wednesday 3/7/07 sofia, bulgaria
a couple of cd’s, a bunch of banana’s, a carton of cigarettes – those were the bribes we observed at the various border stops all along our 16 hour journey from montenegro to bulgaria. so many little countries, so little time: we passed through serbia twice and even crossed into the war-torn country of kosovo on route to our destination, sofia. the journey was a serious test to our collective endurance and patience as checkpoint after checkpoint made us stop, fill out paperwork and get inspected for the hundredth time. apparently, the guards must’ve be looking for guns, refugees or smuggler’s loot. we had none of these and they let us pass on to the next miserable stop, each one making us later and later.

the kosovo border stop was a surprise to us because evidently today was the first day kosovo was an official country. in other words, they told us the border crossing we were currently at did not exist the day before and that simply blew my mind. here we were standing in the midst of history yet i had no want to be apart of it as this stop, just like the many before it, was helping to make us miss our show. in fact, tonight’s gig was now looking pretty dire and we were starting to think we might miss two in a row. in 25 years, the toasters missed only three gigs with the third one being just last night in macedonia. bucket felt so bad about the whole situation but the record speaks for itself: 25 years, 3 bagged shows. the promoter from the last show almost got lynched from 700 irate concert-goers and we didn’t want an encore for tonight.

kosovo was very much like most of bosnia: trash strewn everywhere, lots of blown up buildings, and people living in poverty, or damn close to it. it was a sad sight to see, especially the kids. we came upon a french nato military base that was beefed up with barbed wire fencing, sandbag gunnery nests and lookout towers that showed they meant business. this particular country is policed by nato forces divided up by the u.s., the french, the italians, and the british. we found out we were in the french sector as we drove past three heavily-armed french sentries standing guard in the middle of an intersection. strangely enough two of them waved at us and one took a picture of our bus hung a right. thinking of it now, they probably thought us a nato transport just like the border guard going into bosnia.

tired, hungry, yet resilient, we made it to the show in sofia 5.5 hours late. the first show was a sell-out and the second show right after it was close to being one. the promoter had one hell of night trying to sort that mess out but was relieved to see us pull up to the club near 1 am! we all hustled out of the bus and with equipment in hand walked into the venue to a standing ovation from the entire crowd from the outside of the venue all the way through the club to the stage in the back. we parted the crowd of hundreds in front of us as they cheered and patted us on our backs on route to the stage. what an entrance! what a feeling that was! i’ve never had that kind of appreciation and gratitude as a musician anywhere else in the world we’ve played and i know that this one was unique and one of the very reasons why we came all this way to the other side of the world.

bucket & rupert scheming at the montenegro border

french nato base somewhere in kosovo

dusk in kosovo...eerie, yet strangely serene

the best reception ever!

i don't what this is but i rocked it!

dinner at 6 am, sofia -- mmmm...so good