i know what you did the summer before last

the summer before last was also alot of fun, we were on some kind of nsf euro trip. A massive crew of dudes travelling in style inside a mini bus with seats and a support transit carrying a cargo of stolen diesel and a load of bikes.

I kind of obsessed with those things on flickr about ‘whats in my bag’ or ‘whats on my desk’. For this trip i knew i had to drop a photo of everything i took. i tried to keep to the basics. As few clothes as possible, essential tools, a map, a good knife, a spoon, a sleeping bag, you always need zip ties, more shorts than trousers. A day wearing shorts is always a good day. Once that was packed it was time for the off. None stop to Cambridge. Baz got shit faced, hung over and sober all in the space of this shortish trip.

Dover is one hell of a place if you actually take a mooch around it. Fucking bandit country and no mistake. Its like one big service station and not even a good service station. This close to the sea the fish and chips have to be good. I tried to find out but the fish got away from me and a local cat got the cod treat. We got through the passport control and had a football game where everyone ques for the ferry.

We get over the channel and set up our first camp in a layby. some tents got pitched ontop of some ant infested hardcore. As ever the first night was an amateur at best display of road trip survival. Everyone still has their city slicker boots on and it takes a day or 2 to get used to the road.

After some sleep we all went to Lille. Lille is excellent. Its kind of old and brand new at the same time and full of french. It has some belting spots. Those crazy humps are good, so is this place infront of the train station. It also has a huge supermarket next to it so you can ride all day and stay hydrated/nurished. A mans got to eat. French supermarkets blow ours away when it comes to the amount of yop flavours, ice tea flavours and all round something somethings that are nice to eat. They also sell desperado by the bucket load, thats never bad. The french also drive in the greatest euro style. They drive like they stole and everyone is riding around in a fucked renault 19. I love that shit. England doesnt have enough crash damaged vehicles on the road. I guess we are too up tight to drive like that.

Lille was most excellent. As we were in europe we should go to Brussels seeing as they are the boys who are in control of the palce. I was looking forward to seeing the atom but i was shit out of luck. I thought it would be dead bang in the city center and visible form miles away. It isnt. they should have made it should have made it bigger. Woke up in a service station. We were going to camp next to some actual gypo’s but decided better of it and camped right infront of the service station. I dont think they were too pleased but the grass was quality. Gambled some euros in the morning while people got their petrol around us. Rode the city. Saw some big buildings and things. Rob danced in a fountain. Newcastle really needs a decent fountain. Why doesnt someone spend some coin on one? fountains are great.

Antwerp. We wasted our time by going to a supposed ‘English’ bar. What a fucking waste of time. The bloke supported man utd so he was probably from bangladesh anyway. He sucked and so did his bar. Irish bars and english bars all suck! Got a good pizza off some genuine italians. I’m slightly racist when it comes down to this but if your not italian you shouldnt be cooking pizza. Likewise for any other countries food. Copyright. I think there might have been a few wank booth stops? sometimes you just have to unload on the road.

After the days hanging ot in antwerp we needed a place ot set up the wagon circle. Cruise in a random direction until we found some sort of canal which had a beach. PERFECT! Colonized the beach and made it our own. Some even took a dip in the canal. Not sure if it was the best of ideas as the water was black and huge supertankers were going up and down it at the time. Mad dogs and englishmen. Got a nice little camp fire going and everyone ate some dicky meat and drank some dicky lager. A monsoon ravaged the area. tents got pitched, some people got naked. Slept in a wet sweaty tent, luckily i was off it so could sleep ok.

luckily for us my camera batteries ran out after this. we hadnt even been to rotterdam or amsterdam yet. The road party still raged. In Amsterdam the inevitable happend. weed, beer, hookers, wank booth, charlie crack sniff, catman boogaloo, sleeping on a 5 a side pitch, street shits. The ferry back was a continuation of the amsterdam experience. Wild 8euro spliff and a box of wine, I didnt even make the disco, spent the night barfing. Mundo thought he got locked in the brigg. What a time check, the video footage right here (i cant embed it for some reason?)…………

Streetphire has more on this, in all honesty that coverage is amazing compared to this. as does this old flickr account.