A Sonny Beer, A Twisted Ankle, And A Work Ethic

Hello friends, acquaintances, countrymen, stalkers.

First off, there will be no photo updates today. This is due to David losing his phone. In his defence, the moment was pretty epic. We went on a big pub crawl you see - two of our Irish friends had just arrived. Caoife and Sonny, for those of you in the know. We showed up just on time, only to find there were only two others there for the pubcrawl. Not hip. The two guys were cool though, so after a bit of deliberation we decided to ditch the pubcrawl, save the twenty euro, and do our own pubcrawl. Great... in theory. Only you know, we didn't know any pubs in Brussels. Except for the one euro beer pub up the road.

Sounds like heaven, doesn't it? But it's not - you can't leave. It's too cheap. But equally, it's not a good bar or anything; it's a terrible one, with terrible music. We're just cheap and Irish and drunk all the time. So we stayed. We stayed long. At one point I of course fell from my chair in the typical mischievous drunken David fashion. After some help up from Caoife and Dara, I instantly jumped onto my chair and downed my pint yelling "I am king!". I was king. That's when I lost my phone.

The rest of Brussels has been to much of the same tune. Belgian beer is a bit crazy - it's all 8.5-9%, yet tastes lovely and is about the same price as at home. It's just dangerous really. Nothing else bad happened or anything - I just twisted my ankle the next evening and so haven't been able to busk for the last few days. This combined with Sonny being here means I've been partying the last few days.
Honestly though, I think I'm partied out.
I mean seriously.
I wasn't even drunk last night - this isn't hangover talk.

I never thought I'd look forward to going to Berlin in order to....stop drinking.

I am though.

Travelling has made me feel differently about life. Well - travelling and some experiences in my last real job. I think it's time I made my big shot on the world. I'm gonna try and hit this music thing hard, even if it takes all my savings and living crazy cheap on noodles and beans for the next 2-3 years. If I'm not on a clear road to at least quasi-fame by then, I'll ditch that dream completely and work extremely hard on being successful in some other money-making scheme (be it writing or a "real job").

I mean working really hard though.

I've never wanted to work so hard in all my life.

So I am truly sorry if I don't party with you over the next while, or if I'm not as social as I've always been. But I feel like this is my time. I really, really do. I have the drive, the determination, the time. Hopefully I have the talent. Then all it takes is a little bit of luck.

"I'm a driver, I'm a winner. Things are gonna change, I can feel it."

Lille Likes to Party

Lille was...messy...

We arrived pretty late - took us a long time to find where the girls who'd invited us up lived. By the time we got there they were dressed and ready to go out. Silly girls. Of course the three of us are all going to shower for an hour first. You can't bring us into your house and not expect us to shower. That's what we do. We are shower abusers. So after showers and many drinks we headed out for our first night in Lille. There was a big sort of rummage sale on in the city so it was to be a big party all weekend. We gave up on busking in Lille pretty fast and resigned to party the weekend away.

The nightclub was cool, only problem is we were absolutely wrecked, so we didn't actually manage to keep going 'til closing time. Bad show, I know. We left at 6am, but the club seemed to have no intention of stopping..

Our hosts seemed to have fun at least, though!

After a much needed long sleep we went to the apartment for showers again....which quickly turned to drinking....for dinner I ate a big bag of crisps and a bag of peanuts....sometimes our diet isn't the healthiest on the road...

We went to a big house party, in which there were fire extinguisher fights...that was pretty cool.

We went back to the same club again but this time by jesus we made it to the end. Lots of new friends were made also, and good clean fun was had by all parties involved.

We didn't get home til 9am, so the day was again lost. It's a tricky one. We do love to party, but I spent loads of my savings and didn't busk at all so I guess I'm a little annoyed at myself...but sometimes you've just gotta let loose. Last night we took it quieter, with lots of walking and talking...oh - the French really do love their mussels - as demonstrated by this big pile of mussels.

It's funny - I've actually been out partying for pretty much 3 days straight....but I don't know what to write. It was great fun, but everyone knows what it's like to party...I can't exactly add any mad wisdom. Oh well. We're about an hour from Brussels now - using up all our French internets before we cross the border and they get lost forever. We meet Caoife tomorrow, so the show must go on!

While the next few weeks should be full of fun and antics, I'm really looking forward to having my own bedroom for a few months - living in a van can get tiring! The idea of having a toilet and shower without going outside is a luxury I've never looked forward to so much before - all relative I guess :)

A Hunchback, a Mona Lisa and the Return Of The Lovely Voice

So, we went to Paris.

It's a tricky one to write about, as while it was quite long (10 days), it was also a very different vibe. Dara's girlfriend, Anna, came to visit - so he's been off holidaying with her. Thus, it's just been Finbar and I. Lovely to have space in the van, and not-knowing-anyone gave us opportunity for some time to ourselves, and even to some quiet-nights-in-watching-tv-shows, which was nice for a change. Of course, being Paris, an awful lot of my time was spent finally doing the touristy things I've never done, due to being drunk the last time I was here (3 years ago - time really does fly..). As those would be boring to write about, I'll just post photos with snappy captions; for your enjoyment. Hey - you're the one reading this. You can't really be picky. Is it weird that I'm talking to you? In the next 48 hours, you will meet someone new, or something will happen to you that will have a serious effect on your life. However, if you don't send this message to 5 of your friends - your dog will die. No, no matter that you don't have a dog. It's a metaphorical dog. Like the "Death" tarot card. You know - silly..

Shut up David.

Here is David at the Opera house. David is wearing a scarf because his throat was sore. Not because he's a hipster. That's a different issue.

Here is the Mona Lisa. While I made sure to barge my way through all the Chinese people (as I am taller) to the front to see it properly, I thought it was more interesting to watch all the people...taking photos....of what surely must be the most photographed painting in the world....maybe they don't have the internet in China yet. That's actually kind of true in a way, isn't it...

This is the view from the top of Notre Dam cathedral. I went to a mass service there, too. Mum'd be proud. It was pretty unimpressive - about 30 attendants and it was in French (I was hoping for Latin). Made me kind of pity the institution - for all the terribleness of the Catholic church, it is kind of mellowing to see something so great and powerful reduced to a tourist attraction..the gargoyles and whatnot were pretty damn cool, though.

They say the real gems of Paris are found just by walking the streets, by day or night. We found this to be true, certainly. Though perhaps for different reasons than others. For example, this particular carpark we're parked in seems to have occasional prostitutional campervans, and extreme-late-night-Petanque-players-of-all-descriptions)...oh, sidenote - we're parked for free about an hour's walk from the city center, or 10 minutes on a metro...about the same distance as most of the hostels...this campervan lark even works in the big cities so far). Here is a Michael Jackson shop.

Here is an Indian Music Shop. In the Indian district of Paris - where we were genuinely the only white people on the street. Kind of fun. I am Midnight's Children.

Sometimes it strikes me as strange that most of my photos contain a Finbar. It's hard to do selfies with attractions, though. More selfies. Both of the above scenes made us think of our friend Shrinky. We miss Shrinky. Ironically, there's no way in hell he reads this. Maybe someone can pass on the message.

What else. Ah yes, the busking. Busking in Paris is notoriously difficult. Mostly because it's illegal. Yet full of buskers. It's strange though - the police don't arrest you or anything. They simply move you on, with a nice friendly sort of warning, so you don't get in trouble.. it's just a little risky if you keep getting caught by the same officers in the same spot. Which is annoying, as Paris is huge, so I only knew of a few spots. Today was a funny one though - a policeman actually said "We don't mind it at all, but unfortunately it's forbidden". Strange. But I did okay - enough to get by anyway without hitting up the savings. Met two really nice travelling buskers too - one who was permanently on the road for what must have been 10 or 20 years from the sounds of it. He'd been busking through Asia and everything, said it's completely doable. Cool to know! It's a bit nervewracking though - never knowing how long you can busk for, and watching out for police all the time. You feel like a drug dealer or something. But at the same time there's no malice, I've even had them clearly avoid me so that they wouldn't have to stop me. Today I actually followed two policemen at a safe distance, so that I knew when they'd walked past my spot - to guarantee me the most time before they walked past again. But yeah, even though the money per hour is as good if not better than many other places, I'd rather do 4 hours with no hassle in Toulouse then a stressful 2 in Paris.

Ever the problem with writing a blog intermittently is the lack of detail. So for my last paragraph I'll just write about today, I guess..I do hope you're still reading. Thanks for your support. No, really..sometimes it's really hard not to sound sarcastic. I'm a nice guy. See? Anyway. Today I went to meet Cristina, the aforementioned lovely-voice girl from Paris with whom I was to do a duet. We only had a few hours, so she showed me to a good thrift shop, as I'd hoped to buy some new threads whilst in the fashion capital. Or old threads, I guess. I realised something today though - I can't shop with anyone else there. I honestly didn't know that until today. I mean she wasn't in a rush at all, tonnes of cool clothes and dirt cheap..I had money from busking...but I couldn't do it. Gave up after 5 minutes. And we're leaving tomorrow so I can't go back. Oh well. We went to write a song and record it with the time left. It was fun - I've never really done anything like that before. We had a harmony and everything. I mean it could be far better, but for only a few hours it was good I think! I'll post it up here when I get a copy sure. That girl's destined for great things if she tries. And then having done a duet with her, I can a reality TV show contestant. Dream big. Oh, and she brought me a little bottle of Tsuica from Romania (she was away, hence us only having one day) - the Romanian version of Poitin. We've had it before, actually, 5 years ago, on our last big excursion. Dangerous. Can't wait.

I was quite sad leaving today though. It's easy to forget the farewells when one thinks of travelling. Great to meet new people every day, but you also have to say goodbye too soon. 

Tomorrow, Lille. Finbar and I took the night off tonight, as the next few weeks are gonna be full of parties (electro club in Lille, then Caoife and Sonny come to visit, then Amsterdam, then Berlin. Recipe for...success?). 

And by night off, I mean, kebab.

And by kebab, I mean kebab followed by a 12 pack of Snickers icecreams.

And by kebab and a 12 pack of Snickers icecreams, I mean we ate them all. All of them.

Is that chocolate around our faces? No, silly. That's your jealousy. Don't you even dare try and judge us. You know you'd do the same thing if you thought no-one was looking. We just photograph it. Next level. Das Collective. We're living your dreams.

But everybody knows, that a broken heart, is blind..

That's right, it's a lyric. I'm using lyrics for my blog titles now. I used to do that on an old blog when I was like 16. It's still cool. And the song is on right now in the van, in fairness. Dara's beside me wearing my Lidl hat (which at this stage, is just the Lidl hat. Slutty hat.); we have 6 hours on the road tonight to Beauvais (North of Paris, a Ryanair city) to collect Anna tomorrow. So we're splitting the drive and blaring the Black Keys on the soundsystem. Rock and roll.

Okay, so where was I...ah yes, Lyon.

We arrived on Tuesday afternoon. I woke up shortly after and was quite confused, as I was in a different city but there didn't seem to be anyone in the van. I resolved to take a walk when Finbar appeared from behind his curtain - turned out they were just asleep also. We sleep a lot. Don't you dare judge us. They had managed to find a nice parking spot next to the park; that is to say next to running water and toilets. The longer we do this the more our goals change - at first we used to look for campsites, now they don't even come up on our radar. Even if we can stay for free by performing we'd much rather spend that time busking, and campsites are generally much further away from the city than...well....parking in the city...
I went out to check out the scenery and quickly discovered that the park doubled as a free zoo. It was a strange discovery to make - half asleep walking through a park only to realise you're standing next to a giraffe. Hello giraffe. I went back and told the guys of my findings and we spent the evening zooing it up. My voice was still missing in the realms of the stupid drunk David so I figured I'd spend the next day doing all the touristy stuff.
But nope. Seems Lyon is dead at the moment. Everyone's away on holiday. This appears quite normal to the French people, but to me it just seems ridiculous. How can a city go on holiday? I mean it's not a small city or anything. It's one of the biggest cities in France - the biggest we've been in so far. But I mean, everywhere was closed. Every art exhibition, every cool cafe. Everything.
So I'm going to skip to Friday. That's not to say we didn't do anything on Wednesday or Thursday. There was the Twilight movie night in the van. Only one left to see now. Don't tell me the end. Dumbledore lives. Finbar and I did some busking and it went okay - not as well as other cities, but easily better than I need....relativities a funny one - once you're on 30 an hour it's hard to go back to 15-20, even though that's easily enough to get by when you have absolutely no expenses. But yeah. Friday. Oh, Lyon has loads of really pretty and strange things though, here are some photos. And of us on a rowing boat.

Dara and I decided it was time we went back to our roots of a few months ago, and brought all our gear into town for an amped-up-with-drum busk. We set up on the main street and were just about to start when the police came along and moved us. It was pretty annoying, as we were definitely going to do well -I'd seen other less-good amped acts making a killing the day before. They said we could play in the nearby square, so even though the square was completely empty, we said we'd treat it as a practice session anyway. It was fun, we did fairly well and got 2 beers brought to us from a bar. Again with the relativity - it can be hard to remember it's meant to just be fun, especially when you're trying to take music quite seriously, as I've decided to lately...
We brought the gear back to the van and thought we'd have another movie night. I went for a walk and saw that there were tonnes of people drinking by the river. I rallied the troops and within the hour we were leaving the van again with bottles of rum in hand. I brought my guitar - we figured by singing a few songs we might be able to make some friends. Yes it's calculated. Yes we've done it before. Yes Paris girls, that's what we did in La Rochelle too. Stop with all the judging. Whatever.
After picking a spot I started doing a few pop songs and it didn't take long before we had a little group. We're a good team - I play the songs while Finbar and Dara look for openings/Dara asks people for a lighter. It's a funny skill to learn, but definitely a very useful one when travelling. What happened next was a little strange - some people we weren't even talking to near us got up to leave, and for some reason we started talking to them. It's hard to describe, but within like 30 seconds we all knew we'd end up friends. One of the girls said we'd be welcome to stay at their Geneva apartment so long as I play them music. They were all Swiss, and all really cool. I dunno if we've ever moulded so quickly and so well with another group before. I mean within 5 minutes we were having such a good night. We went to a nightclub, which was our first since leaving Galway. We didn't really know we'd missed them - given that we never even go to them in Ireland anyway. But it was amazing. 8 euro in but you got a 7.50 cocktail in there and it got pretty drunk pretty fast. Drunk and sweaty. We thought it was last orders at one point so we got two beers and a shot each.

Turns out it wasn't last orders at all, so I bought a round of 9 cocktails after. Goodbye money. Easy come, easy go, right? Definitely worth it. After much sweaty dancing and nearly getting kicked out a good five times for just about everything and anything, we went back to the Swiss' apartment, which was pretty cool, a really big loft they had rented for a few days. Dara has some photos, so I'm sure you'll see them. Me though, I was absolutely hammered. After about an hour I got the patented Drunken-David-Homing-Pigeon instinct, and left. Stupid David. I got home eventually, but it took me ages, while the lads slept on comfy beds and got lovely showers the next day. Someday I'll figure out how to overcome that. Someday. We're definitely going to try and meet that group again, either in their Winter cabin in the alps, or they might visit us in Berlin. I hope so, anyway - I can see some amazing fun to be had. Oh, did I mention we're actually moving to Berlin now? If we can get an apartment. Gonna stay there from the end of September 'til we fly home at Christmas. It'll get too cold to live in the camper in October, so it's either that or move seriously South, which we'd rather save for next year. And we love Berlin. So we're pretty excited about that.
The next morning/actually-late-afternoon, while I was battling with the hangover monsters in my bed, Finbar drove us out to Vichy to visit his uncle. It's a nice place. Quiet, and everyone's clearly quite rich. We had a few practical things to do, so we didn't get to busk or even see much of it. We spent last night drinking quiet beers in the local bar with Finbar's uncle, then today we did our chores - clothes, dishes and grocery shopping. Good to get a little break though - I can see the next 10 days being quite busy; looks like there'll be about 7 of us Irish hanging around. Can't wait to see Anto especially. Plus I have to do my duet. I haven't heard back from her about the lyrics actually. Keep up, Cristina. Anyway, that's all for now I think. Bonjourno ;)

An Amazing City and an Amazing House

Haven't updated this in nearly a week. There's an annoying irony with blogging while travelling - whenever you have lots to write about, you generally don't have enough time to write about it. 

Let's see..

The  next day I went busking again - this time in the hope of making lots of money so as to do all the touristy things/relax around in Cafes drinking coffee. Time for a proper French holiday. It went well - got 70 euro in total that day and only stopped because of rain. A guy came up to chat who was half Irish and half Swedish. Joachim was his name. We didn't speak much as he was in a rush but we arranged to get a coffee the next day. This doesn't sound very interesting does it. But you're wrong. This character will appear again at a later paragraph. The next one, probably. I'm introducing a character you see. Building personality. Being an author. Winning the Pulitzer prize. Winning the Booker prize as I'd actually prefer that to the Pulitzer. All the fame. All the girls. 

It was a great day actually, come to think of it. In between busking sessions I went to the natural history museum, which was nice but none of the information was in English. Kinda had to come up with my own explanations for the strange African tribal masks. They were big into theatre, you see. Thriving drama scene. Bit pretentious. Also sat for an hour drinking a coffee on my own in a busy Toulouse cafe. This was on my list of things to do. It was nice, not as exciting as I'd imagined it though. It always looks more fun in the movies. Or when Tom Waits does it.

So on Thursday I went to meet Joachim after a little busking. He showed me a few of the sights and we got a beer. Finbar joined and we spent the day walking around what felt like the entire city of Toulouse. It's so much better to have a local guide. We saw all the bridges, a few churches, loads of gardens. Even Japanese gardens.

We failed miserably to find any restaurant open before 7 so settled on a giant Subway. Don't judge us. I paid with a voucher someone gave me busking - 8 euro food voucher, but apparently people pay 4 euro for them; one of these employee discount things. Don't believe me? ...I'm sure you do believe me, but that's a good way to introduce a photo. Author. Here's Joachim holding said food voucher.

We decided we should visit the Irish bar, as apparently this one is actually really good. Went in and ordered a Guinness. It wasn't great but we figured we'd have one or two drinks anyway, it felt like a good atmosphere, bad Guinness aside. A few minutes later I thought I recognised a bartender. He looked just like Chris Hurley's brother. One of our best friends from home....and it kinda made sense - I knew Alex was living in France. I just had no idea where. I thought about it but figured it would be kinda ridiculous; very unlikely that he's a bartender, let alone a bartender in Toulouse, working tonight.....but fuck it, I asked one of the girls working, and lo and behold it was him. Couldn't believe it.

We ended up drinking a load of Guinness and getting hammered with Alex. Luckily he lives right in town so we all went and passed out in his flat. When I told him I was busking around France he said he'd love to come out and try it, so we resolved to play together the next day. We were pretty damn hungover so it didn't go as well as it could have, but he's got a great voice so it was great for him to get out and build up some confidence. Hopefully he'll keep it up now that I'm gone. 

Took it easy that night with the hangover and all - we decided to move the van closer to the city. The hippy festival take-down had finished so there were no more free showers to steal, and all the vans having left the car park meant it probably wasn't too safe. Also had a chat with the manager of the same Irish bar and they said they'd give me a meal and free booze if I played there the next night. Not as good as a paid gig, but fuck it - 4 pints and a meal in France is worth about 40 euro anyway (6e for a Guinness). 

The next day I went busking one last time. Had to finish early as I could feel my voice going and throat getting sore and knew I'd have to play again that night. Two girls had been watching/videoing me play earlier and came up when I finished. They had just arrived in Toulouse on holiday (from northern France, Lille), and asked me would I like to get a beer. Being finished anyway I thought it'd be fun so I agreed. We met Finbar on the road and invited him along too. It was a nice day, just drinking beers and chatting beside the river (they have toilets beside the river in Toulouse, how very thoughtful!). The girls brought us for French macarons as we'd never tried them - very tasty! 

Dara and Alex showed up around then too, but I had to head off to play in the Irish bar shortly after. I was pretty tipsy if I'm honest - but I don't think anyone noticed. It's funny, in Galway if I even had one drink I'd hear the difference but I practice singing so much now I don't think it's a big deal. Not a good habit, mind, but nice to know! I played about two hours and had a massive burger. A few people offered to buy me pints/shots so I stuck around for an hour or two until Alex came by to pick me up and bring me to where everyone was drinking. A girl working there knew one of the guys who come in selling roses. So I got a rose.

Second rose I've been given in France actually. Someday I'll find that special guy. It gets a little hazy then - I definitely made 15 euro playing music outside; a fiver from one guy and a tenner from another. The tenner was from playing a request that I happened to know really well, and the guy was over the moon to hear it, but I can't even remember what song it was. Oh Guinness. It was a pretty messy night - the lads had been drinking the whole time I was gone so by the time I arrived they were as bad as I was. Good fun though - first proper sort of normal-night-out. Drinking in an apartment and getting hammered with English-speaking people. 

The next day we regrouped and met Joachim at the van. He had invited us out to his parents house for the evening. We didn't know what to expect - we knew it was on a fairly big area of land with a swimming pool (they host wedding receptions there). But man, I can't describe how beautiful this place was. We got a beer from the keg that they just....had....and took a walk around. I mean it really is paradise.

We met his parents and they instantly became some of the nicest people we'd ever met. They were just so genuinely welcoming and lovely. They invited us to come drink with them at the reception - it was a friends wedding this weekend so they had all been invited. That's when the fun started. Once word spread that I was a musician I was pushed up to play. My throat was killing me but I could hardly say no, standing in this paradise. 

It went down really well - later some of the French people asked me would I be playing in Toulouse again over the next few nights, as they'd like to hear me another time. Which was lovely. It's up to Lyon next though, so I had to say no. Do you see the fish water feature/fountain thingy behind me? That's not water. That's a rum fountain. Rum mixed with pineapple juice. So you don't have to go to the bar. You just carry your cup back over and let the magical fish fill you up. Amazing.

It was a fantastic night. We got chatting to tonnes of great French people, who even given that they didn't speak English or us French, the rum fountain seemed to allow us to communicate with perfectly. Everyone was so nice to us that we wanted to give back as much as we could. So I played plenty of music (my throat not being very happy with this choice today), Dara and I did a little fire show and Finbar did a sketch for the married couple.There was plenty of music from others too. This guy had a great line - "I don't speak very good English...but I speak very good French!",

We went for a drunken swim in the heated pool, where we nearly killed ourselves standing ontop of one another's shoulders and fighting. Near the end of the night the bride and groom insisted that we join in for one last game of Pakito (apparently their 5th that day). It's kind of like rock the boat in the way you sit but then everyone crowdsurfs along the line. So much fun.

What a night.

In the morning Joachim woke us up for a special Foie Gras market nearby - famous in the region as they go through about a tonne of fresh foie gras in under an hour. By fresh I mean the actual duck livers. He was right too - we got there 40 mins after it opened and just about managed to pick up the last 3. For dinner that night apparently. We visited the rest of the market - very oldschool french market, full of live animals mostly.Birds, rabbits, piglets, everything. Not really my cup of tea, but nice to see.

We went back to the house and hung around for the day, sleeping and later chatting with the family. They have a pretty cool story - both Motorola engineers in Toulouse but they both quit to just live the good life and rent out their wedding place. They really do seem to have it all figured out. They have two pianos too - one grand and one upright, so it was awesome to hit the keys after 40 days away. I avoided practicing any singing with my voice being completely gone, which left me some time to start writing the duet I mentioned a few weeks ago with the Paris girl, Cristina. We've decided we'd try and write it remotely, then meet up to put it together. Tricky project but who knows, I'd really like to do a duet and she has an amazing voice (and has promised icecream) so it's definitely worth a shot! Watch this space I guess.

At around 9, after lots of preparation we all sat down to eat the fresh foie gras. I didn't know what to expect - I don't like pate at all. But I tried to stay open. I'm telling you though, that stuff is the bomb. It melts in your mouth, and is just so very very rich. One of the best meals I've ever had, without a doubt.

We stayed up chatting 'til all hours. But the paradise world had to end sometime. After one last lunch (and cleaning our van/washing our clothes), we've taken to the road again. This time toward Lyon. As I drove the whole 5 hours down to Toulouse the lads are taking this one, leaving me some time to write this giant blog and catch up on some e-mails with my granny. Hi Granny! Seriously though - this last week has been full of highlights of the trip so far. I think we're all on a high. If we all had to go home tomorrow for whatever reason I feel like we've gotten so much out of the trip that it'd be okay. All the money we put into the camper has been completely paid off already in my eyes. If I hadn't been busking I wouldn't have met Joachim, if we didn't have a camper we couldn't have gone to stay with his parents so easily. Life just works out perfectly sometimes.

New Song and a Homeless Man

Finbar and I just walked to MacDonalds in the rain (with umbrellas - never fear - the campervan is equipped). I say rain.. I really mean crazy big storm; lightning every few seconds and we got fairly drenched just from the drops hitting the ground so hard that it bounced up. Two McFlurries please. I'll have the Daim one. Extra caramel? Well if you say so...naughty..

Look at me, updating regularly. Well, there's a reason other than it being a good idea to keep your blog updated regularly. I'm uploading a video, see. A YouTube video. That's right - I've finally managed to record a new song. Living in Das Camper has some funny quirks but for the most part it's not all that difficult. There are things like walking 5 minutes outside to use a bathroom/take a shower, and it's very difficult to keep pots/pans/dishes clean when we have no running water (we've been staying in carparks for...3 weeks now), but when you don't have real jobs it's still less than an hour out of every day...which is...mostly free.

I busked two and a half hours today, but I didn't really need to. We're not paying any campsite fees at the moment and have a hypermarche and Lidl up the road for cheap groceries. This has absolutely nothing to do with what I'm talking about. Shut up David. The video. You'll see it (as I'll make you watch it), and think "Why on earth did that take two weeks to get done?", "He didn't even shave?", "That's clearly just taken on Dara's mobile phone". You'd be right on all three. But it turns out to be very, very difficult to find the right time, place and equipment to record a song when you live in a van. For the last 10 days there has been music blaring everywhere in a mile radius with the festival.. Oh well. It'll do. Just need to get famous then people will make videos for me. And assorted icecream flavours. All involving pistachio. And huge pointlessly oversized lollipops. I won't even open those. I'll just have them on display - to show you that you can't have them. David gets the lollipops. You're not even famous. Who are you?
So here it is, I hope you like it, if you don't, I hope you'll tell me, as I'm taking this whole thing quite seriously these days, so it'd be good to get any kind of feedback. If you do like it, it'd be wonderful if you hit the share button or whatever for my new Facebook page ( http://www.facebook.com/davidowensofficial ) - guess I should try and promote it and all that.


Anyway, what actual news? I got up really early today. 8.30am in fact. Earliest I've been up in a month. Didn't get any sleep really with loads of noise in the carpark for some reason. But I was determined. Fed up of hippies. Fed up of sleep-ins til 3. Fed up of going from city to city, and only seeing drinking spots and busking spots. Time to be a tourist. And it was awesome. I was in Toulouse by 9.30. Went to a cathedral, a church, and small aeroplane and art exhibitions

before finding a busking spot and making enough for the day before lunchtime. I had a really weird thing happen actually - a homeless old man sat down opposite me and listened for a good while. Then he came up and in our broken languages he explained that he didn't have much, but would like to give me a bag of coppers he had. I didn't know what to do. I mean, he was clearly homeless and poor and old. There was about 50 cent in there. But I couldn't exactly turn it away either, or offer him some of the money from my case, without seeming like I'm turning my nose at him - there's always the chance that that's what he was hoping for, but if he wasn't...jesus that'd be bad... So I acted as grateful as I possibly could and accepted. It was really strange. Really cool though. Definitely one of the moments I'd hope to remember for the rest of my life. I wasn't sure what to do with it after (as awesome as it was, we find it very difficult to get rid of coppers), but luckily there was a beggar kid sitting next to the ATM nearby, who got excited and kept giving me the thumbs up when I played Snow Patrol - Chasing Cars. So I have him the bag after. It felt really good, the world sort of evening out with everyone happy. Just hope it wasn't his grandad. Anyway. It's so easy to get into a habit of drinking every night and sleeping in as...well, drinking is fun. But it's nice to feel productive again.  Guess that's part of the reason for the video too. When we got home I had it in my head - I needed to get it done tonight. Completely changed the strumming pattern in the last 24 hours (we tried to record yesterday but my plucking wasn't loud enough, so went busk-style on it), but it was time. And I'm happy with it. It's rough, I don't look good at all, but it's a decent representation of the song.....and hey, maybe people will like the song.

So here's a mid-year resolution. More early mornings, more time for things.

Hippies and a Ceili

So it's been a week since my last update. Not really sure what to write about - I didn't really do all that much. Spent most of the time playing music and hating hippies. There are a few things though.

I hate hippies. Which is strange, considering many would consider me one. I juggle, I live in a van touring around Europe, I enjoy copious amounts of drugs. Only messing. Hippies don't do drugs. Just me. But really - being around them constantly for a week it starts to get to you. I got offered a massage today, while walking past a playground. But I couldn't take it. I just couldn't. And I really wanted a massage too. My shoulder's sore. One day I was sitting in the grass talking to people and playing guitar, and of course I had a 1.5 litre bottle of sangria and a big packet of crisps on hand. They weren't so bad with the sangria, but my crisps didn't last long at all. Hippies I wasn't even talking to sometimes. They just seem to think everything is for sharing. It's not for sharing, hippies. Those are my crisps.

Anyway.

Saw some cool things though, there was the European unicycling competition thing. I didn't realise unicycling was an extreme sport now. It's kinda cool. Not really cool though - I'm sure the tricks are hard but they just don't look all that amazing.

Saw tonnes of really good juggling and circus shows though. Like 2-3 hours a day. I'm all showed out. This one was pretty cool - balancing 8 balls and a balloon with hairdryers..

Got pretty drunk every night too. Really need a break from all the drinking. Was awesome to hang out with some of the Irish jugglers and get to know them a little better. Especially Brendan. I mean I already know him pretty well, but he's pretty damn cool. Whenever we're at something like this we end up reminiscing about Sziget festival years ago. I'd love to go again. I will go again. What else...

Oh, there was a Ceili last night, in honour of the EJC (European Juggling Convention) being in Cork next year:

I won't be going. Not necessarily because of me preferring music festivals to juggling ones, but also as I'll be away. On a cruise. My amazing American uncles decided to buy a cruise for all the "kids" in the family. So cool. Big respect. I bet you're not going on a cruise though, are you? I bet you'll be stuck in work, working for the man. Working for the man to bring home your pay and buy a bigger car to put your giant plasma screen TV in. Choose life. I bet you won't be happy though - you're never happy. Smile every now and again for God's sake. Or don't, actually. Your smile isn't all that nice anyway.

It's been good for music though - finished another song. So now I have two songs that I'm actually happy with. Really need to get them recorded. Maybe tomorrow. Gonna start pushing it on people then. Time to get famous. Might even pay for some advertising if I'm happy with the videos. Thoughts?

Also, Dara hurt his shoulder a few days ago and can't really juggle. You may think this is a bad thing, but in fact it's fantastic. It means he can only work on our music project - in which he draws things based on my lyrics, which are projected (yes, we have a projector in the van..), while I play my songs. I'm really excited about this - it being different to the usual acoustic-singer-songwriter thing means I might be able to get some gigs once I have enough stuff, and he drew some stuff for it before and I think it really fits. Who knows. He's working on it across from me in the van right now actually. Hi Dara. We need a name though. 

So David's pretty happy. Missing my family a fair bit at the moment - they're all at a big get together in Sligo this week. Aforementioned American uncles are over visiting too. Staying in my room...though I guess it's not my room anymore. That's a strange thought. This trip'll easily be the longest I'll have been away from them ever. Hopefully I'll get home for a good while at Christmas - maybe 3 weeks or something. My Granny reads this blog now apparently, too. Which is pretty cool, but I should probably try and keep it a little family-safe. Though the trip has been pretty okay for that. I often get messages from people asking if there's actually far more to things than implied - I haven't mentioned anything about girls on the trip really. I'm sorry - there are no girls. I'm not actually a rockstar. Yet. As for now, we're gonna stay in Toulouse for a bit as we haven't been to the city yet, then start making our way up North. I'm really excited about Berlin - we hope to stay there at least a month. It's got traffic lights for juggling shows, a great graffiti scene, good busking spots and an acoustic music scene too. Perfect. 

A Paid Gig and a European Juggling Convention

So, we decided we'd stay one last night and leave on Thursday morning. I went out for a busk at around 4...started playing a few Irish songs and was doing well. A guy stopped and listened to two songs holding a wallet and his phone in his hand. After a while busking you start to know the different sorts of people:

There are the groups of girls who'll listen for about 10 songs. These can either give you lots of money or next to nothing. They're good in that some people you watching means others are more likely to stop, bad in that you can't really take a 5 minute break while there's a crowd. Best way to deal with them is play about 5 songs then do take the big break; hopefully causing them to leave, but 5 songs being enough to warrant payment.

There are the families/mothers with small kids. The kids love the music and want to give money to the busker. These are great as they don't stay too long and it doesn't matter all that much what you play, once it's got a decent rhythm.

There are the elderly people, who don't generally give anything when walking past, but if they like the song they'll come back and throw in a few euro. That's always lovely as it catches you by surprise.

There are the Irish tourists, who give you a little money basically because you're playing an Irish song. Which is fine by me. Basically the same idea as playing Irish songs in Galway for the Americans tourists.

Then there are the oddballs. The ones you just don't know. They're usually hit and miss. For example, this fellow - I wasn't sure if he'd just walk away or give me a fiver. Did I mention I got given a 20 the day before? Just thrown in. Amazing. Anyway. He walked away, so I kept playing, but he came back. In broken English he said something about playing at his bar. He said "Chapeau" so I thought he just meant busking outside his bar, but I was fine with the idea - something different sure. So we walked over to show me where it was. He had an English speaking waiter working for him who did some translating, and asked me how much I'd charge for 2 hours. I was dumbstruck. I figured it's my first, better go low. So I said 40, he went to ask the owner and said that's fine, 40 + dinner. This while drinking a free pint. I was over the moon. Texted my dad immediately. My first ever paid gig. I mean I've been paid for juggling gigs and piano gigs, but my dream has always been to be a singer. I'd like to think of myself as a fairly decent writer, but I really don't know how to explain how happy I was right then.
I went home to bulk up my Irish songs - I only play 5 in my busking set. I put together a 2 hour setlist and went back to the bar. It was much less busy than I expected - maybe 4 or 5 tables of people outside. But feck it. They gave me another pint and I started. After one song the waiter said I should put out my guitar case. Awesome. Even though there were only a few tables every one of them came over and gave some money, 2-3 euro each. About half way through the owner of the creperie across the road brought me a crepe. One of the tables nearby bought me another beer, and just at the end of my set walked over and handed me a tenner. It was surreal. Afterwards the bar asked me would I play again on Saturday. Right then I wished I wasn't going to the EJC. Juggling is fun, and I love the people at conventions, but I do wish I could have stayed. But there'll be more bars. Afterwards I sat down and they asked what I'd like to eat. I didn't understand the menu so I asked for whatever the waiter liked - he brought me a steak. With chips and crisps and bread and pepper sauce and jaysus it was amazing. They then offered me dessert, pushed it on me even. So I settled for a small beer for dessert. This on top of paying me. Man they were cool.
I was on top of the world when I went back to the camper. I got an icecream on my own to celebrate and sat down to wait for the Parisian girls to arrive to the beach - they'd gone for pizza. It was a fairly uneventful last night, just chatting and walking between beaches and drinking beers. But it was nice. They're a cool group. Very like us in ways - it's a pity we don't speak French..

We spent Thursday morning/afternoon getting ready to leave. With a stop in a supermarket we didn't actually leave La Rochelle til 7.30pm. Oops. I decided I'd drive us the whole way down - Dara still needs someone to sit next to him so I figured I'd rather do a big drive now and get to sleep for the next two. It wasn't too bad. Tricky to find a juggling convention at 1am when it's not actually open yet (and so not all that well signposted). But we got in eventually and parked in a nice spot under a tree.
It's pretty cool here, the convention officially starts today and there are about 5000 people here. As big as a small music festival. Lots of practice halls, stalls and 6 tents for shows. We just got drunk last night and caught up with Brendan and the rest of the Irish crowd. It's so awesome to speak with fluent English speakers again. You miss speaking fast/using slang in every sentence. It's so hot though. Sweating pretty much all day. But at least it's also like a convention in that you can be topless pretty much all day.
Think I'll stop there, will be here for the next week so I'll write a big proper EJC post at the end with all the scandal!

Parisians, Knives and A Lovely Singing Voice

18th July
Yesterday I spent the whole afternoon trying to get rid of coins. We'd sorted them out into 10s, 20s, 50s etc, and so thought it would be a simple matter of going to a bank and changing them....failing that, into a bar and changing them...as bars love change... failing that, going into a shop and changing them, as shops love change. Nope. Nobody likes change. All the banks have signs with coinbags on the door and an X through them. The bars were all immediately completely disinterested (and quite rude). The shopkeepers weren't rude but still no interest. Closest I came was a casino, which agreed to change them after hesitation, but only if I had my passport with me. I'm not sure if this was a bluff, knowing that I'd hardly be carrying my passport - or if they really do need a passport ID just to let you in to change some coins? Strange. Anyway, still have the coins. Need to find a supermarket with the self service checkouts and buy groceries with 10c coins. Haven't found one in France yet though. They're quite behind on some things..
Afterwards we all went in for a busk. First time all of us at it since Rennes, so that was nice. Went really well too - I got 60 and Finbar got 50. Dara/Alex's show didn't go as well as the previous night but still easily enough to cover his third of groceries etc. I'd like to be hitting 50 average between the 3 of us a day - only been doing this 3 weeks so enough for groceries/living expenses/fuel is fine for me. So over 120 is great. Dara went home to sleep and I went into an Irish bar to watch some jazz violin/play a few Irish songs while Finbar went home to leave his art stuff in the van then come back in (which took 2.5 hours from when I left him. He says he didn't leave straight away, which I believe, but even if he left an hour and a half later that's a bit crazy!). Met a cool guy in the bar named Rommy who we met again later on the street and offered us a trip on his boat. He was hammered though - hope he remembers that! We went down to the beach again, this time to meet some couchsurfers. It was fun - all fairly fluent English speakers, which was very refreshing! There were a couple training two alsations on the beach so I spent most of my time watching that - very cool. They had them chasing eachother around and stuff and it looked kinda violent/bad between the dogs but then the owners would say something and the dogs would stop, run back and sit down. I'm guessing they're to be police dogs or something.
I was wrecked though so we went back a little after 4, after agreeing to go to one of the girl's birthday parties on Monday.
Today I'm hoping to get some stuff done in town - a wifi dongle so that I can have internet anywhere, some hand sanitiser as while we have showers nearby, keeping your hands clean is basically impossible when you deal with so much money and shake so many wino's hands on the street. Maybe an icecream. Keep meaning to go to the aquarium as it's meant to be great here. But it's Saturday and even the carpark here is packed full of campers. Methinks Monday. Toodles.

24th July
A while since I wrote in this. Tsk tsk David. You should keep your blog up to date. Let me think...Sunday..ah yeah, I decided it'd be my day off so I went into town and found a park. It was lovely - spent a few hours on my own writing a new song and reading my kindle. Parks are so invaluable when it's so hot - never really appreciated them for that purpose before. I felt like I should do something before dinner though, so thought feck it - I'll do a quick hour. Got 25 and considering it was my day off I decided to spend it on a pizza and beer out. Finbar joined me; we went to a restaurant near where we're parked. I got a calzone.. I guess I haven't technically eaten a pizza since coming to France actually, always calzones...but they're just so good. We got a giant icecream and went for a walk afterwards, and coming back through the beach we saw that there were a few groups with guitars drinking and playing. Figuring it might be a chance to meet new people, we got my guitar and Finbar's camera and went for beers beside the sea. After a while one group of girls came over and invited us to join them. They turned out to be really cool, easily the best English speakers we've met, it's great, don't need  to worry at all when talking, but still get the foreign-ness of them speaking French lots of the time, with the advantage of they don't speak Irish. So we've been hanging out with them every night since. The second night got pretty messy. I'd had a bad night busking - made plenty of money but I was down two strings and a peg by the end of it, with the music shop closed that day. But with a box of wine on my bike it all became pretty good pretty fast. It was the aforementioned couchsurfer's birthday on the town-beach in La Rochelle so we went along, though with the group of 7 girls and us we were a bigger group than the actual birthday party. Oh - I forgot to mention they're all singers. They do really nice covers together with harmonies and everything, so half the night is spent singing. Which is fine by me. One of them has a really really lovely voice too - I've asked her if she'd like to write a duet but dunno if it'll happen with us leaving in the morning and all our time with them spent drinking. But anyway, that night we ended up coming back to our beach to get our cognac from the van, at like 5am...a guy came along who was a bit of a French knacker and had a knife in his hand, and a bottle of whiskey in the other. It was a bit surreal as we were quite drunk so he really didn't scare us...he just wasn't believable enough. Just holding a knife out in his hand. Why? So after a few minutes we all just got up and left. He didn't follow. We decided we'd try and sneak a free breakfast at the girls' hostel. Wasn't a good breakfast and we're actually making well enough money to buy nicer breakfasts but hey - gypsy lifestyle. We met a mentally disabled (is that what we say now?) woman who is apparently a convicted pedophile. Bit scary. She was weird. Luckily we don't speak French, so weren't half as weirded out as a girls. A few went off to bed while us hardcores went to one of the room where the girls decided to dress me up in their clothes. I really must stop agreeing to such things.

By 10am everyone was absolutely wrecked so Finbar and I stumbled home for a few hours sleep. I also forgot to mention, it stormed that night. Luckily we just missed getting wet, but Finbar had left his skylight window open for air - his bed was soaked when we got back. So while I passed out Finbar made up the spare double bed (gotta love a 6 berth) and slept for the day.

No rest for the wicked David though - I had a guitar to fix. So after a few hours sleep I made my way in and through my broken French and the shop guy's broken english I managed to get my parts. Took me a few hours to unstring, clean, re-pin, change the bridge, and restring the guitar, but now it's so very tasty again. I brought it to the beach last night but was super-careful not to get sand on it this time. Hope it's alright. Anyway - we spent an hour or so discussing a tax system for the van. See we're all coming from different standpoints at the moment - Dara wants to create artsy things for the sake of art, isn't concerned with money as he has his savings, Finbar wants to paint on walls for no-money, but wants to make lots of money also for other less artistic reasons.. I want to play music as much as possible, with the aim of being a pro-musician, the money being an indicator of how I'm doing. This gets tricky in the van - until now we've been putting all of the money into the communal jar, but say if I make 20 euro in an hour (Easily enough to more than cover my third of everything communal) - should I just stop working? I don't get any of the money afterwards anyway..and what if I made 60 euro, can I not work for the next two days? So we've agreed on a sort of a tax - 10 per day and an extra tenner per 50 euro above 40 euro. Eg I made 55 last night, so had to pay an extra 10 on my original 10, giving me 35 euro personal profit. Or beer money. I don't like the system too much - it's not very nice mathematically and doesn't really encourage profit. But maybe that's for the best right now.

Last night was fun, back to our beach again for another evening of songs and drinking games. And running around in the sand games, and laughing games. Lots of games. We all went back to the van for pasta. The van doesn't really fit 10 people..

Fun times though. Finbar facepainted half the girls, which was a bit pointless considering it was like 6am so we were all going to sleep a few minutes after. One doesn't think of such things at times like these though. I think there were complaints about the noise - the police arrived in the morning and asked us to move some stuff into the van and were generally grumpy. They asked how many were in the van, but of course Finbar replied 2 truthfully, which threw them off. I guess they presumed it was some kinda party campervan. So they didn't ask us to move or anything, just better not do it again tonight.

Off to Toulouse tomorrow I think - EJC 2013 time. Looking forward to finally doing some juggling. And not-busking should leave extra time for music too :)

Over and out!

Night Swimming

18th July, 2am
Today was a good day. I got up and went to use the Wifi in the nearby restaurant - in order to accept my new friend Maxim's friend request on Facebook, and arrange to meet him. I had to order something, and was feeling a little naughty. So I bought a waffle. Don't judge me. You'd get a waffle too. You naughty little thing. I know what's in your head. Chocolate. Always chocolate. Well you can't have any chocolate. You haven't worked hard enough for the chocolate. Go run a half marathon, then come ask me for chocolate, fatty. See what I say. I'll say no. You can't have any chocolate. You're too fat.
The waffle was pretty good. I used a little internet then went to read on the beach on my own. Been taking lots of alone time lately - when you're living with two others in such a confined space you'll see enough of eachother automatically, so it's nice to go off on your own whenever you can. At 4 I went off to meet Maxim in town. It was so very hot. So very very hot. Must have been 30 degrees...at least where we're staying is beside the beach so there's a nice breeze. In town it's just ridiculous - If you're in the sun you start sweating. Simple as that. So we walked around alot and chatted. His English wasn't perfect, but good enough, and it was nice to talk to someone new without having to have the whole half-trying-to-speak-eachothers-languages-as-neither-of-you-are-very-good-at-the-other's-language thing. Town did look much less busy than the festival period, but it didn't look too bad. Still as busy as the other cities we've been to. So when Maxim left I went for a busk. I did a little on a shop street and it went really well - gonna try that again tomorrow. Did two little stints so as not to annoy any shopowners. Nantes style. Then I went to MacDonalds.
MacDonalds isn't cheap in France. It's not really that cheap in Ireland, but we have the Eurosaver menu. They simply don't do that in France. Which makes it a pretty bad deal. I spent like 7.50 on a meal that wasn't that nice at all. For a tenner I could have gotten a lovely pizza in a restaurant in town. I know better now sure. Think if it goes well tomorrow I'll treat myself on a busk break, from the busking money. Don't tell the guys.
The point of MacDonalds is they always have free wifi. It didn't work for me though, so it was a pretty fruitless excursion. Oh well. I went back to town and found a spot to start a proper busk, at around half 8. It went great. Today was the first day I broke 50 euro in total. I dunno if that's a thing with buskers, but it was big to me. I'm hoping to average 20 euro a day in general (taking into account a day off, so 25 when working), so making double was absolutely awesome. I was on a high when I stopped. It was around 10.30 so I figured I'd check out some other street shows before going home. I've been talking to a juggling/dance group who're touring around too a bit, so I sat down with one of them and we watched it. It's cool to hang out with other buskers. Makes you feel like you're part of a sort of a club. Even though it's a club anyone can simply join. But I guess it does take something to put yourself out there, open to judgement..
I went home then. Finbar spent the evening getting his advertising graffiti canvas ready, so hopefully he'll be able to bring in something tomorrow. Dara tried to find a nice traffic light set but there were none good enough. Wish he had brought the amp in and tried to busk a little though. Personally, I'd be happy if we all just did 2-3 hours busking a day, then no matter what money you bring in it's okay. Or if you don't want to busk you do 2-3 hours work on the van, or some other project which benefits us all. If it doesn't change by Toulouse I'm definitely going to ask the guys for this, or to sort of each put 10 euro in for groceries/campsite each day, then any money we make after that is our own. I could have gone out/eaten out every day in La Rochelle so far if I'd kept the money. Fine if it averages out eventually, but if it doesn't it seems terribly unfair. Luckily they're my best friends, so I'm sure they'll understand. I'm only not bringing it up yet as I don't want to be pushy or create tension. I can do 10 more days of this - it aint so bad. And if it fixes itself by then, perfect :)
19th July, 2pm
Last night was great. Drank a load of wine with Finbar in the camper, while Dara tried a little streetshow with Alex. We went in and I busked a little, Dara made 20, which was awesome, so I stopped after 40 minutes with a tenner and we went off to drink. Felt much better about everything straight away! We met the French girls and played Kings in their apartment. It was fun, though the language barrier is so tricky until you're all drunk enough! Then it was down to the beach to swim. Swimming at night is so amazing. I forget about it every time. It's just so peaceful out there....I dunno if it's just me, but does the water move less at night? Anyway, it was lovely.
Today is a day for changing all our change into real money, so I have a big bag of coins and a mission :)

Autographs and Florists

La Rochelle has been great fun so far. I've been busking in the evenings as it's far too hot during the day. With the music festival there's huge foot traffic so I've been doing well each night. Just playing on my own at the moment - Finbar's trying to facepaint but not having much success (I think he should switch to the graffiti canvas stuff), while Dara seems to be sort of down and not really doing anything at all. Maybe he misses Anna, not sure. He'll need to come out of it soon though - Alex suggested the two of them juggle together today to busk but Dara didn't follow up on it, so it was only me that brought in money again. I'm okay with it to a point - Finbar's figuring out what to do, and the original plan was for Dara and I to do street shows. But not to do anything at all is a bit much. I'd say the two of them would have pulled in tonnes yesterday, it was mobbed...  I dunno. It sounds more ranty than it really is - it's starting to get to me a little but I'm still holding out hope that they'll start making some and then I can take a few days off - I've busked every day pretty much since we left.
The living is pretty easy here though. Staying free in a car park beside the beach. It's full of campervans so it's quite safe, and there's a shower about 30 seconds walk from where we're parked. Not as nice as a campsite, but for absolutely nothing you can't really complain. Plus it's pretty damn awesome to get up and walk 30 seconds until you're standing on a beautiful beach full of people. The heat is crazy, so it's hard to work during the day - I've been reading lots and sleeping. Properly living for the evenings. Routine is usually to get up around 1 or 2, hit the beach for a swim, then I practice a little/or do whatever chores need to be done, before busking in town in the evening. Been drinking every night here since we arrived. Today a really nice gay couple (and both florists, awesome!) offered to buy me a drink after I finished so we got a beer and walked around the city, they showed me lots of nice old buildings. Two of the other nights we were hanging around with 3 french girls but they don't really speak English and aren't all that much fun, so I'd rather make different friends if possible! It's been completely legal to drink on the street during the festival period - we haven't even entered a bar since arriving, but apparently there's none of that anymore from today.
Lollibop have moved to a campsite - the police came along and told them you can't have tents here. It's definitely good though - the confined space was starting to get to us on both sides I think. And we were a little annoyed that one of them took tonnes of our wine one night. Like I'm all for sharing, but literally downing like a third of the big bottle, when that was our only booze we brought in, and on my birthday...it was pretty uncool. Different mindset, I guess..no hard feelings though, and we'll probably still camp near them until Toulouse. You're always gonna get some problems when you try to fit that many people in a small space. It's funny though - now that they're gone the van feels huge. So I guess it was good overrall :)
I'm currently lying in bed typing this - it's raining outside. First drop since we left. It's a nice change. I can hear the festival pretty loudly too - might have to wear ear plugs. Would have liked to have gone and paid in but the forty I made tonight will have to go on groceries etc. Was a funny night actually - a big group of like 12 year old girls all asked me to autograph their arms. Never done autographs before. Guess I'm getting famous.. My voice is definitely improving lots though - I could never have imagined me playing on a street fully acoustic a few weeks ago...now it feels natural. So I'm very very happy about that. :)
With the festival ending tonight it might be too quiet to make anything from tomorrow. But it is lovely here and free to stay so if I can make anything at all we might stay another few days. Then maybe Bordeaux on the way to the EJC. I've barely juggled at all...probably less so than at home even. Juggling is fun, but I really, really do want to be a famous musician. So you've gotta prioritize, I guess, right?

Campsite Superstars and a Beach Holiday

The campsite gig was very strange! We arrived up expecting a group of kids, but there were none really. There were a few pottering around after getting their facepainted but no real crowd, and no real sign of a crowd starting. So we messed around for a while and Lollibop did their car-mime act to just us, really. When we lit up the fire a few adults came along, and we had a fun night playing lots of music and stuff, but it was really strange. But hey, we got two nights free out of it.
Went busking again the next day. Nantes was good for busking - about 30 a day on my own. The others didn't manage to make anything at all though, so it did get a little tiring for me. With the free campsite the money I made was actually enough for all of us, but it's a mental thing. Like living with someone on the dole. Oh well - hopefully there'll be a town where I can't busk for some reason and they make the money instead. Then it's the easy life for David.
We did one more show for our last night - to get it free again. This time we didn't expect a crowd, so we did it near the restaurant instead. I think they enjoyed it. We packed everything up in the evening in order to avoid a similar fate to Rennes, and to my great surprise we left the campsite only an hour behind schedule. It was great. We drove down to La Rochelle, stopping in a big e-leclerc to buy a saucepan and stock up on food. We're currently staying in a car park next to the beach. It's nice - free, showers nearby and couldn't really be any closer to the sea. Funny how you'll often pay the high prices to rent an apartment near a beach, but now we just...park there..
We also bought 10 litres of wine, so that evening was spent quite drunk. We had lots of fun singing songs outside the camper and walking in. Then Finbar got far too messy though so I spent the rest of the evening minding him. Ah well - shit happens. Had no idea of the way home, so spent literally 4 hours walking around. Good exercise.
Yesterday was my birthday. It's also Bastille day though, so we figured we should try to make some money from the tourists. Dara and I went in and did okay, about 25 euro for an hour and a half or so. It's a pity though - I make about the same whether I play on my own or with the cajon, so if Dara can make any money at all doing the traffic light juggling show, it makes far more sense for us to play separately.
The three of us decided we'd get dinner out, as my parents gave me some money for my birthday - may as well treat ourselves. Had some amazing pizzas and crepes. It was really good. Too good. Now I want to eat good food again. Just ate a steak in a restaurant. It's still kinda my birthday. Don't judge me.
The party was really good last night, we just drank on the street going from gig to gig. It's a big music festival called Francofolies here at the moment. Music on every corner. We must have danced at every single location. Just the three of us, dancing the night away. We made some friends and all walked back to the camper, where some of us (not me!) swam at dawn. It was a good evening. Hard to blog about properly though, as I'm terribly hungover. I'm not even gonna spell check this right now. Later. Bye.

End of Rennes, Start of Nantes.

10.30am, 10th July 2013
Last night in Rennes was amazing again. We sang, had lots of dancing, lots of singing with locals. We met a lovely new friend Sven who bought us Belgian beer and was our translator for the evening. Also met some cool girls out for a birthday party who stayed for ages and even sang!

The next morning was all spent packing up the van etc. It took us ages as...well, I don't know why. The guys just don't seem to move very fast. And it is annoying getting past one another. We really need to have a list of things to be done when we need to move and split them up. But sometimes I sound too German. Das Collective.
We drove to Nantes, which took far longer than expected as it was difficult to leave Rennes on the correct side. I didn't mind though - I slept the whole way on my bed. Gotta love campervans sometimes. Dara and I went into the city to check out the busking spots while Finbar went to do a graffiti piece. We saw a really good singer with a guitarist and so hung around til the end of their set to chat. They were really nice. Told us we shouldn't use amplification without a license though, so think we're gonna have to go acoustic in this town. Though we'll probably try amp up anyway. Fuck it. I played a little bit on my own, just 20 minutes or so. Got  a few euro and a Canadian dollar, which I think is worth more than a euro, but gonna have to find a Canadian to make it into real money. Then we drank with some locals for the evening. It was really fun, but jaysus it was expensive. I spent a good 20. Got to talk to a deaf guy though, that was really interesting. Is it called talking to a deaf person? Signing?
Funny though, 20 euro is the least I'd spend on a night out in Galway, and yet now it seems like a fortune. Relativity's funny, huh?
It's coming up to 11am now, the lads are still asleep so I'm going to just go in on my own I think. Get some food and start trying to busk. I'm not really loud enough on my own yet, but sure feck it, it's practice, and if we can pull in ten or twenty each on our own, we're golden!


10.30pm, 10th July 2013.
That was a long day! A fun day, but man my voice is fucked. I went into town and spent a while hanging out near the castle and playing some of my own stuff to warm up, then set up on the main shop st. 10 minutes in the cops arrived, and I feared the worst, but they were really nice. They explained that it's fine to busk, once you move every 20 minutes or so - to not-annoy the neighbours. This is perfect though in a way - it means you can play your highest-paying songs in every set without annoying anyone. I played "Don't Worry Be Happy", "Stand By Me" and "Wonderwall" about a million times today. But they pay. It was my first time properly busking on my own without Dara or an amp and microphone, so it took me a while to get into it, but I spent about 3 hours in total. Had a nice day too, with lots of breaks - though my body is wrecked now. You have to sing so much louder, it really takes it out of you! I'm getting better at the evening time stuff too. You play 4 songs near where loads of people are sitting drinking outside in a bar, then you walk around with the hat. Then you move onto the next bar, and if you're me, you play nearly the same four songs. First time I used the hat it was the scariest thing I'd ever done. But it's how they do it here. I'm still quite shy - I don't want to impose on anyone, so I just walk around smiling with the hat not looking at anyone directly and people call me or stop me. That way at least I know they don't feel pressured or anything. Made 40 today - great! If we could make 60 between us a day we'd be doing perfectly. The lads didn't have as good a day though, Dara couldn't find any decent traffic lights in Nantes for his show, and Finbar didn't make it down til it was too late for facepainting - he's trying to arrange to go painting while he's here. When I went off for the evening busking session we agreed the others would see about getting us a show in the campsite, or teaching the kids juggling etc. Some way of staying for free. And they did it - we're staying free tonight and tomorrow night in exchange for doing a show tomorrow night in the campsite. Awesome. I'm looking forward to it, too - I like busking but my favourite part is when it draws a crowd. I love attention. 5 star campsite too, which is 8 euro each a night, so it's a big saving. Might try and do a little bit tomorrow for food or wine money but certainly easier than today - otherwise my voice will become like Tom Waits' (amazing) and my right shoulder will fall off (not amazing).
We may go to La Rochelle on Friday, we're waiting to hear about a festival happening there. Hold your ears.

Last day in Rennes

Today was a quiet day - I bought a battery for my guitar and restrung it, so now it's just fingers crossed that it works when we amp up tonight! Spent most of the day in the lovely park next to the campsite learning new songs and practicing. Finbar spent the day doing a piece (pics soon!) and Dara spent the day busking. Dara did amazingly, 25e on his first go! We're all very excited for him. Even if he could make half that he'd be flying - that means we can all split up during the day and get 3 different incomes now, then come together at night for the big one!
Finbar came along then and we got some ice cream:

Then I played some more music while Finbar got his dance on: 

We've moved the van just outside the campsite in preparation for Nantes in the morning. One more night busking in Rennes first - assuming the guitar works...otherwise I guess it's just wine...

Goodbye Rennes, you're the most friendly city I've ever been to.