I made this translation of my travel blog with help of google translations, because I didn´t manage to take the time to translate and write down the whole text properly. Well, this may be even worse as my translation would be, but as I edited at least the worst nonsense, I hope you will understand it. So here we go:

When I heard the first rumors, that my favorite singer Chris de Burgh will return to Canada and the first one of his German fans decided to travel there, I really thought they were crazy.

But when the tourdates were out and I noticed that a trip would include my birthday the idea started to grow on me. It was not an easy decision for me to make such a huge trip, but I was really curious to see the "home" of my favorite song "Spanish Train". The concerts in Ottawa and Montreal seemed the easiest to manage, because they had only 200 kms inbetween. And the fact that they framed my birthday made this trip really to a must-have. Few days after I had booked my flight I knew that another thrill beneath Chris´concerts and the Canada sightseeing will wait for me: Bryan Adams announced his Canadian Cost to Cost tour and he would play Scotiabank Place just one day before Chris. The Canadian in Canada!! You know that "homecoming"-concerts are always something special. And this was just a very lucky coincidence for me! So soon my adventure begun…

Boarding started on time in Frankfurt and I was optimistic to get to Ottawa on time. Not much people in the plane and the seat next to me remained empty. Good luck, I had enough space for my belongings and to stretch the legs. Very cool, too, that every place had its own screen and you could choose yourself which film you want to watch and when.

For a while the plane was still at the gate, because boarding started so early. Then it moved back, turned 90 degrees in the direction of travel and stopped again. And stood and stood. Then the announcement of the pilot: A damaged part is forcing us to return to the gate and get a mechanic on board. Will take about 10 minutes. Quick repair in 10 minutes, so is this really enough? I tried to calm myself, maybe it was just the toilet flush, or otherwise a part that is not absolutely necessary to keep the aircraft in the air? We did not drive back to the gate, there was no mechanic, but we stood there for another 5 minutes. Then a new announcement: "We managed to start the engine, everything OK". Umm, "engine" sounded not like toilet flush….

Well, the flight was uneventful, but I didn´t manage to have a nap, I was not tired enough. Just in time when we reached Canada the clouds cleared up, which had closed over Wiesbaden and accompanied us the whole flight. Canada! I could see a lot of snow remains. We flew along the St. Laurent-stream, which was so wide that only a glance at the map on the screen showed that we were not looking at open sea.

When we landed, the clouds were back. At the airport, everything went like clockwork, even if they asked a lot of curious questions.

I arrived with the bus in the evening traffic jam that was caused solely by hundreds of buses, all pretty empty!

After all, the name of the bus stops are shown in big letters in the bus and at the shelters and I was very optimistic even to find the way back from the concert. Bryan, I'm coming! Hope I will not fall asleep!

The whole thing with the Bryan Adams concert were several happy coincidences all at once. The arena in Ottawa is far out, about half an hour by car. So at the beginning of my Chris-concert-planning it seemed almost impossible for me to reach the venue. But then I got the kind offer of the German-Dutch-travel-group to take me in the car and so I booked the B & B. And booked my flight on the day before the Chris-concert, so I just can get used to the time difference. This idea of relaxed travelling was ruined by Bryan. Shortly after flight and hotel were booked, I suddenly saw the tour dates of Bryan Adams Canadian Coast to Coast tour. I had to pinch myself! Bryan was just one day before Chris in Ottawa, in the same hall. The Canadian in Canada! And I was already on that evening in the city. It simply had to be! But now there was again the problem to reach the venue. On the internet I found out, however, that there will be a special bus (by the way, the next day it did not go to Chris) and this bus, this was the next lucky coincidence, stopped in front of my hotel. I had a little concern, the time difference would make me very tired, but it was just so incredible that I had to do it. Thanks to the special bus it was very easy to get to Scotiabank Place, and now I was in good spirits, although it was in Germany after midnight. The hall is mainly for the local hockey club and was decorated with huge pictures of players.

At home, with a last look at the seating chart, I had realized what a good catch I did with my ticket. I bought the ticket when they went on sale, I've chosen one of the cheapest places (really quite amazingly cheap), I just wanted to minimize the risk, if I still can not go to the concert because the flight is late or I´m too tired. The cheap seats were at the opposite side of the stage and at that time at the highest point of the tier. I got a place that was right in the middle. Apparently later it was decided also to open to a third tier, and to sell the front rows in a better category, so that above / behind me people had to pay much more for their tickets.

On the screen above the stage again ran the Twitter feed, which I had so much fun with last year at Bryan´s open air show in Germany. A tweet saying "Seeing Justin Bieber tonight. OMG so excited.".

At a quarter past eight Bryan was on the stage, which was good, I was expecting a support act that makes the evening even longer. Immediately ran the first two rows (the concert was completely with chairs!) to the stage, but it followed no masses. I was very jealous at the moment, but it was clear that I no longer had the energy to stand all night. Bryan laid off rocking with "House Arrest". But soon some ballads followed "Here I Am" as the third song and not much later, "I'm Ready" with acoustic guitar and harmonica …. goosebumps. The audience sang the chorus of the quieter songs from the beginning.

For the rockier songs Bryan played on the side of the stage, for "Hearts on Fire" the screen showed him and the guitarist in flames. Even the guitarist did his show, played behind his back and all that. In general, I had the impression that was shown on the screen more variety than last year in Germany, but maybe I was then also just too far from the side. This time my seat opposite the stage and high above the scenery was perfect for the overview, even though Bryan was just as big as a pinhead. And after all, I wanted to watch the native audience and the atmosphere was really great. Bryan said that he was about 17 years ago the first one to play at Scotiabank Place when it opened. And he also mentioned that he had spent part of his youth in Ottawa.

The light show was better than at the Open Air in Germany, and it rose from song to song. Towards the end it really fascinated me. For example, for "Everything I do," was a curtain of light over the audience in the pit, the people seemed to be not there anymore. Bryan was in a focused light beam, which was almost directly across from me, it was almost like we're alone, but still he was a bit far away….After about an hour "Summer of 69" made me jump off my seat and dance. Quarter past three in Germany now, aarr, could be worse. (In fact, I would have expected this song with a possible opening act and a later appearance in the setlist much later.)

Another of my highlights was "Cuts Like a Knife" and the audience sang so great "naaa-na-na". To one song ("If you wanna leave me .... you can not find love in the kitchen ...") the drummer played on pots, pans, baking trays and buckets. That was really cool.

Bryan announced "It's Only Love," which he once sang a duet with one of the best singers of all time, with Tina Turner, and he announced a big surprise to us: Tina was tonight ...... (drum roll…. pause .......) ...... not there! So he sang the duet alone.

Then put the guitar down a great solo. Quarter past four in Germany. Somehow, I suddenly had the feeling that I do not like rock music anymore, wished Bryan would play ballads only. But Bryan rocked on for a while.

For another well-known duet, "Baby When You're Gone", as always, he brought a lady from the audience onto the stage. A pretty crazy lady. Also at my last concert it was a crazy lady, accidently, or Bryan has a knack with his selection? Or perhaps women generally tend to go crazy, if they are on stage with Bryan?

Eventually, Bryan tried to read all the posters that were held up in the audience. One of them said "I want to meet the keyboarder" ....

In the end, Bryan was then again alone with acoustic guitar and harmonica on stage. He told the people with their mobile phone displays to light up. Looked great in the huge hall, and again made my place with overview paid off. "Straight from the Heart" (again, goosebumps ...) had otherwise always been his last song, so I was already on the way out, but then he still sang another song. I didn´t knew the song at all, surprised that the audience in the chorus suddenly bawled. It was not until the second chorus, I noticed that Bryan sang "I'm Ontario Bound". Ah, there it was, the homecoming touch of the concert, which I hoped for. And because the audience went nuts, there was even one more encore: a short solo acoustic version of "All for One".

What an incredible start for my concert trip, even better than expected. But as I sat in the bus again, I realized how tired I was. My biggest concern before leaving was that I would not leave at the right bus stop on the way back. I was very relieved when a light band ran with the name of the bus stops and they were also written on every bus shelter. But it was almost as if I had conjured it: Apparently, the light band went wrong. When I got out at the name of my station, I was somewhere in the boonies. On a green stripe, no house around and the only bus shelter Ottawa, which had no name to it. Panic crept up in me, but then I saw the skyscrapers that were in the neighborhood of my hotel, I was probably just got off one stop too early and then had to walk only about 5 minutes. Phew!