Saturday, July 19th: Everything is packed, Grrrmaneta is ready. We have a bed, a tent, camping chairs, concert stools, food, camping equipment, clothes for 2 weeks and of course the gift basket for the chavales and a bottle of whisky for Ultraligera (and no idea how to get it to them respectively). Plus about fivehundred different charging cables for different devices. What could possibly go wrong.
22:00: We’re starting. A quick goodbye at my parents‘ and a last pit stop. I try to rescue a little bumblebee on the way in which was laying groggy on the road. The kids get a snack box for the road and money for the trip. Something is feeling off at my back, might be sweat running down, it’s July and hot and I’m nervous. We say goodbye again, look at the map and leave last instructions for our „housekeepers“. I scratch that weird spot on my lower back again and suddenly feel that it has legs. When I passed my mum’s lavender bush, I must have taken a blind passenger aboard. Apparently I did not only save one bumblebee’s live, but as a thank you I got bitten by another one. We did not even start our adventure road trip in the wild and I already have three insect bites on my leg and my butt. What a promising start! But one thing is true: In German we’re saying „Hummeln im Hintern haben“ for when you are excited about something and can’t wait for it to start.
On the way I’m reading about the terrible rain in A Coruña and that they almost had to stop the concert. I’m a bit uneasy at first, what if something like this happens in Santander? What if we don’t get to see the show because the universe decides to show us a big shiny middle finger? What if … But the more messages pop up, the more those left behind send their positive thoughts towards Coruña, the more it shows that the universe is either on the right side or completely powerless against the will of five Spanish musicians and their incredible team plus the enthusiastic energy of thousands of fans hoping they can go on with their show. It’s clear, hell or high waters, nothing is gonna stop Arde Bogotá. We try to keep this in mind for the upcoming days.