London. 30 Seconds To Mars.

Prologue: On October 6th, 2007, me and Elerin decided to follow our hearts and buy tickets to our first 30 Seconds To Mars consert in London, after we had met for the first time the night before. We had to go through the nerve wrecking moment when we told our parents about it. And the the waiting...

And the day arrived. The two days before I had been feeling very bad and having a terrible cold, so I was fearing for the worse but when I woke up in the morning I was feeling great. I checked my bag for the essental things (tickets, flight confirmation, passport and money) for at least ten times and took the train to Tallinn and headed to the airport. Right before Elerin came, I was on the edge of a nervous breakdown: I wasn't sure if I could handle this whole trip. What happens if something happens. But as soon as Elerin arrived, I had to leave those thoughts behind and we headed to the plane. Just before check-in I received a text from Jacky who wished us safe trip and sent her greetings to everyone. It was so heart-warming!

The flight was very boring. I was actually a bit tired but the excitement kept me from sleeping. Fortunately the plane wasn't running late and we arrived to Stansted airport round 1 pm at the local time. For some reason they checked our passports when coming off the plane and as usual I had managed to loose mine in the bag but just as I found it again, they stopped doing that.

Standstead is much bigger then Tallinn Airport but it's not that big and scary as I feared. We made it through the passport check and I still couldn't belive that I was in the UK - a place I had always wanted to go! As we entered the terminal I started to look for a place where we could get a bus to Victoria station. I saw the EasyBus office but unfortunately they only had one vacant seat. So we took the National Express instead. I had my first chance to use my English in the country where the language is born! I hope that Elerin doesn't mind me being such a selfish bastard and talking to all those people on my own initiative all the time. I love talking in English and especially with native speakers.

So anyways, we took the 1. 40 pm bus to Victoria station. The drive lasted for about an hour and a half but it went very quickly because majority of it was in London. So me and Elerin became the crazy tourists trying to catch the glimpses of England and London through the bus windows. The weather outside was amazing: the sun was shining and it felt like spring! England is just everyhing I had imagned and seen from the telly: the small villages around the church, mansons... one day, when I'm rich and beautiful, I'll go and drive around that country for a long time. And London is also so magical: the old terraced houses that are renovated and you think about the history how they once belonged to the factory workers and have now become the lovely doll houses!

As soon as we arrived at the Victoria we headed to look for the Underground. There was a great advertisement saying "Lost at Victoria" and I thought this is us! Two ignorant Estonian girls trying to make their way to where they are supposed to go... But, actually the wonderful things that you become to appreciate in an unknown place are the signs. We just followed them and soon found ourselves in front of the ticket machines. I wasn't actually very happy about the absence of human contact when purchasing the Tube ticket - it so complicated itself and then I, the "master of all machines" have to face this monster.. brr! As we were just trying to figure out the prices on the information table, the lovely worker approached asking: "Can I help you?". An angel. I wouldn't have expected people to come and help you without being asked... it not lie you meet these kinds of things here in Estonia.

The machine was actually quite easy and we got our tickets and headed to Platform one to catch the District Lane to Hammersmith. I thought this is it, but when we got to the platform, there were trains coming and going and we had know idea which one we should get. So I asked this man for help and guidance which he generously offered. At first he said we ought take the Distric Lane to Earl's Court and then go on the Piccadilly Line but as we were in the train already, he corrected and said we can get straight to Hammersmith with this one! (this actually what I though at first, too when looking at the Tube map, but using the Underground for the first time in life, I didn't dare to argue).

I love the Tube: it's quick and once you get the trick, it really easy to use! And people there are interesting as well: who reads, who does business, the school boys and girls with their classy school uniforms.

We arrived to the Hammersmith station and the funny thing with the Tube is that you have to put your ticket through the machine also when leaving the Underground. For me it seems weird... Anyway, smart girls as we are, we didn't have any maps, so we had no idea how to make it from the station to the venue. But once again, all you have to do is follow the signs. There were clear indications to Hammersmith Apollo. At one point we noticed some girls in front of us were wearing Mars gear and it seemed to me that I recognized one of them but as I wasn't sure if she knew me, so I didn't talk to her. But instead we thought that they know where they are going, so we followed them.

As soon as we were on the ground again, we saw a lot of people waiting and we knew we had arrived to the right place. The system of the queue was so genial that we had a hard time understanding it, so we just kept following the Spaniards. They headed to the side of the queue to talk to people and right then a small girl came out and I told Elerin "Hey, that's Shani!". She soon noticed us as well and rushed to us. Words cannot describe how good it felt to finally meet her eye-to-eye and give her a hug!

Right after that the Spaniards turned around and I reconized Christie (or was it the other way around) and we met with other Spanish girls as well: Soraya, Tania and Helena. They were wonderful, you can really feel the difference between the temperament of cold-blooded Estonians and hot-blooded southern people! They were so much fun and they talk so fast! Soon we also met Moran and had a nice talk with her! She's again one amazing person! She told us about everything and asked me how my exams had gone (how sweet of her!) and talked about the previous shows.

Soon me and Elerin took out the candies we had taken with us from Estonia and passed them around. I'm glad to read afterwards that everyone enjoyed them. By the way, I really didn't know that mine (Tallinn candy) is actually rum flavoured. And I remember Tania asking after seeing this: "Tell me please, what is it with Estonians and alcohol?". I couldn't give her any better answer than just that we are drunkards.

We were soon off to find a toilet and guided to the nearby mall by Christie and as we passed the front of the venue, we saw Kate and had a nice chat with her. I soon noticed Linda from Finland and I had promised to say hi to her if I see her, so I was making my way to her, when I was stopped and a woman asked for my board name. After hearing it I also recognized her as Sandra and we hoped to meet after the show so we could go to the airport together. So I talked to Linda a bit and it was so nice to meet her.

When I went back to Kate and Elerin, Linda (from Latvia) and Vita came to us, so we could finally meet them as well! Linda gave us the little calendars they had made in Latvia for us to share with the Estonians. We once again exchanged a few words and hoped that the Baltic meeting does take place!

As we were walking around there with our candy we were suddenly stopped by the security guys, "Hey, can we have some, too?" We weren't greedy and kindly advertised Estonian candy to them. Those guys were fabulous, so funny! And once again we were amazed how open people are and how they come and talk to you. After we had come back from the mall, we passed those security guys once again and they called for us, "Hey, you, we want more candy!" Those crazy guys...

Me and Elerin decided to have a quick lunch comprising of black bread and chocolate, so we headed a little bit away from the crowd (and the security guys) and came back in time to do some street-teaming. We were in the same group with Shani and Spaniards and after getting the stickers, we headed to the mall under the leadership of Shani. We actually didn't distribute many stickers, so we came back a went to a queue which seemed miles long.

Finally the doors were opened and after a considerable amount of time we were inside the venue. Me and Elerin decided to hand in our bags and coats to the cloakroom. There they placed our stuff in black garbage bags (clean ones though!) and gave us a number on the paper (what are the odds for me to loose it... pretty big I must say). And then we were finally in!

We headed upstairs to go to the toilet (we wouldn't have wanted to stand cross-legged during the show). As we were standing, Elerin pointed to a girl in front of us. She had the text "I (heart) JL" written on her cheek. Aww... (with ironic tone). She couldn't have been older than 14. Thank goodness me and Elerin are Estonians, we had quite a nice laugh talking about her in Estonian! If the poor girl would have heard!

After that we made it inside the hall and looked for a good place. At first we were on the left side (when facing the stage). There were some idiots behind us who started pushing around in between the two support acts. Thank God, there was a woman behind us, who was pretty pissed off at them and shouted: "If you fucking push me one more time, I fucking kick you!" or something like that. And the boy (not older than 13 years) kept telling her: "It's a gig, that's what you do!". What an idiot! I probably told him to f*** off and made it clear with my facial impressions that I don't think very highly of him.

Soon we made it to more in the middle and then came LostAlone. I liked them. Christie had sang Blood is Sharp outside the venue and it was so stuck in my head, so when they finally sang it, I was like: Wohoo!! screaming along and having fun! I recognised a few more songs by LostAlone that I had heard but I couldn't put a name to them. Oh, Our Bodies Will Never Be Found was also played, I think. I like that song. Anyway the guys had a great enery on the stage and thoughroully enjoyed their time there. They did a wonderful job warming up the audience for the star of the evening!

The white sheet was put down and the anxciety began. I really can't remember whether this happened before, during or after LostAlone but at some point I felt that I was overthrown with water. Second later I realised it wasn't water, it was beer. My hair, bandana and shirt were wet with beer and I smelt like a friggin drunkard. I felt as if I would have had to explain to people next to me: "Hey, that's not my perfume nor did I have a few too much in the bar!".

We exchanced a few words with the girls standing next to us and tried to maintain our places within this crowd. The security guys were pulling out people who couldn't take this heat and lack of air and also passing round water. I've never been to a rock-concert like this, so this was something new and very positive for me to see. The time actually went pretty quickly, although I could already feel my back (I'm cursed with a weak back and being on my feet and especially standing in once place usually means a lot of pain in the area). But I was ready to forget about it.

So finally the peak of the evening, the moment I had been waiting for arrived: O Fortuna started. My brain could still not accept the fact that I was there, seeing and hearing it live! This was also the moment when all hell broke loose - for the first time in my life I experienced what a mosh pit is. And I have no desire to go through that again in the nearest future. As soon as the curtain came down and Shannon started to drum away the awesome new intro for Battle of One, I lost all control over where I was moving. I was pushed from every direction and I kept falling into people, trying to appologize to them all (obviously hard to do with the loud music and constant moving around). I tried to grab Elerin and make our way out but I did not succeed. I lost Elerin and I was moved to the left side. So I pretty much missed the first song and I love Battle of One, it such a wonderful song!

The next one was Saviour, again one song that I really adore and it was one of the 4 songs I definately wanted to hear. I moved away to more side during this song and finally ended up in the middle of some great people who were just enjoying the concert. So I could already enjoy this powerful song: Don't save me, don't save me, coz I don't care... I had totally lost Elerin and kept looking for her in the crowd but I failed to find her, so I was all alone during the concert.

Now, I might be wrong with the order of songs in the set list but I think that the next one was From Yesterday. A more calmer song and it sounded great. This was when I finally started to realise I'm actually at the live consert of 30 Seconds To Mars: 6 months ago I thought this would only happen in my dream! Then came The Story and after that Jared announced "an old song for the old schooler's in here" and my heart was full of joy and excitement! I know I'm no old schooler, but god do I love the older songs! And it was the second song from my 4 "I-wanna-hear-those" songs: Buddha For Fucking Mary!!! Full band!!! I love this song, love it, love it, LOVE IT! Of course Jared did his crowd surfing thing during it (and notoriously hit some moron in the crowd, my respect to Jared). I was actually more carried away with what Tomo was doing during the show. This guys is so much worth to watch. He jumps, sings along, interacts with the crowd and at the same time manages to play his guitar!! Yeah, I admit, I'm a little fangirl over him! He's just sooo great!

After A Beautiful Lie the singer asked if somebody had seen the video of it and there was a huge roar in the crowd. Obviously quite a few people had seen it! And the came The Kill - the song I first heard from this band that has now made me act crazy. I remember rocking out to it after I had finished my finals last spring in the kitchen while cooking dinner for the family and now I'm seeing it live. I wish everyone have this feeling that I had then. I cannot describe it. The Kill isn't actually my favourite song by them but it is a really powerful song (Finally found a change, I know now this is who I really am!) but the band had really taken care that we (the crowd) are suprised: the Royal ballerinas swayed across the stage like beautiful swans and the gospel choir... WOW! This was amazing!

The first lines of R-Evolve made me realise what I have done (The revolution has began today from the inside...): I have followed my heart, followed my dreams and I'm one lucky girl!! It still brings tears to my eyes and I can't describe it: would you have imagned the same girl who was standing in front of her school and humbly receiving the high school diploma from the head master to be rocking at a concert in London? I honestly didn't. And if it weren't for dear Elerin, I'd still be dreaming about the concert! Anyway, back to the topic... I was singing along this beautiful song when I suddenly noticed that Jared was singing something completely different. And then he sing this line he skipped at some other time. I was really confused: was it me or was it him?

"And now, this is a song about freedom!" said Mr Leto. The third song from "my list", the first song of the second album: Attack. Whenever I'm in a really shitty mood, I can put on ABL and this is the first song from there saying: I won't suffer, be broken, get tired or wasted, surrender to nothing or give up what I started... This really does boost you up with energy, doesn't it? I screamed at the top of my lungs during this song!!

After that song the guys left the stage. I was thinking "NO! this can't be it. No way. They didn't even do The Fantasy. Please come back! Guys?" The crowd was chanting them back when suddenly the spotlights pointed to the right side of the balcony (I had such a comfortable view to there) and there was Jared with his acoustic guitar. The insight of Eeva's thought at that moment: "Oh my f***ing God!" I couldn't believe my eyes. Acoustic song(s). Jared made a speech how proud they are and thanked everyone for coming. Then he asked whether we wanted a new or an old song. I think that even if there were people who screamed "New!" they were outnumbered by those requesting for an oldie. And there came the best version of Capricorn I've heard. His voice was beautiful. I hardly dared to sing along and I kept telling myself to keep my eyes opened because I was so lost in the music. It was beautiful, beautiful... beautiful.

Then came A Modern Myth, if I'd die now, I want this song to be played in my funeral. Yeah, really! So during this song I was looking up to the balcony and then I thought, I'd check the stage as well (Moran did mention Tomo and violin in the same sentence before the show). And there he was, with a violin in his hands. That moment I knew that this is a perfect concert. Tomo on a violin during A Modern Myth. Their first attempt actually failed. Tomo did his part and the crowd screamed in admiration and Tomo waited for Jared to continue but instead the frontman asked him to play his part once again. What came out of the violin then was... not a pleasant sound. The crowed laughed. Tomo seemed to have technical problems with the violin and while they fixed that Jared said he'd play another song. Echelon. Antother beautiful song and while the amazing voice and the wonderful sound of the guitar floated through my body, I felt like I was alone in the crowd. It was just me and music, the 4,000 (more or less) people just disappeared for me. This was fabulous, the song is so beautiful. And when Jared stoped at: What's with the fascination with... and the crowd answered: ...the Echelon I knew that I was where I belong. I'm screwed, I'm obsessed with a rock band and I'm loving it!

Then the second attempt of A Modern Myth and things went great. I told you before, I'm a fangirl over Tomo and especially Tomo on the violin. Beautiful. (I know I keep abusing this word but I really don't have words to describe my feelings). It was just perfect!!!

After the end of the acoustic set, the drummers of Stomp had conquered the stage and Shannon was drumming away with them! I adored it! Drums, rhythm... hell yeah! This was bloody fantastic! And it was so obvious to see that Shannon was so much enjoying himself, he was totally, 120% in to it! You could feel the energy coming out of there, the vibe penetrating your body... WOW! I loved it!!

Then Shannon went back to his kit and they started to drum again and Jared, Tomo and Tim returned to the stage. I actually didn't see Tim practically at all during the show. Only once when he and Tomo switched places. So this interesting drumming intro became the song The Mission and I'm really sorry for the people who were standing near to me during the show. I was screaming along. The one girl in front of me gave me a really mysterious smile during the song. I have no idea what she ment with it but I interpreted as: "Your first concert? Have a blast!". Mission hasn' been my favourite song (I like it very much, but you know...) but this version of it.... WOW! I fell in love with that song once again! What a power!

And then it was, the famous part of the concert: J: Do you live! Crowd: Do you live! J: Do you die! Crowd: Do you die! J: Do you bleed! Crowd: Do you bleed!... ect. The Fantasy. And Jared wanted us all to go f***ing crazy! Oh that song!! You have to love it. The finger thing in the middle and testing the crowd: "Ohohoooooo". We were great, we could pull all everything off that J-rod gave us! I wish that song could have lasted for ever!!

And then they were off... Lights on! It was over... my back was killing me, my feet hurt as hell and I had to find Elerin. I just stood where I was and looked around when Elerin suddenly grabbed my hand. High from the emotions as we were, we slowly headed out hoping to see some of our friends on the way. We saw Moran who had had the great chance to be in the front row and she shared her comment. The only words that I could say were: "It was perfect. A Perfect first show to see". And it was. I was so tired that I just sat down on the floor while we talked. We soon went to grab out coats. I even had managed to keep my number, it was a little torn but it was there! Number 92! We saw Kate once again and went out where there was Shani and Spaniards. We soon hugged our bittersweet good byes and Christe promised to come and visit us in Estonia. Let's hope she comes here.

We headed to the underground still screaming from happiness but it was closed already so we had to take a bus. Once again I used a chance to talk to people and tried to figure out which bus we should take. So I asked one elderly gentlemen. He kindly helped us and asked where we are from, and when he heard we are from Estonia, he was like: "You have Tallinn, don't you? See, I know something." He was so nice.

Anyway, we headed out to wait for our bus and just generally we were floating on air. So there we were discussing the details when two boys came out of the station and asked us what the time was. Before I could answer, thay asked if we were single. I started to laugh so hard, Elerin managed to answer "No!". The thing is those "guys" (with a bling-bling in their ears) could not have been older than 13! Like what?!

The bus came, a double-decker, of course we sat in the up and front, so we could play the bus driver. Not sure if we actually did it, I wouldn't be suprised if I did, it sounds something just like me. My worry was that in London (and to my big suprise, in Tallinn as well) you have to request for a stop. Except we had know idea when our stop was coming. Fortunately we did make it out at the right stop and we again at Victoria Station.

My first concern was to find a drink. I hadn't had anything since the concert and I was dying of thirst. And then we had to find out when and where we could take a bus to Stansted. After walking from the rail station and asking for guidance we went outside and found a bus stop saying Stansted Airport. I was just about to see when there are buses going when a girl sitting in the bus stop asked us wheter we were taking the EasyBus. I said that we didn't know, we were just looking for something to go to Stansted. And she told us that EasyBus was going at 3 am. It was about 1 am, so we had 2 hours to spend. We had a general small talk with the girl (she's from South London and was going to Paris) and then we headed out with Elerin to discover the night in London.

I love London. Even though I only saw a tiny bit of it, I'm in love. Those houses, they are so beautiful. Little doll houses. You can almost breathe in the history and imagne that you can bump into an gentleman with a walking cane and a top hat. He would say: "Pardon me, milady!". And the horse carriage would ride pass you taking ladies in beautiful dresses home from a ball. We photographed many silly things, just because it was London.

The strangest thing were the foxes. We saw two foxes (or one fox twice, does it matter?) and it was quite scary at first. My first thought and Elerin dared to say it out, was "Rabis?!" but they didn't follow us, just continued their normal round. Later I found out that this is supposed to be totally normal.

As our legs and my back was really painful, we returned to the bus stop round 2.30 am and sat down to wait for the bus. Soon I saw Sandra and the ohter German girl go by and they said they are taking EasyBus as well. So the bus arrived and there were exactly 4 vacant seats, so we matched up our money and bought the tickets. The man checking the bookings was looking at one man's paper and then looked up: "This says you are going to Stansted. This one goes to Luton!" Me and the man was also: WTF? and then the man laughed: "Haha, got you there, I was only kidding!" Yeah, nice humour at 3 am in the morning.

I had a little nap on our way to the airport, maximum 15 minutes and when we arrived there we had about half an hour till our check-in was opened. So we just sat on the benches and slept and ate some chocolate. 4.50 am the check in opened and we went there. The funny thing was that they didn't mark the gate on our ticket, so I went to ask about it but obviously it was totally normal and we had to check it later on the screen.

We made it through the security chech and headed to the restrooms. After we had had the chance to change the shirts and refreshen ourselves, I felt like a human being once again and wasn't even that tired. We bought some candy back home and then saw a place we definately wanted to go: Starbucks. I mainly wanted to go there because it's the place taht everyone talks about but doesn't excist here in Estonia. The hot chocolate was rather good there!

So it was soon time to take the train to our gate and while we were waiting to get on the plane, a girl walks up to me and says: "Hey Eeva!" It was my classmate from my first year in secondary school. She left after one year and now was in England. I hadn't seen her for years and now I meet her in Stansted Airport? What are the chances? But it was so wonderful to see her and we chatted throughout the whole flight, so it went pretty quickly. Hopefully we didn't disturb Elerin too much who was occasionally sleeping.

We arrived landed in Tallinn round midday and our little big adventure had come to an happy end. The weather was miserable but it didn't matter. Me and Elerin said good byes and headed to our homes. I had to wait for a bus and walked around the gray streets with a huge smile and satisfaction!

Epilogue: I had waited for the trip for 4 months and now seen what this is all about and I know that my soul will be restless until I get a chance to experience this over again and again and again...