After a very bumpy flight, a little bit of sleep, one and half movies and lots of eating again on the flight from Singapore to Munich we arrived at 5.30am. Luckily all our bags and paddles turned up. It is my second time going overseas with out a kayak and it is so much easier not having to carry a kayak through customs. We had a bit of confusion with the rental car and didn't know whether they would be waiting for us so we looked at a few different places on the map we had of the airport of where they could be but didn't see anyone who looked like a peugeot car person, so we left a message on thier phone after a while he called me back and said he was on his way. We got picked up and taken to the car place where we picked up our new car a teepee partner peugeot it had only done 14km after the guy picked us up from the airport! I never thought i would be sitting in a car that brand new!
We then got some petrol and attempted to drive to Bratislava, you have to pay to use the toilet in the petrol station, and buy little stickers for your windscreen to drive through Austria then another one for slovakia! I was glad i wasn't driving, taking round abouts and intersections on the wrong side of the road takes a bit of getting used to, and it doesn't help that the car manual is in french. We took a few wrong turns but got there eventually after about 6 hours of driving. It took us a while to find a park and the ticket guy didn't speak english, not many people do around here. We then met the apartment guy who showed us around our new home for the next week.It is huge!! 3 bedrooms (5 beds) , kitchen, bathroom, ensuite, living room ginormous and really new so thats good, its right by the main road though so a bit noisy. I am now trying to stay awake until tonight to not get as jetlagged but im feeling pretty shattered so we'll see. Tomorrow we will drive to the course and watch Carl, Callum, Finn and Tommy i think race in the first Teen Cup so that will be good.
Friday, 29 July 2011
Thursday, 28 July 2011
Singapore!
My Europe trip has begun wahoo, we just arrived in Singapore but with only 4 hours stop over doesn't give you much time to do anything. It was a good flight i watched 5 movies and ate lots of aeroplane food so i was happy! I have had a quick look around the terminal we are on and even had a look at the butterfly garden in the airport. The next flight to Munich is in another hour so i won't be getting much sleep tonight. We then pick up a rental car in Munich at 5.30 am and drive about 6 hours to Bratislava where i was supposed to get my new kayak but they forgot to make it so i have to use a test boat until the Prague world cup. It is 30 degrees in singapore so a bit hotter than NZ.
Wednesday, 6 July 2011
The countdown has begun
I have finally made myself a blog! It's my last week of holidays before I return back to Uni, it has been good not having class to go to and assignments to do. But my hard work did pay off last semester and i got an A+ for each paper I did - stoked! I don't really know where the holidays have gone other than catching up with family, friends and training i haven't done much. The last week has been sad after finding out a friend Simon Davidson passed away kayaking and going to his funeral last saturday. I have been training a lot on the flat water, and the Kaituna finally lowered last week which was awesome. I did a river run with Bruce Webber last week on the upper Tarawera River, which is a really good beginner run, it was a beautiful section of the river and lots of fun. However I didn't really enjoy following Bruce boosting up the gravel road in the forest to the put in.
The slalom section on the Tarawera river is still high, which is the same as most of the rivers around here at the moment. I return to Uni next Monday but only have two and a half weeks before I fly out to Europe on the 28th July, it will be good to escape the cold New Zealand winter and have a few more people to train with. The plan is to fly into Munich, drive to Bratislava and pick up my boat (I can't wait), then we train for about a week in Bratislava, then drive to Prague and train for a week before World Cup 4 which is on the 12th ,13th and 14th of August. Then we go back to Bratislava to train for the World Champs which begin on the 7th September. We have a week after worlds in Munich before we fly home, then back to uni again for me. I am still studying full time even though i miss 5 weeks of uni, I will be doing work when i am over there and catching up when i am back. So thats the plan and the countdown has begun until I leave, only 21 days until I leave Auckland on Singapore airlines. Follow me on my blog to see how my Europe kayak slalom trip and racing goes.
The slalom section on the Tarawera river is still high, which is the same as most of the rivers around here at the moment. I return to Uni next Monday but only have two and a half weeks before I fly out to Europe on the 28th July, it will be good to escape the cold New Zealand winter and have a few more people to train with. The plan is to fly into Munich, drive to Bratislava and pick up my boat (I can't wait), then we train for about a week in Bratislava, then drive to Prague and train for a week before World Cup 4 which is on the 12th ,13th and 14th of August. Then we go back to Bratislava to train for the World Champs which begin on the 7th September. We have a week after worlds in Munich before we fly home, then back to uni again for me. I am still studying full time even though i miss 5 weeks of uni, I will be doing work when i am over there and catching up when i am back. So thats the plan and the countdown has begun until I leave, only 21 days until I leave Auckland on Singapore airlines. Follow me on my blog to see how my Europe kayak slalom trip and racing goes.
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