Hey guys, sorry it’s been a bit since my last update. There has been a lot of action since I talked you guys last!

Last Tuesday, November 19, Grant and I checked out Cluj, Romania by day for about an hour before getting on the road for the long drive to Uzzhorod, Ukraine. Cluj has some cool architecture and I only wish we would have had longer to explore it.

After arriving on Tuesday night, we said hi to some of my old friends from Uzhhorord and then got some much needed rest. On Wednesday morning, it was back to the TYSA FM studios for my second interview with Anton and Marisha to talk about my travels and promote the show that evening. They even got ole Grant involved in the interview, and a good time was had by all. After the interview, we filled up on some good and cheap food at the station’s canteen and then headed to explore and get some much needed haircuts before the show.

After we got back to the hostel, we went downstairs for me to record an interview with BBC Ukraine that Tony had set up with his friend Arnie who is a retired archeologist, but who is also a correspondant for BBC. That was a really cool experience and a great way to kick off my show that evening!

The show went incredibly well and Grant and I both decided that we needed to have one more day with the people of Uzzhorod and extended our stay in the hostel for one more night. When I let the manager of Egan Pub, Sashca, know that we’d like to stay again, she said it would be fine as long as I agreed to play another show there the next night. So just like that, I had another gig in Uzzhorod!

The following day, Tony and Gabriella decided that they would be taking us to see Uzzhorod’s castle and museum during the day before the show so that we would get at least some culture while we were there. It was great to spend some extra time with them and we saw some really cool stuff at the museum.

The second night’s show was just as fun as the first night, and I was even joined onstage by a couple of other local musicians that I had met on my previous trip to Uzzhorod, including my pal Gene. After the show, we once again had a great time hanging out with all the locals after hours.

After having so much fun Thursday night, and enjoying the break from being on the road that we were having in Ukraine, Grant and I decided to stick around for more night in Uzzhorod. When I told Sashca that we wanted to stay one more night – it was the same response “can you play another show tomorrow night”! Feeling that the people may get sick of me if I play a third solo show in a row, I suggested instead that we throw together a big jam session for the Friday night gig and invite everyone to come on stage and play, and even have some kareoke. That idea was quickly adopted, and Friday night turned into an awesome event at the Egan Pub with many musicians coming out to join in!

One thing Grant hoped to do while in Ukraine was to buy a stereotypical Addidas track suit like some of the characters in the Slavic countries and elsewhere can be seen wearing while squatting, drinking beer, eating sunflower seeds, and smoking cigarettes. It’s kind of ridiculous really (and also hilarious), but Tony got wind of this and insisted that we meet up with him before leaving town so we could go to the local open air market to find him a cheap one. The mission was ultimately successful and it was great to see Tony one last time before leaving Ukraine. He made quite an impression on me and Grant and we both hope to be able to host him in the USA someday or see him again in Ukraine!

After saying some hard goodbyes in Uzzhorod, Grant and I finally got on the road to Budapest on Saturday afternoon. The border experience was an absolute nightmare there. After waiting in line to leave Ukraine for 2 hours, their border guards decided to pull us out of line for an enhanced search where they proceeded to take literally everything out of the car to search, use a dog to sniff for drugs, and basically waste another hour of our time. After that debacle, we then waited another hour to get into Hungary (this time without issue). The 4 hours really took a lot out of the day and we didn’t arrive in Budapest until 10pm. By the time we got there, we were so exhausted that we both passed out at our hostel without even venturing out onto the town.

After getting some much needed rest on Saturday night, we ventured out into Budapest on Sunday to do as much sightseeing as possible in the daylight since our extension in Ukraine only left us with one day to visit Budapest. Since I’d been there before, I was able to help get Grant to the main sights and we covered quite a bit on Sunday.

Once the daylight was gone, we decided to check out the House of Terror museum. It is in a building that was used by the Arrow Cross party (Hungarian Nazi party) and later by the communist state police and it was the place where political prisoners were jailed, tortured, and executed during those times. Today it is a museum dedicated to the memory of the victims of those regimes.

In the evening, we went out for a couple of beers at one of the local ruins bars that Budapest is famous for called Szimpla Kert. We were still pretty wiped out from the Uzzhorod job and the border debacle so we didn’t stay too late, but the bar was really cool to check out.

On Monday morning, we got on the road to Ljubliana, Slovenia. Ljubliana is the first city that I went to in the beginning of my trip in June and I had met a few characters there that I wanted to see again and introduce to Grant. Namely my buddy Jimmy from the Pointless Rebels Slovenian country band and my friend Reggie who is from Serbia but is living in Ljubliana. The drive across Hungary was nice, but it was dark for most of our trip through Eastern Slovenia. We once again took a night to rest when we arrived on Monday in preparation for what I hoped would be a big job with my buddies there on Tuesday night.

On Tuesday, after sleeping in, Grant and I walked around a little during the day and at 6pm Jimmy came over to the hostel for our reunion. It was great to see him again, and it wasn’t long before we were drinking whiskey, picking tunes, and being joined by several other guests of the hostel.

On Wednesday, Grant and I got underway for our destination for the night of Erding, Germany – 4 hours to the north. Erding is just outside of Munich and is home to the world’s largest “therme” (indoor/outdoor pool and sauna complex that is very popular in Germany). I’m a big fan of therme and Grant had never been, so I decided it was worth a slight detour to go for the evening and Grant became an instant fan.

Today, we left Erding enroute to Liechtenstein for my final European concert that will be held tomorrow night, Friday. Slightly off of our route was the large former concentration camp of Dachau. I’d been there when I was stationed in Germany in 2003, but Grant hadn’t and it had been so long that I was definitely interested in seeing it again – so we decided to stop and see it on the way. As always when visiting a former concentration camp, it was an interesting, yet sad experience.

After visiting Dachau, we needed to get on the road to make the two hours to Lichtenstein before sun down. Upon arrival, we met with Svetlana, the owner of the bar (called the Ethno Cafe) where I’ll be playing tomorrow. I met Svetlana and her boyfriend Alban when I was playing music on the street in Novi Sad, Serbia a few months ago. They had been very enthusiastic about my music, bought a CD, and informed that they owned a bar in Liechtenstein and that I was welcome to come play there anytime. Having not visited Liechtenstein before, this offer caught my interest, and we set the date almost two months ago and have been corresponding ever since.

Svetlana has a nice bar here and was even nice enough to lend us the little apartment which is attached to it for the next two nights. Considering how expensive Liechtenstein is, this is a big value and is very kind of her. I’m super excited to play here tomorrow for my last official gig of the trip before making my way back to Germany and home to the USA on December 18th!

Tonight, we are taking it easy and resting up for the big day tomorrow. We have plans to get a lunch of fondue with Svetlana and Alban tomorrow and then do some exploring of tiny Liechtenstein while we still have daylight. In the evening, it’s time for another big job!

That’s all I have for this post, so I’ll talk to you guys again soon!