1 hour past midnight we started our long trip south. Shitboy and I took the first shift. Shitboy drove, I'd make sure he didn't fall asleep, fed him, cleaned him and motivated him. Somehow we managed the first 300 kms. Around four, we moved onto the backseats and Christian took over with Bianca at his side. I stayed awake a little, but was eventually overtaken by sleep. The true size of Poland can only be realized when you drive through it from north to south. It was noon already when we reached Slovakia and crossed the Tatra Mountains. In Hungary, bad news reached us. Our buddies, "The Lines We Cross" from Leipzig with whom we had planned to play the next 4 shows were stranded somewhere in Hungary. Diagnosis: defective cylinder head gasket, repairs would take at least 3 days, from Monday on. That sucked to hear on a Saturday. They not only had to cancel their show with us in Cluj, but went back to Leipzig the same day. For bands there is not much worse to cancel a show due to not predictable occurrences. This incident left us with a bad feeling, showing us how vulnerable you as a band are being on tour. Especially when you're so far away from home.
Nonetheless, we continued our hell ride. It was a really long and shitty ride but the last 200KM through Romania were the worst. We passed the time eating shit-loads of candy, analyzing road-kill dog corpses. (In Romania you get lots and lots of opportunities doing this...), and cursing horse-drawn carriages on the road. The last 30 minutes Shitboy talked only to his camera while the rest listened to Romanian radio stations.
Cluj Napoca was something special for us. Four years ago we went to Romania the first time and every year since then. Cluj is basically the center of our Romania-Connection, and we had a lots of hands to shake. An random woman gave Bianca some flowers before the show which made a dream come true: For the last 10 years it has been a dream of this band to hand out flowers to the crowd right before the mosh part. Of course, the show was a hit! Fat sound, huge stage, countless Circle pits, 2-Step, Moshs, the whole program. Questions also provided the crowd with a similar quality product, despite their mood, which was dominated by the still ongoing mourning for their lost backdrop. Edu went so far to see the loss as a bad omen and was thinking about quitting the band after the tour. Coincidentally, that night two bands from Germany played Cluj in two different venues. The attempt to unite the shows failed, because Mr. Schenker apparently left his phone in the bus. The feud Scorpions vs. UAS, which started 2010 when we played 2 days before the Scorpions in Moldova which brought us the title "First German Band to play in Moldova". The Scorpions never forgave us. Clearly we cannot say that one of our songs has single-handedly shattered the Soviet Union, but we definitely have the tougher mosh parts, and that dear Scorpions is everything that matters in the end!
Flo