Day 3. - Gent, I Love Techno
Crawled out of bed so late I missed breakfast in the hotel, but managed to meet up with the others for brunch in a nearby cafe. Last leg of the journey to Gent was tiring, with one of our party more than a little worse for wear. (No names no pack drill). After managing to get so lost in Gent that I ended up driving through a pedestrian precinct (!), we find our hotel, which was absolutely awesome! (Sofitel Belfort, Gent, if ever you are there.)
Everyone crashes out completely in the afternoon, recovering from the madness thus far. Jason and Cej make it to the Dirty Meet rendezvous about two hours before we do (sorry guys!!)
We meet in the Rotonde restaurant/bar and eat good food ready for the onslaught of I Love Techno. The free tram service from the station to the venue is an absolute scream, just jam packed full of people ready to party, singing, shouting, banging on windows. Amazing.
ILT itself is incredible. Somewhere around 30,000 people in a huge exhibition centre with 6 colour-coded rooms plus a central "tent". We head for the Yellow Room where UW are headlining at midnight. The place is jam-packed and too hot for words - even Rick took his jacket off on stage! But the set was banging - I guess you would call it a "greatest hits", festival style, with one or two of the new tracks slipped in. I was a happy bunny cos they played Pearl's Girl, which is still my all-time favourite.
And at the end of the set, Karl gave a shout out to Dirty, which rounded off the series beautifully. (Lloyd and I holding the banner upside down, but, hey... they had seen it on three previous nights so they knew it was us).
Having sworn blind I was leaving at the end of the gig, I ended up seeing a bit of Richie Hawtin's set, and was on my third wind by the time Nathan Fake came on at about 3.15, so we didn't get away til about 4.30am, leaving Jason and Cej still partying.
Day 4. Gent - SLEEEEEEEP!
Got up for breakfast at 10.00, ate, then went back to sleep again. Room invaded by Geo and Stimps, watching Belgian infomercials and reading the papers. Eventually managed to find Raz, went out for a nice quiet lunch (Stoveriy met fritjes and huisgemaakte chocolademousse, Geo - I'm learning!
). Geo and Stimps get the train home, Raz and I decide to move the hire-car to the hotel car-park, only to find that the Police have very kindly moved it for us, to the car pound!
Still, what kind of a road trip would it be without some sort of brush with the law? So tired I can't even worry about it. Early to bed.
Day 5. - Coming Home
250 euros worse off thanks to the intriguing Belgian parking rules. But, the one benefit of having to get a taxi to the car pound meant that we didn't have to try and negotiate our way round Gent and its cobbled one-way pedestrianised random streets again, and found the motorway straight away. Arrived early at the airport - time to rest, reflect and remember the fantastic time I have had.
Big love and thanks to all the Dirts I partied with, but with extra special love and thanks to Raz for being my travelling companion, to Lloyd for being the world's best translator and guide for all things dutch, to Geo for his navigational skills, to Jason for being such a wild party animal, to Leon for thinking he could spend the night at the Police station, and to Stimps for... well, just being Stimps.
And an extra extra special thank you to Rick, Karl and Darren for making this one of the most memorable trips of my life. Ever.