Tour Diary: The Pragmatic in Portugal, Day One

(Local synthrockers the Pragmatic are currently in Portugal playing the Optimus Alive 09 fest, which is one of the country's biggest events. The band is keeping a diary for us about its travels. Here's the first installment!)

Its been a long trip but we made it. None of us could sleep very well on the plane, but it's nice to be able to stretch out a bit now. They don't account for tall people in Spain, so I was pretty tight for space on the flight over (I'm 6'4''). Its 10 A.M. Central Time, we haven't actually slept since 6 A.M. yesterday morning. Yikes! I logged our trip out for your entertainment.

4.5 hour drive to Chicago
1 hour wait in the city
45 minute train ride to the airport
2 hours waiting in airport
8 hour flight from Chicago to Madrid, Spain
2 hour layover
1 hour flight to Lisbon, Portugal
30 minute taxi ride to train station
1.5 hour wait for train.
2.5 hour train ride to Porto, Portugal
45 minute drive to Fiero, Portugal.
=
1 day 0 hours and 30 minutes.

Should be fun now that we are here, but it will be way more fun after we get some sleeps. We are staying at Andre's parents house outside of Porto for a few days. We had tiny coffees and Portuguese sodas when we got here. I think we are all looking forward to Optimus Alive this weekend, It will be our first European show and from what we've heard it's one of the biggest festivals in the country. Dave Matthews Band is going to be there. I wonder if his European fan base is a bit less dude-bro than his American one? Oh yeah! [Drummer] Jon [Mambo] can't wait to see black eyed peas.

-- Karl Kling, vocalist/keyboardist