I'm in London!

Been crashing at friend Dave's the last few nights, but after 2 weeks of top deck tour I've just been out of it. Sleeping and washing. He's got stuff on this weekend so staying with my other friend Arpi for the next few days. I'm waiting for her to finish errands while in coffee shop so seemed like a good time to
Blog.

Doing this on iPhone so apologize in advance for bad spelling and grammar, the keyboard is not easy to use.

So start of top deck, silly travel agent told me Friday 5pm
to meet group at hotel in Paris. One of Tristans friend organized a carshare to Paris for me, as this would cost €30 instead of €80 on train (train takes 2.5 hours, driving at least 4).

So after week of lazing around at Tristan's walk to station. After a while guy hasn't shown up, so we text him. Still no sign, so
Tristan calls him, turns out pick up is at 1 not 11. So we wait.

1:20 we call him again. Car trouble, won't be there till 3! Screw that, run inside and paid the cash for train. Can see why they can get away charging €80. Train was full standing room only.

Get to Paris, start walking to hotel using google maps. But since data cost so much had to use cached map which worked pretty well. After 20 mins walking was still fairly far away but saw a metro stop so thought I'd try that. After little help from info desk finally got a ticket that let me in, and managed to get off at correct station. Then walked to where google maps said the hotel was.

But it wasn't there! Walked up an down but couldn't find it and it seemed a dodgy neighbourhood. Finally saw a reputable looking hotel or office something. Went in and asked guy at desk if he spoke English (only French I know). He said no and it's like arghhhhh. Start to leave, but then he says something and manages to say something like what need? I said name of hotel and he's managed to do quite good actions with his French that I took to mean two more blocks down and on the left. Thanked him, followed the direction, and voilà! Found it!

About 6:20pm, so only 80 mins late.

Walked in dodgy looking hotel and asked man at desk if he spoke English. He shook his head, but then asked "tour group?" I said yes! He handed me a piece of paper tour leader had left.

"hi Nathan it's Michelle your top deck tour leader. Sorry you didn't make it to Paris in time to join us. We're headed to Switzerland where we'll be staying two nights. The full list of places we're staying is on the back of this sheet. Give me a call on ... when you get this."

Crap! What has stupid travel agent done! I've just spent €80 to get to Paris where no one speaks English I don't know anyone and there's no tour here! No idea how I'd get to little Swiss village!

Having freak out. Tried to use payphone to make call, but couldn't figure how to dial number. Then logged onto net to get travel insurance details. Got number (freecall worldwide) but the payphone wouldn't let me make call. Eventually figured out how to call Michelle's mobile on the payphone with last of my coins. Managed to leave message;

"Hi it's Nathan here I've just gotten to the hotel I'm France and gotten your note. Could you please get back to me on my mobile the number is..."

Call expired right then arghhhhh!

Then tried asking at desk if I could use their phone to call the free travel insurance number. They said no, it's not local number. Really didn't seem to care or want to help at all. Really not fond of French so far.

Went back to desk to ask again, another guy that could speak more English was there tried asking if I could call. He said no and I kept asking and he asked why I neede to call. I said I'd missed my group!

He said no you haven't, they're still at the hotel.

Huh?

They're still staying here. There's an itinerary on the wall by lift.

Woot! Checked itinerary, they were due to be at Eifel tower. Calmed down, remembered how to dial international on mobile called Michelle and managed to get directions to meet them :)

So the mix up? Travel agent so useless they'd given none of my details to top deck either. Because of the Iceland volcano ash, a lot of plane services had been suspended. When I didn't rock up the day before at 5, Michelle assumes I had been flying in and flight was cancelled. Since flights weren't expected to be running for at least several days, Michelle wrote the letter thinking I wouldn't get it until they'd left. The guy at desk didn't read English so didn't know what note said. Eep!

Was a half hour of very much stress, but was able to leave luggage at hotel, catch metro (2 changes) to eifel tower and finally found the group! A very happy moment and wave of relief!

Not my last drama on trip, but definitely most stressful! More stories to come!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Tooting Broadway,Wandsworth,United Kingdom

Snowboming - Being there

So a post dedicated just to the snowbombing now, you can skip the story of how we got there hehe.

You rock up to snowbombing, they give you a wrist band that is impossible to get off without destroying (they put a metal ring on the band and then use a pinch tool a few times to clamp it together and hold the band in place). The idea is that there are a whole lot of venues at night that have different snowbombing exclusive events you need the wrist band to get into.

One of the biggest venues was the racket club, which was just a huge shed converted to a venue by the looks (think sheds small towns use for when the show comes to town). It had a main stage for the big acts, and then around the back a smaller area called 'Narnia', where smaller bands could play. So once inside you could check out two seperate shows going on.

In theory, very awesome venue, but DAMN it was hot in there. After dancing around to a few songs had to walk outside in just my t-shirt for 5 mins to try and cool down. No seats either, which made it a bit excrutiating after a week in snowboard boots.

The main meeting place for snowbombing was the Strass Hotel. This place was where you first checked in to get your tickets for wrist bands, lift passes etc... Also had free wifi so hung out there a bit (as it was the only place i could get internet on my phone). While having a beer there, also turned out to be the place where Dave was staying so got to catch up with him there as well.

So the next day finally got to go up to the snow! (no snow in the town). It's a bit like new zealand in that you don't stay in the snow, but instead of a half hour bus ride up the mountain, you get a gondola! Let me just say, not the thing for you if you are afraid of heights! The first day up my heart was in my throat for most of the trip up, took a lot of to not freak out! Was fine the rest of the week, just took me by surprise that first day. 15 people jammed into a tiny space the size of a lift, dangling many many meters up in the air. looking down at rocks. Quick google image search of "mayrhofen penkenbahn" will give you some idea.

Then you finally come over the final lip and instead of sheer cliff faces.... SNOW! EVERYWHERE! A proper normal looking snow resorted. such a relief :)

Oh... and that first day I was rushing to get up for a lesson. So we had to meet outside the Strass in morning. I got there.... then realised I'd forgotten my lesson ticket! nooo! asked an instructor if we had to have it, and he said yes we did. I ended up having to call a cab to rush me back to our flat, look for the ticket, then cab back to gondola and get up there before lesson started! So waited frantically for cab... got to room... looked around... and couldn't find it!

... then checked my snow pants, was still in pocket i'd put it in the day before. so i'd had it all along. gah!

Anyway, the lift got us up to snow, and got there in time for my lesson. Had a good group of about 5 or 6 people the first day. Really appreciate having lessons on a new mountain, as you get the feel for which lifts go where and the good runs to take. I'm not too good at reading ski maps. After a few days realised that every run has numbers and arrows constantly showing the way though, so settled in comfortably after a few days.

Tristan ended up choosing to have afternoon lessons, while i prefer morning lessons, so only got to catch him up for lunch each day. In the arvo though usually got to catch up with Dave and Sam and did some boarding with them. They liked to explore so got to see a lot of runs on the mountain I probably wouldn't have ventured to otherwise. Also means a few days we almost got stuck up the mountain hehe.

On the first day up, a cloud came down over the mountain in the afternoon. We'd done a couple of runs on the seven in the afternoon and it was a long windy but downhill trail with a few more open bits every so often. We'd done it a couple of times, but the third (or maybe even second) time we got on it, the cloud totally obscured your vision and couldn't see more than 5 meters in front of you. We tried to follow a group of skiers in red jackets down, but didn't manage to keep up. Eventually we made our way out to the bottom.

We'd tried to arrange to meet tristan at the bottom of the seven run (where a lot of other runs end up). We took a lot longer to get down then we thought, but finally got there. Tristan sms'd to say he was also running a bit late, so waited a while for him for about half an hour. My phone was out of service at this point, so dave tried calling him, but tristan said there was so little visibility he was just walking out. Eventually sent the other guys off, and i waited for Tristan.

Finally at about 10 to 5 (with only one gondola running down to another village), I figured I would just head down the mountain since I didn't want to get stuck up there, and if tristan was trying to contact me he wouldn't be able to while I didn't have reception. Catching gondola down, got reception back so sent a few texts to see if he was alright... but got no response. was worried he might have had an accident or something!

Got down to bottom, waiting for bus to take us back to pension... when tristan appears behind me! must have been a few gondolas back. Apparently my sms was ambigious, so instead of trying ot meet us at bottom of seven, he actually went up seven to try and meet us at top! then tried to come down the long long non visible run we'd done. On top of that, his phone had gone flat!

Ended up cabbing back, had missed last bus.

On Tuesday, caught up with Sam and Dave again in the arvo and we hit up some back country. It had been snowing since the day before (with all the cloud) so there was a lot of powder about if you could find where someone hadn't already wrecked it. Found some really good runs along the edges near the snow machines, since most people don't want to run into these was still pretty fresh, got to do some proper powder riding for first time ever!!!

We love the run so much, that by the time we tried to get back down the mountain, all the lifts were shut. We finally managed to get out to even ANOTHER gondola, that this time took us to a town up the range (instead of down the range like day before). Was so beautiful, as the gondola came down you could see if had been snowing on the village all day, covered in white. Hadn't seen anything like it before. Unfortunately didn't have camera handy, so can't share the image with you.

So Tristan failed to meet us up that day as well, but we all managed to get back to the Strass lobby for some beers afterwards.

Rest of the week lots of fun snowboarding, and a few parties, but not too many as pretty exhausted at end of the day, just want to sit down with a beer not jump around.

Oh, lessons were cool near end of week, got to try jumps, just going of lips along the edge of the seven. There were about 6 little jumps in a row you could do. Instructor tried to teach us grabs and 180s, but mostly was happy just to land straight. In one lesson though got a heap of air off a jump and instinctively got low on board... so low, my hand hit front of board. I had done my first ever grab! just pretend this is me: http://media.photobucket.com/image/snowboarding%20grab/mtbryanmtb/snowboarding.jpg

On the last day on the slopes, we had a lot of jagermeister left to use up, so took it up the mountain with me for some dutch courage. It had been so hot (18 degrees C) that had to keep stopping to take off jacket and gloves to cool off! so decided ice burns don't matter too much last day, so just wore my shirt (no jacket) and gloves. No helmet either, just goggles. Was such a fun day! Had a few slips but nothing bad enough to really hurt myself, and with a bit of jager under my belt got me to commit to the jumps a bit more. Managed to land 3 180s! never been able to do one of those off a jump before, let alone a lip! was quite happy about that :)

The last night was the Eristoff forest party, which was a huge party in this forest clearing. Was sooooo nice to be outside in the cool air instead of in a stuffy shed for a change. DJ Yoda played, followed by De La Soul, and then finally fatboy slim! the crowd really got into it it was all great! Especially good was that around the edge of the clearing was tables and chairs, so when not dancing actually got to sit down! such a wonderful thing after a week in boots.

That's the bullet points of the fun stuff I can remember :) If I ever see you down the pub I can give you the LOOOOONG version hahaha. Oh well hopefully enough info here to prompt my own memory in the future which is the main reason to write this all down someone in the first place :)

Snowboming - Getting there

So back from a week of lots of snowboarding, some partying, and practically no internet!

Wish I'd had access more often, as I could have written stuff down before forgetting, but such is life! So the recap below:

Had a very long train ride from Kaiserslautern to Munich Airport, about 5 hours in total I think. We had to leave Tristans at 6am to walk there (in the dark), me lugging snowboard bag crammed with all gear + clothes for the week.

Bit of dilemna once getting to Munich, as this was the first time I tried to use the data roaming on my phone, only to discover it didn't work! Quite frustrating as I needed to call commonwealth bank to inform them that someone hadn't stolen my credit cards and taken off overseas. After a bit of freakin out, found a net place, where I could log on and get the phone number of comm bank I needed. Then found a payphone and finally manage to ring them! the phone call bit was easy, and whilst only one paragraph of (probably boring) text, that was me freaking out for a good hour at the airport!

Anyway, managed to hear an announcement that told us to go to info desk C (thankfully, since once at munich airport, had no idea where to get the transfer bus from). Turned out we were like the first ones to rock up (mayhem at heathrow for people ACTUALLY flying to munich), so got our gear on the bus and chilled with a beer. Managed to do some last minute important things, like getting sunscreen and Jagermeister (only 10 euros for 700ml bottle - that's like $15AUD! in Aus cheapest i've seen it is $20 at duty free).

Oh, and in Germany, you're allowed to drink in public! awesome! so the bus was loaded up with cold beers for 1.50 euro, so having to wait at bus for half an hour wasn't too bad since we could buy drinks from bus driver and sit in the sun enjoying a cold brew in the warm sunshine.

The bus was a little packed, mostly English people. Was a very pleasant ride along, we were able to buy beers for the ride along. Quite amusingly, Tristan was in agony after 30 minutes because he needed to go to the bathroom, and the bus ride was supposed to be over 2 hours.

Even more amusingly, after a while noticed people vanishing behind the stairs and realised that there was a toilet on the bus. hehe. Was quite well hidden but was an interesting few minutes there while he fretted uncomfortably.

Eventually got dropped off at our accommodation just out of town. Nice littel B&B (called Pension in German), but no one there really spoke English. Eventually an old lady came in from hanging clothes to talk to us, who then got another little old lady who knew some English, and we were able to get the room.

So an interesting thing in Austria that everyone should be aware of! In Austria, if you ask for a room with a twin-bed, you get an "Austrian Twin". This means you get the base of a double bed, with two single mattresses, a single sheet over them, then two seperate duvets (dooners). Cosy. Not sure how comfy I would have been if Tristan hadn't come along and I'd ended up having to share that bed with a guy you didn't know! Apparently that happened to one of the other guys, he rocked up late after partying, went to go to bed, and found a guy in his room on what appeared to be the only bed. Imagine there was a lot of confused people that first night. Had to share double beds previously on snow trips (rooms are often quite tight), so wasn't too weird, but yeah, not what I was expecting.

I'm in Germany!

It's been 2 years, but I'm finally back in Germany :)

Mate Tristan moved over here last year for a job in the German town of Kaiserslautern. So that is my current HQ. It's actually 3am here now, I guess the jetlag is still adjusting.

So got in Thursday morning about 10:30 and got to lug 3 bags to Tristans place. Thankfully backpack + 2 bags on rollers so wasn't all that bad. It's so freaking cold here all the time! Loved it at the time, since 20 minutes lugging heavy stuff wasn't too exhausting. I nearly died having to move those bags 5 mins to train in brisbane when I was leaving!

Don't think it's really kicked in that i'm overseas yet. Staying at tristans awesome little unit, feels just like visiting tristan back in aus. Recovering from last night/jet lag, we just watched tv shows all day (thankfully brought my hard drive with many tv shows, and tristans got a large collection as well). Cosy set up could easily do this for a few more days, but feels a bit cheaty to do in germany what i could do in aus hehe. Is cool just chillin with tristan though so it's justified.

Some things about Germany:
1. Their Keyboards are laid out really weird. Because of umlauts, they need extra keys to change the letters, so not only is there shift, ctrl, alt, but AltGr. But fare more annoyingly, they readjust the other key positions based on what they use more. So y and z on the keyboard are swapped! All the other symbols like + and ' are all in different spots to, so touch typing goes out the window a bit as you get to go back to the two finger search and click.

Interestingly, tristan's laptop is german, but he's remapped the keys to the typicaly US keyboard layout (which we use in aus). Which means I can touch type again, but really, really have to make sure i don't look at the keys while typing or it just gets way too confusing!

2. Cold. All. The. Time. I like the cold, but after a whole day of it, really thinking I should have brought a jacket. I brought a couple of jumpers, but the issue is that everywhere is heated in doors, but outside obviously not. means when you're moving between places you want to quickly throw on jacket, and then remove it the moment you get indoors. Jumpers are easy to get on, but quite difficult to get back off without lifting your shirt as well. Not really my desire to flash my belly at every german I meet.

3. German's eat some really disgusting food. Like every country has those things they eat that everyone else finds a bit disgusting. Well last time in Germany staying at nice hotels and travelling with two girls, we mostly ate at respectable places. Thursday night, I got forced upon me what I guess is the German equivalent of a kebab on a night out. We went to a supermarket and got the most disgusting looking giant sausage of processed meat and other things on bread. I still feel ill just thinking about it. Can't find a picture of it on the net, probably a good thing though. It looked the size of a loaf of bread, round and bright pink, with lots of little things in it, and oozing out an oily watery substance. Looks like an infested severed leg or something urggh... next thing I know someone had thrown it on some bread and given it to me, tried my best to eat it but urgh... got half way through and then donated the rest of the meat to tristan. They called it's pizza sausage i think.

4. Beer is cheap! In supermarket, you can buy six packs of beer for 3.50 euro. At current exchange rate that's like $5!

So Tristan has a German friend here who took us around a bit yesterday. Got to try some German beer, went to a few supermarkets to stock up on our trip. We ended up going to a wine tasting from this wine seller shop he is a member of. Was pretty cool, the shop is set up for permanent tastings, there are glasses hanging on the wall, and you could just help yourself to any opened bottle along the racks. They also had featured wines for the tasting, which were some lovely european whites. The theme was wines that go well with Asparagus.

After the wines, we left with some other german guys i think tristan's friend was friends with. We went to the scary food place (urghh) and dropped stuff at Tristan's before going to a german brauhaus (brewhouse) to try there tasty beers. Everyone seems to speak quite good english, so 6 of us were having a good time with beers and chatting, enjoying the nuances of the different languages. Tristan's mate explained a few of the German things that were said, but was interesting how little sayings jut don't translate. All in all a good time.

Oh, so I was pretty jet lagged at this point, I had jumped on a plane 2:30pm on the Wednesday in Aus, and it's roughly 24 hours of travelling before I finally got to tristan's. So at this point had been without proper sleep for 30 hours. Was not sure I could stay awake much longer. But a few beers and merry conversation propped me up and didn't notice it (about 9pm at this time).

Anyway, Tristan's friend was going to another friend's birthday party, and invited us along. Normally would hate going to a party where i don't know anyone, but everyone else was keen so we went along.

IT WAS AWESOME!!!

little flat, but they had bath full of beers available, food, some nice champagne, and like 3 different rooms (kitchen, hall, lounge) to mingle between, though all were quite packed. Everyone else was german, but they could all speak English so had some really interesting conversations with different people. The guys birthday was actually the next day, so we had to wait till midnight to wish him happy birthday. Apparently it's considered bad luck to wish someone happy birthday before their actual birthday!

Oh, and germans seem to LOVE ACDC. Is pretty cool to be Australian here hehe. We managed to high jack youtube and put some cat empire and hilltop hoods on for everyone too.

We managed to peel out around 4am, the party was still going but tristan wisely got us out of there. The next morning was quite painful for both of us, I think the worst was the memory of that sausage though. Just lay on couch all day watching tv shows hehe.

in 2.5 hours we should be on a train and headed to Australia for our Snowboarding adventure at "Snowbombing"!