Journey diary - My trip to see Coldplay at Wembley 2009.

Written by: Julie (Juliejulle), Photos by: Sanne and Julie

 

This diary is an open letter about my exciting week before going to Coldplay’s finale concert on the Viva la Vida tour, taking place at Wembley Stadium in the UK… It started with me being depressed at monday for not going to see Coldplay at Wembley stadium, since it was the last show on the Viva tour. Then Thuesday night I suddenly won two tickets to see Coldplay on Saturday night. Wooaaw!... At first I thought that I was dreaming, but it was all real. In the end it turned out to be me and a friend’s journey from Denmark to England. A journey with the pleasures of meeting nice people, spending time with the posh people, meeting a very strange boy, seeing other Coldplayers, seeing butterflies, finding a red Ferrari, making fun and experience strange things... After I got home I decided that I too must add some words about how it is to be home after such trip... This is my story:

 

Part 1.: Going to Heathrow, London

Friday the 18/09/2009:

09.40 am:

I’m on the way: I have just got into the train on my way to Copenhagen airport in Denmark. For just a few minutes ago I felt “a rush of” panic, cause when I bought my train ticket this morning, I told the lady at the train station shop, that I would like to have a reserved seat in the train, and she told me that there was no available seats in the train, all booked… I couldn’t reserve a seat!! – That came to me as a shock that all the seats was reserved, cause I have never tried that before. Furthermore it meant that I was going to sit on the floor at one of the entrances to the train at a journey across Denmark! – The journey takes about 4 hours for me, so I thought that would be “absolutely horrible!” (If I can quote Simon Cowell) Against the train shop worker's not so promising words, I wanted to see if I could pursuit happiness in form of a seat in the train. The train arrived, I got in, and I started to take a walk in the train to see if there was an available seat anyway - There was! Currently there are 4 seats available where I sit. I can see that the passengers who have reserved these seats will get on the train later on the journey… By that time I will take a walk through the train and go on a hunt for a new available seat…

Now let’s go back in time: Now that I have time to write, then I want to go 4 days back in time to tell you the story from the beginning about how I won my Coldplay concert tickets and tell you about the planning of me and my friend’s journey… so “let’s go back to the start” ;)

 

 

4 days ago, I wasn’t supposed to go: At Monday four days ago I was sad, because I really wanted to go to see Coldplay at Wembley, but I had nothing that could help me to go there, such as concert tickets and a friend that could afford to go with me. I had signed up for a lot of competitions were you could win tickets for the Wembley gigs, in the hope of winning some tickets for me and a friend to go see Coldplay at Wembley. Results came and unfortunatly I didn’t win any of these competitions… I knew that I really couldn't go unless I had been lucky to win some tickets, cause my friends couldn’t afford to buy concert tickets for themselves… Then I thought that I could go alone and then arrange that I would meet with a distant friend that was going with some others, but clearly that wouldn’t have been as nice as going with a friend alone. Written in a few words: It didn't look as I was suppose to go and I was sad! :cry:

 

3 days ago, I won the Coldplay tickets: At Thuesday evening three days ago, I signed into http://www.coldplaying.com's membership page to see if there was any news for me or any exciting threads. I looked through the list of new or updated threads and I was surprised to see a thread called “I have FREE tickets for Coldplay @ Wembley on the 19th September courtesy of Absolute radio”. I opened the thread excited to see what it was all about and happy by the thought that I maybe had a chance of winning tickets. The text in the tread was written by busybeeburns and told that you could win tickets to the Wembley gig if you wrote a personal message to him. To participate in the competition you had to follow the following rules: You had to want to go, have the opportunity to go, have an English address that they could send the tickets to + you had to stay by your computer in the situation that you won, cause if you didn’t answer the mail telling you that you won, then the mail would go to another person. I could follow all the rules and thought “If you never try, you never know”… So I wrote a story to busybeeburns. While waiting for results I relaxed and used some time to write a bit with some nice Coldplayers on the message board… but as time flew by I became more and more nervous about waiting for the result and I couldn’t remember what the word relaxation meant… :confused:

 

The results information came to me at 12 pm, after 3 exciting and emotional hours of waiting. The information was in form of a message from bussybeeburns telling me that I had won the competition, if I could give him an English address within 30 min. I felt my heart missed it’s pumping function for a second and I was like a stone as I read that message. When I realized what the message really said, I was like jumping and smiling. I gathered myself and found an English address…. And as I could provide an English address, it meant that the tickets became mine I couldn’t really believe that it really was true… and I still can’t. I’m actually going to see Coldplay at Wembley and I am going to London for the first time! YES! :dance:

 

"I have won 2 tickets to see Coldplay in London – Do you want to come with me?": As I won the 2 tickets, I had a specific friend in mind, that I wished to bring along with me to London. I knew that she would like to go to see Coldplay, if she had won some tickets to go. She couldn't afford to buy any tickets on her own. Now that I had won the 2 tickets for us, I was excited that I was going to tell her the very good news! As it was night time in Denmark at the time I had won, then I decided to tell her the news the next they, which was Wednesday. :nice:

 

At Wednesday I wrote the good message to her, and I was happy and excited as I waited to see her reaction. My excitement wasn't hold for very long as she wrote back to me a later the same day. Her message to me didn't show any feeling of her beeing in chock or excited, but she seemed happy. She told me that it was nice and she could go.... but then she wrote a message to me Thursday. She told me that she was sorry to inform me, that she couldn’t go to Wembley with me. I was in chock! I thought that it was sad that she couldn’t go, but more that I then had no one to go to London with and see my favorite band, even after I had won two tickets!! NOOOO!... :o :wreck:

 

What to do? What to do?.... I cleared my panicked mind, kept my head up and cold and started to think rationally. I wrote to 3 other friends I knew from writing about Coldplay’s Herning show. In the Subject area of the message I wrote to them, I formulated the sentence: “I have won 2 tickets to see Coldplay in London – Do you want to go with me?”

I knew that they too love Coldplay, but would they like to go with me and would they have the possibility to go? :wreck:

 

I went out for a run to get some exercise and when as I got back I wanted to check out my mail to see if I had got an answer from any of the girls I wrote to… Two of them had written a message back to me to tell me that they were shocked, excited and more than happy to see the mail I sent them, and told me that they certainly wanted to go with me. I felt a rush of joy seeing the emails. I had not been sure that any of the girls would have seen my message and written back to me so soon and with a such positive answers. The two messages meant that I then had at least one to go with! I was back on track. :dance:

 

Being popular isn’t easy: The new situations gave me a new dilemma though, because I didn’t knew who of the two lovely girls I should bring with me and give this present in form of a ticket… I thought back and forth, and at last I chose a girl named Sanne. She seemed most excited and ready to go… though they both seemed really interested. The other girl was alright with my decision and we have made a deal about going together another time. Sanne - She was very, very happy and thrilled, when I told her that I had chosen her to go with me. I felt a bit like being Bussybeeburns telling me that I had won the tickets.. :laugh3:

 

A little later the third girl I wrote a message to asking if she wanted to go to see Coldplay in London, sent a message back to me. She too told me that she would like to go the concert with me. I was happy to see that she too was interested in going with me, but I had chosen Sanne and was very happy by that decision, so I wrote a message back to her, telling her that I was sad to inform her that I had chosen one to go with. She was alright with my decision and knew that she had written a little late… Instead we have made a deal to go to another fine concert together. Man, I tell you… It looks like I’m going to a lot of concerts in the future! - But that is fine with me! ;)

 

Planning our trip: Sanne and I did not have much time to plan our trip as it was Thursday and the concert was at Saturday. We planned everything during Thursday and decided to go this Friday afternoon. We think it is really cool that we are going together and have planned a trip one day before going!

 

Summary of 4 days: To follow up on the last 4 days: I started with nothing and now I got it all. I am sitting in the train on the way to Copenhagen airport. Now I have a train ticket, plane tickets, a hostel room reservation and concert tickets to Coldplay at Wembley are waiting for me. Last but not least I have a Coldplay - buddy to go with me. London, Wembley and Coldplay – Here I come!!!!! :dance:

 

Buy the way, a lot of schoolkids, who are sitting in the same section as me in the train are being very noisy, all over the place and really annoying!... Normally I would have been annoyed and send them some evil eyes… but it can’t get me down today! :dozey::)

10.33 am:

To "wonder what it's all about?": I still have my borrowed seat.. Really nice. A boy is sitting in front of me now. I think that he is wondering why I write on notepaper and “what it’s all about”.. :thinking:

 

11.20 am:

Almost an hour since I last wrote in here… There have been some action as I had to move to another seat. I think I’m quite lucky that I found a seat at all considered to the harsh information the lady at the train station shop told me. Therefor I’m very happy for this this seat!!! By the way, I can see that I can sit here for a while - nice!

 

11.50 am:

I had to move again… This time there was no available seats to discern… so I had to go to one of the entrances of the train… but to my luck there were some seats there too – 3 to be accurate… and one of them was available! So, yes I got a seat again, and that mean that I’m going all the way across Denmark without sitting on the floor – How lucky am I!!!

00.14 pm:

"Time for some music boys and girls": It has now become the time to listen to some music on my Mp3-player. I have just heard the greatest music: White Lies, Coldplay's "Fix you” and Coldplay's "Yellow” among others – I will call it a real warm-up to the forthcoming concert! :nice:

 

00.47 pm:

I just listened to Coldplay's "Fix you” from the LRLRL-album. The sound of the great audience reminded me, that I’m actually going to see them tomorrow! :happy2: (To those who wonder why I several times will write “I’m actually going to see them”, “now I realize”, “I can’t believe it” among other sentences alike… Then it’s because I simply can’t believe that I have been so lucky… and I probably never will!)

 

“When you feel so tired, but you can’t sleep” – That phrase match with my current situation as I sit here in the train. I am feeling very tired and I got heavy eyelids (or at least it feels so). I's because I only got about 4½ hours of sleep last night and 3 hours both nights before last night.. So I could really need some sleep. It is just the case that it would not be such a good idea to sleep on the train and thereby not watch my luggage… “when you feel so tired, but you can’t sleep” – It’s just like I feel! :\

 

01.30pm:

My playlist the last twenty minutes has been following:

Coldplay- Talk,

Swan lee - In my mind,

Van Morrison – Brown eyed girl,

Laust Sonne – Spell on you,

Justice – The party.

It have been great with some new and some old, some live and some studio versions, some rock and some electro on this train ride. :earmuffs:

 

01.36pm:

"Are we there yet?": As I write now, I really need to pee! It have been about 4 hours on the train and I have had no chance of going to the toilet. Sure there is a toilet on this train, but sadly I really can't go away from my luggage. Now it has become a bit of a critical moment for me to wait, so I just hope I’ll get to the airport station very soon! I didn't think it helped either that I have drinked a soda - Why, oh why, did I drink that last coke?!?.. arghh! :\

 

01.59pm:

Meeting Sanne: A strange thing happened after I went to the bathroom. I got outside with my luggage and was wondering where I should tell Sanne to meet me at the airport. Then I simply met Sanne just outside the toilets! Weird!... but funny and it made it very easy to meet her I must say!

 

04.50pm:

The little plane!: Now I’m sitting with Sanne in the plane going to Munich. This plane is really small by the way. The seat was a bit cheap and that means no luxury like place to stand up completely when you go to your seat! … The little plane is getting ready to fly, lol… :laugh3:

 

http://www.twitpic.com/lu198

 

The butterflies, The red Ferrari and an interview: When Sanne and I were in Copenhagen airport we really had fun spending time there. We talked and got to know each other, then we noticed some butterflies (as a sign for being on the right way), got photos taking of us and a red Farrari and last but not least we got interviewed by a worker of Copenhagen airport. We had just got into the shopping area and have spotted the Ferrari and had taking pictures of it, when the airport worker asked us for an interview. I was like… uhh… we don’t have much time… but Sanne seemed interested… so I thought why not. It turned out to be fun already at the first question, when she asked what the first shop we noticed was. That was pretty easy to answer, cause we had only spotted one shop and a nice, red Ferrari before she caught us… Then she told us that all the rest of the questions probably would be irrelevant, but we could try it out. Her prediction was right… but it made the interview quit fun! :lol:

 

http://www.twitpic.com/lu02s, http://www.twitpic.com/lu12r, http://www.twitpic.com/lu2ku, http://www.twitpic.com/lu48z

 

7.05pm:

What a stressfull time in Munich!: We are currently in Munich and sit in the plane that flies to Heathrow. We have had a quit stressfull time since I last wrote. After we landed in Munich airport we had to hurry to get through the the airport to the gate where the London-flight is. There was no time to stop up. At last we even had to run to the gate and rush into a airportbus! I actually think they called Sanne’s and my lastname in some german version over the airport soundsystem – So we ran faster! At the time we got to the airportbus we felt so warm..Yum? – No! :freak:

 

 

19.55pm:

We love to be with Germans :heart: : Sanne and I agree that it’s good luck that we are on a flight with a German company and not a Danish company.. now we can speak in Danish, and the other passengers will not understand us at all... :laugh3:... or at least we think and hope so! :uhoh2:

 

19th of September:

1.06 am:

London, Baby!: We are now in London! We sit in our hostel dorm room. We are relaxing again. There is also time to talk and a bit time to write in this Journey diary. A lot of exciting, thriling, fun and weird things have happend for us since I last wrote in here. It is too late in the evening to start writting about it now, but next time I write I will follow up from since the time we sat in the plane between Munich and Heathrow.

 

12.30am:

To follow up is not an easy thing to do!: We are sitting in a KFC restaurent in Notting hill. Kentucky fried chicken. First time I have tasted their food. Actually it’s pretty okay. We were supposed to go on a real restaurent, but this looked okay and it will take shorter time to get and eat, which means that we will get to Wembley earlier and I will get some time to write again. I must say it is not easy to follow up though - What have I got myself in to!?!... :sick: Anyway, as promised, I want to follow up on all the great things that have happened since we sat in the plane from Munich to Heathrow

 

Our German friend, Aika: We sat in the plane and was relaxing. I got in a talk with a girl sitting in the seat to my right side. We talked a bit about the beautiful view over London at evening – dark with all the light from the buildings. (I think that must be how a Coldplay concert looks from seen above). She asked where I was going and I told that her that my friend and I was going to London for a weekend to see Coldplay at Wembley - She thought it was so cool that we had gone away to London just to see the band!! Then I asked Aika, which is her name, why she was going and it turned out that she was actually going to a friend’s birthdayparty this friday and would then go home to Germany the next day - I thought that was a pretty cool thing to do too!! We exchanced emailadresses and planned to shair pictures from eachothers trip in London.

 

My luggage!?!: Next we landed in Heathrow and it was time to go out. Sanne and I said goodbye to Aika. When Sanne and I stood in the Plane parkinglot I remembered that I was missing something. I thought... hmmm... something is wrong here... and then I looked down and thought hmm.. Didn’t I have some more luggage?!?... :thinking: and then I realized that I had forgot my handbag luggage in the plane! :o I rushed back to the plane. Walked fast.. tried not to run. After the last passengers got out of the plane and down from the stairs, I got up the stairs and into the plane. I told the two stewards standing there, that I was so sorry - I had forgot my handbag luggage. :embarassed: The “brown hair one” laughed and he told me: “How could you?.. how could you?” :laugh3: I answered, saying: “I don’t know – It’s so embarrassing!” ... and it was! :embarassed: The “golden hair one” walked down the hallway in the plane with my trolley and then he gave it to me, while smiling. I said: “Thank you, I’m so embarrased!” ... The “brown hair one” smiled and said: “You're welcome. Have a great trip", and then we said good bye. When I walked out of the plane – with my luggage – and down the the stairs, then I noticed Aika standing with Sanne and they looked up the stairs to the plane, waiting for me. I took my right hand to my forehead and said: “Dooh!”.. :facepalm: I could hear them laugh. They thought that my situation was very funny, and they told me that they knew my lost memory was only an excuse for me to get back and talk with the cute stewards! Yeah, that could have worked pretty okay... but there is no excuse... I was only being foolish! :\

That was awesome. Part 2. NOW! :lol:

That was awesome. Part 2. NOW! :lol:

 

Aww, thanks!! :hug:

I'm so glad to see that you like the diary :D

 

Part 2 will be ready in a little while :D

Hello Julie,

 

What a brilliant idea with a journey diary :thumbsup: And a good one, it is.

 

I can see that you are a girl with many talents:

 

A good RHYMER and a good WRITER / AUTHOR.

 

What will be the next? A good SINGER and DANCER? Please post a video of that! :)

 

Can't wait to read part 2. :D

 

NANCY

next part, next part :wideeyed::dance:

Hello Julie,

 

What a brilliant idea with a journey diary :thumbsup: And a good one, it is.

 

I can see that you are a girl with many talents:

 

A good RHYMER and a good WRITER / AUTHOR.

 

What will be the next? A good SINGER and DANCER? Please post a video of that! :)

 

Can't wait to read part 2. :D

 

NANCY

 

Awww, thank you so much for all the positive words. :heart: :hug:

That sure makes me happy :dance: :D

hmm... I sing allright too... so maybe I should... ah, just kidding ;) :laugh3:

 

Part two will be here in a little while :)

next part, next part :wideeyed::dance:

 

 

Glad to see that you too liked it :D

 

As I have told my other fans, (...... :laugh3:)

... then will Part 2. come in a little while :)

Yes! Next part....now! :dance:

lucky you won the tickets :nice: Lol @ the luggage! :lol: can't wait for part 2!

I still smile when i think about thoose stewarts. Yum :wink3:

I still smile when i think about thoose stewarts. Yum :wink3:

 

Haha ;).. I still feel embarrased :embarassed:.. :laugh3: