press to travel, bro? - si!

Three weeks US west-coast for a couple of bands - what are we doing? #dedication

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The Women's Building in San Francisco, Ca.

The entire 4-storey building is a canvas to a stunning mural celebrating the work of women around the world. The "Maestrapeace" was designed and painted by a team of female muralists, led by Juana Alicia.

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The Clarion Alley Mural Project at Clarion Alley in the Mission District, San Francisco.

Just a tiny selection of some of the incredible murals in this small alley.

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Turned a couple of the shutter bursts of Paramore at Monumentour in Concord, CA on the 17th of August into gifs!

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Disneyland Part 2

Arriving at Tomorrowland, we went straight to the exposition hall, nudging each other with excitement at the “meet captain america” banners. Coming in to the building, we were met straight away by JARVIS, whose voice over the speakers informed us of which Iron Man suits we were seeing. Pride of place was the Mark 42 armour, which was seen in Iron Man 3, with an array of earlier suits lining the wall behind it. After walking round it a couple times, marveling at the different makes, we went and queued up to meet Thor.

The wait in line was around half an hour(ish?) bc they let you in to the throne room in a group. The wait was totally sweetened by the displays of the weapons of the warriors three and Sif though, so it was ok. Also we were totally excited so the wait wasn't bad. When they finally let us in, we walked into this small circular room with more weapons displays (Heimdalls helmet/ daggers!! Loki's helmet/ shackles!!) and when they closed the door, we all had to stand in the middle of the room, when Odin started a little talk about how Jane had figured out that the link between Asgard and Earth was strongest "right at these coordinates" (neat idea, disney! also go jane foster yeaaaaah) and they had these lights up in a circle that started shining and smoke was billowing and it was like we were travelling along the Bifrost!! Then the doors to the "throne room" opened and Heimdall's voice welcomed us to Asgard and we filed into the room and Thor was there and he did a little "welcome to Asgard" speech which was hilarious but also really great???! So. He went on to talk about Mjolnir and asked for a volunteer from the group to see if they could lift it and this little boy got picked and he tried to lift the hammer and it didn't work but then they lifted it together and it was so sweet ºuº

Anyway, so you'd go forward in your group to meet Thor and he'd shake people's hands (for an almost uncomfortably long time, it was brilliant) and ask for their name and do a little smalltalk before posing for pictures. Kate was wearing her Cap vest and had her Cap bag (people in line said we should totally open a shop and sell things like that-- watch this space!!) and I'd just pinned three avengers pins to my shirt which he immediately noticed. He asked our names first, asking where we'd traveled from and when Kate answered Europe, he sort of laughed and said "that is a long way indeed to travel to Disney and Asgard" which, duh, yes, but also so worth it. He pointed to the pins on my shirt and said something along the lines of "I see you are a fan of us Avengers" before gesturing to the Captain America pin and asking if we'd met him yet, to which we replied that we hadn't yet, but that we were going to afterwards. His response? "Ah, well, tell him I said he should grow a beard". Incredible. We all chatted a bit and then he sort of led us over infront of the cameras and i blurted out if he had a specific pose in mind (he'd done the standard pose with others, but also a really cool individual avengers pose with three girls, so i figured he might have some ideas) to which he replied "yes, here, you take this arm, and you take my other arm, and i shall hold mjolnir like so" and so we posed and the staff (dressed like SHIELD agents) took pictures and then he thanked us for coming and wished us a nice day and noticed the chibi avengers on my cap and laughed.

So we walked out of the room pretty much giggling like little girls and went straight over to the queue to meet Captain America.

They had a little exhibition there as well, with a timeline of the movie events, as well as his WWII uniform and a screen where there was a shift image of how he looked pre- and post- serum. They let people in individually here, and so we waited for our turn, and got talking to the cast member who'd let people in to the room. His name was Victor and it turned out he was actually incredibly funny and really into his job. We inched up the line and he greeted us, asking if we were ready to see history/ a fossil. Seeing as he had a SHIELD badge on, we asked if he was aware that SHIELD had infact been taken over by Hydra and he said that the past weeks had been really tough, just weeding out the remaining Hydra agents, but hopefully it would all be getting back to normal soon. He asked if we knew that Hydra had, in fact, a secret torture chamber here in Disneyland and whether we'd been there yet. The "torture chamber" turned out to be the It´s A Small World ride which we told him, yes, we'd been on. "Oh man," he said, "it's shocking, isn't it? Did your ears start bleeding? They set triggers into that song, so that now, whenever you hear it, you can't control your actions. It's terrible, it really is."

After noticing our Avengers based attire, he went on to say how disappointed he was that no one ever wore the "Agent Victor" shirt and then went on to show us the pose/face he was pulling on the merch. Just before he let us in, he inhaled deeply and said: "You smell that? You know what that smell is? It's the smell of freedom. Go on in, he's ready to meet you."

Captain America greeted us the same way as Thor, asking our names and how our day had been so far, asking what we'd been up to and what else we were planning to do, before instructing us on how to pose. The photographers had actually snapped pictures while we were talking with him, resulting in some pretty funny pictures.

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Literally us, every time something awesome/american happened (like pizza and donuts for dinner, just as an example) ;)

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Day 18 -or- we visit the happiest place on earth

Part 1/2

Monday dawned bright and sunny and, fueled by excitement and breakfast, we hopped into Saya’s car when she picked us up. The drive to Anaheim took about an hour and when we arrived at the parking area, we took the tram to the actual resort. After that short 5 minute drive, we stepped out onto the area infront of the entrance to both parks, called Downtown Disney. After passing the bag search and showing our tickets, we were in Disneyland proper! (The staff were all fantastic and absolutely lovely. One of the men checking bags would greet each person with “princess”/”jedi” before wishing them a lovely day)

We made our way around Main Street, where Kate got a pressed penny souvenir and we checked out the shops. Unfortunately the line to meet Donald was too long as he had to take part in the parade, so we didnt get to meet him. Passing the other shops in main street (and crying a bit at the up soundtrack playing) we stopped infront of sleeping beauty’s castle to take some photos and get a good spot from which to watch Mickey’s band play. The brass band arrived first, lopping round to come out through the castle gates, followed by Mickey and some other characters, who all started dancing like absolute loonies. Kate and me were talking about how great of a job that must be; to wear a costume and just let loose. After an interruption by the Mad Hatter, the band went on their way, of course after wishing everyone the most magical day. We made our way through the castle into the courtyard and went on our first ride of the day: snow white. It was pretty terrifying, to be honest, with the evil queen figure suddenly turning round and turning into the witch but apparently it was appropriate for small children. After Snow White we queued up for the Peter Pan ride, which was meant to take around 40 minutes but felt like it went a lot faster. After flying above the inaccurately scaled skies of London, we strode over to King Arthur’s carousel where we picked the noblest steeds and rode them for a while, grinning like kids all the way. We wanted to go on the Alice in Wonderland ride next, but the queue was too long for us, and the heat was getting pretty hot (….) so we bought some water. And salty popcorn (paradox?) before queueing up for the Its A Small World ride, which was mentioned later on by a hilarious employee called Victor (more on him later!) After the boat ride we snuck a glimpse into the theatre where an extravagant show was on, and walked through Toontown in search of Donald. After a quick lap of Toontown, we went on to the train to get to Tomorrowland to meet Thor and Captain America!

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Day 17 (probably) In contrast to all previous days we had a very late start because why the hell not?! We took our sweet time getting ready and only left the house at 12p, headed towards Melrose Avenue. Although it was a Sunday, it was still busy in the shops and we enjoyed a bit of window shopping (with some occasional proper shopping in between). To prevent further money spending, we decided to walk back to the Grove (where we ended up doing even more shopping). At the Farmer's Market we decided to mix it up a bit and have lunch at a French shop (goat's cheese salad and goat's cheese sandwich and nutella crepe - yuuuummm). Because we had accomplished so much during the day, we went back to the house at 6pm to pre-pack our bags and rest a bit. Saya picked us up around 8:30 for some Korean BBQ in Korea Town and it was amazing! For those who've never had Korean BBQ (go! Treat yo self!), it was an all-you-can-eat menu with three price ranges, each with an assortment of meats. You get various small side dishes (eg bean sprouts, salad, kimchi) and share those with the people you're dining with and can then choose a trio of meats from the menu. We started off with Brisket, Chicken and Steak, which we cooked on the griddle set into the table. After we chowed our way through the first serving of meat, we chose brisket and shrimp to finish off dinner. The picture doesn't do the atmosphere justice at all: it was a large mess hall type of room with loud club music playing and numerous tv screens, and the portions were huge (and absolutely delicious!!). Fully sated, smelling of meat and close to bursting, Saya drove us back to the house, where we had an early night.

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So today was ama-zinnnngg! Met Thor and Cap (😍), had a hilarious chat with a SHIELD agent called Victor, almost peed ourselves on Space Mountain, rode the carousel & steam boat, met Ariel, Snow White & Minnie and, amongst many many other things, perfected our static plasticky princess smile. Proper post coming tomorrow bc our brains are oversaturated w sugar right now and we just got home.

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Tomorrow is Disneyland Day!

Yes we are responsible adults who are very very excited to go to Disneyland tomorrow (we're even getting a ride from Saya like the kids we are truly at heart)!!! Our bags are packed, the alarm is set, now it's bed time so we can enjoy the whole day! Yaaayyyy

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Day i’ve lost count but too close to the end:

Today we had a leisurely breakfast out on the patio (Magda had made pain au chocolat for us! :)) before we got ready to be picked up by Saya, a friend of Kate’s from uni (who had also supplied us with the most amazing guide to places/things to do in LA she had made). We got our pick up places mixed up though, so we only met an hour later than was planned. So at around 12, we set off, Saya driving us to Malibu. Our first stop was lunch (what else) at this amazing beachfront location called Duke’s. Malibu is famed for its fresh seafood, so we each had some; Kate choosing herb/parmesan crusted tuna, Saya a fresh fish sandwich and i had a shrimp/crab salad. No photo of that, nor the patio we sat on right on the beachfront, unfortunately, but take our word for it, it was incredible!

From Duke’s, we drove back a bit on the beachfront to Getty Villa, where we had our ticket time slot for 3.30. Most photos of Getty Villa are actually on the big camera, not Steve, so y’all will have to wait till we get back home & can upload them. Kate and i walked round Getty villa for around one and a half hours, looking at the exhibitions and marveling at the architecture of the place.

Once we left, we stopped at the beach, took out the towels and blankets and settled down on the sand to nap and watch the sunset. It got a bit breezy and cold when the sun was behind the Malibu hills so we huddled up and then Saya drove us back to the house. We hadn't had dinner yet, so we rushed over to the Farmer's Market for some food. Bob's donuts once again caught our eye so dinner that day was less dinner and more dessert. The Cinnamon roll and glazed donut made us very happy so after another quick food shop for breakfast (fruit and yoghurt, yay healthy!) we returned to the house and went to bed, somehow tired even with all the naps we'd taken ;)

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Today was the second evening kate and i had something from bob's donuts for dinner If this is what it's like to be adult, then i'm so up for it

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Day 15

The alarm went off way too early for our liking (at 6:15am to be exact - horrible!) and we had to force ourselves to get up. After getting ready and a quick breakfast we were on our way to Santa Monica Boulevard to meet up with the bus for our LA sightseeing tour. It took us about an hour (mostly because the traffic lights must hate pedestrians and just not turn green when there is no car around) to get there. It was so freaking hot at 8am already that we had to grab two ice teas at starbucks to cool down a bit. At about 8:40 the RastaBus arrived and took us (witha couple of stops) all the way to Santa Monica Pier. There we had about 20 minutes of time to kill, so naturally, we took a couple of selfies in front of the beach front which was a bit cloudy unfortunately. Our bus driver Steven arrived and took the whole group to our first stop at Venice Beach. We checked out the Murals, skaters in the skater park, the spray painters and the fanatics at muscle beach. Then we were off again to fulfill every girl’s dreams: shopping at Rodeo Drive. We passed the shop where Julia Roberts was refused service in Pretty Woman and drove down Rodeo Drive where one high class shop is right next to the other. Before we could go wild on all the shops (not really though), we pretended that we belonged to the upper class and used the rest rooms in the Beverly Wilshire Hotel (also where they filmed Pretty Woman in the Presidential Suite). Our jaws were on the floor the whole time, while we tried not to stand out too much in our obvious tourist attire. That experience must have boosted our confidence quite a bit, because as soon as we left the hotel we couldn’t stop acting like rich Malibu barbies who were sooooooo much better than everyone else (the people around us must have thought we escaped from somewhere or something, but it was just too funny not to act this stupid in this street). Since our budget was rather tight, we decided not to go shopping this time, so we returned to the bus empty handed.

The next stop was the Farmer’s Market we had been to the night before already, and we enjoyed a delicious Mexican lunch made up of a burrito and enchiladas. Afterwards we felt like rolling around through the shops, but we behaved ourselves (this time) and just wandered around in the barnes and noble bookstore. Julia promptly found the The Hobbit Art Book and sat down on the floor to look through it. To my surprise no one thought that was the least bit odd, so who am I to disturb the little one in her happiness? :) Steven then took us all the way up to Griffith Park and the Griffith Observatory from which we had a breathtaking view over the whole city and the Hollywood sign of course. The observatory itself and its’ exhibition were pretty cool too, but we were definitely more enchanted with the outside views than the physics stuff and so on.

Straight from there we drove down onto Hollywood Boulevard with all the stars in the pavement, the Chinese Theatre and so much more. After more selfies and pictures of the stars, we discovered a Hot Topic Store and could barely contain ourselves because of a) the stuff they sold and b) the music they were playing in the background (hint: the band starts with P and we saw them not too long ago live in Concord). However tempting the whole store was, we settled for socks for Julia and tights for myself (both of them are really really cool) and left straight for the bus again.

Since that was the last stop of the tour, Steven took us straight back to Santa Monica Pier with a couple of recommendations of what to check out next. We promptly followed his advice and walked up to 3rd Street Promenade to get some pinkberry frozen yoghurt. With our dinner in hands and the beach not far away we decided to check out the pier and watch the sunset. Walking along the beach was so pretty, but the wind kind of ruined it and made us feel quite cold. So we left right before the sun was about to set, to take the bus back home, with the promise to return, but this time with jackets. It took about an hour to get to Magda’s with the bus, where we fell onto the bed at once and just couldn’t be asked to move at all.

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Day 14 aka Goodbye SF Hey LA!

We had an early alarm set for today seeing as we had to get to trge greyhound station an hour before it left and we were unsure s out public transport times. So after breakfast, Ast minute packing and saying goodbye to the hostel, we took the bus to the greyhound station, where we waited for an hour before boarding. Once on the bus, the journey was pretty straightforward, with three stops altogether. One of them was in a place called Avenal (or rather a gas station outside Avenal aka in the middle of absolutely nowhere) which was our lunch stop. After boarding back on the bus, the jurmey continued for around 4 hours, and we arrived at the greyhound station in LA around 5.45.

From there we took the bus to the nearest bus stop of where we're staying, and walked a couple blocks to the entrance of the gated community, where a lady let us in, before we met the hostess' son Luca and dog Edward. We got comfy in the room- enough space for both suitcases! A large comfy bed! A massive beanbag! A tv! A desk! A clothes rack and wardrobe!- before we decided to go out exploring for a while. We live in a gated community just by The Grove and the farmer's market that it houses, so we made our way through the neighborhood to The Grove. Dinner was found in the farmer's market, where the choice was so overwhelming, we settled for proper greasy american pizza (good), root beer (not so good) and donuts from bob's which apparently sells the best donuts in LA (absolutely perfect: fluffy, soft, delicious, really really great basically). After dinner we went by Whole Foods to grab some things for breakfast (whole foods is pretty much our fave store here, its like heaven) and then back to the house, got ready for bed and then met our hostess, Magda. After that, it was time to fall into the super comfy bed and sleep.

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Day 13 aka our last day in this beautiful city

After the bathroom shuffle with the roomies, breakfast and blogging, we took the bus to Alamo Square to see the famous “painted ladies”: a row of colourful Victorian era houses that offer up a great view of the city below, making them a popular tourist- and postcard spot. From there, we walked down Pierce Street and took the bus to Haight Ashbury (again! Definitely one our our fave Neighborhoods!)

Once there, we went back to the food market to get the delicious Ice tea we had purchased last time and then walked down the road to the Golden gate park in the starting drizzle. There, we walked further in and went to the AIDS memorial grove where it was so quiet it felt like a other world. We wanted to go to the lily pond but couldn’t find it, and ended up in front of the Conservatory of Flowers instead, where we sat down outside the greenhouse that looks somewhat like the crystal palace, drank our ice tea and squinted into the drizzle. Making our way back towards the main street of Haight, we passed a massive number of Dahlias, which apparently are well suited to the climate in san francisco. A few selfies happened (naturally) and then we went into amoeba, a huge music store that carries pretty much everything under the sun. From there, it was a quick stop at the a donut place and then Julia got her hair buzzed again. After the hairdresser, we took three buses to end up at Fisherman’s wharf, where we went to The Codmother for lunch: a fish and chips place opened by an english lady. We ordered the fish, chips and shrimp combo and massively enjoyed it!

Seeing as we had had a list of things to see/do on our last day, and had already crossed all but one off the list, we took the historical street car to the bottom of Coit Tower, where we detoured into the Levi’s store first. After the shop, we decided to brave the journey up to the tower, taking selfies as we went. The first one in the set was pre-, the second one was halfway. 447 steps later and we had arrived at the top of Telegraph Hill, where we gazed up at the incredibly phallic shaped tower and went round for a 360 view. There was a statue of columbus in the middle of the parking lot (pah! People drove up the hill. Weak) and we had a good ol’ ridicule session about him. His cloak was meant to look like it was dramatically flaring in the wind but it just looked like he had dramatically… broken wind instead. He was a massive douche, anyway so we went on our way, having seen it.

Passing franklin pentagon park/ Washington square again we took the cable care to union square, then took the stairs to the room for the last time (sob) and packed our bags again, setting everything out for the next morning.

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Day 12 

We started day 12 off pretty relaxed, knowing we only had a deadline to meet at 12; all the time we’d spent at the hostel, during breakfast, a guy would come in and advertise for a walking tour. We’d planned to take part on one of those tours, and decided on one that went through the Castro and Mission districts. So at 12 pm we met with the guide of the Wild SF walking tours, J. Jo, and the other people taking part, in Union Square. Once everyone was there, we stood in a circle and listened to the first of J. Jo’s witty songs: we now know what NOT to call San Francisco. From there, after a short introduction round (name, country, fave food) we set off to the MUNI station and took the metro to the Castro district (aka the gay district) where J.Jo gave us a short introduction to the area and a small pop quiz. This one’s for you, dad: what does the acronym LGBTQAAPTAAA stand for? From Harvey Milk Plaza we walked down Castro street, passing the first openly gay bar (opened by a pair of lesbians, called Twin Peaks) and the Castro theatre, making our second stop in front of Harvey Milk’s house and storefront, where we learned more about Harvey, Dan White and the White Night Riots. There was a mural of sorts on the house (second picture) and two plaques on the sidewalk to commemorate him. The store front under his apartment where he set up a camera shop now houses a human rights movement. Our last stop in the Castro was in front of a window front with an array of barbie-esque dolls in various genders and states of undress, holding signs and banners that symbolized the struggles the lgbt people had to go through. I made notes for my Gender Studies course (wahoo) so I’ll keep it to a minimum here, but if you have the time, google the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, and the Comptons Cafeteria riot, which served as a precursor to the famous Stonewall riots. J.Jo ended his Castro tour and LGBT history lesson with a rewrite of the song Over the Rainbow, which was absolutely fantastic!

From the Castro, we walked through Dolores Park, looked out over the city and then went on to a small cafe where we had a short break for delicious smoothies and food. From there we entered the Mission district, looked at murals, jaywalked, learnt about the gentrification of the Mission, and the Natiives that lived here before they got baptized, kept as slaves and then died of an illness the spanish brought over. More than a little ironic, considering that the city was named after Saint Francis of Assisi…… At the old mission church the tour ended and we said goodbye to J.Jo and the rest, going on a little tour of the mural we hadn’t seen yet. My personal favorite mural is that on the Women’s building, (Edificio de Mujeres) which was painted entirely by female artists, led by Juana Alicia and depicts Aztec goddesses, women (of colour!) of influence and the names of beneficiaries as well as strong females that are all round inspirational. After finishing the mural tour (and a stop in various artsy stores, and a comic book shop!) we took the bus back to Ghirardelli square, where we bought chocolate and then went to In-n-Out for a cheeseburger and fries dinner. So much better than any other fast food chain; it actually tastes of real food! After some postcard buying, we wanted to take the cable car back, but had to wait for aaaaaages for it to arrive. We might have gone a little loony with the wait, but we arrived back in our room eventually, where we met our new german roommates. Once again, we packed our bags and then went to bed.

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Day 11 -or- Kate leaves teenage-dom

We got up relatively late (just because we got in so late the night before), I got a little Happy Birthday song from Julia and then we had breakfast (and it did not taste any differently than the previous days). Afterwards we got ready and took the bus to the Mission to return the Narrative camera we had rented. Not even 10 minutes after arriving there, we were already on our way back to Union Square.

Just because it was my birthday and kind of lunchtime, we decided to go up to the highest floor at Macy’s to the Cheesecake Factory for lemonades and a slice of delicious cake each (Julia had a Cherry Cheesecake and I went for a Lemon Raspberry one - yum yum yum!). Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t as nice as we had hoped, but the space heater next to our table did its’ job very well. Since we still had some time to kill before dinner, we took the bus to Haight Ashbury again, took a stroll in Golden Gate Park and window shopped along Hight Street.

Back in the hostel we dolled ourselves up a bit for our fancy dinner reservation at Blowfish Sushi. As a starter we shared the Salmon-Tuna-Tartar Pyramid which was just as amazing as it sounds. When my main arrived (see the second picture) I was just stunned because I did not expect this massive bowl filled with delicious fish to be surrounded by billows of evaporating dry ice. Just an amazing sight to see and the fish was delicious. Julia’s cheesy salmon sushi wasn’t as spectacular but still tasted amazing. Before we ordered dessert, it was finally time for me to open present (yyaayy!). Since my parents got me a ticket to Disneyland (which I totally knew nothing about -wink wink-) the theme was represented in the rest of the presents as well: I got a Donald Duck chopping board, pin and PEZ dispenser (anyone doubting that Donald Duck is my favourite Disney character? Me think not). But then I opened Julia’s presents and I was stunned by her creativity! I got a little elephant doll (it’s an inside joke, ok), stickers and a jeans vest decorated with great and loving detail! [i picked the right person to travel with :D no but really, such amazing presents and we had such a great time not just that night but throughout the whole trip so far (andI seriously doubt that anything will rain on our parade)!] Honestly, Dessert was yummy but not that important anymore after those presents.

After paying, we wanted to take the bus right outside of the restaurant. However, the bus did not think it necessary to arrive at all. So after waiting for about 30 minutes we decided to walk and just hop on the bus when it would pass us - it did not! We finally got to Mission Street again where we got on the bus for 3 blocks and then walked back to the hostel from Union Square. Since we were still pretty beat up from the concert and the massive walk we just had to do (and because we are still underaged in this country) we kind of decided to call it a night at about midnight.

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Day 10 = the whole reason for this trip!!!

Just like every other day, this, the day of all days had to start with breakfast (surprise surprise)! To keep our excitement at bay and not freak out before we even started the journey to the venue, we decided to behave like adults for once and do some washing to get all the dust from Yosemite out of our clothes. It was nearly 2pm when we left the hostel for the BART station at Powell Street to take the train out to Concord, which took us about 50 minutes in the freezing cold because some idiot must have thought it was a brilliant idea to turn the A/C up. After a bit of confusion at the station in Concord, we met two girls who were also on their way to the concert and actually knew which bus to take (shame on the queen of transport for not being fully prepared!). However, the bus did not take us right up to the venue, so we had to walk a bit, this time in scorching heat! Not fun at all! Eventually we made it, left the two girls in the queue and went to collect our tickets at the box office. The lady there was apparently a joker because when I gave her all my details, she was like: we don’t have your tickets yet. :O thankfully, her colleague found them, before I could go into full heart attack mode. With the tickets clutched in our hands, we walked all the way back to the girls in the queue where we just sat down and waited. At about 5pm the queue started moving and we got in, but had to queue again until 6pm before we could go and find our seats (keep the heat in mind and all the stupid girls next to us who thought it was a good idea not to bring any water, and you know how we felt). Luckily, we are well versed in the art of long queueing (thanks to all those shows in england!) so we had brought food, water and sunscreen. Without the sunscreen no doubt we would have burned to a crisp, but seeing as we are just experts at life, everything was fine. So we got in to the “venue” proper: a huge, essentially outdoor venue with lawn, seating and pit spaces. The view from the lawn at the back was incredible, looking out over the hills of Concord (the sleep train pavilion is essentially in the middle of nowhere). We got to our seats and were super stoked bc we were sitting pretty much with a perfect straight view onto the stage. After a couple excitement selfies, toilet and giant pretzel breaks, New Politics came on stage. These Danes definitely know how to put on a show- music and dancing!! After the first couple of songs, they had a little interlude when the singer started breakdancing/ full on grooving and let me tell you: he’s got serious moves!! Our jaws were almost on the floor, and they only dropped further as the evening went on! We stood up and started dancing/ singing along about halfway through the set, just enjoying the sensation of being there. The turnaround time between New Politics and Paramore was really short, only around half an hour and when the Paramore backdrop was revealed, the freak out really started! We were basically vibrating with excitement and when the lights went off and they started their set, it was just in time with the setting sun which gave it all this even more surreal vibe. Paramore started off with Still into You and used the confetti cannons and it was so fantastic -hearteyes- The sound quality was fantastic, they had this awesome massive led screen which would light up/ flash/ look incredible in time with the beat and Paramore just put on a show that was so worth the trip over. During The Only Exception, the whole pavilion lit up with lighters and cellphones and it looked like something from another world, with the lights swaying in time to the music and the stars shining from above. The slow songs are always such a treat because that’s when hayley’s voice really comes out (and it gives you a moment to catch your breath/ work the cricks in your neck!). I (Julia) was pretty close to tears by the second song, just struggling to come to terms with the fact that this was actually happening, so overcome with happiness, and the dam just burst at Last Hope. Full on tears streaming down my face, grinning and singing along. No doubt i looked a treat. They got a dude up for the bridge of Misery Business (as always) and he KILLED it!! He sang like a pro, head banged in synch with hayley and did something we all dream of: take a selfie with hayley! The crowd was so receptive to Paramore, singing along whole heartedly and cheering and applauding and it was such a privilege to see them play again, this time in their own country. They ended their (in my opinion ;) much too short set with Proof and Ain’t it Fun which was just the icing on the cake. Proof is pretty much mine and Kate’s fave song, and it’s where the blog url comes from (albeit changed from “til i finally reach the shore”) and we just lit up when the first couple chords started. For Ain’t it Fun, of course everyone was on their feet, clapping and singing along and the confetti cannons got used again!

While the crew rummaged around on the stage, we tried to catch our breaths and had a hard time realizing what just happened. The break in between was sweetened by music videos of Panic! At the Disco and Brendon Urie collabs, so we basically didn’t stop singing. For Fall Out Boy they hung up a massive sheet, so we couldn’t see the stage until the very beginning of the show. And let me tell you they literally started with a BANG! There was fire and fireworks and lights and moving screens, everyone went completely nuts and the band wasn’t even on stage yet! They rose up from under the stage on an elevating platform and immediately started playing The Phoenix! Queue for screeching and all around freak outs! It was just amazing! The whole set was fantastic! They played nearly all the songs from the new album with a couple of older ones like ‘Sugar we’re going down’ and ‘Dance Dance’ (just to name a few) in between. We sang along to most, if not all of the songs (only hindered by our already strained vocal chords). Pete was such a sweetheart during his little speeches: he wanted to make sure no one got crushed in the pit and everyone got enough water. And he explained why he was wearing a cape at a previous show: ‘because my dad told me, don’t dress for the job you have, but for the job you want to have! Be your own fucking Hero!’ Pretty damn cool in my opinion). He also mentioned the events happening in Ferguson, calling out the cops and the fact that an unarmed, innocent boy was shot. About half way through the show Patrick and Andy played freaking awesome drum solos to a mash up of different songs and the crowd just went wild. Afterwards they played one song where Pete and Joe played while standing on the barrier between the pit and the seats. One of the definite highlights was when Patrick appeared on the elevating platform with a grand piano and played ‘We are the champions’ followed by ‘Save Rock ‘n’ Roll’ (unfortunately Elton John did not make an appearance but Patrick totally killed these parts as well). With ‘My songs know what you did in the dark’ they concluded the concert, again with a bang as they literally lit up the stage during the ‘light ‘em up I’m on fire’ bits. Just like cattle we were moved out of the venue, still in a trance and not able to process everything. This time we took the shuttle bus directly to the BART station where we had to wait for 20 minutes for the next train. Unfortunately, it wasn’t even half as hot as in the afternoon so we got our jackets out and tried not the freeze too much. However, we nearly froze to death in the train (because of the air con again) - just horrible. We did make it to the hostel at around 1am feeling very cold and sleepy, so we went straight to bed, trying not to wake our new roommates.