At the Airplane

Airports have a certain feel to them.

I don’t know about you guys, but when I go on vacations, I usually don’t really appreciate the fact that I’m actually going on vacation, until I’m at the airport. Until I got to the Toronto airport, I didn’t fully grasp the fact that within hours I will be across the Atlantic Ocean, arriving at London, England – one of the most interesting and exciting travel destinations on the planet (according to some people; I have never been there, unless you call a 2-hour connection at Heathrow “being in London”).

So indeed, I am definitely looking forward to spend some time in London. However, being in London is far from being the only experience to look forward to in this trip.

It is somewhat unfathomable for me that, in less than five days, I will be at the Hurlingham Club in London, holding a VIP ticket to a charity concert performed by no others than Mark Knopfler and his band (only the Brits this time; the Americans stayed west of the pond) – a group of musicians who, for the last ten years, I have been regarding as the best performing group on this planet.

Refer to http://ktgc.isaac.shabtay.com to get an understanding of how appreciative I am for their music.

So, Mark’s new album, named Get Lucky, is to be released in mid-September; not only will I have the honor of being of the first group of people to listen to some of the new material performed live (and whoever has ever been to a Mark Knopfler concert would tell you that, as much as Mark Knopfler’s albums are great, listening to this band playing live is infinitely more rewarding), I am going to do so while being seated in one of the best seats in the house, right after having Mark play a “private concert” for us in the VIP group.

This truly is something worth looking forward to. The Kill to Get Crimson tour last year has been one of the most defining periods in my life, if not the most defining one; in fact, it has been so meaningful and inspiring to me, that I decided to do this all over again in the 2010 Get Lucky tour, only this time I am going to include Europe in my trip. Unless something dramatic happens, I am going to attend all of the Get Lucky shows in 2010.

So that’s one thing to look forward to. The next thing I’m greatly looking forward to is to reunite with my friend, Jeroen Gerrits, whom I first met during the KTGC tour and we’ve been in touch ever since. We are going to meet-up in London and fly to The Netherlands (his home country) together. I visited Jeroen about six months ago, it was so great – something tells me we’re going to have a lot of fun again.

The next thing to look forward to is visiting two other European cities I have been expecting to visit: Berlin, Germany and Prague, Czech Republic.

I have never been to Berlin before but heard so much about it that I am very intrigued.

I have been to Prague before – nine years ago, with my girlfriend at that time. They say that Prague is the most beautiful city in Europe and one of the most beautiful cities in the world; you know what? it might as well be correct. From what I remember, this is an amazingly beautiful city (with stupendously beautiful women, but that’s a topic for some other post). There, I am going to meet with Jane, whom I was introduced to by my good friend Kyle Hawke of Vancouver, BC.

So many things to do, in so little time; my flight back to Canada departs September 20 from Frankfurt, Germany, unless I happen to win tickets for yet another Mark Knopfler show in London (invitations only; no public access) on the 23rd, in which case I will be forced to postpone my flight.

See you all at the next post.

Isaac