Did I say over?

Well, I was wrong....LOL...

my totally freaking amazing 30 Seconds to Mars-Journey didn't end in Frankfurt....it ended in Austria, in a way I had never expected it.

A few weeks before the last concerts in Germany the band announced they would add one more show in Austria before returning to the US. This show wasn't a regular Mars-Show, it was part of a Ski-Opning Party together with two other bands in a small village in the middle of a huge Skiing Area in the Austrian Mountains, about 400 km from were I live. My friend Patrizia ordered her ticket and tried to convince me to come. But as I had already planned the weekend in Vienna and then also won the ticket for France and knew there is a Fan-Meeting on Dec. 10th I told her no, it would have ment not spending time at home with my family for 4 weekends in a row shortly before christmas and I knew we would need to do christmas shopping. Plus I thought they wouldn't play a whole show (and the ticket were regular prices) and I didn't know or liked the other bands. Patrizia had organized to go to Austria with two other girls from our Facebook Group and also organized an apartment to sleep one night. So she was set to go...

The week before the show she was soo excited because they also had Tickets for an Aftershow Party (not one like in Vienna but still with a small chance to see the band there as guests). I was happy for her and never really thought about it...until the Friday before the show when one of the girls posted the timetable for the next night and it looked like they would in fact be playing a 90 minute show. I was sad....and I told my husband (who always rolls his eyes and sighs when I talk about Mars). During the course of the evening he somehow decided he wanted to make me happy (don't ask me what happened, and I won't ask him, I will just be happy and love him even more than before). He had to go to the gas station to buy some drinks and when he came back he told me "I put enough gas in the car so you can make it to Austria tomorrow, so how about calling Patrizia so she can organize a room and a ticket for you" I was stunned...totally! But I didn't want to go by myself, I hate driving by myself. So he told me he would come with me (just like in Vienna) or I should just ask some girls from my group to come...

...I'll spare you the details, it includes a million Facebook Posts and over an hour of Telephone-Conferences between me, Patrizia, Petra and another girl from the group. In the end we did it the following way:

Lolly from Hamburg (about 800km north of were I live) would pack Julia (also from Hamburg) in her car around 5 am to drive to Bielefeld (3 hours away) to meet Petra and change to her car. The three of them will drive down to my place (about 4 hours) to meet me and hop into my car to go to Austria (another 4 hours). On our way there we would have to stop in Salzburg to pick up two tickets for Julia and Lolly, Petra and me would get tickets from a FB-friend of one of the girls who was going with Patrizia (can you still follow me?). Somewhere in between posting about it on FB another girl from Berlin asked if we are REALLY going and said she was soooo jealous. So I told her she could come, there is still one seat left in my car. She would just have to be in Nürnberg by noon. For her it meant taking a train around 2 am and switch to connecting trains 4 times during the night (and spent about 10 hours on the train). I told her she can decided herself, I will keep the space for her. She just had to call me in the morning to tell me if she is coming and where to pick her up. I went to bed around midnight while the others still organized tickets, trains and the such.

Needless to say I couldn't sleep....I was nervous and excited and totally overwhelmed by my own courage and nerves to pull something like that off on such a short notice. I totally freaked and I am sure I would have cancelled it if I could have...but when I got up around 8:30 they were all already on their way. So I had to deal with a few minor nervous-breakdowns, a lot of crying, an upset stomach and a totally frustrated husband who didn't understand me and kept asking "what the f...k is your problem" LOL

I didn't have breakfast, I stayed in bed until the last minute, I refused to get dressed...I was scared to death by what I had started....seriously, I still don't understand why...but I had to deal with it and I knew that at least Patrizia and Petra knew about my "problem" with dealing with spontaneous situations so I knew it would all work out in the end. And my girls were great all day and night, not asking any questions, not shaking their heads in disbelieve, not looking at me in a funny way for feaking out and crying....the just hugged me and told me it will be OK and that they love me no matter what...that feeling is incredible, especially when you haven't met them before and hardly know them in person...

I picked up Virginia (from Berlin) around 12:30 pm from the train and the others got to my place around 1 pm. Hubby came home (he did part of the shopping we had planned to do together for the weekend by himself real quick) around 10 minutes later and we left. I did the first hour of driving but then couldn't concentrate anymore (lack of sleep) so Petra took over and we made it to Salzburg in 3 hours. Picked up tickets real quick and were in Schladming an hour later. I had organized a room for 5 in the same Guesthouse Patrizia had so we met the girls (who had taken the train earlier) there. We changed real quick, used the bathroom and left to drive down to the village. Doors opened at 7pm, Mars were to play at 10pm. The 3 other girls had VIP-Tickets and had organize another one for Virginia, the other four of us had regular tickets. Unfortunately we found out at the Venue that we would be standing in different areas...oh well, at least we would see each other later. My group went to get something to eat (well, the other three, I was still way to nervous and didn't feel like eating).

The show was awesome!!! The Venue was incredible, it was Open Air, despite the fact that it was freezing (only thing missing was real snow but the y had some fake one). The Stage was set in front of a downhill skiing Area and it looked incredible!!!! We didn't feel like going close to/standing in the crowd so we stayed in the back which was a set little higher than the Crowd Area and Stage. We had a great view and lots of space to jump and dance and go crazy (which we did!!!)

AND the girl I met in Frankfurt posted on Facebook, that a friend of her knows which hotel the band is staying at and she told us - so right after the show we went there and stood in front of it for TWO freaking hours in the freezing cold (0° Celcius). We saw the guitarist, the keyboarder and the Drum Assistant plus a whole lot of Crew but none of the boys. It was still a lot of fun because we were goofing around and taking a million group pictures and dreaming about what we would do if the guys showed up. So around 2 am we decided that the guys won't be coming out anymore and the group with the Aftershow Tickets would go party and my group would go back to the Guesthouse to sleep. We needed to get up around 8:30 to drive back and needed some rest, the others were taking the train and could sleep on the way back. Patrizia told us if they see one of the guys at the party she would call....well, we got into the car and were on our way and she called...Party was now free admission and the saw Shannon!!!! Oh well, we decided to give it a shot and agreed on staying 30 minutes. We got there and he was nowhere to be seen, so we danced a bit and left.

The next morning we were told that he in fact was there but in a small VIP-Area on a Balcony above the dancefloor (the Venue was three storys high), so the girls could see him but couldn't dance with him or talk. So I think going to bed was in fact the right decision.

When we got up the next morning the girls were so excited because they all hadn't really been to the mountains before (being from the north/northwest part of Germany), It made me laugh so hard to see them take pictures of the mountains and go all ahhh and ohhh about it.

We left around 9, got some breakfast and coffee and were back on the Autobahn around 10. The girls mostly slept while I did the driving but we also talked about the crazy weekend and how great spontaneous decisions are. Had to stop for gas once and were home around 1:30 pm. Took a last picture, let them use the bathroom and boom....it was over!

Now there is still one show left to attend, or well, there are a few, 4 to be exact, in NYC, starting today. But tomorrow there will be a special show, it's the Mars 300 Show, which is a Guiness Book World Record Show (most shows to play in the course of one Tour for one single Album). And the guys decided they would stream it live on the Web so everyone can attend. I bought a ticket (you pay 15 $ and get a code to enter the Livestream) and will be sitting on my couch tomorrow at midnight here in Germany to watch the last and record breaking show of my favourite band...I will love it...and enjoy it...and I will cry...I know that....but it's OK...

Irene