Download - The Journey

Hellooooo bloggeroonies :O)

I've not been posting this last few days as I've beed at download festival and let me tell you... me actually making it there was very rock n roll!

I missed the flight I was meant to be on with my friends (reason not important), and also the lift with the two of us that drew the short straw and were to drive with the tents and booze.  I put myself on gum tree, rideshare and on the download website with an 'sos' ride needed post and on 7pm Thursday night when I had pretty much given up hope heard from two girls (lets call them Hip and Bob - lool). 

Ten mins later I was packed and climbing into their car, 20mins after this the car broke down on the motorway and we were waiting for Hip's dad... We ended up at the airport haggling car rental prices at 9pm and finally got on the road at 9:30 with some AC/DC blasting to get us back in the festival mood.  The girls got tired relatively quickly after that so decided we should sleep for a few hours at their friends house just outside Manchester so I agreed (they met him at uni where they study herbal medicine) I fully expected a house with a group of people sat around smoking weed (something i'm not into).  Anyway we pulled up in Buxton beside a few little houses and met this guy who was wearing a floral shirt undone, ripped jeans and flip flops.

We followed him down a dark mud road leading to a cottage and just as I was beginning to relax we turned left onto a teeny mud path meadering between nettle bushes and trees taller than my head.  I was starting to panic when we came to an opening where we were to walk through a pitch black tunnel with broken bricks as a floor - at this point I was sure I was about to be killed, chopped up and made into soup!  However as I'm here today talking to you... that didn't happen.

The bridge walkway opened and as I began to see again I realised we were on the river bed and heading towards a barge.  We climbed inside and you couldn't have stereotyped 'hippy decor' anymore if you had tried!!  We drank a warm mug of tea and then headed towards the barge next door (a derelict one for sale) to bed down for the night.  In the morning I climbed out to the river bank for some bladder relief and couldn't believe my eyes.  I was smack bang in the middle of a hippy commune!!  Gardens, Swings, Picnic tables and around 20 - 30 barges moored along the river.  It was bizzare but in a weird way beautiful.

We had tea and cereal bars in the morning before getting back on the road and making the festival early lunchtime on the Friday where my friends met us at the side of the road to help us unload the car before heading back to drop it off at the airport.  When I made it to the campsite and relayed my story among enforced glugs of Jagermister and cider (apparently I needed to catch up), I was crowned the queen or rock n roll!

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AC/DC - Shoot to Thrill
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kD8sxIjVuc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3p6WI6iv00Y  (The Download Link)