ACL Fest-what I've learned the past few years to make it better!

ACL is here, yeah! I swore I wouldn't go again after my first time, but here I am again with a 3-day pass ready to run around from stage to stage for 8 hours seeing as many bands as I can.



Here's a picture from the first year I went:

I thought my camera was broken at first, but that's all the dust in the air. Yep, that was 2005 when it was 108 and there wasn't a blade of grass left in Zilker Park by Saturday night. I was sick for a week afterwards & swore I'd never go again.

Until the next year. They promised it would be cooler and I love festivals. So I went again!

Keeping with my theme for this weeks posts, here's what I learned to make it a lot more fun! I know it's not everyone's style, but here goes:

• I go early and leave before the last band. What????? Yep, I do. I go to ACL to hear a lot of bands, especially ones I haven't heard before. I don't want to spend all day camped out at the main stage waiting for the headliner-I run from stage to stage the whole time. I may only listen to a song or two and if I don't love them, I just leave and check out another band. I've found some great new music this way! Last year I saw over 45 bands in 3 days, and left in enough time to shower & go to dinner. When you're at the back of the crowd you can't see or hear very well anyway so I don't feel like I miss out on anything.
• I go alone. Whenever I say this people always say, "you can go with us!" And I really appreciate that. But I turn them down. I know so many people that will be there so when I want company I just find them. Some have flags so they're easy to find, others have spots they hang out in, I text them, etc. I love that I can go from stage to stage without having to wait for everyone to gather & figure out where we're going to meet up if we decide to separate. I can do whatever I want, it's fabulous!
• I wear a CamelPak. I don't think it will be as hot this year, but even in the 80's it's hot when you're in a crowd of thousands. The best thing about a CamelPak is you have ice cold water all day. An even better thing to do is pack ice packs around the bladder and your back stays cool too. This year they're allowing you to bring ice in your CamelPak as long as the liquid's separate, so fill it with ice and bring your 2 1-liter bottles of water and you'll be hydrated for a while.
• Decide what else you want to carry for comfort. I brought a chair a few days last year & decided against it this year. I move around too much so it got to be a pain. If you don't move a lot, it's nice to have a place to sit. I will bring a small umbrella and one of those pump spray misters if I can find one.
• I don't drink liquor during the day. The only time I do that is if I'm on the lake or by a pool. Otherwise it's naptime, at least for me.

If you're going to be there this weekend I hope to run into you! Would love for you to share your festival tips, I know I learn something every year so it would be even better to learn them BEFORE I go.

Things I learned from the Germany trip

I'm back from Germany! Actually I've been back for a few weeks but have been so busy catching up & planning more events I haven't had time to post.

The trip was so much fun! I didn't know where we were going in Germany until we were on our way to the airport so that was a fun surprise. We started out in Berlin, took the train to Munich, overnight train to Paris, train to Cologne, and then back to Berlin for a few days before we left. I'll post some pics and stories about the trip later, but thought I'd share a few travel tips I learned.

• We had WAY too much luggage for a trip that involved going from city to city. It was a struggle to get up & down escalators, find space on the train, and a pain to carry around. I don't think I'd go as far as a carry-on (mainly because of the liquid restrictions), but I'd definitely bring one manageable sized bag. After all, when you're in several cities on your trip no one even knows you wore the same outfit the day before!
• Reserve your seat on the trains. I wouldn't do it until you get there because then you have flexibility, but it ensures you have a seat in a non-smoking car (if you want) and you have to have reservations for some trains (much to our surprise!).
• If you're on an overnight train, don't go into an empty berth to get away from your berth-mates. We learned that mistake at someone else's expense when he got woken up by a German conductor yelling "where's your passport?" "give me 20 Euros!" "get out". Not a pleasant way to wake up.......
• Water is more expensive than alcohol in a lot of places. At one of our dinners in Paris the water bill was more than our wine bill. Had we realized that we would have forgone one of the waters for another bottle of wine! After all, you can always rehydrate later. Since I only like still water (I only like bubbles in my alcohol), we started asking for table water, which is tap water. That saved at least 10 Euro a day, which is a lot considering the exchange rate is about $.75 Euro to $1 US.
• Bring an empty zippered bag in your luggage so you have room to bring souvenir's home. Still take the first piece of advice (bring less shit) but bringing an empty bag saves you the hassle of having to search for an inexpensive bag when you're in a foreign city.

My last piece of advice is don't try to fit too much in. To me, the point of a vacation isn't to spend the whole time rushing from place to place or setting your alarm every day. Sleep in if you want! Get off the beaten path & find something out of the ordinary. Go out for a walk without a specific destination in mind-just make sure you have a map!

Look for a FemmeTastics! travel adventure to be announced in the next few weeks. We'll be doing some preview events including storytelling and travel journals. You can get ready by sending me one of your favorite travel photos along with the story that goes with it!