As some of you might already know, I finally made my dream come true in August and went on to do an almost full Bon Jovi tour here in Europe... Of the 19 shows they did here, me and my friend Marianne only missed 3 - Austria, Ireland and the last German show in Nürnberg. So all in all we saw 16 shows, in 32 days. Looking back to the tour now, all I can say is that it was one HELLUVA ride... ;o)

The Jovis had clearly thought about us when they planned the tour route (LMAO), as the Crush Tour 2000 kicked off right here in our home country, in my very own home town. Both Finnish shows were AWESOME... Us Finns really seem know how to appreciate good music, the audiences in both Turku & Helsinki were up & rockin' from the very first to the very last second of the show. Even Jon noticed that, he declared the audience in Helsinki the best they had had so 
far. The band was having the time of their lives and Jon was absolutely on fire... Especially in Turku - the entire show was like one long One Wild Night cha cha cha...LOL... And in Helsinki, we got to see Jon and the band totally crackin up cause the audience didn't exactly seem to know how to clap in time with the music on Lay Your Hands On Me... It was really hysterical, they tried to get us to clap in time but we just kept on "mis-clapping"... Jon was laffin his cute little a** off at us and told us that we really sucked. LMAO... In Helsinki Jon also scared the livin daylites outta the band's security ppl by suddenly shooting off from the stage, totally unexpectedly, and rushin off into the crowd on the left side of the stage.

Guess I should also mention that before the show in Turku I got to meet Jon, Richie, Dave & Huey... I went to see them at the airport when they arrived, but as you might guess, there wasn't much of a chance to talk to them over there. But later on that same night I caught them all (except Tico) at the hotel bar. I was just sitting there, sipping my drink, when all of a sudden Jon & Richie walked in... Needless to say I nearly had a heart attack, but managed to keep cool anyway. A bit later I saw Dave & Hugh entering the bar as well. Then after getting a few encouraging words from one of their crew members I took my drink and went to hang around at the bar counter where Jon & Richie... Can't remember exactly how it went from then on, it's all a bit of a blur for some weird reason...LOL... I do remember that I chatted with Richie, Dave and Huey for a little while, it was all very cool. Jon looked really tired and somehow it made me feel so humble or something that I didn't want to bother him at all. I had decided that unless some other ppl go and ask for autographs, I don't wanna bother the band with that... But lucky for me, some girls went to ask for autographs from Jon & Richie, so I decided to do the same. Following Obie & Mike's advice (was chatting with them at that point, they actually remembered me or Jovian at least! And they remembered Iceman too, but that's another story...), I took my pen and my CD covers and asked all band members very politely if I could possibly get an autograph. They all said no problem and signed the stuff I gave them... I was flying sooo high in cloud nine, but kept my cool and just smiled at them and thanked them.

The next day then, when Marianne had arrived with her backpack & tour gear and when my non-Finnish friends had arrived as well, we got to see the band members again, at that same hotel bar. Didn't really talk to them, except to Huey who stayed at our table for like an hour or so.

We also got to see Jon, Dave, Richie Tico & Huey in Helsinki, at the hotel again... Didn't really talk to any of them tho, just had our pics taken (well, sort of - I really wonder if the person who TOOK the pics knows a thing about taking photos, LOL) with Tico & Huey. And I kissed Huey on the lips, sort of accidentally...LMAO...

Anywayz, bakk to the tour... Both Swedish shows were pretty cool too, but the Swedish audience really sucked. Especially in Stockholm. No offence, my dear fellow Swedish Jovi-fans, but I honestly can't blame the Jovis for forgetting Sweden on the '96 TD tour. But anyway, the shows themselves were really good. In Stockholm, when Jon was doing his Hollywood Story during I'll Sleep When I'm Dead, we get to laff our a**es off again when Tico tried to match up the drum beats with Jon's knocks on the door... It took a few attempts but finally they got it right. LOL. Can't remember anything really special happening in Gothenburg, except that we got to hear These Days which was absolutely fantastic. :o) Oh, and I gotta say a few words about our car ride from Stockholm to Gothenburg... We shared a hire-car with two Norwegian girls, Maryann and her friend, and got to experience some first-class rally-driving when trying to find our way out of 
Stockholm...LMAO...

In Sweden we also got to see Toploader for the first (and second) time... I remember thinking, "geez that singer is CUTE!! And hey, this music ain't too bad either...", but at that point I still 
considered them "just the support band". How little did I know back then...LOL

After Sweden it was time to take our first "oh-god-this-backpack-is-killing-me" and
"hey-I-can't-fit-in-through-that-door-with-this!" train rides, from Gothenburg, Sweden, to Essen, Germany. The queueing in Essen (and in Germany in general, I might add) turned out to be hell, but the show was EXCELLENT again... I had been front row just about centre at all previous shows except Stockholm, where I got to the barrier at the beginning of the first encores. I was convinced I wouldn't make it to the barrier in Essen, but I did, thanks to my dear friends (luv you girls!!). Even tho being at front row is quite the same regardless of the size of the venue, it was pretty kewl to be right there at the front at a stadium gig...

From Essen to Ludwigshafen then, we shared a mini van with some friends, with Marianne & me trying to get some sleep on the backseat, in the middle of backpacks and smaller bags and what have you. It was fun tho, at least in hindsight...LOL... Some of it WAS really funny even back then, like passing an EST truck on the highway and shouting out "WOO HOO WE'RE PASSING A BON JOVI TRUCK!!"...LOL... Not to mention some OTHER things ppl shouted out... *grin* We arrived at Ludwigshaven some time in the early morning hours and went to bed straight away. Oh the luxury of staying at a Holiday Inn! LOL!

After a very badly slept night, Marianne & I dragged ourselves to the stadium and noticed that the queue was already gazillion miles long. It was hot as hell and we were feeling somewhat dead... And definitely not like queueing at all. So could do about it? Nothing really, just ended up winning a radio contest on "who's come to see this show from the furthest" and getting stage-passes for going on stage for 3 songs on that night's show...LOL... So we thought the hell with queueing, we're gonna go on stage. And that's what we did... We got our yellow "Mercury Records" wristbands and went to wait at the side of the pit until it was time for us to go on stage... We ended up going in with the second group of ppl, and since Jon had already done his dance in the Dean Martin Bar during One Wild Night, we chose to go to the Bada Bing Bar. A good choice, I could say... When we were on stage, the band did IML, the acoustic Runaway (or was it I'd Die For You?? Can't remember...LOL...) and Bed Of Roses. I was sitting on a bar stool in front of the bar counter, and when Jon had sung the second verse and went on to sing "the hotel bar 
hangover whisky's gone dry" line, he walked up to me and sang that line to me... And then he put his head on my shoulder and gave me the eye... If ANYONE has ANY pics of that moment, PLEASE e-mail me privately!! I already got a couple of pics from someone, can't remember who (sorry!), and all I can say is that, well, I guess you don't exactly look or act your brightest when JBJ himself is singing to you and resting his head on your shoulder...LMAO!! At the beginning of Richie's solo then Jon took the girl standing behind me to dance. She was holding it up pretty well when we were on stage, but when we were hurried off the stage and back to the pit via backstage, she lost it completely... The "poor" girl (LOL) dropped right to her knees and cried, the second we got to the backstage area. It was really cute.

Anyhow, bakk to the tour again... After Ludwigshafen we had a couple of days off before the Leipzig show. Not much to say about that, except this - if ppl tell you all Germans know English and you'll be ok with English in Germany, DON'T BELIEVE THEM...lol... Trying to ask directions to the venue or to the city centre or trying to find out if it's possible to have your laundry dried up from someone who doesn't speak or understand a single word of English can be, well, a bit of a drag...LOL... Especially since YOU yourself don't speak or understand a word of German, which is then the only language the other person speaks and understands. Ouch.

The show in Leipzig was really good, but the queueing was somewhat horrible again. It was hot hot hot and I got all sunburned... I did get front row about centre again, so it was definitely worth it. On the morning after the show Marianne & I started our 22-hour journey towards London... It all went well until we took the catamaran from Oostende to Dover. As it turned out, the catamaran arrived at Dover about half an hour late... Which meant that our connection had gone by the time we got to the train station. So we ended up taking a B&B room for four hours (paid friggin £38 for it!) and got one of the first morning trains to London (at 4.49 am, LOL).

The day before the first Wembley show Marianne & I were just hanging around in the town, and also paid a short-ish visit to the band's hotel. There were quite a few fans there, some familiar faces too. We didn't stay there for long, but got to see Huey and his wife and Dave too... And Dorothea & April and the kids. It was pretty sad to see how frightened Stephanie & Jesse were when they saw the crowd outside the hotel... And Colton & Gabrielle didn't exactly seem to love the crowd either. We didn't take any pics, not even of Huey or Dave... So if anyone has good pics of the band (NOT the family!!!) at their London hotel, please mail me privately and we could perhaps work out a trade.

On the morning of the first Wembley show, Marianne & I made our way from Rotherhithe to Wembley in a couple of night buses and arrived at the Stadium around 6 am. There weren't too many people at our turnstile (A), so we got quite good spots in the queue. The queueing was pretty much the same as usual - boring, boring, panic, boring, boring, another panic, boring, the final panic. LOL... Except that I had a bit of my own fun, in the form of a sort of a date (sorry again Marianne hon for havin to be alone up there for so long!! I had to see him tho, you know that... *grin*). As many of you know already, you're really not allowed to run across the field at Wembley, once you get in... So when the gates were opened, I half-walked and half-ran to the pit and made it to the front row (cheers again my dear friends!!!). I really couldn't believe it at first, that I was 
FRONT ROW AT THE FRIGGIN WEMBLEY STADIUM... I had dreamed about seeing Bon Jovi live at Wembley for gawd knows how long, and there I was then, about to see them on stage from the front-friggin-row. Woo hoo!! :o)

As many people have already stated, Wembley shows were absolutely awesome... On the first night, the first support act The Dum Dums turned out to be great and very funny too - according to the singer they were practically sh*tting themselves up there on stage, cause they were really playing at Wembley Stadium...LMAO... Toploader were fantastic, as usual, and they too seemed to be pretty excited about playing at Wembley. And what can I say about Bon Jovi then? Not much, methinks, it's all been said many times already... The band was in a GREAT mood, Jon was as sexy as ever, the set list was good - all in all, it was a perfect show. I had a fantastic time, laffed my a** of at Jon's Hollywood tales, rocked like crazy all through the night. Still, I somehow feel that the second Wembley nite was even better... The queueing and all that sh*t was the same on the second day as well (except that I didn't have a date then, LOL), and to my utter surprise I managed to get front row centre-ish again, this time on Richie's side (I was usually somewhere between Jon & Huey). Andreas Johnson was boring but Toploader were great again. They really seemed to take pride in being the last British band ever to play at the Old Wembley. :o) And what comes to Bon Jovi then, I'm lost with words. In all languages. They were AB-SO-LUTE-LY BRILLIANT, it was definitely THE BEST, THE MOST FANTASTIC AND SUPERB AND AWESOME friggin show I've ever been to (in addition to the 96 BJ show in Helsinki)... The band 
looked and sounded phenomenal, they were really havin the time of their lives. Jon's emotional speech about Wembley brought tears to my eyes, as did Wanted Dead Or Alive and Thank You For Loving Me... One of the coolest moments of the show was the beginning of Wanted, when 
Jon just said "you sing" and the audience sang the first verse while Jon just played the guitar. I can't find words to describe how I felt during that song... Another cool moment for me was when during Lay Your Hands On Me, Jon came down to the front of the stage to shake people's hands... He had grabbed my hand a few times before, in some earlier shows, but this time he really held it tight and looked me in the eye and smiled...and then he kinda gave me the eye, raising his 
eyebrows and grinning at me. It was just so cool. I can't remember whether it was at the first or second Wembley show (or some other show?? Saw too many of them, can't remember what happened where...LOL), but there was a pretty kewl moment at the beginning of Two Story Town as well. When they played the first chords of TST I started jumping up & down a shouted like mad, cause I really really luv that song... Jon was kinda at the back of the stage but walking towards the mic and playing his guitar and looking down at the audience. When he saw me going all bananas, he laffed and smiled & nodded at me. Needless to say I was a happy camper again. :o)

Ok, time to get back to the tour once again... After London we made our way to Gateshead. Again, we went through the normal queueing routines, getting up around 3 am and going to the venue around 5-ish and getting utterly bored up there until it was time to go in. This time tho, we had great company in the queue - apart from our "usual" queing pals SAS and Janie (Heidi) and Maryann, we also got to meet Jimmyshoes & Jon and a bunch of other chatters from the bonjovi.com & backstagejbj.com chats. It was really cool. :o) Anyway, this time I didn't make it to the front row, but had a pretty good spot on the second row centre, behind some of my friends. I was kinda bummed tho cause I had already gotten used to being at the barrier... But it was ok in the end. The Dum Dums were very funny again, and Toploader were the best ever - altho somehow methinks Stepping Stone and some VERRRRRYYYYY nice flirting from Joe-the-cutiepie might have had something to do with it... *GRIN* And as usual, Bon Jovi were fantastic.

After the Gateshead, show Marianne and I (and a bunch of Jovi chatters, LOL) took the nite train to Stoke-On-Trent. As our hotel was right across the street from Britannia Stadium, we decided to go straight to the venue with our backpacks, and go & check in and leave our backpacks to the hotel one by one, once we'd gotten settled in the queue. A good decision, as there weren't too many ppl in the queue. We talked to quite a few people in the queue during the day, including some old and new chatters again. The Jovi show was apparently the first ever rock concert arranged at the new Britannia stadium, and I gotta say it showed... The security people didn't 
really have a clue how to handle thousands of mad Bon Jovi fans. :o) But it all turned out well in the end, we had a good spot in the queue and managed to get front row centre-ish again. Like in London, Andreas Johnson was pretty darn boring, but Toploader were cool, as usual. And Bon Jovi REALLY rocked the house, once again. Jon's ever-changing Hollywood tales were funny and his dancing was as sexy as ever, and the whole band seemed to enjoy themselves immensely.

After the Stoke show Marianne and I had a couple of days off, before it was time for the Oostende show. We spent that time in London, playing tourists and doing laundry (LOL) and taking the weirdest pictures of Jon's ripped jeans in Hard Rock Cafe...LMAO... On 25th August then, we began our journey to Oostende, a journey that in the end took ONLY about 21 hours... Ouch. After arriving at Dover around 1 am and walking for about a mile with our backpacks to a terminal that turned out to be WRONG and taking a taxi to the right one, we found ourselves sleeping on our backpacks outside the Hoverport terminal. Thank gawd it wasn't too cold...LOL... The terminal opened around 4 am, so we got to continue our sleep in slightly warmer conditions after that. We didn't, however, get to cross the Channel with the 7.30 am catamaran as we had planned... We had no reservations and the ferry was fully booked, as was the next one too, at 10.45 am. Goddamn English Bank Holidays! And the Belgian F1 Gran Prix! LOL... Anyway, we managed to get tickets for the 2 pm ferry, so it was all ok. Or so we thought - at 2.15 we were still firmly on 
land, standing in the terminal carrying our backpacks... It was about 3 pm when the ferry finally took off, but the destination had changed along the way - instead of going to Oostende, our ferry was going to Calais, from where we had a bus transfer to Oostende. It was about 7 pm when we finally arrived at Oostende, about 21 hours after we had left London. What a nightmare.

You've prolly heard this already, but the venue where the Oostende show was held is in fact a horse-racing track... And that's how we felt like, on the day of the show, when running towards the pit and the front row - we were like horses in a horse race. Can you believe it guys, we had to run nearly a friggin kilometre to get to the pit?! But anyway, I'm gettin ahead of myself now... On the day of the Oostende show, we did the usual queueing routines - got up around 3, went to the venue, tried to figure out what's the latest time you can safely leave the queue to go to the loo and still be able to come bakk to your spot, all that jazz. And like I already mentioned, running in to the venue and to the pit was an absolute nightmare. I still can't believe I managed to make it to the front yet again, after such a long run... Guess I have to thank my dear friends yet once again. :o) After quite a long wait, it was time for Toploader to take the stage. By this time I was completely into them already and was really waiting for them just about as much as I was waiting for Bon Jovi... And I think my enthusiasm might just have shown a bit, cause once again I got loads of looks and verrryyyy flirty smiles from Joe-the-cutiepie. And from other Toploader dudes as well, which was really nice. As usual, Bon Jovi were absolutely fabulous... I nearly had a heart attack when they started playing I'll Be There For You, as it was the song that got me hooked on Bon Jovi and I had thought to myself that I might never get to hear it live again, considering how many great ballads the band has released since then. Jon's dancing drove me (and prolly most girlies in the audience) wild again, as did his declaration of Bon Jovi being "not a boy band, a MAN band"...LOL...

After Oostende it was time to take yet another nite train, as we headed for Zurich. The youth hostel we stayed in there turned out to be, a-hem, not exactly THAT luxurious... But it was ok. Queueing in Zurich turned out to be ok, except for the car some absolute wanker had parked right in front of the gates where we were queueing. LOL. Anyway, when it was time to run in the security guard at MY gate managed to mess up big time... I ended up second row, with my hand 
firmly on the barrier tho. I did manage to squeeze in to the front row before the support acts came on, but there was LOADS of pressure all through the show. As you know by now, the Zurich show was recorded, which made it quite special. (A little sidenote here - once the DVD (& possibly video) is released, look out for a mad-looking blonde in the front row, waving a banner that simply says, "Greetings from Finland"...LOL...) The set list of the Zurich show was definitely among the best ones I heard, if not the best even... And the band were definitely giving it all for the show and for their audience. A magical show, among the best ones on the tour.

After Zurich we had some time off again, just enuff to make our way to Arnhem for the next show. Once we arrived at Arnhem, we decided to go and take a look at the venue, just to know what to expect the next morning. It turned out that the Dutch people were absolutely the craziest queuers, as there had been people at the venue from quite early on that day, the day BEFORE the show. It made us a bit worried and also made me wonder where it's all going to end up - by the next Jovi tour in 2001, we'll prolly see people lining up at venues from 1-3 days before the show. *sigh*

Anyway, as we were wandering around the venue, we sort of bumped into one of Toploader's crew members. We chatted with him for a while, told him that we were freshly converted Toploader fans who went on tour just to see Bon Jovi and will go home loving both the Jovis AND Toploader... He was so delighted to meet two new Toploader fans from Finland that he gave us promo singles and posters and promised to put our names on Toploader's Guest List for the show. We thanked him and went to our hotel, wondering how it was all gonna work out the next day.

After a few hours of sleep it was time for the queueing routines again, getting up at 2.30 this time and going to the venue by about 4 am. At first, the queueing was ok, but after it started raining and the security people had messed up our good spots in the queue, we more than ready to give up queueing and go in as Toploader's Guests. After quite a bit of hassle and waiting, we finally got to go in to the venue, a bit before the doors were opened. Needless to say we were absolutely psyched about not having to run in... And even more psyched when we realised we were walking straight into Toploader's soundcheck. Woo hoo!! :o)

Toploader's performance was absolutely superb again, and I could do nothing but smile (and sing!) all through their show - so many dirty looks and flirty smiles were thrown at me yet again, by the ever so sexy Joe-the-cutiepie. ;o) And as you might guess, Bon Jovi REALLY aced it too. The Dutch people might be crazy queuers, but they sure know how to drive the guys to give them their best... Jon was definitely on fire again, playing around with the audience - and the huge inflated soccer ball someone threw on stage. Jon and Richie had a pretty good soccer match going on for a while, it was hilarious. Something pretty cool happened to me again during Lay Your Hands On 
Me... At most shows when Jon had come down to shake hands with people in the front, he had usually just grabbed my hand briefly and smiled and looked me in the eye for like a nano-second (excluding that one time in Wembley when he gave me the eye). But this time he really squeezed my hand again, smiled at me, looked me in the eye and gave me a wink... I jumped right into cloud nine for that. ;o)

After the show we had TONS of hassle cause of our backpacks again, as we were to travel to Bremen with 2 girls but our backpacks were travelling with some other people. It turned out ok in the end, except for the 2½-hour wait outside after our driver & navigator had fallen asleep, before they had picked us up...LOL... The car ride to Bremen went ok, altho I HAVE slept in somewhat more comfortable places too than in the backseat of a tiny VW Golf (??) with TONS of bags and stuff all around me. We arrived at Bremen around noon and went straight to the queue. I went to sort out our Guest List thing, which turned out great again - no running for our lives, thank 
goodness. Everything went well until... It started to rain. And not just rain, it was simply POURING OUT. The first support act Alternative Allstars (anyone remember "sha-la-la-la, sha-la-la-la, 
sha-la-la-la, woo-oh woo-oh"?? LOL!) had to delay their set a bit, it was just raining too heavily and everything on stage had to be covered with huge plastic covers. It was still raining a bit when 
Alternative Allstars finally took the stage, but it didn't matter too much. A bit more rain and another little break, and we got to see Toploader taking the stage again. They were fantastic as usual, and once again I got lots and lots of smiles and flirting from Joe-the-cutiepie... He and the band seemed to find my enthusiasm rather amusing, especially when Joe introduced "the cowboy song" aka Stepping Stone which made me flip out completely. LMAO! And what comes to Bon Jovi then... They were AWESOME, as good as they can get. The crowd was rocking and the band gave their everything to us again, with Jon wiggling his oh-so-sexy bum in every imaginable occasion and the entire band interacting with the audience a lot. The set list of the show was great, the first encore set with These Days, I'll Be There For You and Jersey Girl being perhaps the highlight of the show. I just can't get over I'll Be There For You... Guess I must have a special bond to the song that got you hooked on the Jovis. :o)

Once the Bremen show was over, we had to collect our belongings (backpacks & some stuff we took with us to the other car) from different places, which was quite a hassle again. But all's well that ends well, and we finally made it to our hotel. We had a couple of days off again, before our final show in Berlin. On the day after the Bremen show we took a train to Berlin, after spoiling ourselves rotten in one of the local Pizza Huts (LMAO)... Btw, have I already mentioned that I've come up with a new diet - burgers, fries, pizza and LOTS of chocolate bars AND musli bars. You might not lose weight with that diet but it does keep you going through a month-long Jovi tour. LOL!

Anyway, once we got to Berlin we sort of came across to a pretty kewl party at the local Hard Rock Cafe... Lots of laughs, booze and a jolly good time. The next day we went shopping - a certain Toploader album was on the shoppping list, as were a couple of pillow covers. Yes, pillow covers - we had decided to write a couple of banners for our last show. :o)

On the day of the show then, we took our time and didn't go to the venue until around 1 pm. The Toploader Guest List worked out fine again, and before 3 pm we found ourselves wondering inside the Waldbuhne. It was quite a spectacular venue, like an old Roman amphitheatre with just a very small GA area in front of the stage. The people with tickets to the GA area had to run over 160 steps down this quite a steep staircase - as far as I know nobody fell down, thank god. Again, everything went well until it started raining... We quickly took out our use-once-throw-away rain coats and managed to keep ourselves relatively dry.

The Berlin show was not just our last show, it was also Toploader's last show on the Jovi tour... And it definitely showed in their performance. They played for almost an hour, and yet again I got many many flirty smiles from Joe-the-cutiepie... At one point, he looked at me while I was trying to hide from the rain and flashed me the sweetest smile, then looked up in the sky and back to me again, as if to say, "aww I feel so sorry for you girls for having to stand out there in the rain"...LOL... He also made a little speech at one point, thanking Bon Jovi and their crew for being so nice to them. At the end of the speech, he also thanked "the lovely ladies in the front" for all our support. What a sweetie that bloke is! :o) My enthusiastic cheering kept the band very amused again all through their show, especially before and after "the cowboy song" (Stepping 
Stone). But the highlight of the show for me (in addition to the above-mentioned Stepping Stone) was Achilles Heel, the very last song Toploader played... I had made a banner for Joe for that song, it said, "Goodbye cutiepie... Hope to see you soon in Finland!". And when I took out that banner at the beginning of Achilles Heel, the entire band just cracked up... They kept on playing and singing, but laffed and pointed at me and my banner, and all of them (especially Joe-the-cutiepie!) were smiling at me all through the song. One of their crew members took pictures of my banner, and another one filmed it on video too...LOL... When they were leaving the stage, Rob the drummer came to throw his drumsticks to us and Joe-the-cutiepie flashed me yet another VERY cute smile and pointed at me, as if to thank me personally for the support. It was VERY cool indeed. :o)

When Toploader had left the stage, it was time for our very last Bon Jovi show... And what a show it was. The band seemed to love the venue, and the audience definitely loved the band. I made pretty good contact with all band members, especially with Dave tho - we kept singing the chorus of One Wild Night to each other...LOL... And during Born To Be My Baby I was definitely "born to be his baby". :o) Btw, anyone else here who just LOVES those higher notes Dave sings in Born To Be My Baby?! I so much adore them and the way he sings them! Anyways, bakk to the show... As much as I tried, it was kinda hard for me to realise that it was really the last show for us... Until they played Wanted. That was when I knew it, that there were no more shows on our bill... And that realisation brought tears to my eyes. At the beginning of Wanted, we took out our new Bon Jovi banner, "Cheers guys! See you in 2001"... We held it up all through the 3 encore songs, and got smiles from all band members for it. When the band was saying their final thank-yous, Jon looked at us and our banner and put his hand to his heart and nodded and said thank you to us... It made me feel so warm inside and brought tears to my eyes again.

After the show, we were invited to party the night away with Toploader's crew in their tour bus, and since it was our last show, we gladly accepted the invitation. The band themselves were having 
drinks with Bon Jovi, but we were having lots of fun with just their crew members. At some point, Dan the rhythm guitarist and Matt the bassist joined our happy group and all of a sudden we were having even better time... It was definitely a night to remember, chatting with Dan & Matt and the crew about ALL sorts of things and drinking their champaigne...and vodka & Red Bull...and beer...LOL... We also took a few pics and had our OBM covers signed by Dan & Matt, which 
was very cool. At some point, when talking about the tour, we got to show our tour itinerary to the guys. They were, shall we say, really impressed about it - "f*ck, this is a lot better than our 
itinerary!"...LMAO... Anyway, after many hours of fun we finally took a taxi back to our hotel - guess it must have been around 5.30 am.

The next morning it was time to pack our backpacks for the very last time and start heading home. We said goodbyes to our dear friends who still had one more show to go to and went to the railway station. Since we had a couple of hours before our train was supposed to leave, we decided to play tourists again and went to take a couple of pics of the famous Brandenburgen Tor (sp??). Then it was time to take that homebound train... Or so we thought. As unbelievable as it might sound, we actually managed to take the WRONG train, one that was going exactly to the opposite direction from where we were supposed to go. After a half-an-hour panic we just thought, "oh f*ck it, it doesn't matter anymore. We're too tired to care" and spent the rest of the journey to the first stop laffin about it somewhat half-hysterically. At that first stop then, we went to the 
"reisezentrumm" or whatever and the nice bloke there made us a brand new travel plan. We still had to sort out our ferry from Sweden to Finland, as we weren't gonna make it to the morning ferry anymore... But that was easily done, just a phonecall to Mom and she sorted us out. As it turned out, our final journey back home included just about everything we had already done on the tour - waiting, sleeping on trains, more waiting and this time in the friggin cold weather outside, sleeping on our backpacks in front of the Malmo Central Station, killing some time in Stockholm (yay yay Pizza Hut! And the net cafe...LOL) and finally lining up at the Viking Line terminal, first to get our boarding cards and then to get into the ferry. In the morning, just before we arrived at Turku, we gave ourselves the final treat and went to have breakfast at the Breakfast Buffet. Cheers to Bon Jovi! And to Toploader! And to our dear friends, you know who you are. Thank you for everything, we truly had the time of our lives! :o)

PHEW... If any one of you made it this far, I thank you for reading. 

Take care & KTF
JoviLove Always,
Anu