Somewhere Far Away…

“Whispers on the window, gone without a trace. By the time you look for me, well, I’ll be somewhere far away” – Little Big Town

Hey friends!

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged anything; I guess that’s because I haven’t really had much of an update to share. This isn’t a massive update either, but it’s nearly 1AM here and I can’t sleep!

Time is flying by so fast though; I remember booking this trip in early November and thinking “oh my god the next seven months are going to drag on” – but it has been the complete opposite. I’m now 28 days away from my flight to Nashville and I’m in a bit of a state of shock over it to be honest haha..

I’m in the process of working out a rough itinerary for my 2.5 weeks there. But at the same time I want to leave it kind of open because I’m sure I’ll meet a tonne of people at the hostel I’m staying at and I’ll want to go adventuring with them. My first week is pretty much set in stone though, because that’s CMA Fest week. Then I have a couple of tours booked which I’ve spoken about before.

One additional tour I locked in was a ‘Nashville TV Show Tour’ – this one takes me on a backstage tour of the Ryman, to a few filming locations, and to the Bluebird Cafe. I mainly did this because I really wanted to go to the Bluebird but heard it is so hard to get into – this tour pretty much guarantees entrance. Plus, I love the TV show of course!

Carrie Underwood just announced her fan club party, so I entered the draw to attend that one. In previous years I would always look through the photos that emerge from those parties and have had major FOMO – I’ve always wanted to go to one, but this is the first time I’ll actually be in Nashville and able to go. So please cross your fingers for me! What a dream that would be!

I’m having mental dilemmas over how much luggage to take with me. My airline allows 2 large checked bags and one carry-on bag. I went and purchased two large suitcases to take over there, but I definitely only need one. My current question is do I bring them both over anyway and fill one with my shopping? Or do I take only one and travel light, but then buy a second suitcase over there for my shopping? There will be a lot of shopping for sure

I’ve already made a bit of a shopping list! I’m going to get basically the whole Little Big Town ‘Boondocks’ merchandise range that they just released from the Opry! And I’m also going to pick up some CALIA active wear (I have an obsession with active wear in general – the fact that there is a line of active wear from Carrie Underwood is like a dream come true for me! LOL), and there are a few pieces from Karen Fairchild’s line that I absolutely love and want to pick up – like the red lace bomber jacket, and I LOOOOOVE that yellow butterfly dress.

OH! Speaking of….. there have been some exciting things going on since my last blog post. Little Big Town came to Australia and I got to see their show at the Enmore Theatre! They were absolutely incredible. All my friends know how much I adore this band and I’ve been waiting for so many years to see them live. They’d never been to Australia before, so this was a pretty big deal for me. Anyway, I can’t even describe what happened after I saw them live – I thought I was a mega-fan before, but the amount of love I felt for them after walking out of that theatre was on a whole other level. I was sitting on the balcony, front row, so I had an amazingly clear view of the stage. At one point I waved at them, and Kimberly Schlapman waved back – AND I CRIED! LOL! Such a dork! I took a few videos from that night, so here’s one of them (for real though, how good was my view!):

You can see the rest on my YouTube channel. Kip Moore opened the show for them and I got to meet him after the show! He was super cool & signed my ticket 🙂

Clare Bowen and O’Shea both just announced Australian tours for July, so I get to keep the country music gigs going when I get back from CMA Fest! I’m so excited for these ones! I saw Clare Bowen when she was in town last year and she blew me away. And O’Shea are an Aussie duo who I just adore – I was hoping they would be at CMA Fest but they’re not in the lineup. So this was a good alternative!

Anyway, now I’m rambling. I’m sure I’ll have a few updates to come before my trip, but until then, thanks for reading!

Peace!

Bel xo