april 7/8 – 3 flights, 2 trains and a conga line

picked up carson on the corner of pico/westwood blvds in l.a. after he was late to get to my house where we were supposed to meet for the taxi. taxi driver not enthused. upon arrival at lax, treated ourselves to a fine pre-tour burger king feast.
flight 1 lax – chicago (4 hours) slept most of the way.
flight 2 chicago – london (8 hours) watched meet the fokkers (review – where’s owen wilson?), adam watched spanglish (review – excited for slapstick adam sandler, tricked into a chick flick), carson chose ocean’s 12 (review – it sucked: julia roberts played someone who looked like julia roberts). i also did some last minute excel spreadsheeting trying to figure out ways to not go bankrupt on the tour.
quick pint of stella artois in heathrow before...
flight 3 london – copenhagen (københavn) (2 hours) included seats made for half-wide humanoids, but otherwise saw us all near physical collapse and singing michael mcdonald songs in our delirium.
british flight attendant (thick accent): ham and cheese or tomato and cheese?
adam: what?
british flight attendant (thick accent): ham and cheese or tomato and cheese?
adam: what?
british flight attendant (thick accent): ham and cheese or tomato and cheese?
adam: what?
carson: HAM AND CHEESE OR TOMATO AND CHEESE!
adam: oh. tomato & cheese.
after she’d gone to deliver more “breakfast,” adam noted that he’d received the ham anyway.
copenhagen passport control = minimal. airport looks straight out of 2001.

waited for a couple hours in total exhaustion at the train station for allen rindfuss, our tour manager, my old friend from high school in san antonio.
allen managed to arrive at the station 5 minutes prior to departure, arms full of hundreds of cds, several backpacks, and 2 2-liter bottles of dr. pepper. jolted out of semi-sleep by the sight of him and calls of “take the dr. pepper!” we bolted down to the train and made the first connection.
after missing our next connection and learning several things about danish culture on the train (including “snovsen” and “nemlig!) from allen (who conveniently speaks fluent danish), we arrived and met hugo (manager) at allen’s old school (højskole) in ry (not pronounced “rye,” but rather like “woo” from the back of your throat).

as soon as we got in we played a show for the højskole at their bar/cafe. real piano, carson on a crappy school bass amp, and adam on doumbek, playing on fumes at this point, but it went beyond our wildest expectations. the students were amazing, and we got our first taste of a real european rhythmic clapping encore. first cd sale went to lasse, the self-proclaimed best lyricist and basketball player in the known universe. we would have tested his skillz, but were up too late in the bar doing conga lines, playing foosball, signing cds, and drinking far too much carlsberg & some cheap-ass odin.