Well my friends I have officially made it to the land down under, the home of some of the slowest computer terminals on Earth, or at least this one. Anyway after nearly 24 hours on planes and in airports between Denver and Sydney I have made it. Last night, which lasted about 18 hours and made me lose my March 30th forever, was possibly some of the worst sleep of my life. Initially I was pleased when we left over an hour late out of Denver because Matt had informed me that if this were to happen DirecTV would be on the house and by gosh he was correct. So I made it to LAX fine and then waited there after rechecking all my luggage for a couple hours before boarding the biggest plane I have ever seen. See, it was a 747, and for those who don't know planes I think it means that it actually holds 747 people. Anyway I ended up having 2 seats in which to try and situate myself to no avail. However I watched that movie where J Lo tries to teach that older guy how to dance - quite heartwarming. On the next flight from Nadi to Sydney I would see a new Hillary Duff movie where she is at a music camp and falls for this Brit and they make great music together. In Nadi I met Marie from Norway and she seemed pleasant enough but her English wasn't up to par and my Nordic tongue isn't either. Well she is going to work at a vineyard in South Australia and has been traveling for 4 months thus far. Europeans always have a lot of time to spare it seems. So, those two flights sucked but I made it and got 3 meals out of the deal (2 breakfasts - Hell Yes). I made it into Sydney and since I brought a tent I had to go through manual customs inspection since they suspected dirt on my tent stakes. Luckily I didn't have any since I had lost the originals at last year's Bonnaroo.
Outside the airport I try to find the KST shuttle to take me to the Wake Up Sydney hostel and found it but was scared when the driver and money collector started yelling quite a bit too much I thought. I met this dude Francis from Switzerland walking over to the van and we walked past and by the time we got back the whole thing was full so we had to sit in front with a bit of a shady driver. Gold chains, leather jacket type. Anyway he dropped me at the hostel and it was A$34 a night and the place where Francis was only a couple blocks away and $10 less. Needless to say I went there and I walk into my four person room to find it a complete mess. I throw my pack up there and head out to Bondi with me new mate. We maneuver the train and bus system of Sydney and leave a clouded downtown to find a bright sunny Bondi. This place is spectacular although slightly smaller than expected. We walk around to find a bite to eat, have a Victoria Bitter, and toast to our travels in Australia. There are about one hundred surfers in the water and I think that this might not be the place to show off my skills. I decide to stay and read awhile while Francis catches a ride back since he is leaving at 8 tonight for Byron Bay. He has been in Vancouver learning English for only 6 months and it is very good. He understood everything I said and shared in some of my humor that rarely amuses anyone. Needless to say they were pitty laughs.
I make it back downtown as lost as ever but finally find the Nomad hostel. I go upstairs to find my room open but some Brits playing pool right outside the door. I ask if they are my roomies and they respond by asking how much I drink. Not if, but how much. Should be a fun night.
BTW - They have like 3 Jackson 5 songs on repeat in here and I am about to go insane and they drive on the left. This is the worst because it means they walk on the left and ride the escalator on the left. Down with the British Empire.
Thursday, March 31, 2005
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
The Snowy White Peaks - Day 2
HAPPY EASTER!!!
Yippee Easter is here but, alas, no Easter bunny has visited room 507 at the Holiday Inn Frisco. Oh well maybe next year. I think Steve had to hunt easter eggs all by himself this year back in GA because my older bro is In Chapel Hill. Bummer but it was surely fun. On the way to the slopes this morning we finally had blue skies and a the sun shining as brightly as ever. It really seems brighter up here. I guess we are about 10,000 feet closer but should that really matter? Anyway, it was a beautiful day and aside from having my whole body sorer than it has ever been before i was really looking forward to getting out there and shredding up that mountain. I had a pretty cool board: Burton Cruzer 160 and i knew that it had potential. I saw the other dudes out on the half pipe and ramps and figured i would do that today too since i relearned so easily yesterday. Matt and i made a pact to do at least one ramp today no matter what happened. So we are on the way and hear there is an Easter egg hunt on Peak 8. We are very excited by this news but never make it Peak 8. We first hit Peak 7, Jen's favorite, and it was very nice. We rode the Monte Cristo run quite a few times and since there were ups and downs it was a good place for a ramp. We both got about 2-3 inches and looked very uncooridnated doing it. Further down the mountain i took a nasty spill that left me with a sore head and not knowing where i was for a moment. I did however have the wherewithall to yell to Skittles to grab my sunglasses. Those things are priceless on the mountain. The rest of the day went about the same: me impressing nearly everyone on the mountain with my fluid skills except for some 8 year olds who happened to be above me on the lift when i ate it pretty hard. They yelled and laughed. I really wanted to find those punks. At about 1:30 we called it a day since none of us could feel our legs. It was a good run and i certainly look forward to hitting the slopes again soon.
Back in Denver Plum and I vowed to watch the entire first season of Arrested Development but after a few beers and a big bowl of Tortellini I was out like a switch. I don't think i have exerted that much energy in years. I also don't understand how standing on a board can make you so damn tired. Laws of nature i suppose.
Monday was a very restful day after running some errands to Target, Kinko's (a nightmare as always), EMS so i could get a new sock hat since i had lost mine, and grabbing some fish tacos at Wahoo's we got back to Arrested Development. We watched all afternoon until deciding it was too nice out went for a beer where the top dogs hang out - Park Tavern. The weather out here is amazing one day and snowy and freezing the next. A bit unstable but the nice days are worth it. After that we went and gorged ourselves on meat at a Brazilian steakhouse. Couldn't move for the next half hour but that just meant more Arrested Development.
In the famous words of Mitch: "Denver, the sunshine state, gorgeous."
Yippee Easter is here but, alas, no Easter bunny has visited room 507 at the Holiday Inn Frisco. Oh well maybe next year. I think Steve had to hunt easter eggs all by himself this year back in GA because my older bro is In Chapel Hill. Bummer but it was surely fun. On the way to the slopes this morning we finally had blue skies and a the sun shining as brightly as ever. It really seems brighter up here. I guess we are about 10,000 feet closer but should that really matter? Anyway, it was a beautiful day and aside from having my whole body sorer than it has ever been before i was really looking forward to getting out there and shredding up that mountain. I had a pretty cool board: Burton Cruzer 160 and i knew that it had potential. I saw the other dudes out on the half pipe and ramps and figured i would do that today too since i relearned so easily yesterday. Matt and i made a pact to do at least one ramp today no matter what happened. So we are on the way and hear there is an Easter egg hunt on Peak 8. We are very excited by this news but never make it Peak 8. We first hit Peak 7, Jen's favorite, and it was very nice. We rode the Monte Cristo run quite a few times and since there were ups and downs it was a good place for a ramp. We both got about 2-3 inches and looked very uncooridnated doing it. Further down the mountain i took a nasty spill that left me with a sore head and not knowing where i was for a moment. I did however have the wherewithall to yell to Skittles to grab my sunglasses. Those things are priceless on the mountain. The rest of the day went about the same: me impressing nearly everyone on the mountain with my fluid skills except for some 8 year olds who happened to be above me on the lift when i ate it pretty hard. They yelled and laughed. I really wanted to find those punks. At about 1:30 we called it a day since none of us could feel our legs. It was a good run and i certainly look forward to hitting the slopes again soon.
Back in Denver Plum and I vowed to watch the entire first season of Arrested Development but after a few beers and a big bowl of Tortellini I was out like a switch. I don't think i have exerted that much energy in years. I also don't understand how standing on a board can make you so damn tired. Laws of nature i suppose.
Monday was a very restful day after running some errands to Target, Kinko's (a nightmare as always), EMS so i could get a new sock hat since i had lost mine, and grabbing some fish tacos at Wahoo's we got back to Arrested Development. We watched all afternoon until deciding it was too nice out went for a beer where the top dogs hang out - Park Tavern. The weather out here is amazing one day and snowy and freezing the next. A bit unstable but the nice days are worth it. After that we went and gorged ourselves on meat at a Brazilian steakhouse. Couldn't move for the next half hour but that just meant more Arrested Development.
In the famous words of Mitch: "Denver, the sunshine state, gorgeous."
The Snowy White Peaks - Day 1
Last weekend was one of the most painful (physically) in recent memory. I am still In Colorado visiting Professor Plum and since we saw the Rocky Mountains in the distance we decided to go skiing. Well, skiing for him, but since I am a bit more radical I went for the snowboard. Let me tell you a little secret: I haven't been snowboarding in about three years.
So we wake up Saturday morning before the rooster and start packing up our stuff to hit the slopes. We had decided on Breckenridge since that's where Skittles and his roomie Jen had passes. The lift tickets weren't too much for me though since i had the foresight to visit the Safeway before we left. While at Safeway the customer service counter closed and we were told to get into lane six to talk to the assistant manager on duty. So, we do and it turns out that Michael was very supportive of our cause. At first we thought he might give us grief but we could tell that he really didn't want to be there and so he promptly closed his register to get the lift tickets. These are the wonderful type of people that you meet here in the midwest. Anyway, we wake up at 6:30 and get on the road with snow coming down. About 30 minutes into the drive we encounter traffic which reminded me of GA 400 on any weekday morning and made me miss my job for about one half of a second. So we finally get there and rent equipment and i decided to buy mittens since i had no hand coverings. This was a very interesting decision for me since i hadn't had mittens since i was three years old. It turns out that although you lose almost all hand functionality they are about twice as warm.
Finally on the slopes i try to remember how to actually ride this board strapped to my feet down a few thousand feet of ice and snow. Not at all easy but it comes back pretty quickly - like riding a bike i tell myself. Making it down the mountain at a snail's pace i only manage to fall about 18 times. Not bad in my book. We repeat this process about 15 times throughout the day and finally decide that since i can't feel any part of my body, namely butt and legs, that it is time to call it a day. We were skiing blues all day and American was probably our favorite run with Frosty's Freeway a close second. Major injury of the day - slightly sprained wrist.
Back at the hotel that we chose blindly off of Hotwire for a mere $63 ended up being a Holiday Inn with Holidome and boy did we need that hot tub. It turned out that I hadn't packed my bathing suit or any shorts so i had to go in with only my boxers. Normally this wouldn't be a problem but on this day I had worn my only pair of white boxers. Everyone knows what white underwear means in the water. So yeah i had to get in and decided to stay in until nobody was left around. That ended up taking longer than expected so i might have frightened a few people, who knows. That night we had a lovely dinner in quaint Breckinridge at Breckenridge Brewery home of the 2001 Great American Beer Fest pale ale winner. Yeah the beer was ok. Oh yeah did i mention the amazing tournament games that we watched before we went. Both Saturday regional finals went into OT. I was really pulling for WV and Pittsnogle but they didn't pull it out. That night after we gorged on nachos and burgers we went home and were all asleep by 10:30 agreeing to get up at 8:30 to hit the slopes again. This was one of the longest nights of my life. Matt and I were forced to share a bed and two guys well over six feet tall do not fit well in a double bed. I woke up every 30 minutes and turned over a minimum of 100 times trying to stay on my side of the bed. Not to mention my only pair of boxers were still wet so i had to sleep in jeans. Beyond that, while getting out of the pool my wrist gave out and i bashed my shin on the side of the pool. This caused much bleeding both on a pool towel, my jeans, and the sheets. The maids had to be curious.
So we wake up Saturday morning before the rooster and start packing up our stuff to hit the slopes. We had decided on Breckenridge since that's where Skittles and his roomie Jen had passes. The lift tickets weren't too much for me though since i had the foresight to visit the Safeway before we left. While at Safeway the customer service counter closed and we were told to get into lane six to talk to the assistant manager on duty. So, we do and it turns out that Michael was very supportive of our cause. At first we thought he might give us grief but we could tell that he really didn't want to be there and so he promptly closed his register to get the lift tickets. These are the wonderful type of people that you meet here in the midwest. Anyway, we wake up at 6:30 and get on the road with snow coming down. About 30 minutes into the drive we encounter traffic which reminded me of GA 400 on any weekday morning and made me miss my job for about one half of a second. So we finally get there and rent equipment and i decided to buy mittens since i had no hand coverings. This was a very interesting decision for me since i hadn't had mittens since i was three years old. It turns out that although you lose almost all hand functionality they are about twice as warm.
Finally on the slopes i try to remember how to actually ride this board strapped to my feet down a few thousand feet of ice and snow. Not at all easy but it comes back pretty quickly - like riding a bike i tell myself. Making it down the mountain at a snail's pace i only manage to fall about 18 times. Not bad in my book. We repeat this process about 15 times throughout the day and finally decide that since i can't feel any part of my body, namely butt and legs, that it is time to call it a day. We were skiing blues all day and American was probably our favorite run with Frosty's Freeway a close second. Major injury of the day - slightly sprained wrist.
Back at the hotel that we chose blindly off of Hotwire for a mere $63 ended up being a Holiday Inn with Holidome and boy did we need that hot tub. It turned out that I hadn't packed my bathing suit or any shorts so i had to go in with only my boxers. Normally this wouldn't be a problem but on this day I had worn my only pair of white boxers. Everyone knows what white underwear means in the water. So yeah i had to get in and decided to stay in until nobody was left around. That ended up taking longer than expected so i might have frightened a few people, who knows. That night we had a lovely dinner in quaint Breckinridge at Breckenridge Brewery home of the 2001 Great American Beer Fest pale ale winner. Yeah the beer was ok. Oh yeah did i mention the amazing tournament games that we watched before we went. Both Saturday regional finals went into OT. I was really pulling for WV and Pittsnogle but they didn't pull it out. That night after we gorged on nachos and burgers we went home and were all asleep by 10:30 agreeing to get up at 8:30 to hit the slopes again. This was one of the longest nights of my life. Matt and I were forced to share a bed and two guys well over six feet tall do not fit well in a double bed. I woke up every 30 minutes and turned over a minimum of 100 times trying to stay on my side of the bed. Not to mention my only pair of boxers were still wet so i had to sleep in jeans. Beyond that, while getting out of the pool my wrist gave out and i bashed my shin on the side of the pool. This caused much bleeding both on a pool towel, my jeans, and the sheets. The maids had to be curious.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
