Step Up To The Plate Berlin!

Berlin

Right, so we cruised down the Autobahn at first just at a measly 140km/h in Max’s BMW M5… for the guys that don’t know what an Autobahn is, it’s a basically a big highway/motorway where there really isn’t a speed limit. Anyway, so at 140 things were going quickly, but after some peer pressure we forced Max up to 240km/h! Jesus, now that was fast. We were going past cars like they weren’t moving! It was unbelievable!

I have never been that fast in my life! It was defiantly a rush!

Eventually we made it to Berlin, and we paid our money to Max and we set on our way. It took me a while to figure out the metro here in Berlin. It is quite tricky, but I managed!

Once I found my hostel , I chilled out for about an hour. Got Bored, grabbed my skateboard and headed to the Berlin Wall or East Wall. Took some nice photos!

Once I explored the entire wall, I kept walking for a couple of minutes and came across this cool reggae camp. On entrance there was like a bunch of dudes playing 3 v 3 basketball, then there was this nice looking mini half pipe!

The music was chilled, the people were fine. I just session’d this ramp for 2 hours just practicing! And it payed off, I landed my first rock-to-fakie! Which I was stoked about! I then managed a Axel Stall to Rock-to-fakie! Once I did that, I had a beer and then went back to my hostel and chilled out!

As tomorrow was going to be a lot of walking!...

I set my alarm for 8:30am but didn’t leave until 12. I slept in, and then just minced around and organised my trip to Munich!

In my trip around Berlin, I visited…

·         Brandenburg Gate

·         Reichstag

·         Walked down the Unter den Linden, and checked out all the different German Car Dealerships.

·         Visited the tallest building in Germany the Berliner Fernsehturm aka the TV Tower.

·         The Museum Square.

I have to say this even though Berlin is a very beautiful city with apparently a great Nightlife, I didn’t really connect with it. I’m sure you all know what that feeling is like. For me it just felt like another city, it’s kinda sucks when you feel like this, because I have heard so many great stories about the place… Maybe it just wasn’t for me… Till next time ey!

Along the Berlin Wall, these little cars were everywhere, kinda cool i thought!

Going for a skate at the Berlin wall!

Loving the Art in this photo! So many patterns!

Deutschland 

Reichstag!

Branderburg Tor

Pretty beautiful, but so much construction going on!

Bugatti Veyron

This was a building in the Museum square

Hope you enjoyed the photos! NEXT UP MUNICH!

Bremen - Hamburg with LISA!

6-6-12

1937 (local time)

Berlin, Germany

-Writing about Bremen :)

HELLLLLLOOOOOO, HOW AARRREEE YOUUUUUUU!!!!

What you have just read is German. Yup, ive been in Germany for like 1 week, and I already feel like I’m fluent!

Right, so I am writing this in my Hostel in Berlin, I’m fairly bored. The hostel im staying at is lovely, super clean but as far as the  ‘fun’ factor goes… its lacking. But that doesn’t bother me all that much, I’ve had some great fun in the last week, so it was going to be hard to keep the epic run going.

So let’s bring it back about till about the 2^nd. I eventually stumbled into Bremen.  After a stupid amount of hours on buses and trains I got there.

I was greeted by Lisa, who I met out in Dahab doing her PADI Open Advanced Course. Since I was coming to Germany for my travels Lisa said she would show me around her city. So of course I took her up on her offer, but the first thing she wanted to do on my arrival was to consume some beers and then hit the town. I wasn’t complaining! I met a tonne of her mates, who are a bit strange, not in a bad way, just ....strange :)

The next day was a bit slow, as we both had sore heads, but we dragged ourselves into town had a glass of wine and watch a lovely cover band in the city centre of Bremen, it was a pity that the weather wasn’t great but just the atmosphere of a nice glass of wine and some live music made it a fantastic evening to a hard first day!

Lisa promised me that we were going to head over to Hamburg, so we caught a train that took us directly to Hamburg! It was great, apart from Lisa having absolutely no orientation skills we had a great time just wandering around the city. 

We eventually made our way to St. Michaelis Chuch in Hamburg! I was 100% against it, but Lisa insisted we climb ‘walk’ to the top. I don’t know how many steps it was… but it was enough to definitely get the legs burning. The photos we got from the top are pretty awesome!

Unfortunately that was my last day with Lisa as she had to start her studies for her Lawyer exams, and I had to keep cookin’.

Lisa showed me this great website where you can basically hitch-hike to anywhere around Europe. You type in where you are, and where you want to go… and BAM! Sometimes up to 20 people pop up on your screen telling you how many places are available, their name and sometimes even what car they are driving.

You can save so much money do this its epic! I’ve saved a fortune (and now I sound like a car salesman)

Trip to Berlin – Munich via Train =                             99Euros.

Trip to Berlin – Munich via Car Pooling =                30 Euros.

I asked very nicely for Lisa to call up a guy called Max that was driving a (new) BMW M5 to take me from Bremen to Berlin…

After a bit of hassle we had it sorted… and that brings us too the next story – Berlin!

THANKS AGAIN LISA! SUPERSTAR

Enjoy the photos! NEXT UP! BERLIN!

A beautiful windfarm on the way to Bremen!

Awesome live act from Bremen!

Town hall (Rathaus) in Bremen 

The view of the top of the tower!

Classic Flack!

Amsterdam - Coffee Shops, Sex Museums and Bikes!

2/6/12

1942 (local time)

Leer (Ostfriesl) Bus Station #Friggin’ Cold

How badly can one man stack his connections that he has turned a 5 hour train ride into a 9 hour and 5 different stop-over’s using both Train’s and Buses. Yep, I can!

A hung over Steve got on the bus from Amsterdam, got mega confused about where I was, so got off a stop to early leaving him stranded in some random city trying to pick up the pieces from there.

Never mind though, let’s not take away from the most amazing time I had in Amsterdam.

I was greeted at the Amsterdam Central bus-station by Arrianne, she was pretty easy to spot with her platinum blonde hair, and I’m pretty sure I was just as easy to find as I feel as if my backpack is crushing my entire spine.

I took a tram back to her flat whilst she peddled her old sketchy push bike with no breaks and still managed to beat the tram back.

We went out for beers as soon as we got in, and I could see that I was going to enjoy my time here! The canals that run through the city make it look beautiful at night that no lens would be able to capture.

It was bizarre, everywhere I went on first impressions I felt intimated, not because I felt any anger upon me, but everyone is just really really tall. I don’t claim to be a short guy, I’m hitting a vertical peak at about 178cm, whilst every male (and female) is 6ft and beyond!

Anyway, so Arrianne felt obliged to take me around the city and do at least some of the touristy stuff, so I hired a red bike for the day and we set off. Riding past Anne Franks house was pretty cool, didn’t go in because there was a queue that went almost went around the entire block. So I snapped a quick photo, and we set back off again.

-Warning- 

If you don’t like the idea of your son/friend/grandson/cousin/nephew engaging in illegal drugs then skip the next paragraph.

Next up was a Coffee shop, we found a little laneway that had a cosy Coffee shop and got comfy and baked. I’ve done some smoking in Egypt, but the stuff there does not even come close to the strength of the stuff in Amsterdam.

I got pretty wrecked, but once I pulled myself together we got back on our bikes and headed down to the Sex Museum.

So by the time we got to the Museum we were still pretty baked, and for anyone that has tried Marijuana you know about the different stages you go through with the drug. Fortunately by the time we got to the Sex Museum, we both had the giggles. The things they have at this Museum was borderline cringe-worthy but was definitely a great laugh. After getting lost, we finally saw daylight and went on another bike ride.

If you have never been to Amsterdam, you would have heard that they just ride their bikes everywhere. When I heard this I was like, that’s cool, few bikes on the road… no dramas. But, when you get there… everyone is on a bike. Kids, Adults, Fat People etc, and if you can’t ride a bike there are people you can pay to ride you around… So for the heads up, before you cross the road… look both way for bikes!

When we started our tour, I asked Arrianne if she has ever crashed…
“No Steve, I never crash” she replied.

Just as she said this, a old dude rides straight into the back of her… I was amused by the old guy certainly wasn’t.

Then, only last night as we were riding Arrianne’s bike to the next pub she got shouted at by another Lady in her mid-50’s because apparently Arrianne accidently kicked her side bag as she hopped onto the bike. So in the period of 2 days, Arrianne went from having a clean sheet, to causing 2 accidents… Good Work!

Right, back to the tour after visiting the Sex Museum we cruised around checking out all different parts of the city: Red Light District, a house where squatters took ownership of a house.

It was the nights that I enjoyed the most, we stayed out of the touristy bars, so I got a real feel of Amsterdam culture. There is defiantly a divide between people though, like in sports you have Windsurfers v. Kitesurfers, Skateboarders v. Rollerbladers/BMX’s, Snowboarding v. Skiers. In Amsterdam you have the Non-Collared v. Collared bars. (I’m referring to guy’s shirts.)

Had some great nights out, meeting loads of different people and potentially ruining any chances of them coming to Australia J.

Anyway, my fingers feel as if they are about to freeze off so I will sign off here.

Take care and remember let the force be with you!

Cheers Skin-Up-Ski & Dirk Diggler! Xx

Arrianne hangin out in front of Anne Franks house!

Anne Franks

Nice photo of the house's 'on' the river!

Just come out of the coffee shop!

This is cool... These houses were taken over by squatters! 

Lovin' the art work!

Our go at an 'arty' photo of all the bikes! The red one is mine!

This is a cool looking village inside Amsterdam! You wouldnt even know its there! Women hid there during WW2.

Me and Arrianne Riding through a cool looking park!

Nice looking building, potentially the town hall?!

I AM AMSTERDAM

The End of Dahab! The Beginning of the Mega Trip!

13/5/12

1815 (local time)

Dahab, Egypt.

The countdown has definitely begun for my time to leave Dahab. At the moment, I have been here since May/June 2011 and although I have had A LOT of fun. It is my time to leave.

Yes, ill be leaving here on May the 17^th (not long now) where I will head back to London for a couple of weeks, then start my trip back to Australia… all overland.

What’s been happening I hear you ask?

Same old same old really! Lizzie and Luke went to Australia and whilst they were away Colin and myself worked for Club Dahab over the winter. It was good, not much wind but still loads of fun. Since there was no wind, I wish finishing work with loads of energy so I found myself going to the gym quite a bit which was good to use up all that energy I had accumulated from just sitting on a beach all day drinking plenty of water and protein shakes?...

Windsurfing – yeah its been fun, but at the moment I am completely over sailing on flat water. I’ve learnt loads of new tricks that I can’t wait to try them in the waves, but I’m sick of trying them on the flat. It will be good to sail some new locations.

The most exciting thing that has been happening so far has been the band. Percy Moonshine have been rocking out in Dahab! Just last Friday we did a gig at Club Dahab, we rocked pretty hard. We went on late so we had all had a few to drink, and typically the more alcohol consumed means that your performance gets worse, and this was exactly the fact for our Friday night. Myself and James (drummer) forgot how to play most of the songs… But that didn’t stop us, we rocked hard.

Our last gig was held again at the Acacia Hotel (Sam’s Bar – Guitarist) and even though it wasn’t a packed crowd it was a bunch of fun and its something I will miss the most.

If you did miss the gigs don’t worry, because we have a ton of photos and even some video that we took during the Dahab Festival. So stay tuned.

So currently I’m hanging out in London staying with Lizzie and Louise in their beautiful flat in SW London, again a massive thanks for the girls for letting me stay, eat, drink relax… practically treating their home as my home! And it wasn’t just this time, but for the last 2 years where I treated Lizzie’s house am my base! I’m sure when I leave she will still receive bank statements from me… at least she will remember me.

Although I’m having a great time in London, its bloody expensive! But if you start worrying about how much coin your spending it will just bum you out, so you just need to limit yourself.

Ok, so I’m in the midst of planning my trip and its getting exciting: Amsterdam, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Austria… just to name a few.

My number one problem I have right now is, Russian Visa! It take about 2 weeks to get, and I don’t know where I will be for 2 weeks for me to get it sorted! But there is no point about worrying about it now, lets get it sorted closer to when the time comes.

So last night (29/5) was my send off ‘do’, and myself and the Kings went massive on my last night we all got tickets and went to see old 2000’s hip hop heavy metal rockers, Limp Bizkit. If you have no idea who these guys are, please do yourself a favour and check them out, cue Rollin’.

It was chaos last night, I’ve never been to a gig where I have stepped outside with wrinkled fingers (like being in the water to long) Brixton Academy was hotter than the sun last night! It was Sweaty, It was Loud! But we rocked hard!

Right, signing off now… next up Amsterdam – With Arianne PWA superstar! CANT WAIT!

Much love! And ‘skin-up-ski’ to everyone!

Xx Steve

Slap of da Bass!!!

Keaney On The Mic! KILLIN IN THE NAME OF!