Luckiest girl in the world

City I most wanted to visit: Amsterdam
Concert I most wanted to see: Dave Matthews
Preferred venue for afore mentioned concert: Small, renovated church that seats 1,000
Preferred format: accoustic

Despite all of the trouble I have gone through in the last few months, it is offically all worth it. Anything else from here is gravy. I had, by far, the most serendipitous experience while here in Amsterdam. After arriving Friday night, I heard that Dave Matthews was playing at a small venue on Saturday night, but that it was also the fastest selling ticket in Amsterdam history selling out in 5 minutes. I thought carma owed me a few favors for the last few months and since I had no real plans Saturday night, I thought I would walk over to the Paradiso and see if I could scalp a ticket. Now by nature, I'm an optimist, but I really didn't have any false expecations of getting a ticket - they were going for $450 on ebay.

For some of my older friends and family who might be wondering who Dave Matthews is, he is the Beatles of my, and many of my generation's, heart. If you replace the name Dave Matthews with Beatles when reading the entry, you might understand what a big deal this is. He sells out 60,000 seat venues across the U.S. every summer. He isn't a pop star by any means though since he's 41 and I have been listening to him for at least 12-13 years.

And I got a ticket. There were only 1000 to start. And I got a ticket.

Not only was it my first Dave Matthews show (even though I have been trying for years, albeit half-heartly, and never been able to go to one) but it was the perfect place in the perfect city and it was accoustic. Just Dave on stage with Tim Reynolds and their guitars. I was about 50 feet away from the stage. If this were a major venue, it would have been like being row 10.

This beats going to a Scottish ball any day of the year.

Let me preface with what an understatement the next sentence is going to be. It was awesome. One of the best experiences in my life.

If you are ever in Amsterdam and one of your favorite musicians of all time happens to be there playing accoustically for an intimate audience, I highly recomend you go.

I keep thinking of the word serendipity. I once heard that serendipity is a berry 1000 times sweeter than sugar - that is what last night was. "Life is short but sweet for certain"

My video of the show didn't turn out great, but here is a great clip someone else posted on youtube...

P.S. It happened. I was outside the Paradiso waiting to get in and was talking to some people from Michigan and Florida. One of the women made a comment about how bad the food in Amsterdam (which is amazing compared to London - sorry London). She said "the hamburgers are awful, like sausage patties." And that's when I thought it... "That's so American."