Plains, Trains, & Skateboard Wheels

I woke up two days ago and I wasn't sure if I was going to be spending the night in Prague again until half way through my breakfast sit down. Breakfast is all you can eat from 8:30-12 so I sit down with my laptizle and eat over some emails and travel planning.___________________________________________________________________-- Check out was at 12 so i checked out and then sat in the hotel making some final plans for the day. I booked a ticket for 5pm to Barcelona and then got some directions to the airport from the front desk before heading out. Travel was easy and I'm doing a lot less getting lost these days. I don't think it's me, so I'm not going to credit myself with maturity. I would say it has more to do with the city maps. _________________________________________________________________________________ Not much to say about this trip except I'm here now in Barcelona. _______________________________________________________________________________-- I chatted and computered with a guy from france til 3am in the hostel and the next morning I moved to one closer to the city centre. It's right across the street from this place at the end of AV Parel ell that I've seen in every single skateboard video that has come out since 2004. I went downstairs to look at a map and then head out, and that's where I met these three Polish girls. They were going out to the beach and some other sights for the day so I tagged along. We had a good time, but the water was about as warm as Northern Bay Sands and the air was around 18 degrees, so there was no swimming. Actually there was, but night by us. There were a few crazies out in the water, and as I watched two young boys playing in the waves I thought about how all my younger cousins would have braved these waters if they were given the opportunity to swim in March. ___________________________________________________________________________________ We walked through Olympic grounds and a nice big park as well on our way back to the hostel. The plan was to go out to a traditional Spanish restaurant but the place was packed so we settled for a sports restaurant instead. __________________________________________________________________________________ It was a good first day in Barcelona, but the girls left today so I have to make new friends now. We had fun but my body needed some rest today after all the walking I've been doing. I think the 40 minute walk with 35 lbs of luggage on my back might have contributed to my exhaustion. Maybe I'll go for a skate across the street, or I could chat up the cute Japanese girl sitting behind me.............

czech inn

Czech Inn is dope. This hostel is so nice that even my mother could stay here! No, seriously, I’ll pop up some pics when I remember to bring my sd card down. Free internet, good foods in the morning, and it feels good inside. _______________________________________________________________________ Prague is a very nice city. It’s so old and rustic like. I walked through town today and everything is super old. I went to a castle that I’m going back to tomorrow, and it was built in 900+AD. The prison was interesting, and this street called, Golden Road was a preserved little rickety sting of shops with thatch roof in places and a foreign feel. From the castle walkway you can see a huge chunk of sky line with lots of detailed towering bits of weathered fashion protruding here and there. I walked through the old city square, and got a good feel for where things are in town. I like it here. _________________________________________________________________________ I guess my blog wouldn’t be complete without a hectic little story, so here it is. __________________________________________________________________________ I was at the train station in Innsbruck yesterday buying a ticket to Prague, and when I used my debit card it was not accepted by the machine. I used my visa card instead, then proceeded to call my bank about this predicament. They weren’t up yet in London town so I waited until they opened and then called again. Now, I had told them before I left for the trip where I was going to be when, so there should not have been any issue, but nonetheless there was. So I told them about my further travel plans and the HSBC rep told me they would place a travel notification on my card. All was well, I took my train, had a good conversation with a stranger, and then made my way through Prague. The bank machine at the train station was out of money so I found another one in the town. I put my card in, entered, account number, requested money, and waited. The machine informed me that it would not be able to process my request at this time. I considered asking why not, and when might be a better time for my to try again, but alas, these machines tend to be as knowledgeable as the 24 hour customer service representatives of _________________ (Insert your poison of choice here). I tried a few more times, then called HSBC again to see what was what. I still have some decent credit on my cell phone, but it doesn’t last so long when you’re over seas. I get through and they place the travel marker on my phone again, though I’m not sure why it wasn’t there in the first place. They list the other countries I’ll be traveling to as well, then tell me to wait 15 minutes. I wait, and I try try try, but to no avail. The false hope is sucked out of me once again as the machine continuously spits my card back out. I hate this. I’m not having a good time. Je suis tres mal. _______________________________________________________________________ I call them back and they now place a 1 hour marker on my card which will allow me to do whatever I want in the next hour. Waiting another 15 minutes, I finally put my card back in and receive my money. No, no I don’t. I receive another rejection, and my cell phone is losing credit. I call them back and this call takes a lot longer because I have to answer several security questions. When mister man finally gets back to me he says it should be working and suggests I try another machine. I had thought of this, but my card was fine because this machine had recognized my hard chip, pin etc. I had also watched another person come in and get money out no problem. So I left and found another machine, which gave me money. I was content with that and went on to czech Inn. Fin. That was about an hour of unrest, but I’m up and at them and things are well and good right now. Fin

Innsbruck

Today is march 20th, and I’m on my way to Prague in the Czech Republic. This feels like the first time I am liberated to write about the travel. I could have taken some time to myself, but there really was no need and I always felt more interested in doing whatever was happening at the time. Sure I took some time to read or play video games, but there’s something about this time that feels freeing to my mind. The landscape is gorgeous out here. Passing through small towns with traditional churches on hills, fields and stuckow houses, each with a nature scene mural painted on the side. Austria was fun, but the next few days I hope to connect with God on a personal and intimate level. When leaving London I met up with Joel and Steven at the bus stop, then proceeded to Gatwick Airport where we checked in, passed through security, put our footwear through a second security check, and then drank water & ate chocolate. We chatted on the flight with one another, talking about dreams, goals and fun ideas. I read a bit of a book I leant from Aunt Mary-Anne, entitled, Three Cups of Tea. It wasn’t hard to find the hostel, and we settled in well before going out for a walk around the town and a taste of some turkish eats which were recommended. I was an early night. Tuesday the 10th we got up at 7 and enjoyed an all you can eat breakfast. 6 different kinds of cereal, two kinds of bread, some cheeses and processed ham-ish. Also some juice and apples. From there we took the 8:30 ski bus that picked us up outside the hostel and made our way to Axum Litzum. We rented gear and enojyed the day. There was a good mix of terain. There was some steep lumpy stuff through the trees with a few drops and lots of fresh powder The park was fun and there were lots of groomed and ungroomed runs of various difficulties. Visibility was minimal at the top for some of the days, but we also had some really beautiful bright sunny days where you could see the whole town in the valley among many mountains. We all suffered minor injuries, but nothing that kept us off the slopes, just a few tumbles or scrapes. I guess I’ll have to put some of my pictures up, but the guys have the best ones with their fancy dangled cameras. In all we road 3 different mountains, one of which was a glacier. They all had their selling points but we spent the most time on Axum Litzum, which I have not spelled correctly. We road 4 days, took one day off and then road two more days. The plan was to take one day off and then go back for two more days, but the conditions were getting icy and we were not as driven as we were from the start. Instead, we took a day trip to a couple small towns not too fare from Innsbruck. There we did some hiking, passing a bunch of elderly folk, all decked out in their poles, ice grips and back packs. I had some old skate shoes and a skate board, but this only made the trip more interesting. The slopes we walked town were hard packed so we could slide down them on our feet. It was a beautiful day indeed. We ate pretty cheep. Breakfast was free, for lunch I packed almonds and craisens, and for supper we ate microwave dinners, or eggs, or sandwiches and bread. Snacks were chocolate and pepperoni sticks. The spiced meet is good in these parts. The night we came back from the day trip the shops were closed so we splurged for some Burger King. I didn’t feel like holding back, so I got the triple paddy whopper meal. It was € 6.89, but I don’t think I care to convert that to Canadian dollars. We walked around Innsbruck a couple of days, and a few days ago we went to the Sauna. Well, we went for a swim and a Sauna, so we thought, but when we got in we couldn’t find the Sauna, so we asked one of the life guards who directed us toward a door upstairs. We tried it and found it to be locked, with no response from the other side. We then walked down and asked at the front desk, who sent the cleaning lady to take us back to the lifeguard. The Life guard told us we had to pay for the sauna at the front desk and that it was female only day. Well, I guess a few things were lost in translation. Steven didn’t have any trunks so he went home out of it, while Joel and I went for a swim and a few rides down the water slides. A couple days later we returned to the Sauna in hopes of it being mens day. It was not. It was mixed day, and not in the hermaphrodite sense of the word. We were the only young people there. By young I mean under 65. It might have been a bit awkward otherwise, but we adapted well as we took no interest in our surroundings. There were dry saunas and a wet sauna, along with hot and cold showers, as well as a cold pool for dunking in. There was also a pool cut in half with hot water on one side and cold on the other, only knee deep, meant for walking around in a circle. You could spread salt on yourself, but we didn’t know where to put it so we stayed away from that bit. There were also two bottles of oil, one citrus and the other yukaliptus, which both felt very nice on aching muscles, however, as my comrades found out, they did not feel so good when in contact with the nether region. The Sauna was a good idea, and that was about it for Innsbruck. It was a fun little trip no doubt, and I only expect to find more adventure along the way. The bulk of my expences have been spent. Everything from here on out can be minimal.

Back in London

SO I landed back in London after a long flight that really didn't seem that long. No conversations on eitherof my two flights, but \i had a good nap and watched parts of some movies.___________________________________________________________________ Yesterday I went to a skate park that's in Brixton, which is just down the road from where I'm staying. It was a cool bowl park, but I hadn't been on a skatebaord since November, and it was a brand new board so I wasn't exactly hot to trot, nor able to stay on my feet. It was fun none the less. Today I'm headed to ... Hamsted? Supposed to be a nice park ad twonish area their. might go through camdon market as well. I feel a little foolish about spending £6.75 on a bus ticket to the airport, when I could have taken the trin for £5, but I am meeting up with the guys to take the bus and for some reason I feel like the chances of the bus being out of operation or stuck are lower than that of a train. That's stupid sure. Whatever, I'm going and I may have waister £1.75 plus the extra pound or two it wioll take to get to the place I need to get to in or der to take the bus. That's the way she goes. I guess I'll make up for it bu eating almonds and craisens for a few meals on the trip.________________________________________________________________________________- Life is good, don't drop kick too many of your friends. David