Touring is all about adventuring and we certainly had a lot of adventures on our last little tour of Belgium and France over the Valentine’s Weekend!
Deciding to hire a car was a great idea!.. not hiring a GPS or having a proper map… not so good an idea.. but you know how you just think that you can ‘wing it’ sometimes… well that’s pretty much what we did..
We (my man and I) left Berlin very early on Valentine’s Day 14th Feb and caught trains to the airport.. checked in.. decided never again to fly so early.. and waited for our plane.. Arriving in Brussels we both felt excited about what lay ahead of us… a weekend away in Belgium and France together, 3 concerts and lots of exploring and sightseeing to do!
We picked up our hire car and headed into the city of Brussels (both of us had never been there before) driving and following all the signs that pointed in the direction of ‘Centrum’ ‘Centre’ or anything that looked remotely like the middle of the city.. I had heard that we must go and see the main square ‘Grand Place’ as it is one of the most beautiful squares in all of Europe.. we got lost almost straight away and ended up in some back streets of a suburb where nobody seemed to be able to point us in the direction of ‘centre’.. ok my french is very very basic but still… I tried!! I was very glad at this point that my man was doing the driving!
Eventually we found our way, parked the car and jumped on a bus to the main station so we could walk the rest from there.. freezing our mittens off.. we strolled around the beautiful old square and many streets and loved the cobblestones and little alleyways… and all the chocolate shops (approx. 1 every 3 shops).. heaven.
Me and My Love in Brussels!
Skip forward to the Shows in each city… Liege on the first night in the freezing cold snowy weather.. was lovely.. I played at the Live Club and met some really lovely people as well as being hosted by some of the most hospitable staff ever… hello Cherry Beer… (local speciality) and my first ever show in Belgium!
Lille, France on the second day was amazing… such a beautiful city.. we could definitely go back and stay longer there.. we really enjoyed exploring all the back streets and found some cozy cafe’s to relax and enjoy the watching the world go by..
I played a show that night at Lucky Ducky to a lovely rowdy french crowd – my first real show in France! and afterwards we all had drinks together and went out to another bar – very friendly people!
this was a treasure chest of old books and photos for sale that we stumbled across… in an inner courtyard
me in the main square – Lille..
Next day was back to Belgium again with me Navigating and my man doing the awesome driving!! we visited some old friends and had lots of navigational adventures to get there – without a detailed map or GPS!! (my phone didn’t work there) amazing how much I rely on my good ol’ google maps!!
That night I played one of my best shows of the tour in a venue called Live Music Cafe in the middle of Brussels after having technical issues right up til about 15mins before the gig ( no sound front of house or foldback… ekkk!!) somehow I managed to figure it out after fiddling with many knobs and buttons… and then the DJ came to save the day with some fold-back!! thankyou!!
and afterwards we danced the night away…
baguette and croissants in Lille!
And on the last leg of the journey we had to get from a small town north of Brussels – to Brussels airport… in under 45 mins… with a borrowed GPS (set in spanish) and a big whole of the country map… I navigated us to a really small back street of a very small town far away from the airport… meanwhile stress was building.. will we make it on time.. we gotta take the car back.. and check in.. ekk.. we drove round in circles as my map reading wasn’t going so well and the GPS seemed to want to take is in the wrong direction… until we finally found some humans to ask… help!! and found our way back to some main roads and were able to find the little aeroplane signs to follow all the way back… time was running out and we were almost there although it felt like we’d been driving for days in the wrong direction…
Eventually we got there after lots of panic.. and then praying that we make it on time!! Our prayers were answered and we arrived just in time… dropped off the car.. literally ran to the checkin… then ran to security.. ran to the gate… and arrived puffing and panting and ready to go home! to wait in a line for 15 mins đ happy days…. we ended up getting the first 2 seats on the plane 1A and 1B (thanks angels) so we had heaps of room and got to leave the plane first at the other end… and got to have a good laugh at almost missing the flight!!! …
thanks for reading! see you at a show soon đ Prita
For more info on Prita’s Music and to buy CD’s or download MP3’s please go to http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/Prita