Warning: this post might be very very long, but I just didn’t want to cut it up right in the middle. I’m not sorry. Also, I didn’t get ANY good pictures from the shows so…
BILBAO
After the success of the Brussels show and the many tears shed, it’s with tired eyes and broken hearts that we woke up early the next morning to head for the airport. Direction: Bilbao.
I was really excited for this one (and the two that would follow) because I had never been to Spain or Portugal before and I absolutely LOVE the south and warm weather ever since my vacation in the South of France. Of course, since it was only March, I did not expect real hot summer days, but I have to admit the weather did not disappoint.
We flew from Brussels to Bilbao on Brussels Airlines, which is another first for me. The only other airlines I had ever taken were RyanAir, British Airlines and Aer Lingus. Opinion: so much more leg room and space, and for a similar price as a Ryanair flight! We landed in Bilbao in the late morning and immediately took a bus to the City Center, which, despite my lack of research, was pretty easy to find and kinda cheap (3€ per person). We walked around for a little bit and then decided to head straight to our hotel which was outside the city center in a town called Barakaldo – where the show would happen – since we didn’t want to roll our suitcase around all day. We took a metro to get there, and honestly, that wasn’t the best idea. Due to my surprising lack of research this time, we had to improvise a little bit, and what I thought would be a 20 minutes walk ended up being almost 45 minutes under a scorching sun among steep hills!
We reached the Ibis Budget Barakaldo sweaty and in pain. Luckily, the guys at the front desk were the nicest people ever and introduced us to the Spanish wonderful kindness in the best way possible. See, G’s sister (not the little one, the other one) was supposed to travel with us that day, so we had booked two rooms for two nights. Unfortunately, due to work commitment, she was only able to join us the next day. Seeing as our fare was non-refundable, I expected to pay the full price at our arrival, but when we explained the situation at the front desk, the guys didn’t ask one single question and automatically deducted the amount of 1 night on one of the rooms! This was probably just €50, but when you’re traveling like that, €50 can change your trip upside down (to be completely honest we probably spent all that money on Burger King and I wish I was kidding).
We got cozy for a little while after that, then decided to go back to the center to visit by night, per my girlfriend’s request. This time, though, I had looked up an easier way to get there, and I have to admit Google Maps was my savior on that one. I’ve always used Maps a LOT when traveling but had never tested their public transport indications as I wasn’t sure it could be trusted. Well, confronted to the facts, I had my answers: if you pay close enough attention and try to figure out exactly where you need to go, Maps is your friend! I also checked the official public transports website to figure out the fares and all that – which can be confusing in Bilbao as there are a couple different companies with different bus routes! – but once I had it all figured out, it was easy peasy! And only €1,5 per person for a half hour ride? Fantastic! I was already in love with Spain at that point.
Once in the city, we walked through the center with one thing in mind: the flower puppy. We had spotted it during our bus ride from the airport and wanted to see it from up close, and so we did. The good boy was sitting quietly in front of the Guggenheim museum and it was really nice to get to take a picture with him. The surroundings of the museum were also absolutely stunning, and I think if we had made it there earlier I would have loved to see the inside of it.
And then something happened. Something small, and probably ridiculous to many, but something nonetheless. See, whenever we travel like that, we like to play Pokémon Go, and Puppy was actually a Gym in the game, so we decided to sit down on a bench nearby and battle some pokémons. At this point, a guy came by, wearing all black everything, and smoked his cigarette in peace, a couple meters away from us. I was completely focused on my battle when my girlfriend told me the guy was staring at us… and that he looked like a TØP crew guy. I looked up, and indeed there he was looking at us from afar, smoking. He took a few steps while finishing his cig, and the more I looked at him the more I knew who he was. Or at least, who he looked like: Andrew, the boys’ security guy (or at least that’s what I think he is, I might be wrong). And then what does he do? He waves at us and goes away.
To this day I still haven’t figured out why he did that. Did he recognize us? How? We had barely talked to him and he had probably only seen us ONCE up close at the signing in Belfast. Did he notice too much yellow on our jackets and thought we were Banditos? But in that case… why did he expect us to know who HE was anyway? I guess I’ll question myself every day unless I get the chance to ask him in person another time. But before you ask: yes. I’m pretty sure it was him, especially when we learned the next day that the hotel right in front of Puppy was actually the hotel they were staying at.
But whatever. After roaming the Bilbao streets a little bit more, we went back to our hotel. The next day, we picked up Lucylle at the airport in the morning, went back to the hotel to nap (grandmas, I’m telling you!) and then headed for the show. We had nice little seats again, so we took our time to get drinks and popcorn before the show. I’m not super fond of popcorn, but my girlfriend is, and since it was pretty cheap (maybe 5€ for a massive bowl) she decided to take the big one. I tried it as soon as it was in my hands, and I knew something was wrong: the popcorn was salted! Don’t get me wrong, if I had to pick between salted or sweet, I’d pick salted, but I fairly well know this goes against all logic. So WHO the hell decided in Spain that REGULAR popcorn was SALTED? Let me just say I was the only one eating popcorn that night.
Notable things from that show:
- After being present in Brussels again, the bridge uniting main stage and B stage disappeared again.
- The Quiet Game didn’t take place that night.
- I had the biggest cry (and when I say cry I mean I balled my eyes out) during Leave The City. And you know how the crowd usually screams a little bit louder when the song goes “In Trench I’m not alone”? I was literally unable to sing that part because I was sobbing so much. I don’t know if I was exhausted, or if I just felt like we were leaning towards the end, but I was a literal mess. And when I told my girlfriend I couldn’t sing then, she said “It’s okay I screamed it for you”, and if that’s not the cutest thing ever then I don’t even know.
- A wild Tyler Joseph appeared right behind us during his Fairly Local stunt, very close this time.
- The camo hoodie, usually at the wonderful price of €75, was down to €55 starting that night! Someone was very happy she waited before buying it.
MADRID
The next day, we woke up very early, and after a funny story at the hotel (Lucylle wasn’t waking up despite our incessant knocks on her door so we had to ask reception for a double of her key card to go and wake her up!) we took a bus from Bilbao to Madrid. This wasn’t the quickest option (it took us about 5 hours) but it was definitely the most convenient and the cheapest. Plus we were able to witness Spain’s wild scenery, so that was nice.
When finally in the capital, we were joined by a group of friends coming from Belgium, with whom we had rented the most beautiful AirBnb I’ve ever had the chance to stay at: a massive duplex with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a nice living room AND two balconies. We weren’t supposed to check-in that early but the owner kindly let us put our suitcases and bags away and gave us the keys so we were able to go and visit the city center. The sun was shining very bright, and we decided to go and get a late lunch at a restaurant on Plaza Mayor… which was a very bad idea. The place was definitely a tourist trap, and the girls who ordered lasagna got a frozen dish that had to be sent back. My pasta were half cold when I received them, and definitely looked and tasted like they’d been reheated in the microwave then left out for a while. And then we all ordered some bread and had a very nice surprise to see we had paid €9 for 6 pieces of not so fresh bread. I’ve never left a worst review on Maps.
After such a fiasco, we took some time to visit the massive Primark but were quickly overwhelmed by its many floors. We soon returned to the AirBnb for a little bit, and then finally came the time to go to the show. Our little group all had different kinds of tickets so we split up. Our seats were very high on the second balcony (very tough on my girlfriend who’s afraid of heights) and we had difficulty finding where we needed to go because there was literally NO indication in the whole building.
Notable things from that show:
- The Josh VS. Blurryface drum battle happened, much to everybody’s surprise.
- The Quiet Game didn’t happen during the show, but right after Car Radio, when the audience usually calls the band back on stage with chants, the audience here yelled “Quiet Game! Quiet Game!” on a loop… and the band followed suit and let us play (but we still didn’t beat the Paris score).
LISBON
We left early again the next day, leaving our friends who would be going home later that day, to go to the airport. We landed in Lisbon at 10 in the morning where we waited for 2 other friends of ours directly coming from Belgium. We went to the hostel we had booked just to leave our bags there for the day, even though we knew we couldn’t properly check in before the afternoon, and then we headed for the city centre. Our first aim being lunch, we took the metro and stopped at Restauradores and admired the Monumento before eating at a very nice Italian restaurant (that definitely made up for the fiasco of the day before!)
Since we took our mighty time at the restaurant, it didn’t leave us much time to do anything else so we headed back to the hostel for the check-in, then almost directly to the venue. The line was probably the longest and most messed-up I’ve seen this tour, but after a while, we finally managed to find one end of the line and we waited. The weather wasn’t the best, with some light rain, but we finally made it into the venue for the last show of the Bandito Tour.
We were in the pit this time, and aimed for the B-Stage and around the path where Tyler and Josh would be passing by to get to the stage. The path was already drawn up with yellow tape, so we stood behind the line for the whole pre-show. Unfortunately, I don’t think many people knew what it was for (or they chose to ignore it) so soon enough, the crowd had invaded the path without security doing anything about it. Which means that, by the time Nico and the Niners came on, the people in the middle of the path were pushed back against us and we barely got to see anything… Love that for us!
Anyway, after this small disappointment, our group of friends decided to go much further back, where we could see the whole stage without being sandwiched in between thirty people and without having to stand on our tippy-toes. And we had room to dance! That part of the show was honestly the most fun I’ve had. I even got to go to the toilet (yes, yes, during the show but I HAD to!) and I screamed “Not Done, Josh Dun” alone in the bathroom.
Surprisingly enough, I barely cried, even though I thought the last show would be the most emotional. I felt weirdly detached. Maybe I had cried enough for the past couple days. Maybe I felt relieved that this was over, in a way? Don’t get me wrong… I LOVED doing this. But looking back now, maybe 9 shows was too much. I don’t regret any of these shows, but I will definitely not go to that many next tour (and I might not be able to financially anyway).
Oh, after the show, we decided to get a nice group picture with the Regrettes (and I told Lydia I wish there had been more strong female role models when I was growing up and that I really appreciated her band!)… and we ended up with these beauties. Someone was tired!
The next day, we didn’t do much. We felt tired beyond belief, so we just took a metro to Praça do Comércio, a wonderful plaza very close to the beach. We put our feet in the sand and water for a while, then walked around for a little bit before getting McDonald’s and then heading to the airport to go home for one last time.
So here goes nothing. I hope you enjoyed following my adventures, and I’ll make sure to continue this series over the summer, since we’re going to a couple festivals. Please let me know what you liked/disliked in the series, if you’d like to read more about the countries in general and what we did or if you’d like more detailed reviews of the show.
If you haven’t read the previous posts or if you’d like to re-read them before summer:
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