’t bother much about the bug bites.

In the morning just before dedicating ourselves to festival atmosphere we went picking the flowers of lime.

Later the festival side.

What can I say about that...

The first band I saw, and their song stuck to my head as the ultimate festival hymn was this – lithuanian band „Happyendless”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-G411NArkmc

I got totally disappointed in „Happy Mondays” which were my main aim when I went to the festival. Shawn was the only one from the band, and totally in the back, because of the back vocal, who took all the attention. Eh. When will those bands learn – if you die, then do it nicely. Don’t put it as a public agony. But they played „24 Hour party people” and „Kinky Afro” and I faked a big excited smile.

Unkle – uuuunkle. Although they played most of "War Stories", also a slight disappointment. If you can’t do it live, don’t. The only thing that saved the day was the massive light show. I kept my sunglasses on for whole show and thank God for a few times, that I’m not epileptic or something.

Here’s some insight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wANfVRg1GXs

Afterwards some party around. Things that caught my attention:

• Sleeping nets next to the seaside, right in the woods. Cool idea. Really nice relaxed place.
• The bar – buy two beers, get a string panties. One my friend got really hooked up on this offer collecting panties for each day of the week. Lucky her.

Next day came very nice. I took massive swim sessions in the wild river. Nice – fishes, river snakes somewhere, the seaplants and me. And as I’m pisces by my horoscope, you can imagine – I didn’t come out of the water till I felt slight sea-sickness.

At the festival theritory next day was about like in Tim Burton’s „Nightmare Before Christmas” – what’s this, what’s this – I never seen before.

My friends took and icecream licking contest, we all took silly pictures by some main mobile phone commercial, and, of course, again the bands.

• Scissor sisters – they melt latvian hearts by some speech, that included „Our guitarist’s grandfather was born here 130 years ago. This gig is special to us. You, Latvians had gone through lots of shit, so this song goes out specially for you” (now comes long screaming and crying in the public) and then they continue with „thanks” in Latvian – „paldies” and all the crowd goes mad. So less needed for happiness. I just LOVED the outfits. And the dancemoves. And as old and annoying the song „I Don’t Feel Like Dancing” is, I just couldn’t resist dancing and singing along to it.
• Leisure Society – I was sooo into not watching them, but in the end these „Arcade Fire” wannabies were ultimate thing to hear and enjoy while drinking ice cold cider in this heat.
• Kira Kira – Iceland is crazy. And this was way too much for me. I spent whole 10 minutes waiting for something, waiting for some reincarnation of Bjork, but just got tired and went away. There are some things you just don’t have to bother your brain with...
• Ten bears – I was soooo looking forward to hear them, but eventually saw only their last song – cover to a song, I think, from 90’s – „Pump The Jam”.
• Bla bla bla, latvian bands, who cares anyway.
• Muse – haaah. I loved it. As all the crowd. I think at the time they were playing, there were no people around other stages or dj tents. Or even the bars. Even though they made absolutely no connection with the crowd, I was laughing myself out while they played intro to song „Knights Of Cydonia”. Here it is - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0hlDqjWr8U . And, as much as I went through their twitter, it looked they enjoyed their stay in Latvia, even though it didn’t look like on the stage.
• Benji B – I wanted to stay whole night listening to him after all the shows ended and only dj’s were left. Too bad none of my friends thought the same, so, 15 min of him, and nice dubstep and we were off to some cheap dancing tent.
  

I went home afterwards with a taxi. 130 km for 5 eur. Luck, oh my luck. From where do you come from? How did I deserve you?

Then some other days spent with parents and friends, even one rehearsal with my band, and non-stop calls reminding, that I’m actually needed, my ego just ate and ate, and went higher and higher, and then, during my last night at home, I made this. It’s supposed to be cornflowers. Just to remind me who and from where I am,

even if I continue this fucked up lifestyle with wandering around...

Plain. For the first time I actually cried while stepping on a plain. Well, ok, I didn’t. I swalloved tears with my red eyes. I never cry. But still.

In the end, being again in my new home, I can only say I feel very weird.

I could compare it with hedgehogs.

It has it’s smell that he is recognized for within his other hedgehog friends and relatives. And then you take it in your hands, and he looses it, and he’s never the same to the others. Left out, basically.

With this – old and new home it works the same ways. Only every time you go there or here.