Oh hello to you, my old chums. What a veritable thrill to see you all again. How are you, how were the last 3 months and a half for you? Well you don’t comment and I’m not interested so back to me. I kid, I kid. Now, previously in my life, I’ve blogged about the fun things that happened this year, so I won’t go and write a long ass depressing post about everything that’s been bothering me for the past  few months.

Instead, I’ll write the traditional “Best Albums Of The Year” post. And let me tell you, 2011 has been a great year for music, so great I can’t even rank them. Instead, I’ll group them into a few categories…

The WTF Award

This is a special category that only one album gets. I’m talking about Korn‘s tenth album, The Path Of Totality. Yes, I know it’s difficult after so many years of activity to still make something that everyone loves. After the disappointing (for me), Korn III: Remember Who You Are, they quickly decided to make something they’ve never done before. Combine the genre that made them famous with what is popular today – dubstep. So the result is some “metalstep” that sounds plain weird. The whole time I was listening, I was like “da fuq is this? da fuq is that?” Don’t get me wrong, it’s not horrible, it’s just…weird. I don’t know if they’ll ever release something as good as my favorite album of theirs, Untouchables, but hey, we can only wait and see.

The “Welcome To The Music Scene, Please Don’t Ever Leave Me” category

I’m talking here about artists that released their first album in 2011. It’s difficult nowadays to breakthrough, but some managed to gain an unexpected number of fans, getting praised by critics, while others already have a smaller, but loyal fanbase. I think this is the place to rant about how annoyed I am when I hear people claim that only artists with many years of activity made good music and everything released nowadays sucks. Wrong, my dear closed minded friends acquaintances, if you ignore all the LMFAOs or Justin Biebers out there, you’ll be surprised to discover some talented folks. Won’t go debating the lyrics of some songs, because some will never understand that music can also be just mindless fun.

Anyway, here are the new artists that impressed me this year with their very first album.

Jessie J – Who You Are

I absolutely adore Jessie and it seems like I’m not the only one, in such a short time she became a worldwide famous popstar, opening for Katy Perry or being a coach on The Voice UK.

Eli Lieb – Eli Lieb

Ever since I heard his the first time singing a Lady Gaga song, this guy charmed me and I kept waiting not-so-patiently for his album with original songs. You should all hear it, I hope you’d like it as much as I do.

Claire Maguire – Light After Dark

I have a friend who loves her a lot so he kept tweeting about her, I became curious so I listened to a song, The Last Dance, and I fell in love instantly. It’s odd, her album wasn’t too critically acclaimed, but who cares, her fans love her no matter what.

Katy B – On A Mission

I’ve heard of her, but was never really curious until I read a NME magazine when I was in London that spoke very highly of her. Then again, the people at NME are some pretentious douchebags hipsters, so I was a bit skeptical. But I listened and liked it quite a lot.

Nicola Roberts – Cinderella’s Eyes

Why is it that out of the 5 artists that I mentioned, 4 are British? Anyhow, Nicola was once part of Girls Aloud, a band that I never really liked. Actually, I didn’t like her first debut single either, Lucky Day was the one that convinced me to give the album a listen. Now I love all the songs, it’s an album that has its fun moments, but also some depressing ones. Aka my favorite kind of albums.

To make this post shorter, here are some other albums that I liked this year and a few words about them….

• Patrick Stump – Soul Punk – Formerly the singer in Fall Out Boy, Patrick’s solo album didn’t impress me as much as I thought it would when I heard the first song released, Spotlight.
• Amaranthe – Amaranthe - I hate the term “metal pop”, but this is the best way to describe them, oddly, Andreas’ screams blend really well with Jake E’s metal voice and Elize’s sweet voice.
• Anna Calvi – Anna Calvi – A strong voice that seemed to have gone unnoticed this year, such a pity…
• Christina Perri – lovestrong. – Okay, who doesn’t know that famous “Who do you think you are, running around leaving scars…” song. Christina is someone we’ll hear about for a while, especially now that she’s been featured on the soundtrack of a Twilight Song
• James Blake – James Blake – I never thought I could like an album like this, but James has a certain je ne sais quoi and now his album is on my shelf.
• Ed Sheeran – + - Lovely is the best way to describe this album and Ed’s voice, whenever I listen, it makes me lay in bed and dream with my eyes wide open.
• Birdy – Birdy – This 15 year old British girl impressed me with her sweet voice and album full of covers. Check out Skinny Love, you won’t regret it.
• Oh Land – Oh Land – Look at that, YouTube ads do work, I wouldn’t have heard their calm, dreamy album if it weren’t for them.
• Cocknbullkid – Adulthood – Anita, or Cocknbullkid, is a genuine nice person with a great voice and I’m lucky enough to have a signed copy of her album. You should all listen and you’ll thank me later.

The “They’re Back, But Were They Really Gone?” category

I’m afraid the title of this category will be misunderstood so let me clear it up: it’s about artists who released a new album this year, but who were either in the spotlight the whole time they were recording or simply I had other things on my mind to notice their absence.

Lady Gaga – Born This Way

Yes, I do think Born This Way is the best thing she’s ever released. (I’m talking about the album in general here). I’m sorry, but people who say The Fame was way better don’t know a thing about music. Songs like Marry The Night, You And I, The Edge Of Glory, Americano or Hair are the highlights of Mother Monster’s career so far. If there’s one artists that I HAVE TO see live next year, it’s her. I could talk about this album a long time, argue with everyone who thinks they know better, but I have many others on the list and I’d like to finish this post before 2012.

Rihanna – Talk That Talk

Rihanna, hands down, wins this category. Not that she has the best album, but it seems like she had just released Loud when she announced a new album. I think that if you go to a record store to ask about Rihanna’s new album, they’ll tell you to be more specific. Also, not in the million years have I thought I’d write about Rihanna. Funny how people can change.

Lady Antebellum – Own The Night

Same as Gaga or Rihanna, Lady Antebellum took advantage of their unexpected recent success and released Own The Night soon after their critically acclaimed Need You Now. I actually like it better than the previous one and I predict another Grammy for them, at least for Just A Kiss. (PS: you must watch the video below, call me a hopeless romantic, but I simply ADORE it)

Other albums worth mentioning in this category are: Cobra Starship – Night Shades,You Me At Six – Sinners Never Sleep,Kristin Chenoweth – Some Lessons Learned,Foo Fighters – Wasting Light, Daughtry – Break The Spell,Simon Curtis – Ra,Company of Thieves – Running From a Gamble,Patrick Wolf – Lupercalia,Leaves’ Eyes – Meredead and Lena – Good News

The “Sweets For Santa” award

She & Him – A Very She & Him Christmas

2011 looks like it’s been Zooey Deschanel’s year (in the career department anyway). She has a successful show on FOX, New Girl, and she’s just released a Christmas album with  M Ward. Oddly enough, this could have easily been called Volume Three, all the songs sound very She & Him like. And even though the Christmas has passed, have a nice song from the album.

The “OMFG THEY’RE BACK” category

Believe it or not, some people take more than one year to make an album, but it’s usually worth the wait. This year, a lot of my favorite artists came back to the music scene, some of them discovering there’s a whole new world since they last released something.

Evanescence – Evanescence

Yes, they’re back, omg! For those of you who don’t know, Evanescence have been (and probably still are) my favorite band so it’s been a painfully long break between their 2nd album and the new self titled one. Was it worth the wait? Hells yes! Is it perfect? No… If I had one complain, it’s that, like many other albums released this year (Florence, Panic, read below), it lacks diversity and that’s something I very much appreciate in music. BUT, at least they’re back and touring, that’s all that matters right now.

Kelly Clarkson – Stronger

Cross my heart and swear to die, this is not only Kelly’s best album yet, it’s my favorite album of 2011. It combines the catchiness of All I Ever Wanted, the raw strong vocals of My December and Breakaway-like lyrics to make one hell of a record.

Darren Hayes – Secret Codes & Battleships

It’s been 4 years since we’ve last heard something from the ex Savage Garden member, but it was well worth the wait, from the minute I heard Black Out The Sun I knew it was going to be an album worth listening over and over again.

Panic! At The Disco – Vices & Virtues

Probably the catchiest, most danceable record in this category, Vices & Virtues is the Panic’s first album since the departure of their two members, including the main songwriter. Did they make it through though? Yes. But just like Evanescence, a lot of the songs are similar, they have the same atmosphere. Don’t get me wrong, it’s one of my most played albums of 2011!

Within Temptation – The Unforgiving

Within Temptation released their very first concept album, alongside a series of comics, short movies, and a full length movie coming up soon. Not only are the comics a page turner, but they sound better than ever. And of course, I missed them playing in my country this time too, now I have to wait another few years till they make a new record….

Terra Naomi – To Know I’m Okay

Terra fans will be like “What is she doing in this category?”, non Terra fans will be like “Who the hell is she?”. But it’s been so long since she’s released a full length album, there were a few EPs over the years. It’s a big deal to make a record the way you like it nowadays, it’s an even bigger deal to make a record funded all by your fans. However, I was a bit disappointed at the tracklist, but it doesn’t matter as the result sounds great.

Adele – 21

I’m sure for most people this is the record of the year. I mean, what human with a heart doesn’t like Someone Like You? I don’t even think Adele was expecting it would get this successful. Though I do find it a tad annoying how people worship her now but had no idea about her when she was releasing Chasing Pavements.

Florence + The Machine – Ceremonials

There was SO much hype about this album since Florence released the first single, What The Water Gave Me. And it should, it’s everything I thought it would be and much more, I do love every single song. Notice I said “song”, not “album”. Because as a whole, I don’t like the album. There. I think it lacks diversity, that all the songs are the same. I should hide now from all the hipsters trying to prove me otherwise, but I did like Lungs better.

Other notable releases this year that I won’t talk about cause I have a train to catch were: Dana Fuchs – Love To Beg, The Pierces – You And I, Avril Lavigne – Goodbye Lullaby, Nightwish – Imaginaerum, Guano Apes – Bel Air.

The “Y U NO Release Album? Y U only release songs?” category

As the title suggests, I wanted to talk about those artists that released a few songs this year, promising us a comeback in 2012. Speaking of 2012, I’m sure it will be a year full of good new music, a few bands have already set a release date for their new album.

Paramore – Busy year for Paramore, they lost two of their original members, they kept touring and released four new songs to make their fans patient for their upcoming album. And if those songs are a taste of what’s to come….it’s gonna be one kick ass record!

Marina & The Diamonds – Although she was supposed to release her Electra Heart album this year, Marina later said it should be out in February, but we did hear two songs and a demo that I swear it was inspired by my life…

Lana Del Ray  - Lana seems to have appeared out of nowhere. I remember I first heard Video Games in Ringer and then I watched everyone posting on Facebook videos of hers. She has a strong voice and her Born To Die album is one I’m looking forward the most next year.

Ugh, I should really make a schedule for posting and stick with it, I’m tired of starting blogs with “Hello hello, remember me?” (not that anyone cares about what I have to say or that I’ve been gone). And you’d think that considering for how long I wanted to go to the Artmania Festival, I would write this sooner. Well no, due to exams and other issues, I postponed this blog a lot. Maybe I will write about more personal things….asap.

Well I’ll try to write this post differently than my usual concert reviews, I won’t talk about each and every song. Instead, I’ll write about every day and a short recap of every concert.

For me, the excitement began as soon as we bought the train tickets, it finally felt like we were going. A little background: Artmania Festival takes place in Sibiu since 2006, and for the past 4 years I’ve been wanting to go but never could. So when I found 2 day passes at half price at the Epica concert, I bought one instantly, even though I didn’t know if anyone would go with me. Fastforward till July when I convinced my friend Raluca to come with me, she wanted to see Sonata Arctica playing on the second day. Oh, I should tell you the line-up. Well the main concerts in Piata Mare (Large Square) were:

Friday: Lacrimas Profundere, Helloween, Tarja
Saturday: Republica, Sonata Arctica, Lacuna Coil

So after she bought a ticket too….I won another pass. She didn’t like Tarja, but I convinced her to come that first day too, it would’ve been so boring otherwise.

We left on Thursday, so we wouldn’t be in a rush the next day. Long train ride didn’t seem that long, we talked, listened to music, gossiped, watched Misfits. Luckily, our apartment was close to the station so after unpacking and eating (did we eat though? I don’t remember!), we left to explore the city. Actually, we left to find the quickest way to get to Piata Mare and see the stage. Let me tell you, Sibiu is a very beautiful city! That night we went to a “warm up party” but out of these 3 words, only the first one was adequate, it was so fucking hot in that bar! Otherwise it was kinda dull but we had alcohol and gotten a bit drunk so getting back to the apartment was very funny!

Friday, after a coffee and doing some tourist stuff, we decided to save some money and go to the apartment and have lunch there. BIG mistake, Tarja was doing soundcheck while we weren’t around and I could have met her. I hated myself for thinking she won’t actually do soundcheck herself. Oh well, maybe next time! So after waiting a bit, we got to the third row, which was good enough, you can’t always be in the first row. *le sigh*

Waited half an hour and the first band started, Lacrimas Profundere. They sounded nice on the album (I only listened to 2-3 songs to be honest) but their sound sucked at the festival, the crowd wasn’t into the music so their set seemed boring and too long. Sucks for the people who actually came to see them, those poor bastards!

Helloween were next and I have to admit, I only knew a couple of songs from them, but they sure did a fun show! Well, I heard hardcore fans complaining they were “too entertaining”, that they made too many jokes and they only played hits and the sound was bad. I think I even heard the word “clown” thrown somewhere in there… Well the sound was better, but far from perfect, but the rest of the things are what you should do at a festival if you know most of the people didn’t come for you!

How can I describe Tarja? She’s a goddess, she loves being on stage and you could actually see how much she loves her fans, she was adorable when we kept chanting her name, she looked like she was going to cry any minute. Waited two years to see her again, so it didn’t bother me that she was a bit late. What bothered me though was that she had a shorter set than Helloween. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the show as much as the first time even though I wasn’t in the first row again and she didn’t play all my favorite songs, sang my heart out and headbanged so much that I thought I wasn’t going to be able to move the following day. For me, the highlight of the evening was hearing Over The Hills And Far Away live, I almost shed some tears when they played the first notes. See, this very song was the first one I heard from Nightwish, it’s the one that made me fall in love with them….or Tarja. And if that wasn’t enough, she also played End Of All Hope from her previous band. I also got some really nice flashbacks to last summer, when I heard Falling Awake. Although I didn’t hear Anteroom of Death, or Enough, I went back to the apartment happier than ever!

On Saturday we had some troubles leaving the apartment too early in the morning and when we finally did, we wandered around a bit in Piata Mare, we realized there was a Lacuna Coil soundcheck, but we didn’t see anyone we knew so we headed straight to a cafe nearby. Soon after we got our order, I hear a familiar voice singing “You aaaaare goiiiiing doooooooown!” so I grabbed my camera and ran as fast as I could, even though the stage was only like 100 meters away. They played Underdog, Spellbound and I Won’t Tell You, after one of them, Andrea said something like “We play now and tonight we’ll go drinking!” After the first song, I started clapping and Cristina looked at me and bowed. I died!

Afterwards, I went back to finish my ice tea and head to the press conference/meet & greet. Well “press conference” is a bit too much, a few fans asked some questions, then they came out to sign things and take photos with us. They were all very nice, sweet and friendly. As Cristina was signing my ticket and picture, I asked if they were going to play new songs, but she said they couldn’t cause they were still mixing. Well now they have a reason to come back. And by the way, the new song kicks ass! So I got a pic with Cristina and one with Andrea, then we magically floated to a restaurant to have lunch. I’m not sure if that’s how it happened, but it sure as hell felt like that!

Waiting for the “doors” to open was boring and annoying, we got separated into boys/girls lanes so I had to listen to a bunch of smelly annoying metalheads talk about how great Sonata Arctica was and how they shouldn’t be playing before anyone. And no, this isn’t the only reason this post is titled the way it is. But anyhow, R got in first so she found some really good spots in the second row.

The first band of the day was Republica and I had no idea what they were doing at this festival. They are a techno-pop punk rock electro band (too many words?) who only had two hits and now are lucky if someone asks them to play at a festival. I mean, I enjoyed them, but that’s only cause I’m not a “true metalhead” who thinks metal is the only genre that matters and everything else is pure shit.

Sonata Arctica was the next band, the one most people came for (and the fuckers didn’t leave after them, so I could be in the front row at Lacuna ) I only listened to them a couple of times before the concert, so I didn’t know them all that well or like them all that much but they did a great show and I surely enjoyed it, my favorites were Juliet and Replica. I would probably go see them again if they came. Which they should, we were a great crowd, all the bands loved us!

Now let me say a few things about Lacuna Coil. I got into them in high school, around the same time I got into Within Temptation and Nightwish. And these 3 bands, along with Evanescence….it is too cliche to say “changed my life”, but they sure helped me view things differently, starting with the music I was listening. So that was an important milestone, you could see why it meant so much for me to finally see them live, after 6 – 7 years of waiting. Now I love their older songs as much as the next fan, but my favorite albums of theirs are Karmacode and Shallow Life (this order), so I was more than happy to hear all my favorites from these two….AND from the older ones.

It was truly the perfect setlist I could ask for! Now I don’t remember exactly the order of the songs, but it was something like this:

Underdog
I Won’t Tell You
Fragments of Faith
Closer
I’m Not Afraid
1.19
To The Edge
Heaven’s a Lie
Enjoy the Silence
Swamped
Fragile

Encore:
Survive
Spellbound
Our Truth

Singing every single word, headbanging, cheering their name, it was one awesome concert and I’d love to see them again, playing new songs this time! I gotta mention this funny part in between two songs:

Cristina: I wanna hear now who is the best singer out of you all!
*everyone cheers*
Cristina: Of course, everyone thinks they are, like the donkey in Shrek, “me, me, pick me!”

Then she sang a few notes that we also had to sing, and in the end she was like “Rah rah ah ah ah” and everyone got quiet, but I was laughing my ass off. It was also their drummer’s birthday so we had to sing him a special song

Although it has been two amazing days, the whole festival ended on a bittersweet note, as they (Lacuna) threw a shitload of guitar picks that landed in front of the fence. So I asked one of the bodyguards to give me one, he looked at me, then gave both of them to a girl not too far away from me. I wanted to punch him in the face, but the annoying things weren’t over. Obviously, me and R were both dead thirsty, but we couldn’t find any chips left for sale and they wouldn’t sell us anything for money (instead of chips). So we  left trying to find an open store, but of course none were after midnight. Luckily, we had one forgotten bottle of ice tea in the fridge, life->saved!

Thus ends the fifth edition of the Artmania Festival, the first one I could take part of, and I have to say – I’m already excited for next year!

I’ll leave you with Lacuna Coil’s brilliant new single, Trip The Darkness.

Day One – Settling in, getting to know Lisbon

As we landed around 3 am, there were no buses/trains anywhere so we had to take a taxi. Good thing we had printed where exactly on the map is our apartment, because the taxi driver didn’t speak much English. Google Maps, saving lives since 2005. Actually, you’d be surprised at how many people don’t speak English in Lisbon, not even a little bit! So if I’ll go another time, I’ll make an effort to learn a bit of Portuguese. Speaking of which, it’s nothing like Spanish, which is a beautiful-sounding language. Portuguese….not so much, even though the writing is similar.

After unpacking and napping for a few hours, we went out. First stop – Castle of São Jorge, as it was less than 20 minutes away. That is, if you don’t get lost on the streets.  The castle itself is like any other castle, may not seem much at first, but the views from the top are outstanding. That’s where I saw for the first time sights that I’ve only seen online before, and got the feeling that I was there my entire life. Dating from the sixth century BC, the castle was used in the Middle Ages, in the context of the Christian Reconquista, to win the city of Lisbon from the Moors (I’ll tell you later about their castle as well). According to the legend, the Martim Moniz knight noticed that one of the doors to the castle was open, and he prevented the Moors from closing the door again by throwing his own body into the breach. He sacrificed his life but, in doing so, allowed Christian soldiers to enter. Nowadays it’s a nice miradouro (viewpoint) where you can admire the whole city, laugh at the many peacocks and taste traditional Portuguese pastries.

When you’re done with the castle, you can either walk (10 minutes tops) to the Sé Catedral (The Patriarchal Cathedral of St. Mary Major or Sé de Lisboa) or take the 28 tram. I suggest taking the yellow tram (you have to go back where you came from though), it’s one of their symbols and I really regret not having time for a  ride. The cathedral is one of the main attractions for tourists, mostly because its mixture of different architectural styles, you have Romanesque, you have Baroque and you have Gothic. Must not miss this one!

There are many sights in the area, but if you are tired (like us) or have a well developed schedule (like us), you’ll only have time for Praça do Comércio, with the Arch of Triumph, the statue of King José I and the beautiful yellow buildings. Formerly a royal residence – Ribeira Palace, it was destroyed in the 1755 earthquake and later was built a commerce square instead. Finished in the 19th century, the Arch guards the entrance of Rua Augusta, nowadays the longest shopping street in Lisbon (I’m taking about five floors Zaras and H&Ms. Plural.) We were too tired to go to all the shops and had the Carmo area planned for another day, so after admiring the Tejo river (all the way to Cais do Sodré), we walked from one end of Rua Augusta  to another – the Rossio Square, and then took the metro one station, because we hadn’t realized yet how close our apartment actually is.

Day Two – Something for everybody

Day two was a lot busier than the first one as we had a lot of things to see and it took time to get from one to another. We started the day with the Benfica stadium. Although it was smaller than the one in Barcelona, it was cool because it was a guided tour and they let you see more things…and they had two fluffy, little, sweet eagles….until you get closer to them, that is Afterwards, we Had To Stop to their biggest mall, Centro Commercial Colombo. It was right in front of the stadium anyway.

I knew the Zoo was close to the metro station, but the map wasn’t to explicit and people weren’t speaking English so we got lost a bit, we had to walk straight from the station. The Lisbon zoo isn’t any different than the ones in other European cities…when it comes to animals, same old lions, giraffes, or parrots that you find anywhere. What makes it unique though is a cable car ride that I definitely recommend, you see all the animals. Also, the dolphin show (preceded by a sea lion show) was better than any I’ve seen.

Afterwards, I really wanted to see Campo Pequeno, formerly a bullring, not a concert arena, it is a very interesting building that I’ve seen from the plane too, the only thing I saw and recognized that night. From there we took a bus (can’t remember to tell you which, I think they were all good) to go see the Botanical Garden. The bus ride was really great, we got to see Marques de Pombal and the Avenida Blvd, that I wish we explored more. The Botanical Garden though turned out disappointing. It was hard to find, up on a hill and I can honestly say that ours is better, this one just looked colorless and empty.

Day Three – Friends reunited, rejoice

On the third day of Christmas, I took the Aerobus to….you guessed, the airport, to wait for my bestest friend coming from London. As I got there almost an hour earlier (didn’t actually realized it was so close and that there wouldn’t be traffic), I bought some magazines and waited. This is important because: 1. Time Out Lisbon (English one) turned out to be a very helpful read and 2. I love Esquire magazine now

After unpacking and having lunch, we went out, back to Rua Augusta, this time to take the Santa Justa Lift (Elevador de Santa Justa) that connects Baixa to the Carmo area and ruins. The Carmo Convent, the remains of a beautiful Gothic church destroyed by the earthquake I mentioned before, is now used as archeological museum, you get to see a few mummies, it’s pretty nice. And the view from the top is worth it

Once we stopped once more in Praça do Comércio for pictures, we took a ferry to Almada, across the Tejo river, to see Cristo Rei, a huge statue, inspired by Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Or at least that was our intention, as we got terribly lost but manage to ask some locals for directions and take a bus. It’s actually pretty far from the port, you can’t walk there, like we initially thought. You buy tickets from the bus driver and get off at the top of the hill. The view of the whole city and the 25 de Abril Bridge is mind blowing. You may notice that the 25 de Abril Bridge looks a lot like the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco (I even heard a local calling it Fake Golden Gate Bridge as  he was being a guide for his mail order husband). That is because it was built by the same company that built the one in the USA. Either way, it’s really cool. Just a tip: if you’re driving a car and crossing it, stay away from the left lane when you’re going from Alameda to Lisbon. You’ll thank me

On our way back, we had dinner to a traditional restaurant, nothing fancy, looked like a family business, but the food…my god, the food! Had the most delicious clams ever! And shrimps and lobster! Worth every cent, I tell you!

Day Four – Parque das Nações

The 4th day found us in Parque das Nações (Park of the Nations) after the longest metro ride ever! I assure you, you’ve never seen a station like the Oriente one! What I like the most was that the Vasco da Gama shopping mall (across the street) was similar to the station. We headed for the Oceanarium first, but we stopped  to take pictures on the road with flags from all over the world (it was Park of the Nations after all). The whole Parque das Nações area was used for the Expo ’98 World Expositions (still is referred as Expo by locals) and the Oceanarium building was the exhibition grounds  for the Expo. I loved the penguins, the coral reefs and all the different species of fish, we spent a few good hours there.

We got hungry when we left the Oceanarium (or the shop, to be more precise) so after the cable car that took us to the Vasco da Gama Tower we stopped to have lunch at the worst place ever. I mean, the food wasn’t bad, but the waiters were so air headed, it felt like we were home! I’m talking about having tapas after the main course, because they forgot to bring it, put it on the bill, said they don’t have it anymore and would get us another bill, then remembered they do have it.

Bellies full, we finally went to the Vasco da Gama mall where we….bought things, duh

In the evening, me and Irry went exploring Baixa, looking for a funicular railway, got lost, found by accident the São Roque church (which is beautiful inside, the outside isn’t anything special, but on the inside there are tons of gold!) and found by accident another funicular, Elevador da Gloria, that left us in Praça dos Restauradores (Restauradores Square), where we actually wanted to get to, as our final destination was Hard Rock Cafe. I was a HRC-virgin and loved every second of it! Seriously, you ought to go to one in your life. That is, if you somehow like rock music

Day Five – Removing one item from the bucket list

Friday was booked for….the ocean! We went to the airport (once again) to take the car we’ve rented and after we were done signing papers, we were one our way to Cascais. A friend who lives in Portugal told me that Cascais is supposed to be full of rich, snobbish people and I sort of got that impression when I was there, but it is a beautiful place nonetheless.

We drove more than 30 km (got there quickly, thanks to their highway) to Boca do Inferno or Hell’s Mouth in English (heh, Hellmouth, the Buffy fanboy in me was trying really hard not to say anything) where we saw the Atlantic Ocean for the first time and let me tell you, we couldn’t have picked a better place to lose our ocean virginity, the scenery was breathtaking!

After we were done taking a million pics of every possible corner, we wandered around Cascais a bit, before heading for the Marina where we each decided what kind of yacht we want. We also stopped there to eat and I found out what my favorite dish is: a mix of clams, pork and shrimps, with a special sauce. Can anyone take me back? No? Okay!

Day Six – Belém area

Since we had tickets to Optimus Alive and still wanted to make the most of the time I had in Portugal, Saturday was carefully planned and I think it all went out better than expected. One of the things you shouldn’t miss for anything in the world if you’re going to Lisbon is Mosteiro dos Jerónimos (Jerónimos Monastery), there’s a reason it’s an UNESCO World Heritage Sight. We’ve only seen the church, it also houses the Maritime Museum and the National Archeology Museum, but the exterior will blow(-o-o-o-ow) your mind. Much like the Cathedral, it’s a mix of different architectural styles, Manueline, Plateresque and Renaissance. The interior courtyard and the arches will make you feel like you’re at Hogwarts.

Afterwards we walked to Padrão dos Descobrimentos (Monument to the Discoveries), where we admired the…..monument, what else there was? Conceived by an architect for a certain Portuguese World Fair, it has statues of many navigators on its two sides.

Torre de Belém (Belém Tower or Tower of St Vincent) was our final stop before the festival. Just like Mosteiro dos Jerónimos, it is also an UNESCO World Heritage Sight, built as part of a defense system at the mouth of the Tejo river. If you’re like me and never heard of the Portuguese Manueline architectural style, the Belém Tower is the perfect example for this style that I came to like a lot on this trip. Getting on top was very tricky, because the stairs were very narrow and you had to wait and do an impression of a poster glued on a wall if there was someone going down. But the real challenge was meeting an overweight person on those stairs

I’ve talked about the festival in a different blog, do check it out if you’re interested.

Day Seven – (Post-concert) Depression

Day seven was sad. Not only because we had post-concert depression, as it happens after all the cool concerts, but because Irry was going back to London at noon. Hello another 2 months of not seeing each other.  So after packing her panties we went to see the Pantheon (The Church of Santa Engrácia) after finding out we could visit it on a Sunday. I gotta say, I liked it more than the one in Paris. Maybe because it wasn’t raining this time and my clothes were dry. Or cause it was empty. Or free that day. Either way, I’m glad I went.

Since we had time to kill and we knew the airport way too well, we went to Centre Colombo for some last minute shopping.

*insert goodbyes here*

Going back to the car we found a notice on the window, for illegal parking. Even though a flight attendant said it’s okay to park there and the sign said it’s a parking for taxis and tourists. We would’ve ignored it if it hadn’t been for a blocked tire. Luckily, there was a police car nearby and we went to talk to them.

Cop: Yes, the parking is for taxi and tourists!
Me: Duh, we’re tourists! *shows ID*
Cop: No no no
Me: The car is rented!
Cop: No, you do not have a tourist car…..tourist cars are only Mercedes, BMW and Audi! (we had a Volkswagen)
Me: *poker face*

It’s (not) funny cause it’s true! On the notice it said the fine is between 300 and 1000 euros, but thankfully, we only paid little over 100 euros. The rest of the time was spent making fun of the two cops, I think I’ve seen monkeys typing faster on a computer. And you know you’ve seen it all when you see a cop with a small printer on his lap!

Later that day we crossed both bridges (Vasco da Gama Bridge – the longest in Europe and the one I’ve mentioned before) and stopped at the beach….to look around as none of us had their bathing suits Before heading home, we had……is there a word for lunch+dinner combined? Linner? Have I talked too much about food? Well it’s only because the food in the Iberian Peninsula is the best I’ve ever had!

Day Eight – Sintra

Our morning in Sintra started with the Castle of the Moors and cold feet. Literally, I had shorts, cause we were about to go to the beach later that day and it was very chilly.But the castle, in the middle of the nature, must not be missed (I know I said this a lot, but it’s the truth!), I really enjoyed getting to the top to see the whole city. Even though my feet did not enjoy so many stairs!

Nearby is the Pena National Palace (and if you’re going to both, do buy a combined ticket, saves you some money), which is really interesting from an architectural point of view, it combines Neo-Gothic, Neo-Manueline, Islamic and Neo-Renaissance. And it’s very colourful on the outside, I spent a lot of time taking picture of every wall, window or arcade. On the inside it was like any other palace, and I couldn’t help but notice how small their rooms were! Fun fact: it is considered one of the Seven Wonders of Portugal, along with the Jerónimos Monastery, Belém Tower and the beautiful Batalha Monastery, that I haven’t had the time to see

After wandering around Sintra for a bit, we headed to a beach that we wanted to see. Only we couldn’t find it and ended up on the same beach we had gone a couple of days before.

Day Nine – Goodbyes *sniff*

We wanted to see the ocean one more time and since we had the whole day (flight was at 2 am), we went 100 km away from Lisbon, to the city of Peniche, saw the old harbor, then drove on the coast. Words are pointless, I’ll just let you enjoy the pictures!

Bottom line is, Lisbon (and Portugal) was everything I was expecting and more! The city itself has some shady areas, but the parts that I liked overshadow the other ones. The trips at the ocean were more than I’ve ever dreamed of. We found a small beach surrounded by  cliffs, it felt like we were in a movie. All in all, I don’t regret any money spent there, in fact, I’d do it all again!

Much like Amy Macdonald’s concert in Barcelona, I found out about Optimus Alive after we’ve booked our tickets while looking to see if there were any concerts. At that time, the only bands that I wanted to see were Foo Fighters and 30 Seconds To Mars, I knew I could do only one day, so I was leaning towards the second band. But as the time passed, they confirmed Paramore on the last day (sadly, not as headliners) so I knew it was meant to be! Actually, the whole festival had a kick ass line up, I wonder if we’ll ever have a festival like that.

After we were done visiting stuffs, we headed to Oeiras where we had to drive around a bit until we found a place to turn around and park. The queue wasn’t as big as we imagined, but it wouldn’t have hurt to go there a few hours earlier. Anyhow, after running a bit and getting a security guard’s hands all over my ass (I always knew there was a reason for going to concerts!) and more running, we found a nice place, not too far away from the stage. Luckily, they gave us some hats, since it felt like there were 1000 degrees at that hour. That’s when I got tanned too, not when I went on the beach. Well, only my arms and face got tanned, but still!

The wait for the first band was kinda boring, all around us there were bigger groups of friends, all Portuguese, all seemed under 18. But at least we had water and I got an Optimus shirt (boo for sold out Paramore shirts!)

Finally, the first band started, they were called Lululemon, I think they were Portuguese, they have barely said two words. Literally, as their music was all instrumental. They were some contest winner and that’s how they came to play, their music wasn’t bad, but if they had some chick singing it would have been a lot better, otherwise it got boring after the 3rd or 4th song.

Once the bands started, the time seemed to be going much faster and really soon, White Lies was on the stage, making some girls in front of us who came from Switzerland really happy! For me, White Lies are just like Franz Ferdinand. I mean, they didn’t catch my attention when I listened to the CD (seemed boring even), but live they were really cool! Sure, I only knew a couple of songs, but they had a very good set. Haven’t seen them live when they came here, but now I’d definitely go if only they came again. Maybe this time it won’t rain as bad as the last time

Setlist:

1. Farewell To The Fairground
2. Strangers
3. To Lose My Life
4. Holy Ghost
5. The Price Of Love
6. A Place To Hide
7. Death
8. Unfinished Business
9. The Power & The Glory
10. Bigger Than Us

Kaiser Cheifs were next and just like White Lies, I haven’t seen them when they played here. And I didn’t like them much on the CD either. But my god, were they fun! I don’t know if Ricky Wilson is that hyper all the time, or he was sort of drunk (his face was kinda red ) but they put on such a great show!  I knew about five songs they played, Ruby being the most fun, I was jumping a lot, half trying to make people to move away from me. At one point, towards the end, Ricky jumped off the stage, went to one of the bars nearby and started giving people beer, it was hilarious. Also, people went nuts when they thought Hayley and Jeremy from Paramore were watching Kaiser Chiefs, but actually, it was just Jeremy and his girlfriend. But from that moment on, I couldn’t pay attention to them anymore since I realized that OMG I’M GONNA SEE PARAMORE!

Setlist:

1. Everyday I Love You Less and Less
2. Little Shocks
3. Never Miss A Beat
4. Modern Way
5. Long Way From Celebrating
6. Ruby
7. Starts With Nothing
8. I Predict a Riot
9. Take My Temperature
10. Kinda Girl You Are
11. The Angry Mob
12. Oh My God

My excitement was over the top while they were getting the stage ready for Paramore, a kid at Disneyland, first day of Christmas…they had nothing on me! “Better than drugs, better than smack! Better than a dope-coke-crack-fix-shit-shoot-sniff-ganja-marijuana-blotter-acid-ecstasy! Better than sex, head, 69, orgies, masturbation, tantrism, Kama Sutra or Thai doggy-style! Better than banana milkshakes! Better than George Lucas’s trilogy, the muppets and 2001! Better than Emma Peel, Marilyn, Lara Croft and Cindy Crawford’s beauty mark! Better than the B-side to Abbey Road, Jimmy Hendrix and the first man on the moon! Space Mountain, Santa Claus, Bill Gates’ fortune, the Dalai Lama, Lazarus raised from the dead! Schwarzenegger’s testosterone shots, Pam Anderson’s lips! Woodstock, raves… Better than Sade, Rimbaud, Morrison and Castaneda! Better than freedom, better than life! ” (kudos to whoever knows where this is from without googling)

It was annoying that a lot of people got in front of us, I’m talking about pushing to get in front of you, but I was trying to ignore that when the first notes of Ignorance started. People were SO loud, that I didn’t hear Hayley much on the first song, but that was okay, I was screaming my lungs out as well. See, Ignorance is my favorite song of them, it’s why I came to love them so much. Next song was Feeling Sorry, during which she greeted us, said they have to make up for lost time (even though their set was really short!) and let us say the usual WE ARE PARAMORE!

Well if I talk about each and every song, it will be mostly like “this song was so awesome!”. I was glad they played all the songs I wanted, but a tad disappointed they didn’t play longer, I mean, most of the people there came from Paramore, seeing the crowd at Jane’s Addiction (the headliner) was depressing. I loved how everyone screamed CRUSH during Crushcrushcrush, the fireworks at The Only Exception (that had me weeping like a baby), the Pressure flip (see above), the confetti at the end, the fact that they had fans playing with them on stage.

But now….I’ll talk about something super speshul. We wanted to make a banner at first, but since…well, we were lazy/didn’t know how, we settled for a plushie to throw on stage. It had a picture frame in front so we were able to print a card and sign our names, it was perfect. My sense of direction pretty much sucks so when someone throws something at me or I throw something…I always miss. Not this time though, it landed right on the edge of the stage…..and Taylor got it!! Even played with it a bit! But now I’m wondering if they have it, they left it on the stage, but the crew was careful with it when they were taking out their instruments.

Setlist:

1. Intro
2. Ignorance
3. Feeling Sorry
4. That’s What You Get
5. For A Pessimist, I’m Pretty Optimistic
6. Emergency
7. Playing God
8. Crushcrushcrush
9. Monster
10. Pressure
11. Looking Up
12. The Only Exception
13. Brick By Boring Brick
14. Misery Business

After Paramore, we left emo and thirsty to get some water and food, look at some merch, explore the festival area, then sat down to watch Jane’s Addiction whom I found really lame, so we left halfway in their set. I regret nothing!

Optimus Alive’11 was a great experience and I can’t help but think that with bands like the ones they bring every year, we could have a festival that would gather 100000+ people from all over Europe as well.

Despite the disappointing line-up, I bought tickets (plural, for my friends too) cause I found a really nice offer. And because I have the awesomest dad who takes me/picks me up from concerts, I was able to get there, as it was in the middle of the fucking nowhere. That’s the first bad thing I have to say about the whole B’estfest experience. However, I was impressed by the way Emagic organized the festival this year, the amusement park, the food, all the stages (if you were into that music) and all the other extra activities. Sucks that the music was for hipsters.

I got there around 9 (Mika playing at midnight) and I was surprised to see that despite what I’ve imagined, there weren’t too many people in front of the stage => 2nd row was for us. We got drinks and food and sat down, listening to Electric Brother, playing on the other stage.  Took some Facebook pics while the area was getting a little crowded as the hipsters wanted to see the next band, Asian Dub Foundation. According to a site who thought they were the best band of the day (hipster site, hipster music, understandable), they were: “rapcore, mixed with d’nb, dancehall and ragga, spiced with a bit of  curry and some bhangra rhythms. ” I didn’t even know half those words existed. So while people were going crazy about them, we just sat there and made fun of the band. Silly? Whatever. Thankfully, towards the end of their set, the two energy drinks got to me and I really had to pee so I missed the last songs.

Next band, Lamb, was pretty cool. From what we’ve heard while eating/drinking in front of the main stage. I wish they played there though and the Poke-band as far as possible from us. As time was passing and it was almost time for Mika, the area got a bit too crowded, but I was going to found out in a week that in comparison, there was plenty of room that night.

Mika came on stage on time, starting his show with Relax, just like last year. Well to be fair, the whole show was pretty much like the one last year, with the exception of a couple of songs. And it had less stuff going on, no beach balls, no interaction with the band. Just the huge old shoe and the Billy Brown fag flag. He did say that it was the first show in five months (thought it was the first show in eight months) so he got old in the meantime. At first he was wearing a really cool red jacket, that he took off….and didn’t throw it in the audience, I would’ve fought anyone to have it! But I was lucky enough to get eye contact twice so I quickly forgot about the jacket. Then he was wearing a plain white shirt and then nothing…everyone sure loved the show more from that point on.

I really wanted to hear Kick Ass live…and I did! As well as the new song, Elle Me Dit. The rest of the setlist was similar to last year so I’ll just post it:

1. Relax, Take it Easy
2. Big Girl
3. Stuck in the middle
4. Dr. John
5. Blue Eyes
6. Billy Brown
7. Touches you
8. Rain
9. Blame it on the girls
10. Kick Ass
11. Happy Ending
12. Love Today
13. Elle me Dit
14. We are Golden
15. Grace Kelly
16. Lollipop (encore)

After the show was over, we had time to test one of their rides…and take a few more Facebook pics and then we waited in traffic, as most people left right after Mika. With the risk of repeating myself, the location sucked!But I’d get past that if they brought better bands next year….and not have them play at midnight, with no way of getting back home!

I’ve been putting off writing a personal blog for so long, I don’t even remember everything I wanted to say. So I’ll write about what I know best – music and tv-shows. Combined. Meaning the first season of NBC’s latest hit, The Voice.

Now, I know that my opinion is different than the majority of the Americans, but what can you do? Read if you want, go play a game if you don’t.

I’ve gotten into this show after reading an article about the first part of the blind auditions so I decided to check it out cause the contestants were singing songs I knew and like, but also because the whole idea of picking them only by their voice, not seeing them when they sing seemed like a really cool, interesting idea.

Weeks passed, the coaches (Adam Levine, Cee Lo Green, Christina Aguilera and Blake Shelton) filled all the spots in their team of 8, got rid of half of them (some not making the best choices) and it was time for the live shows.

Will start talking about the Final 4, then I’ll say a few words about the others that I like that were eliminated too soon.

Javier Colon

Or the winner of this season. Personally, I don’t see what all the fuss is about, he sounds a lot like Bruno Mars. And I don’t like Bruno Mars. His Time After Time cover was good indeed and people  predicted he was gonna win since then. The rest of his stuff though only put me to sleep though.

Dia Frampton

Again, she has a nice voice but it stops at that. It’s not the most unique and all the songs she did had the same vibe, I think that if I were to listen to a CD of hers, I’d get bored after the 4th of 5th song. Her cover of Heartless was my favorite thing she’s done, but she’s not the only one who can take a song from a genre and transform it into something completely different, Youtube is full of things like that. So why was Dia more special?

Beverly McClellan

I liked her from day one, from Piece of my Heart to Lovesick, she delivered one good performance after another. And her energy is unbelievable, that’s an artist I’d pay to see live and would buy her CD. Hopefully Christina won’t forget about her now that it’s all over.

Vicci Martinez

Mah girl, Vicci! My pick to win it all from day one. Unfortunately, America didn’t see what I saw, an amazing voice, better than everyone else’s actually,  a great attitude, maybe not as ‘wild’ as Beverly and a funny war dance. Plus, everyone song performed by her on this show was….well, how else to put it? Fuckin perfect! Which is ironic, cause she sang that one as well

Okay, in no particular order, other contestants (or should I call them artists?) that I loved…

Frenchie Davis

Although Aguilera was the only one who was interested in her, Frenchie had a voice better than anyone in Blake’s or Adam’s teams, proof that she got so far.

Tyler Robinson

The only one I liked from Team Blake and at the duet, he clearly dominated but what are you gonna do, Blake chose the pretty boy instead. Whatever, I can’t wait to hear Tyler’s first single.

Nakia

Ever since he sang Fuck You, I kept an eye on this guy, he had the strongest voices from all the guys that we’ve seen this season. That includes the coaches too, you can’t even compare him to Adam Levine.

Casey Desmond

It was obvious she wouldn’t go too far on this show since they only show 15 seconds of her blind audition. Pity, she really did a good job covering Born This Way.

Emily Valentine

Probably the only bad decision Cee Lo took this season was to eliminate this girl in favor of some country dude. I’m not calling him by his name because he’s so ordinary he sounds like every other country dude out there. Even though Emily had a crush on him

But I won’t complain if our own version of The Voice manages to be half as good as this one. I guess we’ll have to wait and see…

1. Name: ………………

I don’t date people with funny names, but I can if you like.

2. Sex: □ Male  □ Female

I don’t like gnomes.

3. Age: …………….

if (input > (my age + 5) || input < (my age – 3) ) then don’t bother.

4. Eye colour: □ Blue □ Hazel □ Black □ Green □ Other: ………….

Unless you ticked ‘other’ and wrote pink, don’t bother. Although blue or green eyes are to die for

5. Hair colour: □ Blond □ Black □ Red □ Brown □ Purple □ Green □ Blue □ Pink □ White □ Cyan

If you ticked all of them, scroll down to get my number.

6. Do you like music? □ Yes □ No

If you said no, close the browser, turn off the computer, slap yourself 3 times and then think of what you’ve done.

7. Do you like concerts? □ Yes □ No

I’m gonna look past you answering no, if you answer affirmatively to:

7.a. Are you willing to put up with me while I drag you to concerts you have no desire to attend?
□ Yes □ Yes is pretty much the only option here

8. Are you rich: □ Yes □ No

If you said yes, you’re on the right track baby.

9. Are you filthy rich? I’m talking about oodles. Do you know how many zeros there are in oodles?
□ Yes
□ No

If you said yes:

10. Okay, let’s get to serious stuff…..do you think I’m amazing just the way I am?

□ You are, I love you!
□ You could use some make-up.
□ Bruno Mars is cheesy as fuck.

11. What kind of a snob are you?

□ Snob? Is that a Fall Out Boy song?
□ Meh.
□ I’m so fucking indie, I’m writing this on a Galaxy Tab cause laptops are too mainstream for me.

12. Can you cook,clean,wash,iron and….some other things I’ll think about later?

□ Yes, all of them.
□ Just a few of them.
□ I can’t do anything.
□ I WANNA BE YOUR LOVER NOT YOUR FUCKING MOTHER!

13. Cats, dogs or babies

□ Dogs, I looooooooooove them!
□ I love pussies!
□ Baby cats!

14. Height differences….

□ Could be an issue…
□ Perfect, knees won’t get sore…

15. How smart are you?

□ I’m so smart I’m practically retarded!
□ I’m a fucking genius!
□ Meh, I can open a jar…

Okay, if you answered all these questions correctly, please call me at 07-lol-u-mad.

PS: Kudos to whoever got all the tv-show/song references

Now go get this song and think of our honeymoon: Terra Naomi – You For Me
(since wordpress is stupid like that and won’t let me post the widget itself)

Taking a quick break from studying for lunch…..and since Simon asked me, I thought I’d write a short blog about Born This Way. For those of you living under a rock (how the hell do you get internet signal there, though?), that’s Lady Gaga’s new album, probably the most discussed album of the year. Say whatever you want about her, but you can’t deny that she is a truly talented artists, that’s a fact,  it’s a thing we can’t deny, like the fact that I will love you till I die.*starts singing Nine Million Bicycles” Wait, what was I talking about? Oh yes, Gaga! Point is, I don’t know how can anyone say that Born This Way is worse than The Fame or that all songs sound the same. Obviously, they should go ahead and read this sticker I have, as it’s made about them.

So I’ll go ahead and rank the songs from Born This Way, and add my 2 cents about them. Literally 2 cents, cause I have to go back to studying….

(note: I’m only talking about the ones on the regular version, I guess I’ll wait to hear the others when I buy the album)

14. Heavy Metal Lover

Not that I don’t like it, I guess I was expecting something else, something more….metal? But the chorus is indeed addictive.

13. Highway Unicorn

This one gets better and better with each listen, I especially love the lyrics. But having played the promo singles so many times before, it only gets 13th place. Does anyone know the road to Highway Unicorn though?

12. Bad Kids

I said I love the chorus for Heavy Metal Lover, here it’s the other way around, I find myself singing the verses more often than the chorus.

11. Judas

Judas is indeed one of the catchiest songs on the album and an excellent choice for a single. That’s probably why I’ve listened so many times prior to the album release.

10. Government Hooker

Was looking forward this one and I wasn’t disappointed, ever since the first notes you can tell it’s gonna be an unusual song.

9. Marry The Night

I have no idea what the 4th single will be, but if it’s not Marry The Night, I’ll be a sad panda.

8. Scheiße

I’ll be the first to admit I didn’t like the first remix we had too much, but the album version is great! Even though I have no idea what she sings in German. Speaking of which, I was hoping she would have at least one line in French on this album, I love the French part in Bad Romance.

7. Hair

“A song about Hair, wtf? She’s mental!” – Yeah, morons don’t understand a metaphor and can’t see it’s one of the best songs of the album

6. Bloody Mary

I may not see Gaga live with the Born This Way Ball, but I can’t wait to see live clips of this song, I already have a weird/cool choreography made up in my head, I’m sure the real one would exceed any expectations I may have.

5. Electric Chapel

Ever since I heard the sample in one of the Gagavisions, I knew I will fall in love with this song. Gaga + electric guitar + synths = orgagasm.

4. Born This Way

Although it wasn’t what I expected when I first listened, I came to love this song a lot.

And now for the top 3, the ones that show just how talented Lady Gaga is:

3. The Edge Of Glory

Instead of talking, how about I post this:

2. You And I

With Brian May’s [Queen] help, Gaga took a fan-favorite from the Monster Ball Tour and turned it into a masterpiece.

1. Americano

I honestly wasn’t expecting to like this song so much. If you think Lady Gaga can’t surprise people, just wait until they hear a song with Spanish influences (and a jazzy feel, live) about gay marriage and illegal immigrants.

All in all, Born This Way is an album that everyone has to listen with an open mind and I doubt at least one song won’t be stuck in their heads afterwards.

† † †

I started studying English (properly) in 5th grade, so almost 10 years ago, and I was always reading in the books the teachers would give me about London, about Big Ben, the Buckingham Palace with the change of the guards and everything else that makes London an unique city. Needless to say, during the primary school I kept dreaming about seeing those places with my own eyes, but I never thought I would actually go there one day. What do you know, right now I’m writing these words in a plane, after spending five days in the great UK.

(Gonna skip talking about  how I got the tickets and the long months of waiting and I’ll go straight to the trip itself)

Day One – April 7th

Woke up early in the morning to catch the plane, but I think the excitement only kicked in after seeing the UK coast and the pilot announcing we’re preparing for landing.

I meet Irry who was waiting for me at the airport and we took the bus for the city. During the whole trip, I was like “OMG this, OMG that!” and she was probably thinking “Yeah, I know, I’ve been living here for 6 months!”

After we both dreamed about how awesome it would be to live in one of the pretty houses at the entrance of the city and unpacking, it was go-time!

First thing we did was to go pick up our London Eye + Madame Tussauds tickets and saw the new 4D show they had, it was great, everyone going must not miss it!  Then we waited in line for the big wheel, the tallest in Europe actually. It went surprisingly fast, considering how many people there were. I guess I liked it more than the one at Prater, though I wouldn’t be able to tell you why exactly. Maybe cause I liked the view from London better. Or cause of the company. Either way, have some pictures…

After that, we walked all the way to Big Ben and The Parliament, and without checking the time at all, we got there exactly at 5 PM, when Ben started singing for us

Then we walked a lot and saw Trafalgar Square (with The National Gallery) and the countdown to the 2012 Olympics (how awesome would it be to be there at the opening ceremony?), then Piccadilly Circus, some HMV shopping, then we got thirsty, so we found a nice pub in Leicester Square where we got carded for a beer. OMG, do I look underage? Then we decided to see everything by night so we found a bench near London Eye and waited, while admiring the…..view But my camera said it had enough and didn’t let me take any pictures, so we called it a day, went home to have dinner and…..sleep like babies.

Day Two – April 8th

The second day found us waking up pretty early to go see the guard change at the Buckingham Palace. Waiting there was like waiting at a gig, only the latter would be more fun. The wait was pretty boring, but they were some funny kids next to us:

Kid #1: Why does she get such a big house?
Kid #2: Cause she’s the Queen of England!

Kid #1: Why do we have to stay here?

Kid #1: Why do they have those big hats?

The ‘event’ was…..a bit of a let down, though I don’t know what I was expecting. It sure is one of these things every tourist has to do at least once. After that, we took a walk in St James’s Park, before making our way to Westminster Abbey.

Westminster Abbey is truly the most beautiful cathedral I’ve seen! And I’ve seen quite a few…. It may not seem much on the outside, but the interior will blow your mind! Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take pictures inside, but I guess it’s a good thing, I would’ve spent hours to capture every corner

After charging our batteries with food and beer [though I'm not sure that beer helped with the charging or did the opposite....], we went to see Madame Tussaud’s, where we paid a few extra pounds to see the 4D Marvel show. I’m gonna start with that, cause it was probably one of my favorite things, I loved how they made it London/Madame Tussauds centered And of course, the whole place was beyond everything I was expecting, you could take pictures with the “stars” and they even had a train ride with the history of London! So awesome!

Afterwards, the geeks in us had to go to St Pancras and King’s Cross, and take pictures at  Platform 9 ³⁄₄ Then we…..let’s just say we went to a musical, okay? Afterwards, we saw Tower Bridge by night, walked, half freezing, admiring the Thames and took a bus back home. I must have said it a few times, the amount of drunk people we saw that night was…..impressive

Day Three – April 9th aka California Dreams Day

We had plans to go see Tower Bridge in the morning, but we just got some food from Subway and a few magazines (yay, Kerrang with VersaEmerge poster) and headed to Wembley.

I talked about the concert in another blog, you can go check it out if you want. Or you can just look at the nice pics of Katy‘s boobs.

Day Four – April 10th

To be fair, day four started with us looking at the pics from the concert and talking about how awesome it was! That morning I was having post-concert depression so we went to Starbucks to have some coffee and wake up properly. I’d go anytime back to that Starbucks! *inside joke* We crossed Tower Bridge and went to see Tower of London, who was better than I was expecting, probably cause it had all these interactive things, making it more fun

After some food shopping and some CD shopping, all the stores were closed, so we just walked around, and saw St Paul’s Cathedral, which is amazing! I don’t know how it looks on the inside, but I really liked it, it reminded me a bit of the Washington State Capitol.

Day Five – April 11th

The morning of the last day found us waiting in line for the National History Museum and then the Science Museum. We haven’t seen any of the art museums, but we decided to go to these two cause they seemed more interesting and less boring. And I was right, especially at the Science Museum, wasn’t expecting it to be so much fun

We spent the rest of the day shopping and (unfortunately) packing. We had plans to stay up all night and watch Disney movies, but after some Southern Comfort, a Within Temptation DVD and half of Despicable Me, we couldn’t keep our eyes open anymore, so we slept for three hours before waking up and rushing to catch the bus for the airport.

All in all, I had the most amazing time ever, and given the chance, I would go back to London in a heartbeat! I’d even move there, if that were possible….

I don’t know how people had fun before pop concerts, I really don’t! Kidding, but I’ve been to a few concerts over the past years and I can honestly say the pop ones are the most fun. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that they don’t just play the songs for an hour, they put on a show.And when I say show, I mean costumes, dancers, fireworks, confetti and….. Actually, why don’t you just read below about my Katy Perry experience at the Wembley Arena, on April 9th?

I gave up hoping I’d see Katy after her UK shows sold out so fast, but one day I was randomly looking on ebay and found some tickets that weren’t 35778 pounds. We didn’t get them, but we kept looking and eventually we were able to say “OMG WE’RE GONNA GO SEE KATY PERRY!!!!!!”

The day of the concert, we knew we had to go early if we wanted a good spot, especially since Facebook places wasn’t working on my phone, so we were there around 12, entrance at 18. Luckily, there were only two small groups at our entrance. The wait seemed longer than it actually is, we got tanned in the sun, we froze when the sun went down, we analyzed the people there and we had fun [like, "going around Wembley looking for a bathroom and trying not to pee yourself" funny].

When the doors finally opened, we started running to the hall, even though “running was not allowed”. Whatever, it was worth it, we were in the third row!

Good points: sitting down, getting water, staring.
Bad points: Show not starting when it was supposed to, Facebook places thing (eff whoever had this idea!)

Although they were late, Yelle really knew how to entertain the crowd. I can’t say I liked them much when I listened to the album, but live they were incredible! I’ve never sang along or jumped during an opening act’s set, but they really got us going! I only recognized a few songs, but I didn’t know them by name. They have a song that lyrically reminds me of Katy’s Peacock (on the first album) and I knew (and enjoyed the most) Safari Disco Club and Que Veux-Tu. Needless to say, I’d go see them again anytime

While they were taking out Yelle’s instruments, DJ Skeet Skeet played us some songs. I wasn’t too thrilled about the idea of having a DJ, but he was cool, played Kesha, BEP’s cover of Time Of My Life and even a dance remix of Adele’s Rolling In The Deep, so we didn’t get bored while waiting for Katy.

Around 9 they raised the curtain and I saw for the first time the amazing stage Katy had and the intro video was played, the whole show being based around that story. If you don’t know it and you don’t go to see her live, you should watch it on Youtube. If you don’t know it but you’re going to see her live and you don’t care about being spoiled….you should watch it on Youtube As I’ve seen recordings before, I knew where she was going to come out from so I didn’t move my camera from that spot, to take a picture of the first notes of Teenage Dream. You always see pictures of your favorite artists, but when you see them live, you say to yourself “Wow! I didn’t know they were SO beautiful!” In her cotton candy looking dress, she played the title song from her sophomore album, dancing along with her band. She seemed to like the right side (our left I mean) of the stage more, the part where we were. She continued with Hummingbird Heartbeat, a song that I’ve recently became obsessed with, although it doesn’t make me think of anyone, I just love it The first song from One Of The Boys that she played was Waking Up In Vegas, and for some reason this is the moment I don’t remember so well….

The story continued, two mimes came on stage and they were sooooo gay, so she had to sing Ur So Gay. I especially loved the end of the performance when instead of the usual word [was hoping 11000 people would shout 'penis' ] she asked one of the mimes to let her have a bite of his [huge] cupcake and then she said confused “…but his tasted different!” Gotta love that woman! What’s the best song to play after Ur So Gay? Peacock, of course, there were feathers everywhere! At that point I was looking carefully around me to see who was singing “Are you brave enough to let me see your peacock?” I believe I’ve never sang SO LOUD at a concert before, on every song, I was afraid I wasn’t going to speak for days afterwards.

She put on a dress as the band played the first notes of the jazzy version of I Kissed A Girl (the one on the Unplugged album), she admitted she was feeling pretty sexy that night and she asked who else was too. Then she told the men who were feeling sexy enough to take their t-shirts off. I believe a lot of them did, as she said “Where are all the good boys?!”…. No idea why, but I did too, and that’s one of my biggest irrational fears, I don’t even change clothes if there’s someone in the room, yet alone 11000 people! But me and the guy behind me got her attention as she asked both of us to go on stage. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize she was talking to me as well until after the moment was over, I would’ve passed out on stage anyway What was even better about this performance is that the band kicked in during the song At the end of the song, she “felt sick” and had a security guard pull her out of the stage. I thought everyone understood this was just an act, but apparently they didn’t….

The Circle The Drain set up was the funniest, without actually trying to be funny, I laugh every time I see the pictures with the flying meat. That and the following two songs, E.T. and Who Am I Living For, are my favorite performances, with so much going on: lasers, lyrics on the screens, dancers and cool choreography

Time for the slower songs, Pearl was beautiful, wasn’t expecting any less and Not Like The Movies made me weep. She sang on a swing above the scene, just like at the Grammys performance, only this time there were cute movie scenes in the background. Afterwards, most of the band took a break, as she performed a few covers: Only Girl/Big Pimpin’/Born This Way/Whip My Hair. I have a short video of Not Like The Movies, that you can watch below:

Before playing the first cover:

Katy: Let’s play a game…for 1 pound, you get to treat me like a jukebox. You pick 4 songs you hear on the radio and I’ll play them for you. But please [when you throw the coin] aim low, this *points to face* is the moneymaker!

And after someone threw a coin:

Katy: I feel like a stripper picking coins off the floor!

Before Born This Way, she said we’ll never guess it, as it’s “really obscure”

At the end, whoever guess all the 4 songs, got a kiss from her, and of course everyone tried to get closer to the front, to touch her XD Turned out….she kissed a girl! If Not Like The Movies wasn’t enough, she also played Thinking Of You, which really made me tear up….. Good part was, the band kicked in towards the end of the song, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a performance of that song where it wasn’t just her playing acoustic.

When people who aren’t fans of Katy ask me about the concert, I tell them she changed 7 outfits during one song, that song would be Hot N Cold. I took pics of each dress, so I would know at the end how many were there While she was putting on all the dresses, the band played us a little song called We Want Katy, it was funny. Although we forgot to send pictures of us for the Last Friday Night screens, we still enjoyed the song very much! By that time, we were in the second row, as we found a spot after people were pushing to touch Katy. I don’t know though how our pics would’ve fitted there, we must have been the only two sober people in London that Friday

With the blue wig on and the missing Kitty Purry returning, Katy performed another cover of I Wanna Dance With Somebody, by Whitney Houston. Towards the end of the song, she said she wants to dance with other people who love her, so a bunch of kids came on stage, some even took pics with her We weren’t jealous, nope, not at all!

The last song before the encore, Firework, is my favorite song of hers, and one of my favorite songs EVER, so I was singing at the top of my lungs, so loud that I could barely scream that we want more at the end. Firework is one of those songs that never gets old, it just gets more beautiful with every listen. I can’t say that about many songs, to be honest The scent of cotton candy in the arena was replaced by the smell of fireworks, but it was all worth it!

The only single that wasn’t played was saved for last – California Gurls. I loved how the two songs that give the name of her tour (California Dreams) were played first and last California Gurls was a pop explosion – costumes (The Baker’s Boy was finally found), lots and lots of confetti, huge beach balls – what can I say, a perfect ending to a perfect show, Katy’s last one in Europe till October.

All in all, I can say I had a really gay time! (and by that I mean “smile like you slept with a hanger in your mouth” – happy)

This Saturday night, do it all again…….