Thursday, October 27, 2011

Half way home

I'm about a month away from the end of my backpacking adventure through Europe that has been the most amazing adventure I have ever done in my life.  With each day presents new challenges and new obstacles.  Finding fun in the uncertainty of each day is the most thrilling of all.  I think that is what life should be all about, well at least for me anyway.  I guess as I continue this vagabonding experience, a person who wanders from place to place with no job, I've realized that where ever you go and whatever experience you put yourself into, in the end everything works out.  I can't tell you the number of times I've been in what seemed like the most crazy situation like a missing a train or taking the wrong bus, but in the end I made it to where I needed to be and everything seemed just fine.  Taking a look back on it all, it's really mind blowing to see how far I've come on this adventure that started in Greece in late August until now.  With all the different experiences weeks seem like months. 

Though I know this experience will soon come to an end one of biggest things I have taken from it is that everything works out in the end and even the highest of mountains aren't so big after all.  If we just give it everything we've got, live each day as if it were our last, and put a smile on our face our lives become simple and fun.

With that being said, the Oxjam Music Festival was a blast! My good friend Heath Little who I played soccer with back in South Carolina has been working on his masters degree in London and offered to let me stay as his flat during my time here.  It's been awesome hanging out with him and his friends.  

Edinburgh, Scotland is next up on my travels around Europe.  My heritage is Scottish and Irish, so the goal is to find as much information as I can about the history of my family and to soak in the culture of the Scotts.  From Scotland I will make my way over to Ireland and enjoy everything Dublin has to offer. 

Please continue to follow the trip on twitter @LiveGoodVibes
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Thursday, October 20, 2011

Oxjam Music Festival

Only a few days away until I play in London, England at the Oxjam Music Festival where we will be raising money to fight poverty around the world.  The nerves have kicked in and the anxiety begins to rise. I have friends I have met along my travels throughout Europe who will be attending the festival, so it will be great to see all of them once again.  I go on at 9:25 and will be playing a 30 minute set.  Very stoked about this!

After I was in Berlin, Germany for just over a week I took off to Amsterdam, Holland.  Where I caught up some friends that I had met at Oktoberfest and Berlin, Germany.  While I was in Amsterdam I wanted to make sure I went to some of the museums that I missed when came to Amsterdam in 2007 while studying abroad in London.  I went to the Van Gogh Museum to learn about his art and his life in Holland.  His story is very interesting and if you ever make it to Amsterdam I would highly recommend going to see this museum.  His artwork was full of color and full of life.  Van Gogh's said "I don't invent the whole painting, instead it is already made in nature, though I still have to extract it".


From there I made my way over to the Anne Frank museum.  Though I never did read her book, I met a Australian lady whose father was Dutch and had been to the museum several times.  We briefly spoke and I kindly asked if she would help give me some insight onto what I was looking at while going through Anne Franks hideout and that she did.  It's really amazing that a 14 year old girl could right so deep at that age.  It's inspired me to read her diary.

Next week I will be attending an Arsenal Soccer match when they take on the Bolton Wanderers next tuesday night and then I am playing in a showcase open mic on Friday.  Wish me luck.  Hope everyone back home is doing GREAT!!

keep vibin'
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Friday, October 14, 2011

Week in Berlin

Where to start.  I feel like its been so long since I've last blogged.  I'm currently hanging out in Berlin, Germany and I can honestly say its been one of my favorite cities thus far on the trip.  I arrived on the 6th of October just after a fun filled adventure in Munich for Oktoberfest.  Once I arrived the first thing on my mind was "sleep" and then go do all the cool touristy things during the week.  Once I got to Berlin, I unloaded all of my stuff did some laundry and slept.  It was the greatest sleep of my life I can assure you of that.  From there I met some other people in my hostel and had a few drinks at a bar on the bottom floor of our place.

On the next day I decided to get cultured and took a free walking tour around the city to learn a little bit about Berlin.  The tour was great and now I want to do a whole revision on the Prussian empire again.  I never would have said that 4 years ago while in college.  Later in the day I went and busked in the streets promoting my album and preparing for the Oxjam Music Festival coming shortly.

Later in the week I met up with the cousins from North Carolina Keith and Cory Sherman who are cycling across Europe with their tents, a few pots and pans and their beards.  We all met each other in Munich and decided that we would all go to Berlin to celebrate Keith's 25th birthday before he had to fly back and start work again at Trader Joes.  We had a blast to say the least.


I played a small gig in Berlin and all the people I had met from Munich and Berlin all decided to come out.  We had a great crowd and it was a lot of fun.  We'll only 8 more days until my show in London.  I'm really looking forward to it.  Until then catch everybody Monday for the latest Web-Series.

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Wie Gehts?

Sitting in a small-cafe that is part of the hostel that I am staying at in Munich, Germany going over all of the random videos that I managed to take while participating in some adult fun here at Oktoberfest.  Prague and Oktoberfest definitely lived up to the hype.  Oktoberfest was similar to that of a massive carnival that you would find at your local fairgrounds.  Cotton candy, hot-dogs, almonds covered in brown sugar and all the typical things you would find at a carnival.  Once you walk into a the madness begins and thousands of people are up cheering, celebrating and having fun while the band rocks away a mixture of American classics like Sweet-Home Alabama, Sweet Carolina, and others that are well known.

Before I headed to Oktoberfest I decided to take a detour and head north to Prague, a city that has been raved about by many of my friends.  Prague is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen and I enjoyed my few days there. I caught up with some southern travelers that were in Prague seeing some of their friends that they had played golf with in college and now played for the European tour.  We all had a blast and the memories will never be forgotten.

Now where to go next.  Berlin!