Cologne: show day!

And before you know it it's Monday! The day before we are going on the road for twelve days, non-stop. But i'll talk about that later, first I need to go back to last weekend, if I can find the words to describe what it has been like at all. Because I still can't believe what happened during that show in Cologne. I need to keep it short because I don't have much time today but I just need to talk about it.

So in my last post we were still at the hotel, about to head back to the venue. We eventually got back at around half past eleven, because it was horrible to find a place to park at the stadium. Nobody knew exactly where we were supposed to park so we ended up driving around for about half an hour. Eventually we ended on a parking lot miles away from the stadium but at least it was cheap. Five euro's for a whole day! :-D

Back at the venue the queue had moved from the place where we camped out to somewhere on a field, in the shade, which was good. At two we picked up our tickets and we went in at around four. It all went very smoothly and relaxed and we ended up at the most perfect catwalk spot ever. Right in the middle, in front of the stage. There was only one support act (Christina Stürmer again) which was good but it also made the wait very long. We eventually ended up playing a game of Yahtzee because we were that bored, and to think about the fact that we had been queueing for 29 hours at that point didn't really make it any better. (Although we did go back to the hotel for a few hours in the morning, of course ;))

At 20:00 the show started, but it started with a big surprise. For the first time since the start of the European tour they did not start with Water but with Rocking All Over The World. (Big Amsterdam 2008 flashback!) and it did the trick. Immidiately the whole stadium was jumping, waving and singing along. After RAOTW they played Water and I have to say I really liked that it wasn't the first song for once. It's a great opener but I love that song so much that it's also a shame that it's over before I even realise they are on stage again. Nothing new after that with Bad Name and Raise Your Hands, then they skipped BTBMB (THANK YOU!!) and then it was time for the second surprise of the night, already! Radio ! They had played it the day before in Stuttgart so I didn't think they would do it again in Cologne, but they did !!!! And I loved it !

I think it was at that point that Jon said, again, that it was going to be a long night and that he had a lot of surprises in store for us. Well we've all heard him say that before and usually that means we get two or three rarities but I don't think anyone could have seen thís setlist coming. After Radio we got I'd Die For You again, and after a couple of 'normal' songs we reached one of the most magical parts of any setlist ever.

Last Man Standing, Keep The Faith, Amen (I love the lyrics and it was nice to hear it once but I wouldn't mind if they don't play it again), Living in Sin and Wild Is The Wind. I mean... what am I supposed to say about this? By the time they started Wild Is The Wind I had tears in my eyes, simply because I just couldn't believe what was happening. And it was so perfect, and they were having so much fun playing all these songs.

Then it was time for one of the cutest moments of the show, if not any show ever: Captain Crash. Yes! Even Captain Crash was one of the highlights because Jon had his own bag of confetti during the song, and he threw it along with everyone else at exactly the right moments. It was so cute, especially when he was like: "I'm ready!" with a big smile on his face. That guy, seriously!

What's Left Of Me was another highlight, as was Love's The Only Rule. I wasn't sure if I would get to hear that song live this tour but I sure was hoping they would play it because I love that song só só much. And I was so happy when they started the intro, and to hear the whole stadium do the "whoohoohoo" thing is just magical.

At that point I kind of though we'd had enough surprises for one night, I mean I literally didn't think I could handle any more, but the band disagreed. Jon started talking about that he wasn't sure if he could remember the next song they were going to play but that they would just try it, and when he said it was a These Days song that they hadn't played for a very long time I was in tears again. It turned out to be This Ain't A Love Song. O MY GOD! That song, so perfect. And they played it. And Jon remembered all the lyrics, and it was so beautiful. What a night !

And it still wasn't over after that. They finished with a beautiful version of Someday I'll Be Saturday Night. Even though at that point I was extremely tired and my feet hurt, I was still ready for more, but of course it was over, and it was good. It was perfect, it was everything we could have wished for and so, so much more. Even though Jon only walked on the catwalk once, I am still so glad we chose to camp out for this show, because we still had the most perfect Golden Circle spot ever.

After the show we were stuck on the parking lot for about 45 minutes, and by the time we got back to our room I had turned 22! Nikita threw me a tiny party in our hotel room and we eventually went to sleep at half past 1, in an actual bed. The comfort!

We left the hotel at twelve on Sunday and I got home at 14:30, to celebrate my birthday. It was a bit strange but it was also lovely, and I could  tell many people about our adventures so that was good!! Everything about this weekend was good. Better than I expected, but then again, who could have expected this kind of setlist?

Now I have to go pack and I'm still on a mission to find confetti for all the shows. See you on the road!

♥♥♥

We made it to the press again

My tiny birthday party

Post show and 29 hours of queuing, back in our room, I think we looked pretty fresh :-P

a game of yathzee before the show

Not sure if I mentioned it but I obviously bought the red hat 

This view speaks for itself