The journey continues...

Amazing breakfast before leaving London

 After our day off in London we had a drive to Exeter. The van was pretty cramped, so drives were spent watching the scenery, checking social media, etc. (when we had service), and, even though it could be tough, grabbing a nap to catch up on sleep. At one point we happened to be awake, and I noticed a bunch of people standing on top of the upcoming hill. We kept an eye out as we got closer, and suddenly, we're driving next to Stonehenge!!!!

Photo from out the window in a moving vehicle

We literally just drove by it without time to stop. If we had been asleep, we would have missed it!

Sometime around now Kim also started not feeling well. Luckily we got into the city with some free time before load in so we could get her started on antibiotics as well.

We got to the venue, and they had a whole self serve tea bar for us! They had a dispenser of hot water, a variety of tea bags, honey, sugar, etc. It was so awesome! As I mentioned in the last blog, everywhere seemed to be cold. It was so nice to have hot tea to warm us up while we set up :) The hospitality everywhere in Europe was really amazing! There were also some fans that couldn't make it to the show. I don't remember if there was an age restriction or if it was a time/schedule thing, but the venue let them in early to hang out and meet the artists. That was super nice of them.

Through out tour I had people recognize me from Kim's Instagram/Twitter posts, but this may have been the first show where someone came up to me and asked "Are you Melinda the merch Snork?" My mind was completely blown. Someone, on a completely different continent, who I've never met, knows who I am! There are a few of you I know through the powers of the internet, but to have a complete "stranger" know who you are? I can't even explain it. *explodes* Another epic thing that happened through out tour was fans in the meet and greet line. There were several teary eyed fans who would come to Kim after the show and tell her they'd been waiting YEARS to see her live. Or someone would introduce themselves and Kim would excitedly get my attention "Melinda! This is *so-and-so*!!! I've been sending them merch for several years! They're a real person!!!!" It was so nice meeting you all!

Our next stop was Southampton. We got there, checked into our hotel for the night, and still had some time before load in. Kim stayed at the hotel to get some extra rest while Junior and I headed to a nearby mall to grab some food. Junior and I ate at a cute little revolving sushi bar, then headed to another restaurant where we got fresh juices, and a bunch of goodies to bring back for Kim. While we were waiting, the hostess kept humming something, stopping, and frustratedly asking herself why that was stuck in her head. Eventually I figured out she was singing "Mambo No. 5" 😂 She tried asking her co-workers if they knew it, and no one seemed to. Junior looked it up on his phone and played it while we all danced to the entire song. It was a random, awesome moment.

We got our food, got back to Kim, and headed to the Venue. Now, a bit of a backstory. I was talking to some fans at the Phoenix show during the US leg of the tour. They told me one thing I need to try while in the UK is Strongbow Dark Fruit. It's Strongbow Cider, but with blackcurrant and blackberry. They'd had it while over there, and aren't able to find it in the US. They said it's amazing and they miss it. I'd been looking for it at the venues we'd been playing at, but no one seemed to carry it. Junior and I were checking out the selection at the venue in Southampton, and I mentioned out loud that they didn't have it either. The promoter over heard me talking about, and went out and bought me a 4 pack of it!  What?!?!?! I was completely blown away that he did that.

It was really good too! It had some good fruit flavors and wasn't an overly sweet cider. I wish I could have smuggled the 2 we didn't drink back to the US.

Unfortunately, even though we got Kim on antibiotics, her voice was starting to give out. Scott Romano noticed and actually left the show to buy her a jar of honey, and managed to get a cup of hot water with lemon from the bar for during meet & greet. He is amazing! Despite needing a bit of help singing the words, it was still a great show. I've now seen One-Eyed Doll in more States than I can keep track of (I think it's somewhere around 35-40). I've seen them in 9 different countries. I've seen them doing extremely short opening sets and over 2 hour headlining sets. I've seen them at 100%. I've seen them sick, tired, sleep deprived, in pain. I've seen them at venues with amazing sound systems, and on tiny stages where the one monitor they had stopped working before their set. But they always get on stage, give it their all, and put on an amazing show.

The next morning we had to get up early because we had to catch a ferry to main land Europe! We were hoping to take the tunnel, but apparently they only sell so many tickets per day, and it was sold out by the time arrangements had been made. It was a crazy day of traveling. We left England, landed in France, drove through Belgium, and ended up in the Netherlands!

Some photos of the Netherlands from out the van window:

Sadly the photos don't really show how beautiful it was. I also bought a Kinder egg from a gas station along the way! Don't worry, I ate it and didn't illegally bring it back to the States.

The Netherland's venue was crazy! It was probably the biggest stage and room they played all tour, and it was also the biggest turn out! And we were in the smaller room! There was a second bigger stage somewhere else. We got there to load in, and they asked if we wanted a drum riser. They BUILT a drum riser (out of legs and platforms, not from scratch) for Jason as we loaded in.

There were green rooms for both stages on a separate floor with snacks and water in them. Another cool thing about the Netherlands is their tap water is EXTREMELY clean, and they're all about reusable bottles! There was a communal area with a coffee maker and more snacks. They even cooked dinner for us, but I wasn't able to eat until after the show. Not only did we have all of that food, but Scott Romano somehow managed to put together one of his signature cheese platters for us!

Everyone was SO nice at this venue! They took such great care of us! The hospitality here, like some many places in Europe, was unbelievable! I don't know if I can even explain how great this venue was. But, most of you are probably wondering more about the people at this show than the venue itself...

Many of you involved in the online community know Richelle. She's a HUGE One-Eyed Doll fan and supporter from the Netherlands. She has a YouTube Channel with many videos related to One-Eyed Doll. I even knew of her before I started touring with OED. Scott Romano credits her YouTube videos for being the reason he discovered OED. She's been waiting YEARS to see OED, and her dream finally came true! She was excited to meet us, and we were SO excited to meet her too!

Back in the day I never would have thought I'd be on tour with One-Eyed Doll, in Europe, meeting this huge fan that I knew of from the internet. I kept poking her to see if she was real. I think this was the show we were all most nervous about for the entire tour! We hung out, we danced the "Be My Friend" dance, she gave us some epic Dutch gifts! We even face timed Federico Dalman (HI! *waves*), the amazing OED fan and artist who has made a lot of fan art, including some of me (which 2 of you now have tattooed on you! 😮 I still don't know how to process that). We couldn't really hear each other, but it was cool to see him anyway. One of these days we'll get to meet you too! *fingers crossed* I don't know if I can even fully explain how amazing the night was. If you have 45 minutes to spare, you can watch Richelle's epic video about meeting One-Eyed Doll HERE! It's totally worth it and captures the whole night so well! Watching it makes me antsy to get back to Europe! It was such a great experience, and touring, no matter what hardships we may have to endure, is always fun.

I also met Martijn! He actually flew to the States to see One-Eyed Doll, but that was before my time touring with them so this was my first time meeting him. He brought us lots of Dutch gifts too!

After being sick and having trouble with her voice, Kim was really worried about this show. She did AMAZING though. She sounded fine and you couldn't even tell she was loosing her voice the night before. It was an epic show!

After all of the craziness was over and everything was packed up, we headed back to the greenroom (where I finally got to eat!). Remember how there was another stage? Apparently a Dutch band was playing a homecoming show, finishing off the end of their tour. There was a whole mob of people in the common areas dancing and singing a traditional Dutch song. Kim got a little Backstage Video you can watch on her Instagram.

The venue/promoter booked the place we stayed that night after the show. We ended up getting 2 full rooms in a Hostel! This was my first time ever staying in a Hostel, and it was a really nice one! They even had mints waiting for us in the room.

They had a breakfast buffet the next morning. After eating English breakfasts for the past week, it was interesting to see the difference in the foods they had available. (They still had a similar coffee machine) It was also cool sitting in a dining area with other travelers staying at the hostel. There were different ages, groups (friends, families, etc.), and languages! The people sitting at the end of our table were having a conversation that I didn't understand and I'm not sure what language it was!

My Breakfast

Cute decorations on the wall