Stone Camping & Gods in Greece

We never went on a day trip - it was either a boat trip with 900 other people or a 2 hour drive in a bus past some statues for 100 euros.

After our wonderful stay in the sleepy, terribly hot area of Athens we were in we searched for a taxi company on the Internet to take us to the festival. The festival had organised buses to take people there, but they were pretty much sold out, and were on the other side of Athens. We figured we'd fork out and get a taxi there and back. We had a day in Athens after the festival, and wanted to visit the Acropolis then, and so having a taxi would allow us to make our own times. We found a taxi company and Rob gave them a call. We arranged for the driver to pick us up the next morning. We headed to the supermarket and since we had a flashy new camping cooking set from Tesco's we bought some proper food, as we had the ability to boil water - pasta, sausages etc.

After a very early wake up, our Taxi driver arrived perfectly on time. We realised in the taxi, upon opening the gas burner we had bought in the supermarket, that the bottom screw on bit (essential for the gas cartridge not to fly off) was missing. It was a Sunday and so all the supermarkets were closed! It turned out our driver, Costas, is an expert on Greece and so took us to a nearby town to the venue, citing "In the fields, you will find the real Greeks!". We found a little shop and managed to buy another burner, averting yet another little catastrophe.



Upon arriving in the festival grounds, we were shown to the camping area. It was a totally different ball game than Graspop. For a start, there were about 20 tents in total. It would turn out that 99% of the audience would just drive in from Athens. Second, it was 37C, without a cloud in the sky - the only, and very occasional, saviour was a slight breeze. Finally and most significantly, was the fact that the ground was rock. Simple, hard, stone. If you know anything about pitching a tent you know you have to get pegs about 6 inches into the ground. On mud, a.k.a Belgium, this was fine. Eventually I found a very big rock and we spent a while hammering the damn things in. Once it was all set up though, our new tent was great - very, very spacious. We spent the next few hours chatting with people around the campsite, and then headed over to the festival grounds.

The first few bands were the standard time filler crap, and finally Iced Earth came on. Fantastic no frills, balls to the wall metal. Straight after was Dream Theater. As the third time seeing them, it was the best one of the three. Amazing show. We left the main crowd area for Heaven and Hell and watched from a far. No decent sleep was to be had - general metal sounds all night and sleeping on spiky rocks does not do well for the back.

The next day there was nothing happening so we sat around in the sweltering heat all day. Our food was alot better, cooking sausages and fresh pasta, so at least our bellies we full.

Third day, the 3rd of July, 2007. The best day of my life. After a day of terrible bands and 'downgrading' our ticket to get closer to the front (it's all Greek to me...), Metallica finally came on stage. 25,000 people, and the place exploded. A Medival war is the closest thing it resembled. The crowd was really fantastic though - when we were all singing you could not heard the band (that's saying something at a Metallica concert!). The band seemed really chuffed. I, despite having terrible asthma problems because of the dust being kicked up, was in a dream. I had waited for and imagined that night every day for 7 years, and finally I was swinging my head around to the greatest band on earth.

The next day, after an awesome history lesson from our taxi driver, we checked into a two star hotel we booked before the festival for our last night (decided to afford ourselves some 'luxury'). The place could have been a four star hotel! A very nice surprise.

We walked to Hadrian's Arch and checked out the Temple of Zeus there as well, before heading up the long walk to the Acropolis. At the top you get an amazing few of Athens and the whole lot is very, very impressive. HOWEVER. At the top of the Acropolis, a mister James Hetfield, singer and guitarist of Metallica, and a literal God to me, was looking around there. He was with his family and his kids, and was already being approached every now and then so I really dug into my restraint and left him alone, as I did not want to bother him. Very very cool just being so close to the man though.

We had a quiet evening in watching an awesome film we have both seen 5 times - Solider - because I was feeling pretty rough. An Italian flight back from and we come to now. Greece was an awesome place and I managed to see my favorite 3 bands there, as well as check out a very cool and new (to me) city. Both Robert and myself have agreed that we will return.

I have been doing this for too long now so will upload the pictures later!