I decided I needed to jump on the bandwagon and get me one of these blogs. I tried it once before but got bored with it and never really used it, but since I have an awesome trip coming up it seems as good an excuse as any to create one.

When I get some more time I’ll wind up using my domain name(s) to reach this blog… www.happyseizure.com and/or www.mikeolivotto.com.

So about this trip, I’m headed off on an epic round-the-world tour, mostly taking in Europe and North America, and catching a load of music while I’m at it. It started out, way back last October, as a little bit of a half-hearted agreement with an old friend of mine now living in England that I’d come visit and go to Glastonbury Festival with him… and at about 2am in the morning tiredness got the better of me as I put down a deposit on a ticket.

So far the lineup is only partially announced, but from what I hear the lineup isn’t even half the experience of that festival so I’m pretty stoked for it. The bill currently includes Lily Allen, Neil Young, Blur, Bruce Springsteen, Echo And The Bunnymen, White Lies, and Kasabian to name a few.

After telling Drew my plans he thought it was a great idea and decided he’d tag along. Anyway, to cut a long story short I’ll be hanging out with Drew (and Ash who he invited along) as well for 2 or 3 weeks. Along with Glasto, we’re going to watch the amps get turned up to 11 as we enter Wembley Stadium for the one and only Spinal Tap(!!!), then onto Belgium for Rock Werchter Festival.

Rock Werchter you ask? Try this for a lineup:

The Prodigy
Oasis
Placebo
Eagles of Death Metal
Pendulum
Lily Allen
Coldplay
The Killers
Bloc Party
White Lies
Henry Rollins
2ManyDJs
Kings Of Leon
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Franz Ferdinand
Limp Bizkit
Social Distortion
Mogwai
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Metallica
Nine Inch Nails
Kaiser Chiefs
The Mars Volta

…and that’s not even half of it! (admittedly I did leave out most of the junk on there)

From there, the basic plan is to head over to Amsterdam, over to Berlin then up to Stockholm, at which point Drew and Asho will make their way to Russia. I then make off for several weeks on my own adventure where I plan on maybe going down to Rome via Munich, perhaps back up to Milan through to somewhere in Switzerland (Lucerne or Bern maybe?), then to Paris.

With my round-the-world ticket I have to get back to London to catch a flight to Quebec, and I will continue the journey through Montreal, Toronto and Chicago, flying back home via San Fran… Somewhere in there I plan to try and get along to see the Warped Tour and maybe, just maybe if I’m lucky I’ll get to see the reunited Blink 182 and/or Weezer.

All this in a period of around 7-8 weeks, provided the exchange rate doesn’t wipe out my savings after a week. Cannot wait!