Yome was so kind to let me blog on his site.

Let me introduce myself shortly before I start to post stories about my Phish travels and experiences. My name is Holger and I am a German Phish phan who lives in Berlin since 2003.

My sister was hosting a kid from Massechusetts as part of a youth exchange back in the mid 90s. He had some Phish records in his CD collection incl. “Hoist” and “A Live One” as far as I remember. I was interested but not blown away immediately to admit. 1-2 years later I was reading the German music magazine “Musicexpress” and my attention was caught by the record of the month article – “Billy Breathes”. I almost forgot about Phish since I first heard them but I gave them a second chance. The album was gorgeous.

Only a couple of month later I saw that they play a show in Munich which was about 150 miles away from my parent’s house. I decided to drive down with a friend. The show changed my life. In the same summer they played only 60 miles away from my parents home in Nuremberg. I bought tickets for me and my friends.Later my sister and me also won 2 tickets in a competition by our local news paper because we were the only people who took part. So we brought two more friends. The show was amazing. Only one year later another Europe tour was announced. This time Germany was left out but Prague was only 130 miles away. This was my best show so far. Unfortunately we did not stay overnight – big mistake because it was the last time they came to Europe since then. Who could foresee this?

In 1999 I was very close to book a trip to Big Cypress after I got mailing with the announcement but in December ’99 I felt in love with my girlfriend so I didn’t want to leave her alone over our first NYE. Years went by and as a student I had absolutely no money to follow Phish in the US while Europe was constantly left out of their touring plans (maybe due to the increasing drug issues of Trey which could easily cause trouble if you travel accross different countries). In 2002 I got my first real job and in 2003 my girlfriend and me were flying to the gigs in East Rutherford (with special guest B.B.King) and Worcester and also to Miami for 2 out of 4 shows of the NYE run. In 2004 we attended 2 of the Las Vegas shows. We never did this for Phish alone but always planned a road trip around it with classic sight-seeing stuff. I had some of the best times of my life on these travels.

When Phish broke up I was shocked and very sad. Once the first reunion rumors came up my fanatism was back on track. I tried hard to get tickets for Hampton through the lottery and on Livenation but failed. I retried for the summer tour and had tickets in the basket but the site crashed several times. Don’t ask me how but as I wanted to see Phish again so badly I somehow manged to get tickets for Deer Creek / Noblesville and both Alpine Valley shows. The trip was only 4 days – fly in, fly out (Berlin-Amsterdam-Detroit-Chicaco + drive to Indianapolis). I was all alone and came just to see Phish. Crazy? Life saving! The shows and people I met on the trip ("Hi" to Matt & Justin!) were worth every Euro and Dollar. People around me thought this could heal my hunger but the complete opposite was the case. A total relapse: I am more addicted than ever. “Joy” is a great album and tomorrow morning I will drive to customs to finally get my box set.

In a little more then 2 weeks my girlfriend (still the same after 10 years of tolerating my passion) and me will fly to Miami to see all 4 shows of the NYE run 2009. We got lower section tickets on ticketmaster (I might tell you the whole drama of buying them in a different post) so I have no doubt that the shows will be mind blowing. I plan to blog about the trip to keep you updated. We will see what 2010 and the future brings for us Phish phans - hopefully some Europe shows after then 12 years of abstinence…

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/treyanastasio/sets/72157622845648589/

Still planning over rumors...

I found that if I start from Geneva, I can fly to Duesseldorf for only 117,09€ with British Airways.
There is still a 1h stop-over in London (?!) but it's cheap and rather quick (4h in total).

After the Munich show, I'd have to go to Bern, Switzerland.
The cheapest flight would cost 300€+ so it's much too expensive. I think train would be the answer but it's more difficult to find time tables and price for train in Germany...

Ok, I know it's planning over unsourced rumors but anyway.

I live in Lyon, France. So I have to plan my tour starting from this point.
For now, I'll just have a look at the "big" travels from city to city.

So let's start with Lyon -> Dusseldorf

• With British Airways, I have a flight for  189€ but it's 08h15 > 17h25, so 9h10 with 1 stop-over
• With Lufthansa, it's only 1h20 long without stop-over but for 563€... Ouch !
• If I leave from Paris and the day before the show (5/8 instead of 5/9) I found a 44€ direct fight (1h25) !

Now with dates !!

05/09/10 Dusseldorf, Germany. Burg-Wachter Castello
05/10/10 Munich, Germany. Zenith
05/12/10 Bern, Switzerland. Post Finance Arena
05/13/10 Milan, Italy. Milan Auditorium
05/15/10 Barcelona, Spain. The Palau de la Musica Catalana
05/17/10 Paris, France. Elysee Montmartre
05/18/10 Amsterdam, Netherlands. Vondelpark
05/19/10 Amsterdam, Netherlands. Vondelpark
05/21/10 London, United Kingdom. O2 Arena
05/22/10 London, United Kingdom. O2 Arena

There are 2 "sources" (or people spreading the rumor) for now :
http://welcometonow.wordpress.com/2009/08/22/phish-fall-tour-and-nye-2009/comment-page-1/#comment-142
http://www.phantasytour.com/bisco/boards_thread.cgi?threadID=2008921&page=1

This tour would be great for me as it's rather short and not too far away.
Althought the one-day Paris>Amsterdam should be a little too quick, it usually left 2 days to travel from away towns.
I'd gladly "visit" Barcelona and Amsterdam in may :)

[UPDATE] Don't get your hopes up it won't mean a thing...