Almost every fairytale starts in a far far away country, but it seems that every Asrai tour starts very very early in the morning. So this is no other story and it starts early in the morning, going to a far away country::
Day 1 - 11th January

-High in the Sky -

Our trip starts with going to Brussels Airport, and when almost the rest of Holland were still asleep (lucky bastards) we were packing our bags and got into our cars and drove off. Belguim, here we come!

A slight panic when we arrived. It seems that they were not prepared to check in a band. So there was a bit of a chaos. We tried to travel light packed but still at the airport we had to pay a lot for the extra inches for the keyboard-  and bass suitcase (yes size does matter). But there was a nice surprise waiting for them when the second band arrived: Callenish Circle. We met each other right before we entered the plane and ready to fly straight ahead to our mutual adventure.
In Atlanta it seems that they had handled our luggage with care It cost us 240 euro; and you get something for it, a totally smashed up bass suitcase and even the keyboard case will never be the same again. Of course they couldn't help us out in Atlanta we had to be with their colleagues in Mexico City. In the end there is not much differences in the world.
Waitng at Brussels Airport
Flight 125 from Brussels to Atlanta. We left at 10.35 and arrived at 14.35.
It looks like a short flight, but there is a time difference between Atlanta and Brussels for just 7 hours.

Killing our time with talking, snoring, watching movies, reading moviereview from Advocate from the Devil, eating and of course filling those endless visa papers.
Flying above Greenland...a spectaculair sight
Our flight was leaving at 19.35 so we had to overcome some hours and met loads of soldiers up for their own tour. And even some of them knew our music so rocking in Iraq and for us rocking in Mexico.

It was time to leave for another four hours flight. When we all arrived at Mexico City, we where a bit tired and looking forward to catch some sleep in a hotel. Everyone was waiting impatiently for the coach to arrive.  In the meantime Martin and Karin were looking for the Delta desk to arrange the smashed up suit case and what a big surprised ....The desk was closed!
The Mexican Mountains
We met Jesus, not much of a surprise when he turned out to be an advocate. He needed our visa's and later on he wasn't the only one,........
but that's another story..

He made us overjoyed  by telling us that we would drive straight to the hotel. We were all so relieved. ... Actually he wasn't lying, but the hotel was just an louzy 11 hours away, in Monterrey.......
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Day 3  13th January  Hard Rock Live - Guadalajara

- Rock Hard Guadalajara-

The weather was great, especially when we were thinking about the cold weather back home, Marcel made a call home for the weatherreport.
Day 2  - 12th January  Café Iguana 

-Breaking the law-
We had a little sleep as far as possible in a coach, and the view of the Mexican countryside was great. It was awesome to see the mountains. When we flew over we where trying to figure out how high they would be  Well they're high.
We didn't know if we had to laugh about the whole situation or to cry because now we couldn't go to the hotel first and we really needed some freshen up to do.

There were several guard posts and they had a short check in the coach, but the last one wanted our visas, well Jesus had them and he had left us alone. And we were so near Monterrey we almost started singing, "we zijn er bijna".. ((specially for Martin) we are there almost) Not!
We had to drive to the nearest Immigrantion office where we were held for a louzy two hours.
Two hours with filling in some forms surrounded by very flirtatious policemen.
In the end they wanted our pictures..
(Not for the WANTED poster)
Finally they figure it out ... they also could make some copies from our passports (like they did so well with the photos) and so they did and we where able to jump in the coach. And left...
Not before they haunted us with television camera's..

Put the pedal to the Metal... up to Montrerry
We arrived at the Café Iguana
When we saw the enormus poster outside we were thrilled..

It was time to explore the first venue. And it looked great with the high stage, we heard stories from that one before and we could see for ourselves that it wasn't exaggerated.

In the whole venue there were small stairs and when you didn't look it was very easy to fell over and of course we did. We met
The Birthday Massacre and Paradise Lost,

. Let the party begins!!
After a short line-check we could go to the hotel  It was a pleasant surprise that some fans were waiting outsite chasing autographs. We took time for a quick shower and wanted to change our clothes. But the coach was vanished with our necessary bags in it. aarrrgghhh. There was some panic in our eyes; what to wear? Everything was in the coach and we were running out of time.
Big time.
But in the end we got our bags on time and we had to go straight from our Hotel to Cafe Iguana and being on stage. Our first gig in Mexico.
After the show we couldn't stay very long sadly enough cause in a couple of hours the coach would hit the road again.. So we where able to sleep for two hours and then we had to go, much to soon.

But Karin was missing a bag and everyone (and than we mean really everybody) was looking for it We will never know how many telephone calls where made for that one. But we had to leave without it.

they made some copies from the pictures for us as well ( that was nice) and wanted our autographs. But time was running out and we really had to go to the venue  ....not without our passports....
Without the expected police stops we arrived at the Hard Rock Live Café. 40% discount offering in the nearby shops that was a call we had to resist although it wasn't easy.

We wanted to explore the rest of the street but even that was hard to do. They needed us inside and we're waiting for the upcoming line-check and the schedule for the rest of the evening.

In the meantime, they found Karin's bag ..
So what do you want more accept for a bit more sleep?

Although we had another trip from almost 11 hours we had a good time, and the bus feels almost like home.
In a hurry we had to go back to the hotel and catch some water and trying to wash our sleepy eyes. Someone was waiting for us for autographs and photos (Cool, still wondering how they found us?)..

We where ready to Rock and this night we wanted to watch more of the bands. They really rocked on stage.
Happilly ever after
After the show we where enjoying ourselves, talking with almost everyone and doing an interview for television.
And this night we had another (hole) one hour of sleep in the hotel before we hit the road again. (Touring is all about being on the road ...again)