ok so here's how it went down....
so thursday nite, gabe (our tour manager) came over to my house, we then went to in n out and listened to the new coldplay record which is AMAZING. The next morning, we went to ryans house, and a shuttle took us, including Chris to LAX, which surprisingly had little in the way of security check in. We took, which, seemed like much longer than a 4 hour flight to atlanta, and then met up with Anthony (our sound guy) and flew to Vienna, Austria!
We got into Austria in the morning, and checked into our hotel, which was a nice quaint, beautiful place and rested for a second. We took the opportunity of having some time, and rented bikes and rode around the city. We found a great restaurant on a peir on the lake, and all relaxed, caught up and enjoyed a late lunch. After we tried to ride our bikes in the skate park, we took a stroll downtown, and were harrassed by the local police who warned us not to ride our bikes on the sidewalk. After feeling like stupid Americans, we found a great little ice cream shop and discovered the glory which is Austrian ice cream. WOW. I really cant say more except WOW, their ice cream was amazing. After our indulgence, we went back to our hotel, trying to stay awake, and beat jet lag, Chris and Mike went to eat in the hotel, and Me, Ryan and Anthony went to go eat at a chinese restaurant downtown. Gabe met up with us as we were finishing, and then finally met chris and mike at another ice cream shop, which was also a bar and watched soccer with locals. I even somehow, managed to convince one of the workers to give me an extra ice cream cone haha. Then it was definitely time for bed.
We woke up the next day, and enjoyed a nice breakfast buffet in the hotel, and headed off to the Nova Rock Festival. It was such a fun day. The concert was amazing, including an encore, and a great signing session afterwards. Then after about three hours of interviews, we chowed down on dinner and enjoyed a nice after party. It's defintely a surreal experience hanging out backstage and seeing Gavin Rossdale a few feet from you at all times. So weird. So after a long nite, we made it back to our hotel and totally crashed. We woke up the next morning preparing to depart, we were even on our flight, when the pilot announces they are having engine issues and have to cancel the flight. Which in most circumstances would be a bum out, but we were so excited. It meant we got to spend an extra day sight seeing in Vienna, which in our case, sightseeing is usually a rare occurance. Luckily, our product manager from WB was there with his family, and we met up with him at a nice Italian restaurant in downtown Vienna. It seriously seemed like out of a scene of a movie. So beautiful. We then were taken on a little tour of the city, whcih included a thousand year old cathedral, the old opera house where mozart used to perform, and the main grounds for Euro 08. We never realized how much Europeans loved soccer until this moment. A 2 mile square radius covered with booze, food, big screen tv's and tons of people enjoying the game. It was definitely a great moment we were appreciative to have experienced. At the end of the nite, we made our way back, of course, picking up some ice cream on the way, and passed out at the hotel.
The next day the flight was in order and we made it back to OC in one piece, complete with jet lag....ready for our trip to the UK this saturday
enjoy some pictures!
love
ricky
