Okay more bloggage...
blah blah I get to the place and dump off my shit. everyone was in the middle of Austrian night at the Youth Exchange. I wasn't expecting to be at the Exchange but it totally wound up being lots of fun. I did a Yoga workshop one day.
For the first two nights in Poland I was sharing a room with two Czech players whos names I forgot right away. They were nice.
The third night I got moved to a room of my own and I had it to myself for a night with the knowledge that the next day when everyone showed up for Euro's I would wind up with some random room mate.
The next day was the first real day of Euros. I met sooooo many people everyday that it's impossible to remember everyone.
That night back at the hostel at some point I came down from my room and there was a big crowd of people working on getting sorted out and put into rooms. I figured that one of these people would probably wind up being my new roomy. I ran into Lise just as she was in the midst of finding out that there wasn't room for her in the room she thought she'd be staying in and so she wound up getting put in with me! what luck!
I was so happy that I didn't just get some random European roomate but rather I got the coolest girl in Europe!
Our room was totally sweet. It was on the top floor at the very end of the hall and over the time there it totally became the party room! We only had one key so to make sure we could both get in at any time we hid the key in a sweet place. you had to climb up these metal rungs in the wall to where this roof hatch was to get the key. hehe, her and I got really good at descretely scampering up the ladder, snagging the key and then dropping to the floor all smooth like.
Heh, we both had several occasions where the hallway became clear just long enough to shoot up, get the key and drop back down just in time before someone came out into the hall and spotted us. That was one of my favourite exciting daily moments.
hahah also, anytime we left the room with a group of people one of us had to "forget something" and run back to the room. but really we were running back to put the key up in its hiding spot because we couldnt do it in front of the others or our secret would be blown!
Partying in our room with Matt Cross and Team Warsaw.
The view from our room one pretty night in Poland.
This is Cod doing his railing set.
Cod deserves a paragraph all to himself. He is one of the greatest characters I met. He hits such ridiculous tricks!!! I saw him hit DOUBLE ALPINE MAGELLAN!!! he named it Cross Matt for Matt Cross.
I also saw him do rooted frantic (fruity) legover. his toe to toe style is so incredible, he wasn't too clipper based to begin with and now that his ankle is injured his tendencies are even further exagerated. It's basically totally impossible to describe his character in words. He is really blunt alot of the time because his english is fairly limited, but I love his delivery. He's so ridiculous!
Here's a classic shot of Steve Goldberg, Ales "baggage trolley" Zelinka and Honza Weber.
I didn't wind up competing at Euro's. I had signed up to compete intermediate and then almost right away people started hasseling me saying I was sandbagging and whatnot. All that did was stress me out and make me not want to compete. I didn't have anything planned either so it just seemed like a dumb idea. The whole competition side of things was stressing me out and making an otherwise really fun event suddenly un-fun. So I bailed out and decided not to compete and instantly felt much better!
dum dee dum.. Euros ended.
I had to miss the final party because I had to catch a train to Warsaw where my flight to Copenhagen was leaving from at 6 AM. What a shitty piece of timing that was! I spent the 7 hour train ride getting kicked out of the empty first class cabins over and over until I eventually gave up and settled into a second class cabin.
I caught my flight and I fell asleep right as we took off and woke up when the wheels hit the runway upon landing, perfect.
I got to Copenhagen several hours before Matt and Lise were supposed to take off from Poland so I had lots of time to kill. I put my big bag in a locker at the train station and then went on a walking tour of Copenhagen on my own. I found my way to this big river and that sparked memories of a footbag video I had seen that was shot at this skatepark thing by the water. I started walking along the water and eventually saw off in the distance what looked like the 1/4 pipe I remembered from the video. I eagerly made my way over to it with the intent of playing some footbag there for a little while to kill time.
When I eventually got there I was super surprised to see Kim there playing footbag!!! He was pretty surprised to see me too! We wound up playing for a while and then we went swimming in the river in this cool swimming area they have set up. After our swim two more Copenshredders showed up and we played some more. They played host to me for a while and then we eventually parted ways. I met up with Matt and Lise in the main train station later and she took us to her place to get settled.
I guess I forgot to take any pictures of copenhagen because I have a grand total of zero pictures of denmark.
Oh well, the memories are still really vivid.
We drank Carlsbergs every night and smoked soooo much hash.
Lise was a really great host and she made our stay in Copenhagen real enjoyable.
Copen hagen is so interesting, I really want to go back as soon as possible. There are SO MANY FUCKING BIKES EVERYWHERE in Copenhagen!!!! Like.. I can't possibly stress this enough. there were more bikes than I could ever have imagined a place having. it was crazy! It's such a bike friendly city. There is a bike lane next to the road and there is always a stream of bikers zipping along it efficiently. It was a little rainy the whole time we were there, but not rainy enough to dampen our spirits, I still had a super swell time!
One night I went on a beer run to get us all stocked up and when I got back I discovered that the buzzer to the house didn't work and thus they had no idea that I was back and so they didn't know to let me in. Fortunately I had found a squash ball on my journey to the beer and this proved essential. It took me about 10-15 minutes of hurling the ball at the window (third storey!) to eventually clue them into the fact that I was trying to get their attention. But it worked!! eventually Lise came and checked to see what was making the noise and saw me downstairs and let me in!
The morning I had to catch my flight from Copenhagen to Helsinki I got on the totally wrong train and wound up allllllmost missing my flight, they actually held it for me and told me to run to the gate to get on!
I got into Helsinki and I would have had noooo idea what to do if it wasn't for Iain George who was there waiting for me. He had spent the last several hours mapping out all the important shit in Helsinki and he knew exactly how to get around which totally saved me. Thanks Iain.
I am getting tired of typing, here are some pictures:
This is myself and my good friend Batiste. I had so much fun hanging out with him, he's such a genuinely nice guy that thoroughly enjoys being happy and having fun. He and I invented a great game called Bounce Net which involves kicking my football wilson around on a Footbag Net court. It was very playable and very fun. I spent alot of my time with Batiste.. I miss him, he was one of the best friends I made. In this picture he and I tried to take a picture of ourselves but we didn't get in front of the camera in time.
Lise, Wilson and myself.
Wilson is such a slut, I had no idea he was cheating on me with Lise.
Wiktor after going dropless, it gave me goosebumps.
Jakob Wagner and me enjoying bread.
Jakob was one of my other favourites, he's so hilarious to be around.
Jakob hearing his "NEW HIGH SCOOOREEE!!!!!!"
Jon Schneider shredding with Benny Kelmann being a silly goof in the background.
Lasse Salmenhara's head and me.
Josh Benham and Moomi.
Alex Strassman 'enjoying' his Hesburger.
Ales "superman" Zelinka
Matt Cross, Me, Peter Irish, Vasek Klouda
This picture makes me feel so good. Matt would often break out his guitar and fill the air with his pretty notes and occasionally Batiste would accompany him on the guitar case.
happy memories.
I eventually met and befriended Vasek and I found out that he had seen my moshing video and then he tried (and succeeded at) the set! woo! VASEK FUCKING KLOUDA TRIED SOMETHING AFTER SEEING MEEEEEEE DO IT!!! fuck yeah!!!!!
Vasek is really nice.
RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrruuuussia!!
Aleksi busting a barfly like nothing. I asked him to do some barflies so I could get a picture of one and so he did like.. 800 or something. Aleksi is going to be one of the best for sure.
Tina celebrating Tuukka's first cupstack.
Team Japan and me.
The famous ball Wilson from the movie Castaway.
Matt Cross, ass stall.
Me jamming on the guitar at 7AM after a night of boozing in the park.
Peter Irish is the fucking MAN!!
I was really sad when I saw this picture.. it's me hugging Yves Kriel goodbye for the last time. I really adore Yves, we got along really well. I didn't know this picture was taken and I was really happy to see it.
I will put in more words later... I think you get the idea though.
