A (Mostly) Grumpy Saturday in Luxembourg…

As the crazy Frank Turner fan that I have become over this past year (and I’m not ashamed to admit it) I had decided to drive 300 km (one way) to see him at a free festival in the small city Dudelange in Luxembourg this weekend. During the day there were so many moments where I regretted this decision, because so many things went wrong with this trip. I guess I also regretted it, because I tend to quickly lose perspective and to wallow in all my misery and be whiny. I really hate that about myself. And I’m trying to get better with it. So, what exactly put me in such a mood?

Closed roads and closed exits which led to various detours. My own clumsiness that led to me taking a fall which bruised my hands and knees and as I found out during the day also caused a (mild) sprain (or whatever) in my left foot. Just perfect on a day on which I had planned to do a lot of sightseeing on foot and also to dance and rock at a concert in the evening. I bought some ice at the supermarket and even some ice spray at a pharmacy, but neither seemed to do a lot of good. And of course the necessary walking from one point to the next and at least trying to make the most of the stop in Luxembourg city didn’t help the foot either.

Around lunch I checked Twitter and had to read that Niall, the NY2SYsolo rower had to be airlifted from his boat due to serious injuries. On top of my own misery that news really really dampned my spirit for so many reasons, I don’t want to get into now. Later that day I read that Niall had already left the hospital again, so that’s very very good news. I was and still am gutted on his behalf, that he had to abandon the solo rowing attempt.

I hobbled around some more but it wasn’t really much fun and I had lost most of my interest in any more sightseeing. Especially as I didn’t find two of the hop-on-hop-off stops where I expected them to be and thus had to walk back to the one I had gotten off. By that point I was really getting grumpy (in case you haven’t figured that much from this post already). Which all also led to me not really taking any good photos or even paying a lot of attention to what I was taking a picture of. So here is a rather random collection of Luxembourg photos…

Some cake and coffee helped a bit to cheer me up, but the foot still hurt and on my way to the festival city there were a more roads closed and of course there were closed roads in that city centre as well (due to the festival) and I was in such a bad mood when I finally reached my hotel. Which was were I also read the news that Niall from NY2SY was doing well and from that moment on things seemed to have lightened up. I still wasn’t sure how if I would be able to stand, let alone move to the music for a few hours, but I was willing to try anyway. Or to at least catch the shows I drove over 300 km for.
I walked around the various stages all over the small city centre, I had some supper and then decided to just sit down somehwere until the Mighty Oaks (and later Frank Turner & the Sleeping Souls) would go on stage. And while the Mighty Oaks did their soundcheck I noticed that the space in front of the stage was not crowded at all. In fact… there was a good chance of getting a spot in the front row. For this show and the following… ;-) Front row also meant I could just lean against or on the barrier and wouldn’t have to put any weight on the injured foot. And it was front row!

So that’s were I went and that’s where I stayed for the Might Oaks show and the next band on the side stage, during which set the main stage was set up for Frank and the guys. I admit I didn’t really know Mighty Oaks before I had planned to see Frank at this festival. I listened to some of their songs on Spotify and liked them so I was looking forward to their show as well and I wasn’t disappointed. Great music, very very nice guys and I think I might check them out again during the November/December Tour in Germany. At least I just bought their EP and album on iTunes this afternoon.

And now to the main act… :-)

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