Ok, so first real travel tip of this blog: Cafe Clock in Fez Medina. It’s super cool, really.
http://www.cafeclock.com/home.html
That, and make sure before leaving a country, you have: A grasp of time, and a gadget that will tell you the date/time accurately.
This comment will be explained later.
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‘Ello my lovies..
So, this weekend was a special one. The end to Ramadan, we are granted a long weekend for the holiday of Aid El Fitr, and long weekend which was well taken advantage of by the gaggle of international studies here at AUI. So people went to Marrakech, some went to Essouira, and I went….to Belgium??
Yes.
You see, one of my top ten favorite bands is currently touring in Northern Europe: the Dana Fuchs Band. This top ten list includes CCR, Springsteen, and CCR, all classics, and Dana definitely competes with the bug boys of rock and roll. Check out a video of them performing in NYC here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBLMRBjjeoo
They have never toured in Canada, let alone the west coast, so I made the decision that come what may, I was to put out whatever effort was needed to see them live. I effectively became a groupie. So, after much cruising, I found a vaguely affordable airfare to Brussels, the closest city to Binkom, a teenie tiny town where the band was playing at the “Binkom Blues Festival”. I couldn’t find any kind of hostel set-up near Binkom, so decided to test out a website that I’ve been a long-time lurker on: Hospitalityclub.com. Basically, it’s an online club for people to make profiles, and then get in contact with people around the world who can help travellers out by hosting them for a night, showing them around town, or just meeting for coffee. A similar, but unaffiliated (i think) site is couchsurfing.com, the hipper-styled version, aimed more for just finding a place to crash for the night.
Anyway, I sent out a mass of emails to members, asking for a place to crash Saturday night. I got two replies, one was a no-go, and the other was from a fellow named Ewan, who said he grew up in the Binkom area and could probably help me out. I hopped onboard the first train to Leuven, the town where he lives, and ran around to find a pay phone once I arrived (3hrs later then expected..).
Ewan met me at the train station and showed me his place, before getting one of his friends to come over and pick us up.
This guy and his buddies own a decommisioned bus, which they have parked in a field and gutted with the intention of building a bar and dancefloor inside of. So we rolled up to the party bus and hung out for awhile before the concert started. It was a big grassy field with large trees on all sides; the guys were also building this structure out of logs and twine for a Scouts event the next day. Combined together, the mix of good ol’ boys, beer, nature, and strange objects gave me such huge flashbacks to Bowen this summer (shout out to Bowenation, love you guys!).
Later we drove down to Binkom, and accidentally went into the artists gate instead of general public. Sam, Ewans’ friend, started talking to the bouncers about how I was Canadian and came all the way from Morocco to see the show. The guard replied to this with “Oh, she came to see the Canadian band?”. I had no prior knowledge of The Perpetrators, but the guard decided to introduce me anyway. Went into the backstage tent and sat down with these four guys, introduced everyone (one was from Vancouver) and chatted for around an hour or so. They not only got my an artists pass bracelet for the duration of the show, but a whole roll of drinks tickets! And this is Belgium, the land of good beer, but even I couldn’t finished the 15+ tix that were available to me…
So the show was amazing, The Dana Fuchs Band puts so much energy into their shows, and Dana herself was on a roll the whole night. Check them out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBLMRBjjeoo
The crowd demanded two encores at the end, and wanted a third, but Dana looked a little exhausted and started signing autographs instead. I got a chance to hop up onto stage and talk to her, told her I flew from Morocco to see the show (which she looked rather surprised at), got a photo with her and then left her for the largely male adoring crowd that had formed.
Ewan and his bro were kind enough to come and pick me up after the show, we then went back to the bus where they had a gigantic bonfire going, and partied until 3am! Went back to Leuve, crashed at his place on the couch. In the morning he wished me good luck and I packed my bags for AMSTERDAM!!!
To Be Continued…
