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Travelling to Sonisphere involved a train from Paris to Geneva a connection to Zurich another connection to Wil before finally arriving at the festival. It was a nice day in Paris. The sun was shining and I had high hopes of it remaining that way in Switzerland. I think as soon as we crossed the border it started to rain. It was as if there was a massive cloud entirely covering the country; it was still raining in Zurich. 8 hours travel time in total. I met a guy from Mexico City who was also going to Sonisphere and travelled a lot of the way with him. It was interesting hearing about the place, although, I certainly do not want to go there.
Having to set tents up in the rain was a nightmare. Apparently it had been raining all week and the camping grounds were already a mud puddle. Although some seemed to enjoy that, I did not, and left the festival entirely to set up camp. I turned out to be a great idea. Sonisphere was very poorly organized. One ATM for 40,000 people and it wasn't even inside the festival grounds. I got in very early so it was okay. No official info point and a bunch of staff with no idea. They also did not sell raincoats of any kind.
I went in to watch Overkill who was absolutely amazing. While playing their closing song entitled 'f*** You' they seamlessly cut into 'Stand up and Shout' by Dio, played it in its entirety and back into 'f*** you' without missing a beat. It was awesome. Airbourne followed and it was possibly the greatest live shows I have ever seen. I stood in the freezing cold (it was 1am) but still enjoyed every second of it. The rain had eased off during the shows and I was only a little damp. When I got back to the tent it seemed others had decided to follow my lead and leave the s***hole of a campground. One couple offered to hang my wet jacket on their clothesline to make sure it would be dry for morning. It probably would have been anyway but I took up their offer. During the night it pissed down rain, it sounded as though someone was hosing down my tent. I figured the following day was going to be a mess. I was awoken by one of the couple who had offered to dry my (only) jacket in their tent, they had bad news. The tent had collapsed overnight and everything of theirs was saturated, including my jacket. It was so wet I could hardly lift it, things went south from there. It continued to rain all morning. Jacket-less me was wearing a garbage bag instead. I also had garbage bags on my feet in the hope it may keep a little mud off me and I ventured off towards the festival. It was cold, wet and the mud had become even worse. The festival grounds were almost impenetrable, but I made it. During the day I watched Anthrax, Bullet for my Valentine, Alice in Chains, Stone Sour, Unearth, Slayer, Megadeth, Motorhead, Rise Against, Metallica, Volbeat and Amon Amarth. I enjoyed every show. If I thought entering was hard nothing compared to trying to leave. The mud was at knee level, and for one midget, up to his waist.He was trying to catch a rat type thing that was running over the top of it all. It was one of the funniest things I have ever seen. I'm waiting for a video of it to pop up on YouTube. I'm not even sure he was doing it for a laugh; I think he just wanted one. I lost both my shoes and the plastic bags proved to be useless. I was a mess. Cleaning myself up to get into my sleeping bag was I mighty effort. I had to sacrifice clothing to wipe off the mud. I don't think it would surprise anyone if I said I have a bit of a cold at the moment, and it's progressively getting worse.
The following morning it was still raining, I had no dry clothing at all. It ended up taking me almost 8 hours to get to Innsbruck, Austria because of a train crash. I had to change to busses, to trains, to busses. I was covered in mud and smelt terrible, but this ensured I got a seat to myself all the way. I didn't arrive in Innsbruck until about 7:30 - 8 o'clock and by then the tourist info was closed so I used maps at bus stations to find my way to the Nikolas Glockenhaus Hostel. It was one of the nicest I have stayed in. It was run an old woman renting out the top floors of her house. It was very comfortable and there was a dog to play with, it was both deaf and blind, it didn't play back. I had a lot of washing to do and spent most of the night in a Laundromat (a woman there informed me it is the wettest summer in 70 years) Innsbruck was just a one night stop over on my way to Croatia. It was a beautiful town so I'll definitely stop back in there later on this trip. Probably around late August. I need to get a train to Zagreb, Croatia today. Normally a 4 hour ride but today it's closer to 8 due to more delays and track obstructions. It hasn't been too bad so far though, looking out at the Austrian country side. A good indication of how s*** the weather is here at the moment is that it actually snowed today somewhere between Salzburg and Villach, in the middle of summer. There is really low cloud cover too, most of the high mountains are hidden and the clouds are gripping to the trees of the lower ones, almost making then look as though they're steaming.
I wrote down the directions to my hostel in a notebook and have just discovered that it has been destroyed by the rain at Sonisphere. Tourist info will be closed by the time I arrive (which will be 7 o'clock) so I'll have to fend for myself once again. Although this time I can't even remember what the place is called. This'll be fun.
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