MissZooropa
Refugee
Heer is the last part about my trip, it's kind of long but it's hard to make it short when there are so much that happened both outside of me and inside. Enjoy!
My last(?) U2 trip, part 3, Slane
So, I just realized that to make it to the airport in time was impossible. Not even with a cab. Don?t know what to do. I?m paralyzed and don?t know whether to laugh or cry. Martin is calm though and sits down infront of the computer to see what he can find. We call an airline just to find out that a oneway ticket on a flight the same evening was ?only??125. I was already broke before and made this trip on a tight budget so this was NOT what I wanted to hear. I knew it was buses operating the both cities but that meant I wouldn?t be in Dublin until the next morning and I had a payed hostel, but the bus only costed ?32. I started to book just to find out it was already full. I was losing hope, maybe I just should skip everything, stay in London and take my flight back home on monday as planned. I was also very sad realizing that I would miss meeting up with some friends for a U2-tourday in Dublin that I had been looking forward to. How would I get in contact with them to tell them what had happened. So many questions, no answers. I just wanted to lay down and cry and wake up from the worst nightmare in my life. I hardly ever oversleep but this morning, the only one I just can?t oversleep, I do?. I get myself together and decide to take that flight anyway, if I wait any longer I might not even have that possibility. I call the airline and give them my creditcardnumber, just to get the answer ?denied?. Now I was very close to a breakdown. I give them the number again IF they had heard wrong, once again ?denied, sorry I have to cancel the reservation?. I scream out for Martin, ?do you have a creditcard?? He saves me and let me pay the flight on his card (bless you Martin!). Now I at least have transportation to Dublin but I saw my so needed new TV fly away, I have to live a TV-less life for the next month, naything for U2?.
Next mission, to get a hold of a friend already in Dublin that I knew the number til, get him to meet up with my other friends I was supposed to meet so they could get the info. I finally reach him and he said that he would go there, so he did I found out later.
I try to calm down now, I will at least make it to Dublin, on the same day as planned. Martin has to leave for his flight which leaves me alone in the apartment. I sit down, write some e-mail, checking news about the shows I?ve seen, always fun to read reviews. I leave early though cause I?m NOT gonna miss this flight. When I?m on the plane I get this very uncomfortable feeling that with my luck we are gonna crash and for the first time in my life I?m frightened of taking off. All I could think of was to get to Dublin in one piece. I even remember myself thinking, while landing, that now the speed is low enough so even if the pilot loose control I won?t die. Crazy I know but I was sooo stressed.
Finally I arrive on ?holy ground? and I get goosebumps all over and I now realize what?s about to happen. I find my hostel sit down on my bed when Martin calls me and we make arrangements to meet up at a pub later. I take a shower, sit down for a few mintues then I?m ready to explore Dublin. I meet Martin and a friend of his at first and then we meet up with two other U2-friends from Sweden. Only subject of our discussions is U2, of course and we all agreee that this is pretty unrealbeing there, in Dublin. I?m really tired though and decide to leave early, about 1am.
The next morning we all meet up again and make our way to Windmill Lane. Some photos, reading and then we try to fiogure out what to write. We wanted to do something together and we decide to write ?stars? from WOWY but in the swedish way that Bono sang back in 87, Gothenburg and Stockholm ?92 (Dancing Zoo TV-boot). He changed the lyric to be ?We?ll shine like stars in the midnight sun? So I write that and we all sign it with our names, dates and country. I make a sign for myself as well, quoting my favsentence ?your love was a lightbulb hanging over my bed? My name ending with Bonolicious Bonobabe #1, as I for fun call myself some times. Two of my friends finds some men working with a skylift and asks them what they want to take them up so they could write higher up on the wall as anyone had done before. They pay ?5 each and sign high up, one saying ?higher ground? and the other ?Elevated?.
We leave the wall and walks through Dublin, get some food and decide to make our way to Slane after recomendation from a friend already there.
We arrive in Slane 7.30 pm. More and more people arrive and all are very unsecure about what?s happening and where the entrances are. The police tells us we?re not allowed to camp outside but there were not much they could do. We try to arrange a numbersystem and I end up #107. By now I?ve met one of the girls I was supposed to meet the day before but missed cause of the flighttrouble. She shows me some incredible photos of the band from earlier shows and then we try to get some sleep. But it?s freezing and uncomfortable sleeping in just a sleepingbag on a stony ground, but once again, anything for U2.
Some time around 7, 7.30 the security arrives to organize the line and put up barrier. At this moment the numbersystem is out of work. We all mixes up and it?s just a matter of luck, or rather how much you do as you are told to. I end up in an ok place, pretty much with the number of people infront of me as it says on my number. Then starts a looooong wait, doing nothing cause leaving the line is out of question here.
Around 10.30 something happens and the line moves forward, the have started to let people in!!!! They let a few in at a time and we are lightly checked at the first gate, at the second the check our ticket and of course You are a bit unsecure since it?s been so many fake tickets around. Mine is ok though and I?m heading off. At first I run but when I reach the grass and the downhill my ankles says no and the last thing I want to do is to twist them so I take it a bit easier. I make it down to the entrance of the heart and I?m in!! I see to my big surpirce that the frontreiling almost is empty and then I see why, the stage is SO high. I decide as most before me to take a spot along the side of the heart, right between the mainstage and the tip, perfect. I can see verything wherever they are. Now the long waiting begin but at least we will get some entertainment along the way.
------------------
"U2 on it?s own is a very interesting group and all. But U2 with it?s audience is a culture" - Bono
My last(?) U2 trip, part 3, Slane
So, I just realized that to make it to the airport in time was impossible. Not even with a cab. Don?t know what to do. I?m paralyzed and don?t know whether to laugh or cry. Martin is calm though and sits down infront of the computer to see what he can find. We call an airline just to find out that a oneway ticket on a flight the same evening was ?only??125. I was already broke before and made this trip on a tight budget so this was NOT what I wanted to hear. I knew it was buses operating the both cities but that meant I wouldn?t be in Dublin until the next morning and I had a payed hostel, but the bus only costed ?32. I started to book just to find out it was already full. I was losing hope, maybe I just should skip everything, stay in London and take my flight back home on monday as planned. I was also very sad realizing that I would miss meeting up with some friends for a U2-tourday in Dublin that I had been looking forward to. How would I get in contact with them to tell them what had happened. So many questions, no answers. I just wanted to lay down and cry and wake up from the worst nightmare in my life. I hardly ever oversleep but this morning, the only one I just can?t oversleep, I do?. I get myself together and decide to take that flight anyway, if I wait any longer I might not even have that possibility. I call the airline and give them my creditcardnumber, just to get the answer ?denied?. Now I was very close to a breakdown. I give them the number again IF they had heard wrong, once again ?denied, sorry I have to cancel the reservation?. I scream out for Martin, ?do you have a creditcard?? He saves me and let me pay the flight on his card (bless you Martin!). Now I at least have transportation to Dublin but I saw my so needed new TV fly away, I have to live a TV-less life for the next month, naything for U2?.
Next mission, to get a hold of a friend already in Dublin that I knew the number til, get him to meet up with my other friends I was supposed to meet so they could get the info. I finally reach him and he said that he would go there, so he did I found out later.
I try to calm down now, I will at least make it to Dublin, on the same day as planned. Martin has to leave for his flight which leaves me alone in the apartment. I sit down, write some e-mail, checking news about the shows I?ve seen, always fun to read reviews. I leave early though cause I?m NOT gonna miss this flight. When I?m on the plane I get this very uncomfortable feeling that with my luck we are gonna crash and for the first time in my life I?m frightened of taking off. All I could think of was to get to Dublin in one piece. I even remember myself thinking, while landing, that now the speed is low enough so even if the pilot loose control I won?t die. Crazy I know but I was sooo stressed.
Finally I arrive on ?holy ground? and I get goosebumps all over and I now realize what?s about to happen. I find my hostel sit down on my bed when Martin calls me and we make arrangements to meet up at a pub later. I take a shower, sit down for a few mintues then I?m ready to explore Dublin. I meet Martin and a friend of his at first and then we meet up with two other U2-friends from Sweden. Only subject of our discussions is U2, of course and we all agreee that this is pretty unrealbeing there, in Dublin. I?m really tired though and decide to leave early, about 1am.
The next morning we all meet up again and make our way to Windmill Lane. Some photos, reading and then we try to fiogure out what to write. We wanted to do something together and we decide to write ?stars? from WOWY but in the swedish way that Bono sang back in 87, Gothenburg and Stockholm ?92 (Dancing Zoo TV-boot). He changed the lyric to be ?We?ll shine like stars in the midnight sun? So I write that and we all sign it with our names, dates and country. I make a sign for myself as well, quoting my favsentence ?your love was a lightbulb hanging over my bed? My name ending with Bonolicious Bonobabe #1, as I for fun call myself some times. Two of my friends finds some men working with a skylift and asks them what they want to take them up so they could write higher up on the wall as anyone had done before. They pay ?5 each and sign high up, one saying ?higher ground? and the other ?Elevated?.
We leave the wall and walks through Dublin, get some food and decide to make our way to Slane after recomendation from a friend already there.
We arrive in Slane 7.30 pm. More and more people arrive and all are very unsecure about what?s happening and where the entrances are. The police tells us we?re not allowed to camp outside but there were not much they could do. We try to arrange a numbersystem and I end up #107. By now I?ve met one of the girls I was supposed to meet the day before but missed cause of the flighttrouble. She shows me some incredible photos of the band from earlier shows and then we try to get some sleep. But it?s freezing and uncomfortable sleeping in just a sleepingbag on a stony ground, but once again, anything for U2.
Some time around 7, 7.30 the security arrives to organize the line and put up barrier. At this moment the numbersystem is out of work. We all mixes up and it?s just a matter of luck, or rather how much you do as you are told to. I end up in an ok place, pretty much with the number of people infront of me as it says on my number. Then starts a looooong wait, doing nothing cause leaving the line is out of question here.
Around 10.30 something happens and the line moves forward, the have started to let people in!!!! They let a few in at a time and we are lightly checked at the first gate, at the second the check our ticket and of course You are a bit unsecure since it?s been so many fake tickets around. Mine is ok though and I?m heading off. At first I run but when I reach the grass and the downhill my ankles says no and the last thing I want to do is to twist them so I take it a bit easier. I make it down to the entrance of the heart and I?m in!! I see to my big surpirce that the frontreiling almost is empty and then I see why, the stage is SO high. I decide as most before me to take a spot along the side of the heart, right between the mainstage and the tip, perfect. I can see verything wherever they are. Now the long waiting begin but at least we will get some entertainment along the way.
------------------
"U2 on it?s own is a very interesting group and all. But U2 with it?s audience is a culture" - Bono
