I LOVE being in a small country

So Tuesday night I was on MySpace and I saw that Portugal. The Man was playing Wednsday night in Nijmegen, about 2 hours away by train. It's an Alaskan band originally (one of the few good things to ever come out of Wasilla!) and I was way way stoked that they were here - the only problem was that it was the very next day. I checked out my list of AFSers in the area, and whatddya know, my Canadian friend Walker happens to live in Nijmegen... so I gave him a call, and a few minutes later we were set to go to Doornroosje the next evening!

last night I took a train to Nijmegen, leaving from Borne and switching trains a few times. I've finally gotten the hang of the train system here, the first time I did it alone I had about five panic attacks when I couldn't find the right track. I've gotten much better at it by now, thank god. Walker and his lovely hostmom Renee met me when I finally arrived, and gave us a lift to the club... the doors didn't open for about half an hour so we wandered around the neighborhood to waste time.

We went in about 8:15, waited in line with quite a few other people (typical hipster crowd, it was funny seeing all the same types here as in america). The outside of Doornroosje is really cool, covered in bright grafitti and murals. The name might sound funny but it means ' rose thorn', which is the dutch name for Sleeping Beauty. You know, Briar Rose. the inside is painted with vines of roses and thorns and various other flora. A band called The Cave Singers opened the night, I'd listened to them a little before but they played really well live. Live music feels more whole than recordings, it might have something to do with being able to feel the vibrations in your body (i love that) but a good live band makes the night that much better.

Portugal came on about 9:30, and were fantaaastiiic from beginning to end. they didn't waste time with little quips between sets, but just kept on playing one crazy amazing song after another. They did, however, ask if there were any Alaskans there and it was fun to be able to raise my hand :) The whole show was awesome though, had a good lineup of songs and they brought their own lights guy to keep everything colorful and surreal to match the music. I think they played for about an hour and a half, and I left Walker for in the club in search of an ATM... no luck, although I did team up in my search with some cool dutch guys who were looking for the same thing. Haven't laughed so hard in a long time, I wish i'd gotten their picture.

So finally we walked home.. or atempted to... got a little misguided and ended up having to call or backup (renee). collapsed on a cot in walker's room and slept for about 6 hours, got up at 7 to catch the train back to Borne. I managed to navigate the tracks with relative ease (only had to ask someone once if i was on the right train!! success), and got home in time to eat a quick breakfast and wash my face before racing off in the POURING rain to take a dutch biology test at 11:15! it's been quite a day.

in front of doornroosje

...and here i'm just a creeper