From Norrlandspölsa to Suisto Klubi

21/05
Woke up early, the lake covered in mist. Jumpstart myself with coffee at the nearby motel bar.Watching truck drivers having a break, boat owners chauffering their swimming sweethearts towards the lake shore which looks like dolphins on skateboards.

Stop for finding a cheap hotel in Nykobing, succeed and have a fantastic Swedish dish there. For vegetarians completely unsuitable, for people like me taylor made. You got to try this: Norrlandspölsa! Todays fiurther challenges include: rethink some arrangements and mentally prepare for the ferry to Turku. Usually the most annoying part of the trip.

Honestly. I'm a bit disappointed. Where have all those good times gone? A packed ferry, youngsters throwing up, the full array of Finnish society going bananas with the omnipresent slot machines, cheap alcohol, terrible dance bands, even worse troubadours in the so called rock bar aboard the infamous Stockholm-Turku line. None of it was there.
Apart from the quality of the musical performances it seems everything has dramatically changed. Fins tired of alcohol? Is this the end? Of Alko shops? Of Viking lines' booze cruises? Of the world as we know it? This spells "Disappointment" all along the line. On top of that I have to drive off the boat in reverse gear this time.
If I don't want to miss out on this part of the journey I'm afraid the next time I have to go via Estonia and take the Tallinn-Helsinki boat.
Arriving 7 am in the morning in Turku gives me a whole day of loitering around. Deciding not to go first thing for a pint I find myself doing an extensive walk around Ruissalo in the drizzeling rain. Seems funny that nowadays things like this are just ok for me to make an exciting day.

22/05

No real big expectations for the first tour gig on a Wednesday night in Turku. Yet this one turns out to be a fantastic evening. Jyrki Mäkelä of formerly 100 Million Martians fame opens the evening at Pikku-Torre with a most pleasant singer-songwriter set in best Nikki Sudden tradition. A small attentive audience came down to see the two Mäkeläs and I'm pleased to see some faces I've seen a year ago at my gig in Bar Kuka just around the corne. My set goes down nicely and get's a bit out of hand towards the end. Ending it playing "Lonesome Town" atop of a table and selling a surprising lot of cds after the show.
An enjoyable evening which ends with a last round in nearby Klubi with my fellow Mäkkelä, his wife Satu, Mikko and part of the audience. Staying the night at Mikko "Lappis" Lappalainen's (whom you might know of Finland's garage-blues heroes Boomhauer). Having breakfast down by the river in a place named Hundsvotti Satamakapaka. Off to Hämeenlinna.

23/05

Meeting Janne Westerlund at Suisto Klubi for our first common gig in Finland. A nice little venue with an extraordinary soundman. Probably the best live sound since playing Vienna in April. The new songs work out even better than yesterday and with a big smile Tommi the sound guy passes me a cd with a live cut of the full gig before I leave.You can hear my version of Grant Hart's /Hüsker Dü's "Diane" on soundcloud. A late night's drive through the rainy woods to our Mökki.

Budapest to Brighton; Part II

Graz, Austria. 18/11/2010
Nice drive down to Graz. Still no snow - good. Bit foggy but ok and car still works. Had a long walk after finally finding the Jugendhaus Explosiv whch happened to turn out  the punkrock place in town. Nice people though. Learned they're making terrific wines here. Not in the Jugendhaus but in this area. On top of that they've got a huge clocktower up on a hill. Asked about it and know more now. When Napoleon took the town back in the days the citizens of Graz got apparently quite desperate about possibly losing this massive clock. So they convinced him to sell them that tower before burning down the rest of Graz. Sounds as if Mr. Bonaparte was kind of a smart businessman. As it's still working I assume it's a good clocktower and was worth all the money. As for the gig I had a good local support act. A guy named Chris Magerl. Worth checking out his stuff on MySpace.
Bought pumpkin oil and wine the next morning on a picturesque local market before leaving for Babensham to support The Great Bertholinis.


Babensham, Germany. 19/11/2010
Speedometer went on the way to Germany. Not good. As I found out Club Leonhard in Babensham is a wonderful place run by wonderful people. An old Gasthaus - I mean really old, 17th century or something - with an upstairs dancehall. Great food and a hell of a lot of drinks. Big party crowd of good 200 people with at least some few that were willing to listen to a solo performer/songwriter. Got terribly drunk there. Too many people to buy me schnaps after the show. As far as I remember they were friendly. Good place as I said but can't really remember a lot. Must have been an exciting night as my shinbone badly hurts. Woke up late, met cleaning lady, packed my gear and left for Bad Staffelstein-Unnersdorf via Fuerth to pick up Robin van Velzen who's sharing tonite's gig with me.