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Entertainment
Phoenix and Two Door Cinema Club at Paradiso
3781 days
Last Friday night in Amsterdam Jess and I were privvy to something pretty cool. We had booked tickets to see Phoenix months ago when we were still in Australia. This was a concert that we definitely wanted to see!
In true Jess and Jase style, we arrived at the venue, Paradiso earlier than needed. Entering the main concert hall we were very impressed – Paradiso is housed in an old church that was built in the 19th century, and while it has been refurbished to be suitable for concerts, it still retains a lot of it’s former charm.
Since we were there early we took prime position at the front of the stage and before long the support act, Two Door Cinema Club played. We stumbled across them well before we bought the tickets to the concert, and when we found out they were the support act it was a sweet little bonus. It was great to hear them live and see a solid performance out of them.
Phoenix followed up with an absolutely phenomenal show. To me, everything was perfect. The music was spot on, their “act” was top quality, and the light show just sealed the deal. To sound as good as their album while playing in front of a few hundred people is something they should be proud of. Much screaming, clapping and whistling saw Phoenix return to the stage for one of the longest encores I’ve seen. Initially vocalist Thomas Mars and guitarist Christian Mazzalai returned to play a few very touching covers, before Thomas told everyone that it was their bass player – Deck D’Arcy’s birthday. The crowd sang “Happy Birthday” to him and then the full band put on the second half of their show.
Special mention goes out to their drummer Thomas Hedlund who looked as though he was putting every last bit of his energy into the show. His intensity on the drums was just another reason why this was one of the best concerts I have been to.
Snowboarding at Tarvisio, Italy
2798 days
A picture is said to speak a thousand words, so here’s my 6000 word post on Snowboarding at Tarvisio in Italy.
I all seriousness though, Tarvisio is a great place. Although others insisted on paying for the snowboard hire and lift pass for us, I don’t believe it was too expensive for the day. I do know that for 4 hours on the slopes it will set you back 24EUR.
It was just over an hours drive from where we are staying in Zompitta, (Udine) and very close to Austria and Slovenia. It’s surreal for us to be an hour away from the snow, and an hour away from the coastline. Let alone at the corner of three countries!
If you’re looking for a place to go skiing or snowboarding, definitely check out Tarvisio. There were very few people around which made it a lot easier for us to keep learning in confidence – Jess and I are really starting to link our turns well!
Vampire Weekend at Astra Kulturhaus in Berlin
0812 days
I’m no music reviewer, I’ll leave that to my brother in law (re: savetwofour.com). I am however, a music lover and a tourist in a foreign country and these two things combined with an awesome set is a beautiful thing.
Jess and I booked these tickets quite some time ago. We had no idea where the Astra was, how big it was or what the crowd was like. We have however, been fans of Vampire Weekend for a few years now, and we planned on being around Berlin at this time so we took the chance.
We walked towards where the Astra should be… It wasn’t there. No signs, just a scummy looking courtyard. We walked passed assuming it was elsewhere but ended up back at the gate to the courtyard trying to find out where to go. We walked inside, through the snow and mud and found a light with an “Astra” logo. As it turns out this whole area was some sort of (probably pseudo) underground music scene.
While the outside of the building was tired and covered in graffiti, the interior was very grand. There were multiple bars, cloak rooms, plenty of velvet and a couple of chandeliers to light the place up.
We grabbed a few overpriced drinks (5.50EUR is a lot to backpackers!) and then found our way to the front of the stage in prime position for the support band, Fan Death.
Fan Death were alright. They supported well with some quality music and their drummer was great, although their general act and image was a bit too “bandwagonish” for me. You know.. Karen O (YYY’s) clothes, an ET doll as their prize posession and so on. Regardless, they put on a good show and lets face it, a live band is always better than on an album. No disrespect! Before Fan Death finished, I was lucky enough to take a quick photo of Vampire Weekend’s set list. Jess and I were both so stoked at this point – it was the first concert we’d been to for years as we’ve been saving for this trip.
Vampire Weekend went off. For those who don’t know they are an Indie Rock band from New York City. Ezra Koenig, the lead singer kept telling the crowd he wanted us to sweat. We were drenched by the time the concert was over, and we weren’t the only ones. The concert was an opportunity to see the band as musicians, rather than seeing them on a film clip. Bass guitarist Chris Baio swapped guitairs every second song, and played a double bass at one stage.
They played songs old and new. Jess loved Oxford Comma while I’ve been struggling to get Cape Cod out of my head ever since. Their set actually helped me to enjoy and understand some songs of theirs that I had previously felt indifferent to.
Ultimately we had a great night. We were able to really let loose and have some fun. We walked back to the S-bahn and went back to the hostel for a few hours sleep – at 5:30am we were up to board our train to Warsaw, but that is another story…
Snowboarding Hammarbybacken in Stockholm
6826 days
Imagine how cool it would be if you could finish work at 4pm, catch a tram 5 minutes down the road and go snowboarding (or skiing).
It’s doable for sure – lots of people live in a ski village or in the Swiss Alps, but for those in Stockholm, they are able to do so in their capital city.
Today Jess and I walked from our hostel (in Östermalm, Stockholm) to Hammarbybacken, which is just across the river. It’s about a 30 minute walk, but it’s through quite a nice trendy area full of new apartments. We could have caught the tram or the bus but we had the time and the money saved on transport bought us some varm choklads at the end of the day.
Hammarbybacken is a basic snowfield, for sure. It has three runs, plus a training area and a small skills park. There are two lifts, but no chairs – just T-bars.
Jess and I opted for snowboarding, because we had done it before and enjoyed it. For a 3 hour hire of a snowboarding kit (board, bindings, boots) it was 225SEK each. A 3 hour session was 140SEK, plus 45SEK for the SkiPass-kort, which is essentially a card that you use to swipe through to get on the chairlift. If you were staying for multiple days you’d only have to pay the 45SEK once.
As it turns out we met a fellow Aussie, Ross, in the rentals room. He’d never been snowboarding before so the three of us kind of kept together and laughed at each other stacking it. I think all of us had at least one decent stack at speed.
It was the first time either of us had used a T-bar lift; at Fall Creek we used a chairlift and a poma. As it turns out, T-bars are easier to use than a poma, but for newbies like us it still required a bit of concentration.
Unless you’re both experienced and fit, 3 hours is plenty of time to tire yourself out. We probably got around 12 runs in, with the first three runs taking the first hour or so. It’s been almost three years since we’ve been on a board so it took a while to pick up where we left off. The runs are quick, but the lines at the lift are short and it only takes about a minute to get back to the top.
It’s no ski resort, but to break up the monotony of sightseeing it was just what we needed, even if the top of the “mountain” (hill) was an excellent place to view the city of Stockholm. We had an absolute blast, and we’ll have the memories for days to come by way of bruises.
For 410SEK each (AUD$64) it must have to be the cheapest snowboarding in the world. You can find more information on the SkiStar website.
Ice Skating in Paris
2831 days
“Don’t go to Europe in Winter” everyone said, “it will be freezing and nothing will be open”.
It’s cold, sure, but it’s not that bad. On the flip side, aside from the obvious perks of having plentiful amounts of accommodation available, and not having to stand wall to wall with other tourists to see the good spots, between the start of December and the end of February every year, two large ice-rinks are created in the middle of Paris.
One rink is in Montparnasse, while the other is at Place de l’Hôtel de Ville. Since we are staying down in the 12th arrondisement (near the Bastille), we headed to Hôtel de Ville which was only about 10 minutes walk.
The skating itself is free. If you have a pair of skates, head down and do some laps. For Jess and I, it cost 5EUR each for the rental of skates – pretty cheap really.
Even if you aren’t game enough to skate, it’s worthwhile heading down for a watch. Some of the local kids are very impressive. There seems to be two very distinct styles of skating – more traditional figure skating, and the now much more popular “street” style.
It’s a great place – it brings happiness to kids and adults, experts and amateurs. Everyone there had a smile on their face!
Here is a map for anyone thinking of taking a look:
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