Miss Euro Blogger - Bursting the Bubble

While Los Angeles had lots to offer throughout the year, it was absolutely boring when it came to New Year's Eve celebrations. Sure, there were the usual parties in Hollywood but they were no different from any Saturday night or Halloween party. There were no big fireworks around town or in the city. There was also no outdoor area where people came together to ring in the New Year like they do in New York's Time Square. I did attend a New Year's eve party once at Paramount Studios that was a nice effort by the organizers. They tried to emulate Time Square in their studio lot and it was a lot of fun. And then came midnight. The famous band that was supposed to play was running late, so New Year's Eve was celebrated with a boring countdown over the mic by someone on stage that nobody knew and nobody could see because it was so crowded. All the excitement that was built up climaxed in boredom. And the party never recovered from that. In the years following, I decided t...

Growing up in a very small village in the Austrian countryside, going to a concert was a logistical challenge. Even more so because I didn't have a car. And I lived a 45-minute walk away from the next train station. And the buses stopped running at 6 PM. Just listing all obstacles is exhausting... I saw REM in Vienna when I was about 17-years old and my friends and I spent the night hiding out in a train carriage waiting for our 6 AM train to go back home. We thought we were so adventurous and such outlaws! Living in LA opened a lot of concert opportunities. In fact, it was hard to keep up. EVERY band played in LA. Some bands never even came to Austria but in LA it seemed like they were competing over venues. I was so excited to go to my first big concert, which was U2. They played in Anaheim, which was over an hour away but I was sure it was going to be worth it. My concert experience up until then had been crowded venues with lots of drunk people and me trying to dodge elbows a...