The Silent Mecca of EDM music. City of beer, dreams, love, music, peace and unity.
Captains Log Day 4 – 26/07/16 1:26 am. SNCF Railways.
The first shadows of a new era beset upon our feet. The faithful Co-Captain Avi was getting ready to set an anchor in his life, he was soon to be married. History has shown us, that to welcome a new milestone the mind, body and soul has to transform. Grow. Learn. However, we were not going to let this metamorphosis happen without an ode to the times. A big hoorah. A celebration to cast a shade on any other celebration in our lives. Welcome to the logs of #avisbuxx
This was not going to be any adventure; this would be a pilgrimage to honor the man. The Captain set off gathering the crew, the brave men that would dedicate mind body and soul to the cause. This mission was only for the prepared. The selected troops were the Captain, Co-Captain Avi and the newly promoted Rebel leader Amit.
The journey to the first destination was long, but we had managed to entertain ourselves by playing chicken games on an iPad for 13 hours. A stopover in Abu Dhabi consisted of a quick replenishment meal as we boarded our remaining 8-hour flight to the country of Belgium. Once again sleep was not our friend, barely catching an hour or two the whole journey.
Red eyed at 9am we arrived in the city of Brussels, and not long after we made it to our hotel only to be advised that the room would not be ready for another 3 hours. This only meant one thing. Engage tourist mode. Within minutes (after getting lost for a bit) we were off out of the city to explore sites like the Atomniom (an alien like giant structure) and Mini Europe (self-explanatory). A quick snack of the local delicacy of Fritz (chips with mayo) and we decided to continue our sight-seeing adventures, as we headed 2 hours away to, a university town, and visit the Herge museum (think TinTin). 42 hours after leaving Melbourne we finally reached our hotel for a warm shower a rest, although just as the micro sleep fairies started hovering over our heads it was to go out again.
Legs shivering from the lack of sleep, exhaustion peaking and the mind full of the adrenaline of adventure we wander around, searching for a place to eat. Captain suggests a beer to kick off the night and relax the nerves, at first the co-captain refuses saying we should have dinner first, however democracy is called when the Rebel leader agrees with the idea. The request is the large pint, the drinks start flowing when democracy is called again when the co-captain suggest one round each before we eat….. a pub hop ensues, a beer at a live music bar, this then turns into a stumble to see the Pissing Boy (a landmark of the city). As Rebel leader and Captain took photos of this monument, the Co-Captain had found his next bar. It seemed the there was a party going on, people yelling and singing in French, this seemed like an apt place. Not long after the Co-Captain was being cheered as he sculled a beer, then being invited to dance to a chant – which involved a lot of yelling “TIKI TAKA TIKI TAKA“ on the streets. Absolutely on a different planet we left the club only to realize that we had not had anything to eat and the time was 1 am – stumbling once again we ended up at Fritzland, a place that we had starred on our map as it had the best Fritz in the country, they also served beer. Smashing down some fritz with samurai sauce the Captain lead the crew to the next bar, the Brazilian variety.
Not long after we lost the Rebel leader – with no contact, the co-captain and captain scoured the streets and bars of Brussels looking for him only to return home at 4:30 am to find him fast asleep in his bed.
The day had arrived. The Pilgrimage was to peak. The main reason we were in this beautiful country. Tomorrowland! Those that don’t know what Tomorrowland is, I can summarise it, however I cannot do it justice. No words, no graphical explanations, no level of detail, no images can convey what Tomorrowland is. Tommorowland is a Dance Music Festival which hosts the biggest DJs in the world in a Disneyworld like theme park. 160,000 people. 16 stages. A place of Love, Peace. Music. This is the Mecca of EDM music. This is a pilgrimage that anyone that loves this genre of music must attend. This is the holiest ground for EDM music..
Hungover, armed with our masks, water bottles, spare phone batteries, the squadron caught an uber, goosebumps as we rode to war, this was a battle we had dreamed of fighting for years. The time had come. The giganticness of the festival, the beauty of the stages cannot be described here, and the photos and videos you see cannot convey the emotion you feel on this ground. We headed to the main stage, just to be blown away. We were lucky enough to rendezvous with some other Pirates that joined our squadron. Reverend Raj and Prince Patel, veterans, of Tomorrowland Brasil, our tour guides on this mind-blowing trip. The company was well appreciated our team had formed and we fought hand in hand. We went and saw, Ferry Corsten, FTampa, Dada Life, Don Diablo, GTA, RaveCave, Steve Aoki, Steve Angello, Yellow Claw ending it with Martin Garrix, and Like Mike and Demitri Vegas.
We left, with withdrawals of the night to ensue. Even as I write this log I feel my heart skip a beat. This was the BEST Night of Our lives – nothing can ever come close to what we felt. The Fellowship was broken as we departed a land of dreams and music. Broken we ended up back home after 12 hours of non-stop dancing at 6am, having the inability to sleep due to the blood rushing though our body and thoughts unable to let go of what we had experienced we finally slept at 7:30am. We were later to find, that one of our companions had to be hospitalized due to the exhaustion that came with 3 days of heaven
Waking up a few hours later we still could not stop thinking about the night that was. After speaking about the night before we finally arose and continued our sight-seeing across the city, visiting all the remaining places. The beauty of the city is unfathomable. Once again the grandeur is not doing justice by image, we strolled to the grand place. We went to a few chocolate shops and indulged in some of the finest chocolate in the world. Joining the locals we bought some beers and sat in front of the grand structures and contemplated our nights activities. Since it was the last night we thought a pub crawl was the right thing to do.
Once again we got home and 20 minutes later we are out and about to join the pubcrawl.
Meeting new people commenced. It was time for the Aussie battalion to take control, introducing the people to the drinking games, getting everyone involved, time accelerated as people started dropping like flies. BUFFELO. Jumping from bar to bar, we once again had a huge night, returning home at 4 am with high concentrations of liquids in our systems.
Sleep was once again not our friend, the squadron awaking a few hours later, and spending the last few hours of our stay watching Tomorrowland videos, see here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ME4sx9UEJPM – scroll to 17.45 and see if you recognize someone. Spending enough time on the videos, we left the hotel in the last minute only to reach our train to Amsterdam 2 minutes prior to its departure.
To sign off this log, I need to say that, going to Tomorrowland just proves that Dreams are only dreams when you sleep; when you are awake, you have the chance to make them a reality.
Hungover, armed with our masks, water bottles, spare phone batteries, the squadron caught an uber, goosebumps as we rode to war, this was a battle we had dreamed of fighting for years. The time had come. The giganticness of the festival, the beauty of the stages cannot be described here, and the photos and videos you see cannot convey the emotion you feel on this ground. We headed to the main stage, just to be blown away. We were lucky enough to rendezvous with some other Pirates that joined our squadron. Reverend Raj and Prince Patel, veterans, of Tomorrowland Brasil, our tour guides on this mind-blowing trip. The company was well appreciated our team had formed and we fought hand in hand. We went and saw, Ferry Corsten, FTampa, Dada Life, Don Diablo, GTA, RaveCave, Steve Aoki, Steve Angello, Yellow Claw ending it with Martin Garrix, and Like Mike and Demitri Vegas.
We left, with withdrawals of the night to ensue. Even as I write this log I feel my heart skip a beat. This was the BEST Night of Our lives – nothing can ever come close to what we felt. The Fellowship was broken as we departed a land of dreams and music. Broken we ended up back home after 12 hours of non-stop dancing at 6am, having the inability to sleep due to the blood rushing though our body and thoughts unable to let go of what we had experienced we finally slept at 7:30am. We were later to find, that one of our companions had to be hospitalized due to the exhaustion that came with 3 days of heaven
Waking up a few hours later we still could not stop thinking about the night that was. After speaking about the night before we finally arose and continued our sight-seeing across the city, visiting all the remaining places. The beauty of the city is unfathomable. Once again the grandeur is not doing justice by image, we strolled to the grand place. We went to a few chocolate shops and indulged in some of the finest chocolate in the world. Joining the locals we bought some beers and sat in front of the grand structures and contemplated our nights activities. Since it was the last night we thought a pub crawl was the right thing to do.
Once again we got home and 20 minutes later we are out and about to join the pubcrawl.
Meeting new people commenced. It was time for the Aussie battalion to take control, introducing the people to the drinking games, getting everyone involved, time accelerated as people started dropping like flies. BUFFELO. Jumping from bar to bar, we once again had a huge night, returning home at 4 am with high concentrations of liquids in our systems.
Sleep was once again not our friend, the squadron awaking a few hours later, and spending the last few hours of our stay watching Tomorrowland videos, see here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ME4sx9UEJPM – scroll to 17.45 and see if you recognize someone. Spending enough time on the videos, we left the hotel in the last minute only to reach our train to Amsterdam 2 minutes prior to its departure.
To sign off this log, I need to say that, going to Tomorrowland just proves that Dreams are only dreams when you sleep; when you are awake, you have the chance to make them a reality.
