Author: Kruse

Trying to leave Europe

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21 April — France – Germany, 347 miles

Second day – after almost zero sleep. Despite (/because of?) how exhausted I was yesterday – simply couldn’t sleep. [Edited to remove (a bit of) the self-pity]… but, plenty of self-doubt clouding the mind over the night, but mostly nonsense… and I’ve since figured out a few other guys have had the same.
One day at a time from here on in… and hopefully some decent nights’ sleeps.

Today’s riding – very long
~220 miles on boring French motorways
~40 miles of very, very nice twisty roads through the Black Forest
And then ~87 miles of reasonable German roads to get to the hotel

Still not really any photos or the such… I did take some video of riding through the Black Forest… but will need to have a look at how that turned out.

Journey’s Beginning

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20 April — London – Reims, 293 miles

So – first day done.
Breakfast at the Ace Cafe,
Photos, speeches, some dignitaries along to get their own photo ops’,
Then finally started riding.

~108 miles on boring English motorways,
The EuroTunnel/Chunnel,
~82 miles of boring French motorways,
And finally ~103 miles on some quite nice French non-motorway roads.

Group dinner in Reims,
I am bloody exhausted… and rather looking forward to trying to get some decent sleep.
As such – not much more info for now, I’ll try to upload some photos/videos when I manage to collate them from other people… didn’t really take any photos myself.

Plans for 2019

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So… getting very close to doing a wee spot of travel.

General Plan

  • Ride a Triumph Tiger 800 XCa from the Ace Cafe in London, to the Ace Cafe in Beijing
  • Probably head into Mongolia, ride a rather smaller Chinese Shineray 150 around the Steppe, with a tent strapped to the bike
  • 17 days in North Korea, maybe more if they find any “objectionable material” in any laptops/phones/hard-drives I take in
  • Japan, to watch some rugby
  • Then – a choice of
    • returning to the UK in winter, and looking for a job at a time of year when people are unlikely to be hiring;
    • Or – heading to NZ for summer, and chilling out while I figure out how much money I have left, and how desperately/soon I’ll be looking for a job in 2020

Some PDFs of the estimated London-Beijing route

london_beijing-1 london_beijing-2 london_beijing-3 london_beijing-4 london_beijing-5 london_beijing-6

Stuff that happened in 2018

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Gigs

  • The Yeah Yeah Yeahs (only a couple of songs, as I’d double-booked, and then had to hurry onwards to the next item on the list…)
  • The Rolling Stones
  • Future Islands
  • Cat Power
  • The National
  • Nadine Shah
  • Lorde
  • The xx
  • Sylvan Esso
  • Father John Misty
  • Beck
  • Bjork
  • The National
  • The Black Lips
  • Courtney Barnett
  • St Vincent
  • Patti Smith
  • Nick Cave
  • Death Cab for Cutie
  • Low
  • The Naked and Famous
  • The Gaslight Anthem
  • Phoebe Bridgers
  • Jose Gonzalez

I also had tickets for a couple more, but missed them…
Nine Inch Nails – more than a little gutted I forgot about this until it was too late
Marlon Williams – simply couldn’t be arsed that night

Nick Cave was as good as ever… and had Kylie Minogue out for Where the Wild Roses Grow… the reaction of the british when that happened… absolutely mental. Never seen so many hipsters and the such absolutely lose their shit for a pop singer.
The Stones – I was a little underwhelmed… but never really been a big fan.

Places visited

Stuff that happened in 2017

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Gigs

  • Conor Oberst
  • The Naked and Famous
  • Ladyhawke
  • The xx
  • Cat Power
  • Japandroids
  • Alt-J
  • Stone Roses
  • The Roots
  • Cold War Kids
  • Tom Petty, Stevie Nicks, The Lumineers
  • Feist
  • Regina Spektor
  • Nadia Reid
  • Car Seat Headrest
  • The Libertines
  • Seasick Steve
  • Jack Bugg
  • KT Tunstall
  • Fun Lovin’ Criminals
  • Ryan Adams
  • LCD Soundsystem
  • Ghostface Killah
  • The National (x2)
  • Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
  • The Naked and Famous
  • Dizzee Rascal
  • Lamb
  • St Vincent
  • Public Service Broadcasting
  • Katchafire
  • Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
  • Father John Misty
  • Sylvan Esso
  • Goldfrapp
  • Run The Jewels
  • Prophets of Rage
  • Queens of the Stone Age
  • Wolf Alice
  • Gorillaz
  • P.O.S.

Can’t be bothered making notes on each, but highlights were certainly Nick Cave – turning a song like “Higgs Boson Blues” into a Stadium-Anthem absolutely filling the O2 Arena… pure class. And obviously, seeing Tom Petty before his passing.

Lowlights – Libertines, never really got the hype – seeing them live didn’t change my mind. FLC before them was fun but. And Stone Roses – glad I got to see them, but Ian Brown sounded like a drunk pub karaoke singer.

Places Visited

  • US-of-A – the-turning-40-like-an-adolescent-trip – New Orleans, Orlando (eyes lowered, shame-faced…. WrestleMania)
  • Cuba
  • Singapore
  • Morocco for Christmas/New-Year – on a BMW F650

Stuff that happened in 2016

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Gigs attended (this was the year of opera)

  • La Traviata
  • Pia de Tolomei
  • Primal Scream
  • Il Trittico
  • Lucia di Lammermoor
  • Future of the Left
  • La Fanciulla
  • Bruce Springsteen (x2)
  • The Chills
  • Nabucco
  • Boheme
  • Beck
  • Il Trovatore
  • Mudhoney
  • Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros
  • Katchafire
  • Sam Beam & Jesca Hoop
  • Beth Orton
  • Ugly Kid Joe
  • Ben Harper
  • PJ Harvey
  • Low
  • Pixies

Places visited

  • Czechia
  • Italy a couple of times (Lake Como – possibly the first place I’ve seen which rivals my biased view of New Zealand being the most beautiful place on the planet)
  • Germany