The most helpful and efficient tire shop I have ever been to.
Day 9
I woke up just before 8am this morning feeling mostly better. I packed up my things and drove to a place I was recommended by Irvin, called Tyre Joe’s to get the tyre fixed.
When I got there the compressor in the shop wasn’t working and I was told it was “impossible to fix this tyre at this time”. I asked where else I could get it done and started driving there. It took about 30 minutes and when I got there the man working was really helpful and sorted it out very quickly.
An older gentleman with a fantastic handlebar moustache diagnosed the problem. A split where the intake valve meets the tyre had blown out and caused the flat, most likely when we went over the speed bumps coming across the boarder. The van is really heavy so that makes sense I guess.
It cost €25 to fix and I gave the service assistant, Steve, who was working behind the counter a Bloody Lovely CD. He was pretty confident he wouldn’t like it, but I gave it to him anyway.
He explained to me that he went to the USA often to go fishing and Americans always confused Austria with Australia and he had to tell them “no I’m from Austria, no kangaroos”.
I stated driving back to the venue and on the way got pulled over by the police for another incredibly mediocre van check before arriving back at the venue where everyone was still asleep.
We drove to a music store in one of the giant round gasometer buildings and couldn’t find a car park so parked in a sports club car park while Shane and Simon went in to the store.
We then stopped at a Billa supermarket and got breakfast. Tom dropped his apple on the ground and his blackberries were covered in mould.
After breakfast we started driving towards Berlin.
The drive was mostly just long and uneventful, however Tom really needed to have a wee so we stopped in one of the most repulsive rest areas I’ve ever seen and when he emerged from the bushes he looked like he would never be the same again. He said he saw a red poo with beetles in it. He’s had a rough morning.
We continued driving through Brno and Prague and stopped off at a KFC. I had some of Simon’s chips and everyone expressed it was the best and cleanest KFC they’d ever been to.
We kept driving towards Berlin via Dresden and got stuck in a massive traffic jam which was very boring.
We had some Haribo lollies, pretzels, Riffler chips and fizzy water to keep us entertained though. While we sat, we listened to the new Regurgitator album which was great.
We stopped a lot of times so everyone could go to the toilet and do some stretching after sitting down in the van for so long.
We arrived in to Berlin at around 9pm and checked in to Plus Berlin. Good to be back - I guess. My phone still remembers the wifi network which is nice. Lachlan and I went to the kebab shop on Warschauer Strße and had a lovely kebab. We walked up across the train tracks towards Friedrichshain and took some pictures in one of the photoautomat’s. I pretended to be German and some people believed me which was funny because I can say probably less that 20 words in German.
We walked back to the hostel, got in to bed and watched Mission Impossible with German overdubs. Lachlan has got a very sore ulcer in his mouth.
Lachlan, Shane and Simon stretching at a petrol station just outside Dresden.