Entries about eurovision

Most people know I'm a big Eurovision fan. I've been twice before (2011 and 2016), plus several times to the pre-party in Amsterdam. So when it was decided Liverpool would host the 2023 contest, I naturally wanted to go. But tickets are a complete nightmare.

Part of the reason I'd only been twice before was the trauma of trying to get hold of them. There quite simply aren't enough of them, and they always sell out almost instantly. With the show being held in a relatively small arena in a country with a big fanbase that hasn't hosted for 25 years, this year was going to be an even bigger challenge than normal.

When tickets went on sale in March, I set up three laptops primed and ready. We would aim to get tickets for either the grand final or the rehearsal the night before. Amazingly I managed to get in to buy tickets for the rehearsal, and despite Ticketmaster crashing half way through was successful enough to get my hands on tickets. We were going to Eurovision!

The country was really getting into the spirit, and during April, in the south, a train headed to to London was decorated to celebrate.

Before long, it was May and Eurovision week was here. It started with the King's Coronation the weekend before, and a street party to celebrate that on our road. Then on the Tuesday and Thursday, the semi finals were live on TV, with the qualifiers for the Grand Final selected. Friday came around quickly and we were now on our way to Liverpool

I'd managed to get a hotel room in Warrington (rebooking a few weeks earlier to more than half the cost), and we headed there first. Frustratingly there as a lot of traffic up the motorway, not helped by the train strikes this weekend, and it meant it ate into our already limited time in the city.

By the time we'd checked in and made our way to Liverpool it was already almost 4:30pm, where the city was all dressed to impress.

We parked, and wandered past the Albert Dock, and towards the Liverpool One shopping centre.

There was a lot of additional activity going on in the city, and with some decent weather too it was jam packed everywhere.

We grabbed some dinner before making our way back towards the dockside, passing the Cavern Club and the Cilla Statue.

We were arriving at the Eurovision Village - a secure area with a big stage and lots of food and drink units. The sign outside said it was approximately 15 minutes to get through the security.

45 minutes later we finally made it through, but with the doors opening to the arena in around 15 minutes we didn't get to hang about that long. A shame, as it would have been good to spend more time in the area.

We exited the village and made our way through the very busy Albert Dock towards the arena.

Thankfully the security check here was pretty quiet for us, and we were quickly inside the arena. We checked out our seats and then went to grab some drinks and souvenirs.

Although it made getting tickets harder, the smaller arena did mean even our seats towards the back of the arena still gave us good views.

The show was the one the juries were voting on, and so the performances were just as important as for the live show tomorrow.

We got to see the full run through (both the acts and the intervals), and other than the fake results it was just the same.

We were told that they would fake a winner with a big stage set up, so as to ensure if one of those acts won for real tomorrow night they'd be prepared for the complexity. For us, the fake winner was the UK!

Although half the audience had left, we stayed right to the end, and saw a stage hand get up and pretend to be Mae Muller for a bit whilst the crowd went wild.

It was a long night, and it was gone past midnight before we left the arena. Upon exiting, we were exit polled on our favourite by some of the fansites.

The following morning we got up, had breakfast and then headed back home. Yesterday was a long day, and today was almost just as busy, wth the long drive back home, before watching the actual show on TV, which again would go on until past midnight.

It was a shame that it took so long to get to Liverpool, and that there was such limited hotel options. Despite the contest being in my home country I'd not had chance to witness that much of it all. But equally it had been a good experience, and nice that I'd not had to fly off and have a full on holiday to attend. Hopefully it won't be another 25 years before it returns!

This was going to be one busy holiday, and it started early on the Thursday morning with me driving to Stansted for an 8:30am flight to the capital of Sweden, which despite being my fourth time in the country, was my first outside of Malmö city centre. With the flight landing in the city of Nyköping, it took me the whole morning to actually get to the city centre where after grabbing a bite to eat I met up with my good friend Johan, with whom I had spent two weeks last summer travelling around the Balkans with.

City Hall

Gamla Stan

Johan provided me with a brief tour of the city, crossing the numerous bridges that make up the archipelago of Stockholm city, through Gamla Stan and towards the Katarina Elevator where there is a wonderful view over the whole city. We then made our way back into the city and met up with our friend Jesper with whom we would all be staying for the weekend.

After getting some supplies for the week it was already reaching the evening and so I quickly downed my drinks and then left the guys back at the apartment and made my way towards the Globen Arena for tonight's semi final which I had also bought tickets for and would be attending alone.

Also in the city this evening was my good friend Camilla, with whom I had lived with in Germany four years previously; however due to my rushed schedule, we had arranged to meet outside the arena an hour or so before I planned to go inside.

Turning up rather tipsily, we had a lovely catch up with two of her friends I had also met in London three years previously (although it took me ten minutes to recognise one of them), before we proceeded to take 400 pictures so that at least one would look half decent.

After saying goodbye, I proceeded into the arena to witness my second ever contest after attending the show in Düsseldorf five years previously.

Being inside the arena, like in 2011, naturally provides a different experience to watching on TV. There is no commentary, you get to see the behind the scenes, including the super fast changing of the stage instead of the postcards, as well as the audience reaction and tension to the results.

Having spent all morning being surrounded on the plane and airport bus hearing comments such as "I wonder if Belgium will qualify tonight" I had sobered up enough by the results to remember that vividly. However when later asked how I enjoyed the opening I am unable to comment....

The Green Room during Semi 2

Carriage at the Royal Armoury

After a very long day of travelling, sightseeing, catch ups and watching the show I was glad to enjoy a more restful second day, and after enjoying a well earned lie in, as well as almost locking ourselves out of the apartment with the handle fell off, Johan and I headed into the city again to visit the Royal Palace Armoury, as well as explore the Eurovillage, where Eurovision had taken over the Kungsträdgården park.

Inside the Eurovillage

With the award

Posing for photos with a mock of the Eurovision Winner's Award we went for lunch before exploring the cave-style metro stations and eventually meeting back up with Jesper who was working today.

We then went to visit the Mall of Scandinavia in Solna before heading back to the apartment for an evening of drinks and chat, at which we were joined by some of Jepser's friends who joined at the embarassing moment Johan and I were singing along to decade old Eurovision recaps and songs on Youtube.

After another late night of drunken bants the day of the final had finally arrived. Jesper went into the city to meet up with his friend Marcus, who would be joining us for the contest, whilst Johan attended a political conference. Meanwhile I had bought myself tickets for the ABBA Museum, and made my way towards Djurgårgden.

The ABBA Museum contains many exhibits donated by the members of ABBA themselves, including clothes, awards and instruments; and as this was also the Eurovision week, a special popup exhibition was also in place with memorabilia from the contest as well, making this an even more exciting place to visit.

ABBA Museum

Models of ABBA

After a few hours at the museum I made my way back to Jesper's apartment, met Marcus, and we got ready for tonight's show.

5 hours to go!

Outside the Globen ready to go in!

Having a few drinks, the four of us made our way towards the arena and with the excitement finally building we were inside the arena finding our seats at the very back and top of the arena - which still had great views of the stage.

Unfortunately Marcus had lost us, but nevertheless the three of us sat watching the show enjoying the live atmosphere (including the beautiful communal Green Room reaction to Justin Timberlake, showing that national stars can be just like normal people too) as well as struggling to see what was happening with the scores before the nail-biting finish.

After the show, still with no sign of Marcus (having heard he was at Central Station?!), another of Jesper's friends, Adam joined us and brought with him more booze to drink before attending the after party at the Tele2 Arena next door to the Globen.

Having said hello to Emil from Malta, Johan and I also found Roel from the Netherlands and had a mini-reunion with the both of them whilst enjoying the after party. This ended at 4am where it had already begun to get light, and after waiting for a while to get our metro train, we missed our stop and had to walk back to the apartment. Eventually making it back gone 5am, it was now the same time I had got up just two days previously....

The following morning we awoke at the arrival of Marcus, who had told us that he had knocked into someone at the arena, been made concussed and sent to the hospital, from where he had only just been discharged. Unfortunately missing the entire show, and sadly flying back to Helsinki that evening!

We therefore sat and watched the whole contest on the television before it was time to go home, and I then headed in the early evening back to the central station to catch my bus back to the airport and eventually home. Eventually arriving back in my own bed at gone 12:30am UK time....a very long and busy holiday before a five day week at work!

Nevertheless it was a truly great holiday, filled with fun and jokes, catch ups, a city in beautiful weather, as well as the excellent Eurovision experience.

Being met at the airport briefly by Sandy and her boyfriend, I eventually made it to my hotel and took a long lie in after the busy week before meeting Sandy again on Saturday afternoon in the city centre.

Having been to Amsterdam four times previously, I was not too fussed about seeing that much, as the holiday was mostly about having a nice catch up, but nevertheless, we still took a lovely boat tour around the canals with Roel and some of his other Eurovision friends, before visiting the concert itself in the evening.

As ever, the concert gets just over half the acts of the year coming to perform their songs for an excitable crowd of fans, with some of the acts better than others. It was an enjoyable evening as always, and a nice taster of what to expect on my next holiday to Stockholm for the real event in a few weeks time.

Jüri from Estonia

Keukenhof

The following day I once again met up with Sandy and we went over to the Keukenhof Flower Garden, where each spring the gardens are laid out beautifully with tulips. This gave my holiday a real nice feel as not only was the weather the entire weekend great, but I also got to experience some new Dutch things despite having been to the country many times previously.

With EasyJet flying several times daily from Luton, I was able to juggle my flights around so as not to take off any annual leave from work, whilst maximising time spent with my friends. I therefore left work a little bit early after working through lunch to arrive at the airport in good time for my flight - which was just as well.

Bare minutes after making it through security, on my way to collect my free newspaper and get the cheapest drinks from Boots, off went a fire alarm and all the security staff were evacuated, with the whole area being shut down for well over 20 minutes. Anyone who was already running late for their flights had no chance! Nevertheless I still had good time and was the first person to be sat down and buckled up on the plane! Like. A. Pro.

Arriving after the short 45 minute flight, I was met in departures by Sandy, and her boyfriend Arnold, whom I had stayed with three years ago during their Erasmus in Leeds. After a brief reunion I boarded my bus to the hotel I had booked on the outskirts of Amsterdam, and I would see the guys later.

Arriving at the hotel it was already 10pm, and unfortunately the lights in my room had blown meaning I couldn't see my way around. However after contacting the reception they came and sorted it out and I eventually went to bed excited about the next day.

Getting up at around lunchtime, Roel had finally arrived and after dropping off the stuff we made our way to the city centre. Having been to Amsterdam numerous times already the holiday was going to be somewhat different to my usual trips - more of a social event. However there was one particular sight I had never seen - the Begijnhof. And with Roel not even knowing about it we made our way there to find a lovely sanctuary away from the hustle and bustle of the city, with traditional Amsterdam houses.

Heading down towards the Flower Market, we eventually made our way back to Dam Square where Sandy had joined us. We sat down for a catch up before making our way to find somewhere to eat, which ended up being once again the same Italian restaurant on Damstraat. After finishing here, we made our way to the highlight of the trip - the Eurovision In Concert in the Melkweg.

Held every April, I had been to the event twice before and had thoroughly enjoyed it, being much cheaper and closer to the action than the Eurovision itself. And by getting to the queue just over an hour before the doors opened, we managed to nab spots right at the front of the stage.

This year, 24 of the 40 acts this year were scheduled to perform, as well as songs from the host, Edsilia Rombley and the winners from 30 years ago - Bobbysocks. As luck would have it, we were also stood very close to the backstage door, and as the night progressed, some of the acts came into the audience who we were able to meet.

Bojana from Serbia

In front of the stage

After the event finished, we said goodbye to Sandy and made our way to the afterparty, which several of the acts from the concert were going to sing their songs again for a smaller audience.

We were fortunate enough to also be able to meet some of the artists more personally, as they were just floating around the venue. This included the German, Lithuanians and Norwegians, as well as hearing Måns from Sweden sing his Melodifestivalen songs.

Towards the end of the night I also saw the British guy standing around, and feeling sorry for him not being 'popular', I went to go and have a little chat about his career and how he got the gig. It was now getting on for half past 3 in the morning, and after some heavy partying, we decided to make our way back to the hotel.

With Alex from the UK

Rural Holland

The following morning we checked out of our hotel and made our way to the village of Spaardam, just outside Amsterdam, to Arnold's House for a catch up and to spend time with Sandy again. After having lunch and playing Mario Party I said my goodbyes after a great weekend and made my way to Schiphol for the return flight.

After seemingly no problems, before I knew it, my plane was delayed almost 4 hours and once again the airports were seemingly out to get me. Luckily I was not very affected by the delay, the only disadvantages really being that I would get home late, and could have spent some more time with my friends or in Amsterdam - but there are many times when it would have been a real problem.

Eventually arriving home safely I had fond memories of a great weekend, and am already looking forward to the next time!

Almost as soon as my exams came to an end, I made my second travel of the year, back to the Netherlands after less than 5 weeks in order to fulfil three tasks. To recover from the intense final weeks of university, to visit my good friends Roel and Sandy, and also to fill in one of the holes in my visited countries map.

Straight from winning at the casino the night before, I took a coach from Luton to Stansted on Saturday 18th to fly to the city of Eindhoven in the southern Netherlands where we watched the final of the Eurovision whilst being filmed for Dutch TV, where I was even interviewed on my views of the Dutch song.

The following day Roel and I made the trip to Luxembourg where awaiting us were some spectacular unexpected views. Despite raining the entire time in the country/city it still looked so beautiful, with massive cliffs and greenery, whilst from our hotel room in the Hilton Hotel we could see the forest covered in clouds!

I would highly recommend a weekend visit to the city - the amount of spectacular views are comparable somewhat to Switzerland (although obviously less extreme)