No fewer than 19 gigs in December, it was safe to say I needed a break. So there I was booking a flight to Budapest on January 1st.
Four hours sleep and January 1st had come, I woke up, got into a songwriting session, completely lost track of time and missed my flight by minutes at the airport. This was only the second time I’d ever missed a flight. The first time was in Edinburgh after a performance at The Fringe (I decided it was a good idea to do an all nighter, to get to a lunchtime gig in London the next day). Frustrating times to say the least especially when the flight ended up costing me more than the gig was paying. Thats the bohemian musician lifestyle I live! This time around I was happy to have a break, see some friends and explore Europe without a full touring schedule.
When I eventually landed in Budapest I was greeted by my friend and we went out to explore the town. Ruin pubs was a particular highlight that evening, an urban derelict building type vibe with lots of alcohol. The next day I was surprised to be taken to the biggest ice rink in the world (well I haven’t seen a bigger one), which was amazing! This was the first real holiday day for me. After some photography and fun, we went into the night.
Day 3, I was scheduled to check out and didn’t really feel like heading back to the Uk, randomly i called my best mate who I knew was also touring around Europe and luckily we both realised it was possible for us to meet. So we got out a European map and worked out a convenient location. Munich was the nearest city to both of us. So we agreed to meet there that day, in 9 hours. I walked to the train station and got stung with a €150 euro train ticket to Munich, ouch. No bother, we had made plans and this was a holiday. En-route I booked the hotel stay. We met at 8pm in Munich. Got ready within five minutes, hopped in an Uber and got taken to completely the wrong destination. After a misunderstanding in the taxi we had to leave the taxi. Great start to our experience of Munich. Eventually we ended up at a pub open mic. It was great to be with my mate and it was an amazing evening, singing and drinking.
The next night was a night of heavy drinking and much fun, so much so I overslept for my flight, missing my London gig the next day. Well done Nick!
Again it was a holiday, and my birthday was the next day. Soooo new plan......after some thought i decided i am gonna take my mate to St Anton's in Austria one of the most beautiful locations in the world. We got on a train, wrote a song in first class and then serenaded some people in the cantine of the next train, as you do. Lets just say i have never seen such a mixed response. After 20 mins we had people singing, and it was a very memorable train journey. To our surprise we were given 50 euros when we reached our destination!
The arrival, -2 and we had know where to sleep, right off to the hotel. Accommodation was sorted really fast and it was amazing to be back.
We got a hotel room, yippee. The next day we woke up and my birthday had arrived. We explored the idea of going skiiing but after seeing the prices of hiring gear and being told I had no insurance by my mother we scrapped that idea and decided to play a gig on a mountain! We grabbed the guitar jumped on the first Gondola with 30 skiers. Myself and my mate looked at each other and said 'shall we', within 5 mins we were serenading 30 skiers in a gondola, it was incredible we even had the majority of them singing along... they then sang me happy birthday... I mean seriously what a morning haha.
We repeated this on every single gondola up the mountain, even in a two person gondola where we had a guy film us reaching the summit. The most memorable moment was singing Voodoo Child on top of the mountain, 2800 Feet in the clouds..... beginning 'now i'm standing next to a mountain'.... see below for some evidence of our madness.... share your best travel stories and i will write a song about the best one.