You goddamn kids had best be gracious with the merch money you spend
HELLO! I'M BACK! This week was so awesome, seriously. In case you missed it, me and my bff Amy went to Calgary (by bus, ugh) for Warped and other fun Calgary stuff like the zoo and an amusement park and shopping! This entry is going to be way too fucking long so I'm pm putting everything under a cut. I haven't uploaded all my pictures yet, so they'll be in a different entry soon because I'm laaaazy.
Amy and I left from Nanaimo on Sunday, and took a bus and the ferry to Vancouver, which was w/e because we've been on the ferry a million times. In Vancouver, we got priority seating for our bus to Calgary, I am soooo glad we did! Basically, you get to reserve your seat on the bus and get on before everyone else for $5. And since there was a huge line for our bus when we got there, it was totally worth it.
The bus ride was 15 hours and pretty terrible. We got on a 6:45pm Sunday and arrived at like 11am on Monday. It was so uncomfortable and gross and ugggh. I didn't sleep at all until 8 or 9 in the morning, and even then it was like 5 minutes at a time, not fun. We were driving through the Rocky Mountains at 5am or whenever the sun was coming up though, and it was really pretty. As soon as we got off the bus we felt super awake, which was good because Amy's aunt and uncle (who we stayed with) showed us around Calgary a little and then took us to the zoo.
The zoo was awesome! There was a baby elephant! We saw lions and giraffes and zebras and flamingos and a ton of other animals that I can't remember right now. We stayed there for like 3 hours I think, and by the end it was unbearably hot and we were dying from walking around in the sun the whole time. We took the C-Train (useful, but totally not as good as the Sky Train in Vancouver) to Amy's aunt and uncle's house and had dinner and stuff, and then we went to visit Amy's cousin Glade and his family.
Amy's family is super weird because her cousins are in their 30's, and pm seem like they should be her aunts/uncles, but they're not. However, both of her cousins that we visited had super cute little kids, which is awesome because I love super cute little kids. We went to the park on Monday night with two of them, and then spent like 10 minutes with two more of them the next day before going to Calaway amusement park, where there were zillions of cute little kids. Calaway had a lot of the same rides as Playland in Vancouver, but there was this amazing log flume ride that we went on first before the lines got huge, it was so fun. We had a disgusting lunch there, but they had churros which were omg so good.
After Calaway on Tuesday, we went shopping at Chinook Centre, which was supposed to be a huge mall but didn't seem that big to me, w/e. I got a pair of jeans, a t-shirt, a sweater, a long-sleeved shirt, a hoodie, 2 belts and a pair of sunglasses for like $150, which was pretty cool. The sunglasses were super useful, I love them and wore them pm all day at Warped the next day.
Unfortunately, that night when we were packing all our stuff, Amy couldn't find her Warped ticket. It got lost somewhere between Vancouver and Calgary, we assume, because she gave me my ticket on the ferry from Nanaimo to Vancouver, and that's the last time she saw her's. Luckily, they were selling tix at the venue, and she bought one from someone in the line for slightly cheaper than her other ticket. Obv every trip has to have something go wrong, and I'm just really glad it all worked out, because I was soooo nervous and worried the night before.
kdslajhkadjgh Warped! Calgary Warped is at Race City Speedway, and I definitely prefer Thunderbird Stadium in Vancouver, which is where we went to Warped last year. Race City is pm all flat and dusty, there's no trees, no grass, no shade, nothing. It also seemed more crowded than Vancouver Warped last year, idk if it was the size of the venue, the fact we actually saw bands on the main stages this year, or just that there were more people, but there was definitely a difference. We got to the big board with all the bands and times right away, and quickly scribbed down where and when the bands we wanted to see were playing.
First we saw Family Force 5, and they did not disappoint. They were just as fun and jumpy and awesome as last year, they're super high energy and amazing on stage, idk how they do it. They started right at 11:15, so not many people were there yet, meaning we got really good spots at the barrier for them. We left like half way through their set to go see Conversation, which is a little funny because they're from the island and we saw them twice before Warped in Nanaimo at local shows. The crowd was pretty tiny for them, since they just played the one date, but it was cool to see them on a real stage and everything.
Next we went back up to the mid-sized stages to see Set Your Goals, and they were so awesome. We saw them last year, but it was late in the day and we were exhausted. Also, I'm way more into them this year than I was last year, so I enjoyed seeing them a lot more. The crowd was insane during their set, everyone was really excited to see them. The huge amounts of dust kicked up by all the moshing was pretty shitty to inhale though. After they played, Ludo played on the stage right next to them, and they were good too. They were really funny on stage, and as we were leaving to go see The Bronx, the lead singer was congratulating Calgary on being the only place ever to have a booming economy right now.
We made our way to on of the the main stages for The Bronx, but it turns out we wrote the time out wrong, and they were actually playing an hour later, so we bought some merch and went to see We The Kings. They were soooooo fun, I'm really glad we got to see them. Their set was awesome and everyone was super excited. My liking of them has gone up a notch I think because they were so amazing live. After their set, we went back to the main stages for The Bronx, which was new for Amy and I because we didn't see any bands on the main stages last year. Idk how that happened, since we saw 6 bands on them this year, but w/e. They were good, but we left after a few songs to get some food and get to Mayday Parade early.
We watched part of Pierce The Veil's set wating for Mayday Parade. They were okay, and we thought it was hilarious when they covered Beat It. Then it was time for Mayday Parade! The crowd was really smooshed during their set, and a lot of the girls in the crowd were incredibly annoying. ALSO, slightly off topic, but. If you're wearing a backpack in a crowd that's already all up on each other, DON'T JUMP UP AND DOWN WHOLE TIME. UGH. Especially if the backpack has The Jonas Brothers on it, and a bunch of super painful studs. I wanted to punch that girl, omg. Anyways, Mayday was amazing and really fun.
After them we went to see Forever The Sickest Kids, who were on one of the tiny stages but shouldn't have been because there were a ton of people there to see them. They were amazing and super fun and dklasjhad. Probably one of my favourites from the day, even though me and Amy were pretty far back. Next, we were supposed to see Four Year Strong, but forgot because our list was slightly out of order, so we went to one of the main stages early for The Vandals, and ended up seeing most of The Academy Is...'s (lol that looks retarded) set, which was cool. I'm still not a fan of the new songs, but it was nice seeing that they played some old stuff too.
Since we were there already, we got a spot right up front for The Vandals. I hadn't really listened to them before this, but Amy loves them and played me a few songs of theirs on the bus and they were so awesome. Ape Drape is so amazing and it was stuck in my head when I woke up this morning, haha. After them, on the same stage, we watched Motion City Soundtrack. They were good but not amazing imo, it might have been because I saw them so recently (two months ago at HCT) or that I was so excited for Say Anything, idk. We moved over to the other main stage after a few songs so we could be up front for Say Anything, but we could still hear MCS which was thumbs up.
Say Anything sajfadkl. Amy and I were both super excited for them, they were at the top of our must-see list. They were soooo good, omg. Their set felt so short though, it went by so fast. When Max Bemis said it was their last song I was like wtf no that can't be right. Now that I think about it though, they could have played for like 3 hours and I still would have been all OMG PLAY MORE. Bemis played Baby Girl, I'm a Blur by himself at the end too, which was cool. Finally, we saw Cobra Starship. They were super fun and exciting and dancey, and a good high energy last band for us. They were the second to last band playing on the main stages, so the crowd wasn't as big as it normally would have been, but they were still awesome.
We ended up seeing more bands than last year, which is awesome. The only bands we wanted to see but didn't were All Time Low and Four Year Strong, but their sets conflicted with 2 bands we ended up seeing (FTSK and TAI...), so there was pm no way around it. I bought three shirts (Mayday Parade, Say Anything and Cobra Starship) but I probably would have bought a couple more if 90% of the tents weren't gone by the time Cobra was done playing. Also! Amy and I were super good at sunscreen all day, so neither of us got burnt at all. Overall, it was totally awesome, and I would definitely endure the huge bus trip again next year if they don't come back to Vancouver. Except I really hope they come back to Vancouver, because omg the bus sucks.
Speaking of buses, right after Warped, Amy's aunt and uncle came to pick us up and take us to the bus depot. We were both pretty tired, so we tried to sleep right away on the bus. The drive from Calgary to Vancouver seemed way shorter than the drive from Vancouver to Calgary, idk why but I liked it. Once we got to Vancouver, while waiting for our bus to Nanaimo, Amy and I probably had our classiest moment ever. We were both wearing pajama pants, we looked gross because we were sweaty and dirty from Warped and hadn't showered in over a day, I was devouring a McDonald's burger, and Amy was emptying her bag so there was a ton of garbage around us. We probably looked homeless. Awesome.
That's it I guess! I had lots of fun, and would totally take this trip again if given the chance. There were times when the bus sucked obviously, but going to Warped and doing fun stuff in Calgary totally made up for it. I just finished uploading the pictures while writing this, so I'll probably post them tomorrow or Sunday. Also I was right when I said this entry would be incredibly long, holy shit.
Amy and I left from Nanaimo on Sunday, and took a bus and the ferry to Vancouver, which was w/e because we've been on the ferry a million times. In Vancouver, we got priority seating for our bus to Calgary, I am soooo glad we did! Basically, you get to reserve your seat on the bus and get on before everyone else for $5. And since there was a huge line for our bus when we got there, it was totally worth it.
The bus ride was 15 hours and pretty terrible. We got on a 6:45pm Sunday and arrived at like 11am on Monday. It was so uncomfortable and gross and ugggh. I didn't sleep at all until 8 or 9 in the morning, and even then it was like 5 minutes at a time, not fun. We were driving through the Rocky Mountains at 5am or whenever the sun was coming up though, and it was really pretty. As soon as we got off the bus we felt super awake, which was good because Amy's aunt and uncle (who we stayed with) showed us around Calgary a little and then took us to the zoo.
The zoo was awesome! There was a baby elephant! We saw lions and giraffes and zebras and flamingos and a ton of other animals that I can't remember right now. We stayed there for like 3 hours I think, and by the end it was unbearably hot and we were dying from walking around in the sun the whole time. We took the C-Train (useful, but totally not as good as the Sky Train in Vancouver) to Amy's aunt and uncle's house and had dinner and stuff, and then we went to visit Amy's cousin Glade and his family.
Amy's family is super weird because her cousins are in their 30's, and pm seem like they should be her aunts/uncles, but they're not. However, both of her cousins that we visited had super cute little kids, which is awesome because I love super cute little kids. We went to the park on Monday night with two of them, and then spent like 10 minutes with two more of them the next day before going to Calaway amusement park, where there were zillions of cute little kids. Calaway had a lot of the same rides as Playland in Vancouver, but there was this amazing log flume ride that we went on first before the lines got huge, it was so fun. We had a disgusting lunch there, but they had churros which were omg so good.
After Calaway on Tuesday, we went shopping at Chinook Centre, which was supposed to be a huge mall but didn't seem that big to me, w/e. I got a pair of jeans, a t-shirt, a sweater, a long-sleeved shirt, a hoodie, 2 belts and a pair of sunglasses for like $150, which was pretty cool. The sunglasses were super useful, I love them and wore them pm all day at Warped the next day.
Unfortunately, that night when we were packing all our stuff, Amy couldn't find her Warped ticket. It got lost somewhere between Vancouver and Calgary, we assume, because she gave me my ticket on the ferry from Nanaimo to Vancouver, and that's the last time she saw her's. Luckily, they were selling tix at the venue, and she bought one from someone in the line for slightly cheaper than her other ticket. Obv every trip has to have something go wrong, and I'm just really glad it all worked out, because I was soooo nervous and worried the night before.
kdslajhkadjgh Warped! Calgary Warped is at Race City Speedway, and I definitely prefer Thunderbird Stadium in Vancouver, which is where we went to Warped last year. Race City is pm all flat and dusty, there's no trees, no grass, no shade, nothing. It also seemed more crowded than Vancouver Warped last year, idk if it was the size of the venue, the fact we actually saw bands on the main stages this year, or just that there were more people, but there was definitely a difference. We got to the big board with all the bands and times right away, and quickly scribbed down where and when the bands we wanted to see were playing.
First we saw Family Force 5, and they did not disappoint. They were just as fun and jumpy and awesome as last year, they're super high energy and amazing on stage, idk how they do it. They started right at 11:15, so not many people were there yet, meaning we got really good spots at the barrier for them. We left like half way through their set to go see Conversation, which is a little funny because they're from the island and we saw them twice before Warped in Nanaimo at local shows. The crowd was pretty tiny for them, since they just played the one date, but it was cool to see them on a real stage and everything.
Next we went back up to the mid-sized stages to see Set Your Goals, and they were so awesome. We saw them last year, but it was late in the day and we were exhausted. Also, I'm way more into them this year than I was last year, so I enjoyed seeing them a lot more. The crowd was insane during their set, everyone was really excited to see them. The huge amounts of dust kicked up by all the moshing was pretty shitty to inhale though. After they played, Ludo played on the stage right next to them, and they were good too. They were really funny on stage, and as we were leaving to go see The Bronx, the lead singer was congratulating Calgary on being the only place ever to have a booming economy right now.
We made our way to on of the the main stages for The Bronx, but it turns out we wrote the time out wrong, and they were actually playing an hour later, so we bought some merch and went to see We The Kings. They were soooooo fun, I'm really glad we got to see them. Their set was awesome and everyone was super excited. My liking of them has gone up a notch I think because they were so amazing live. After their set, we went back to the main stages for The Bronx, which was new for Amy and I because we didn't see any bands on the main stages last year. Idk how that happened, since we saw 6 bands on them this year, but w/e. They were good, but we left after a few songs to get some food and get to Mayday Parade early.
We watched part of Pierce The Veil's set wating for Mayday Parade. They were okay, and we thought it was hilarious when they covered Beat It. Then it was time for Mayday Parade! The crowd was really smooshed during their set, and a lot of the girls in the crowd were incredibly annoying. ALSO, slightly off topic, but. If you're wearing a backpack in a crowd that's already all up on each other, DON'T JUMP UP AND DOWN WHOLE TIME. UGH. Especially if the backpack has The Jonas Brothers on it, and a bunch of super painful studs. I wanted to punch that girl, omg. Anyways, Mayday was amazing and really fun.
After them we went to see Forever The Sickest Kids, who were on one of the tiny stages but shouldn't have been because there were a ton of people there to see them. They were amazing and super fun and dklasjhad. Probably one of my favourites from the day, even though me and Amy were pretty far back. Next, we were supposed to see Four Year Strong, but forgot because our list was slightly out of order, so we went to one of the main stages early for The Vandals, and ended up seeing most of The Academy Is...'s (lol that looks retarded) set, which was cool. I'm still not a fan of the new songs, but it was nice seeing that they played some old stuff too.
Since we were there already, we got a spot right up front for The Vandals. I hadn't really listened to them before this, but Amy loves them and played me a few songs of theirs on the bus and they were so awesome. Ape Drape is so amazing and it was stuck in my head when I woke up this morning, haha. After them, on the same stage, we watched Motion City Soundtrack. They were good but not amazing imo, it might have been because I saw them so recently (two months ago at HCT) or that I was so excited for Say Anything, idk. We moved over to the other main stage after a few songs so we could be up front for Say Anything, but we could still hear MCS which was thumbs up.
Say Anything sajfadkl. Amy and I were both super excited for them, they were at the top of our must-see list. They were soooo good, omg. Their set felt so short though, it went by so fast. When Max Bemis said it was their last song I was like wtf no that can't be right. Now that I think about it though, they could have played for like 3 hours and I still would have been all OMG PLAY MORE. Bemis played Baby Girl, I'm a Blur by himself at the end too, which was cool. Finally, we saw Cobra Starship. They were super fun and exciting and dancey, and a good high energy last band for us. They were the second to last band playing on the main stages, so the crowd wasn't as big as it normally would have been, but they were still awesome.
We ended up seeing more bands than last year, which is awesome. The only bands we wanted to see but didn't were All Time Low and Four Year Strong, but their sets conflicted with 2 bands we ended up seeing (FTSK and TAI...), so there was pm no way around it. I bought three shirts (Mayday Parade, Say Anything and Cobra Starship) but I probably would have bought a couple more if 90% of the tents weren't gone by the time Cobra was done playing. Also! Amy and I were super good at sunscreen all day, so neither of us got burnt at all. Overall, it was totally awesome, and I would definitely endure the huge bus trip again next year if they don't come back to Vancouver. Except I really hope they come back to Vancouver, because omg the bus sucks.
Speaking of buses, right after Warped, Amy's aunt and uncle came to pick us up and take us to the bus depot. We were both pretty tired, so we tried to sleep right away on the bus. The drive from Calgary to Vancouver seemed way shorter than the drive from Vancouver to Calgary, idk why but I liked it. Once we got to Vancouver, while waiting for our bus to Nanaimo, Amy and I probably had our classiest moment ever. We were both wearing pajama pants, we looked gross because we were sweaty and dirty from Warped and hadn't showered in over a day, I was devouring a McDonald's burger, and Amy was emptying her bag so there was a ton of garbage around us. We probably looked homeless. Awesome.
That's it I guess! I had lots of fun, and would totally take this trip again if given the chance. There were times when the bus sucked obviously, but going to Warped and doing fun stuff in Calgary totally made up for it. I just finished uploading the pictures while writing this, so I'll probably post them tomorrow or Sunday. Also I was right when I said this entry would be incredibly long, holy shit.