We’ve just arrived back after playing a few festivals in Europe. It was a brief, exhausting trip— we took a flight nearly every day— but great fun all the same.

Our first stop was Porto, Portugal, where Sonic Youth were headlining a festival in a small town a couple of hours drive away called Parades de Coura. We randomly ran into two good pals of ours from Paris, Geraldine and Sophie, and spent the morning sampling delicious Portuguese custard tarts in the bar while guiltily star-spotting our fellow hotel guests— Kim Gordon, The New York Dolls and, um, Pete Doherty all in one room!

Despite only spending a couple of days there, we all fell in love with Portugal. The countryside we drove through on the way to the festival was just stunning, with little campsites set up alongside the rivers, and pretty tiled houses hidden in the hills. I’d really like to spend more time exploring sometime. The festival organisers and crowd were lovely, too, so thanks to them for making it so enjoyable.

After a short stopover in Southampton, we flew to St. Malo (on a toothpaste tube-sized propeller plane— my idea of hell!). The festival site was, again, amazing. We always joke about how different European festivals are from the ones in England, as they’re generally so much cleaner, organised and friendlier. Not to mention the catering, which is always wonderful in France. This night we were able to at least catch part of Sonic Youth’s set, before driving to Paris. They were as raucous and brilliant as always. I’ve never been bored watching them.

Finally, we arrived in Katowice, Poland. We only had a couple of hours to explore the town, but while Ros went off to buy an antique accordion, Emma, Verity, and I got distracted by feeding a tiny stray kitten that lived in a drain. As is was our first time playing in Poland, we had no idea what to expect at the festival, especially as we were headlining. But the crowd were really wonderful and enthusiastic, and we met some good people. Thank you everyone.