Vienna & Podersdorf!

23/7/12

1757 (localtime)

Vienna, Austria

Written on a bus from Vienna to Prague

I was honestly a little sceptical about Vienna, being a city and all! But it hasn’t disappointed at all. On my first night I was planning on meeting Alex Syess, who is a windsurfer that I met in Austria. Unfortunately Alex was off to Mauritius in 2 days so he had to get ready and packed so I didn’t get to see all that much of him! But what we did manage to do was go out of drinks with his mates at a local place! It was awesome, drinking wine-spritizers all night! Went straight to my head!

For the next day (Saturday) I was going to catch up with Flo at a Red Bull beach hockey event on the river Danub. I met Flo down in Worthersee when I competed in the Gravity Games, so when he found out that I was in Vienna he invited me to this event.

It was absolutely mental, I play hockey in Australia but the Austrians are crazy! There are absolutely no rules at all. No Mouth Guards, No Pads, No Shoes, No Rules… sounds like a great mix!

That night, I had a few beers with Flo, and then crashed on his floor for the night! Perfect!

The next day I was planning on catching up with Mitch, (another windsurfer that I met in Dahab) so we could head to a Big Water Ramp Event! It was amazing, these kids were sending them selves down on sleds and doing double backflips! It was carnage!

After the big ramp, they organised a Slackline battle! It was amusing! After all the events we headed back to one of Mitch’s mates, Rusty and had an amazing BBQ! I loved it! All the guys and girls are awesome, super friendly and always wanting to speak English!

The next day was a Sunday, and rumour has it that there was wind forecasted on Podersdorf Lake. The home of the Austrian PWA event! I was super psyched to check it out and go windsurfing for the first time in 3 months! I knew that id be rusty but I was really excited.

I was fortunate enough to borrow Tom’s custom freestyle board that he built himself. So rigged up his kit and went sailing.

I didn’t do so bad considering! Throwing down flakas and forwards on kit that I had never used before, it wasn’t that bad!

But after 2.5 hours I was knackered! My hands were so red and sore, and my muscles were aching from all the crashes! But it was definitely worth it. Eventually Tom arrived down to the beach, so I gave his kit back and let him go for a sail. In the mean time, I taught Tom’s girlfriend Eva how to beach start and water-start! It was great to do a bit of teaching again, and she really appreciated it.

That night we again, went back to Rusty’s house and cooked some hamburgers on the Weber and for desert had chocolate banana’s that Tom cooked up! It was a great bit of feed!

My plan was for the next day (Monday 23^rd) to head to Prague first thing in the morning, so I got up super early from Mitch’s house and headed down to the bus station, only to be told that there were no more seats!

I was kinda bummed out, as the next available bus wasn’t until 6pm! But not to worry, I headed into Vienna city, and had a hour sleep in the park, and then just cruised around the city the whole day. It was really nice checking out all the beautiful buildings that Vienna has to offer. I even went to a museum. Honestly it wasn’t that bad, it was the Natural History Museum and I found it really interesting. Lots of stuff on Dinosaurs and Evolution it was pretty awesome.

Eventually the time ticked on by, and 6pm started to creep up, so I jumped on the metro and headed on to the bus station to catch my bus to Prague! Funnily enough, I have met another Aussie guy on the bus, so we are hanging out telling stories, its pretty sweet!

Next Stop PRAHA!

Peace guys!

Figjam OUT!

The lovely chapel!

and all of a sudden a massive thunderstorm hits! SO MUCH RAIN!

The Rathaus!

a beautiful sky, wonky horizon!

This is the red bull beach hockey tournament 

one of the many parks! I had a nap here in the sun, it was perfect!

I think... this is the Art Museum, the Natural History Museum look exactly the same!

Everyone likes a good dino!

Podersdorf, Austria

Mitch throwin down a flaka!

Cana-Brava Style!

Eva almost planing!

Podersdorf!

THE END!

Multilingual Milan!

25/6/12

1924 (local time)

Milan, Italy (written in Florence)

It’s been go, go go for the past week! The weather in Italy is HOT! Super hot, we are talking 28 – 33 degrees! Feels pretty good compared to Melbourne which has 10 degrees at the moment…

Ok, so I arrive to Milan via Bus from Zurich! The bus as a whole was a bit of a nightmare! It arrived late, and it wasn’t the most comfortable journey, but that’s buses for you I suppose.

I eventually arrived and I met Silvia at the bus station on the 18^th of June in her little VW Golf GTI. She then showed me the way that Italians drive… In a word, Sketchy!

I’m not one that drives all that dangerously, I find no real need for it. Well, the Italians don’t think like this. Everyone on the road, speeds, changes lanes about a dozen times in the space of a kilometre! Its pretty mental, not as bad as the Egyptians though!

I met Silva out in Dahab, Egypt herself and her friends came out on holiday to work on their windsurfing skills, and since they love a drink and I do also, we got along quite well.

So I kept in touch with her, and when I let her know that I was coming to Milan she was more than happy to let me stay for a few nights as I explored her city, and maybe even do some windsurfing if there was some wind.

As soon as we got in, I freshened up had a shower and then we went to Irene’s lovely flat which is just outside of Milan. Irene was one of the girls that was windsurfing, and now has her own windsurfing equipment! We had an amazing dinner, the girls certainly know how to cook! and then headed out for some beers, what a perfect way to start my trip in Italy.

The next day involved A LOT of walking. I explored the city, I went to a pretty cheesy natural history museum which had dinosaurs bones and dodgy looking stuffed animals behind glass. It was a bit of laugh. After chuckling through the museum, I wandered on down to check out the Duomo, which is Milan’s landmark and the WORLDS biggest Gothic Cathedral.

Its pretty amazing with its 3400 statues, 135 Spires and 155 Gargoyles, I payed my 7 Euros, and headed up to the top. It was an amazing view, even though I was sweating profusely it was beautiful.

Afterwards I walked through the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele and saw a pair of Bull’s Nuts (Balls, Testical’s) that are part of the beautiful tiled floor, where tourists spin on it 3 times for good luck. I didn’t bother.

I then wandered through the city to visit the old castle, and then a beautiful Arch that’s looks similar to the Arc De Triomphe in France.

After this mammoth day of walking, I headed back to Silvia’s where I had to get dressed looking ‘nice’ as we were going to a going away party for one of Silva’s friends.

All though I felt completely underdressed, it was fantastic meeting all these peoples and laughing at the ones that looked completely ridiculous with Kashmir scarfs tied around their neck in 30 degrees heat!

I’m normally not one that feels self conscious, and I will generally wear anything, but  some of the Italian guys have this attitude that you don’t feel all that welcome. Obviously there are some absolute legends, that are completely the opposite… Just my views… don’t have a go!

I woke to a sore head, but managed to get out of the flat at a reasonable time, Day 3 was going to be about checking out Museums. I went down to the ‘Science and Technology’ Which was similar to Science Works in Melbourne, I wasn’t such a huge fan.

Afterwards, I checked out a museum talking about the walls that surrounded Milan…

I’m pretty over museums now.

The plan for Thursday was to hit the lake and maybe even get some windsurfing in with Irene! Unfortunately the wind never prevailed, but I did manage to get out and do some light wind freestyle!  The only thing that sucked, is that I got a text off Irene the next day, saying that it was absolutely howling… bugger, we only missed the wind by 1 day! Welcome to windsurfing!

That night, we hung out with more of Silvia’s friends! We were fortunate to see Francesca, who was another one of the girls we met out in Dahab. We had probably the greatest BBQ in her beautiful flat, with great music and great company! It was a great night.

My last day (which was a Friday) I found out Tim (the turbo) Williams was in Milan. Tim is one of my hockey mates from back in Melbourne and to catch up with him after not seeing him for like 3 years was awesome! We picked things up where we left off!

I quickly showed Tim around the city, had some proper Italian Pizza with Silvia which was potentially the greatest (and biggest) pizza I ever had.

That night was spent at a Chicken and Chips restaurant, where they only served you Chicken and Chips, weird I know… I spose you had to be there…

After the Chicken and Chips, we all engaged in some Karoke… I think we were the only ones that spoke English. I’m not to sure if the Italians were that impressed that we were rockin’ out to Bohemian Rhapsody!

PHEW! And that finally concludes my amazing trip in Milan!

A massive thankyou goes to Silvia for taking care of me in Milan! And of course I cant forget Irene and Francesca for everything! You were all fantastic!

Next up is Florence! BE PREPARED!

Ciao!... 'thats what they say'

Note- We dont actually call Tim, Tim The Turbo Williams... but it sounds amusing!

The sketchy Museum... 

The lovely streets of Milan!

You can see the big cathedral in the background!

There he is! The Duomo!

Tourist.

All the little ants!

all the many towers!

Pretty epic stuff!

more ants!

The Fountain!

PHOTO BOMB!

The beautiful parks outside the castle!

the Arc de Triomph!

Here we have Lake Como! So beautiful!

Bit of lightwind windsurfing!

Amazing Cloud formations!

Marko and Irene!

THE END!

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