A week with the kayak kids

Europe
July 7th 2008

Published: July 7th 2008

Two bonafide members of the aussie kayak team

So last Friday night I got on a train to Poland, sharing a cabin with two stoned yanks 2 fat polish ladies and one massively fat and very loud polish bloke. Arriving in Poznan on Saturday morning I droped my stuff off at the hostel and went to the kayaking centre, which turned out to be a bit further than expected. The weather turned pretty average just as I arrived and I spent a couple of hours freezing my balls off before baker came and kindly lent me his AIS jacket, which also turned out to be a free ticket in to the athletes area. I was now an official kayaking groupie.

The racing in Poznan went well, and Sunday night after the racing was over turned out to be a lot of fun. After a fines session where the whole team get pretty belted off vodka shots, we went into the old town for a few more drinks. Somehow baker got himself inside a 560 horse power Lamborghini and we met the director of the Poznan Grand Turismo who invited us to the invite only event the next day.
Monday we were off to Berlin and stopped in at

Baker

the GT on the way. There were 60 of the most amazing cars, one cost 800 000 pounds and it was owned by the Stig. After drooling over the cars it was time to head off to Berlin. Getting out of Poznan was a battle through traffic and with a few of the passengers feeling a bit rough from the night before it was only a matter of time before someone spewed. Baker won with a massive power spew on the side of the road in Poland, best thing was there were 2 seven year old girls playing in there yard watching shocked as Reece emptied his stomach. In Berlin we stayed in the old East German AIS equivalent kayaking facility, a 7 story monstrosity on the river. After a really nice and pretty cheap dinner we went in to the city to have a look at the centre of town.

Tuesday morning I was not feeling well. I had felt a bit off the night before but thought nothing of it, all Monday night I had some nasty stomach cramps and by Tuesday morning it was my turn to talk to god on the big white telephone. Turns

Matt

Model Shot

out the dinner from the night before didn’t agree with me one little bit. I felt a fair bit better after the spew and we went into town and hired bikes for the day. Turns out I couldn’t shake the illness and somewhere near checkpoint Charlie I started to feel terrible again. So I left the others and slept under a tree by the Reichstag. I spent a good few hours there before meeting the others for dinner where all I could get down was a milkshake, then we went back and saw the Reichstag at night, which was awesome. We hung out in town for a bit longer and saw the holocaust memorial I still wasn’t feeling super well but we went to a bar by the river which was really cool before dropping our bikes back and heading home for the night.

This is getting too long so here’s the summary of the rest of the week

Wednesday we drove to Prague, saw the old town, the palace and the bridge. Tried to go out but everywhere was dead so went home to sleep.

Thursday drove from Prague to Feldkirch, through the mountains. Really cool

Baker claims the 200 k2 "B" Final

scenic drive. Remembered I love the mountains way more than the flat bits of Europe. Planned on camping in the mountains but it was pissing down so we stayed in a 700 year old hostel that used to be a leper colony.

Friday went to the milka factory, then drove back to Frankfurt via an outlet centre where I picked up a couple of suits. Luckily caught the last train to Holland and arrived in Utrecht at 2am where we partied with Renate and Melissa till about 730.

All in all it was a pretty intense but amazing week.

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