Stories from the net

Author, André van Meerendonk  ( taken from the pit )
Finally back on earth
I needed a few days to recover from an amazing weekend. So now I'm ready to write my story.
Me and my causin Erik left Holland last saturday early in the morning. After travelin by train, bus, plane, 
bus, train and another bus we arrived at the Arena in Verona at 7.15 h. 
It was raining and raining so hard that we were already soking wet before the show started.
On a terras near the Arena a girl with long blond hair was walking towards us with that cool ETB-tshirt on
 and she reconized my ETB-tshirt. Pinon welcomed us with three kisses (wow, what a welcome) and took 
us to the whole group on the terras. After a few beers it was time to search for our seats in the Arena. We 
were standing up the stairs left on Mike s side and had a great view. It s such a legendary place for a concert!
The show was wet but great. Starting with Release, the same as in Arnhem, my favourite opener. Other highlights 
Love Boat Captain, Gone, Inside Job, Come Back (for Joey Ramone s dying day) and My Sharona (singing My Verona).
Afther the show we met each other on the same terras. Sitting there with about 30 people celebrating the after-party. 
Amazing to speak with people from the big PJ-family coming from Seattle, Vancouver, N-Ireland, Scotland, 
Norway (of course), Austria, Germany and Mexico.
Everybody was drinking big beers and eating pizzas and hamburgers.
Nobody cared about the money. I mean, they put everything on one big bill and everybody trusted each other 
about throwing money on the table when someone leaves. That gives me such a great feeling!
After a lot of beers we took a taxi to the other side of Verona were the Magic Bus was parked. 
There we met our busdriver Paul. So great to step in that bus after so many months of waiting and looking to the 
foto s on the internet. The rest arrived quit soon, so the bus went off for Milan with 14 people on board, drinking 
beers and talking about the great show we saw last night.
After a good sleep I woke up and went down to see where we were. I looked out the window and saw the 
Datch Forum in Milan. That was so cool to see the place to be for the next show. The rest of the group was 
still asleep so I started reading in the tourbook were everybody wrote his story and said thanks. 
I wrote my own story, giving a big, big thanks to Pinon, Gitta and Stian.
When everybody was out of bed we went together for a breakfast in a restaurant in the Datch Forum.
In the afternoon we left the bus with pain in our hearts to go to our hotel in Milan (next day we must leave for the flight back home).
That night we saw such an amazing show of Pearl Jam. Every day, until now, I can t think of anything else. 
That Italien audience was so great, it was really an electric show!! It surprised me that, during the show, nobody 
was leaving for getting drinks or visiting the toilet. From the first until the last song everybody was standing, singing en dancing. 
The roof went of the place!!! Again, a fantastic setlist, with my favorites Faithfull, Black, Crazy Mary and Leash. 
They only played 9 times the same song in both shows where we got totaly 48 songs. After the band had finished Black, 
the audience was singing and singing and the whole band was just looking and listening (and Eddie crying) to that amazing crowd.
Again, I want to thank everybody on the bus for this great trip. 
We met such wonderfull people that it felt one big family. I will never, ever forget it!!
André