Guinness, Guinness...and a Crepe

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Day 1- Georgia 2011
Location: Vancouver BC

Well guys the day is here, its been just over a month since we heard about this program and the day is here....we are going to Georgia!

Our trip starts out in Castlegar where after exchanging many goodbyes with family and friends we boarded our first flight (1 of...many!) to Vancouver. Arriving in Vancouver its raining beyond recognition and it was a hustle to get to the transport taking us to the accent in down the road without getting soaked to the bone!....did I mention it was raining? Im going on a bit of a tangent right now but if you know me than you already know that I like to eat...& if you dont know me, well; i like eating. Sitting on the relatively short flight from Castlegar to Vancouver my stomach is rolling around in my body just hating me for not feeding it. I NEED TO EAT! After checking into the Accent Inn (double bed btw!..& yes i pushed them together to make a MEGAbed), Me, Mike and Krys hopped on the Canada Line down too Yale-Town and went to one of Mikes friends restaurants in the heart of the city; Hapa Azakya. What a place!! Its this tapa style restaurant, high powered fusion food that was the BOMB! (insert explosion sounds). It was great and after we all ordered a couple different style dishes, we began to eat (and even delved into some local Ale...2 jugs to be exact).
It definatly is not hard to find something to do while in Vancouver, I do enjoy my time whenever I get to the city and I wont be scared to say that Vancouver might even be my favorite city to visit. Being friday night and full of energy we decided to leave Hapa, and cruise around the downtown core...too bad we didnt get far! After listening to mikes stories of touring the Guinness factory on his summer trip to Ireland, we walked right by an Irish pub with Guinness on tap...it just felt like the right thing to do, so we walked in and paid a thirsty tribute to mikes long gone trip to Ireland, the guinness factory and cheersed to our new adventure to Georgia...turns out it was the right thing to do...

Mike being the Ironman and me being the downhill cyclist, many of our conversations are on fitness or something related to high octane sports and/or adrenaline. Our plan right from the start was to bring our running shoes to Georgia so we could wake up and go for early morning runs around Tsibilisi. Right beside our hotel was the Steve Nash Sports centre and after checking in to our hotel we took a look at the sports centre and there it was posted; SPIN CLASS 8:30AM. After a nod from Mike it was settled, Spin class at 830 it is!! (we even convinced Krys to come!!...he killed it!!). The race was on!! we arrived in the morning half hour ahead of schedule to warm up and see what the centre had to offer (it was huge!), after getting in a good warm up we started the class. Mike and I took the bikes up front and Krys took the bike in the row behind ours, for the next hour it was a continuous battle between Mike and I too see who was going faster, who was putting out more Watts, and how heavy the tention was.....we where in a class of our own!! Here is a sample of our conversation:

Mike: Trent! Whats your tension set at??
Trent: 14...and you?
Mike:.....15 (as he says it he clicks the tension to add a couple more)
Trent😞sees mike click the tension) Reply with...16!
Mike: 17
Trent:18

It was a never ending battle!! and in the end we where both knackered! Krys was stoked to complete his first spin class.
After ending the gym sesh with a 1 mile run we went to IHOP to get some pancakes and other breakfast fixes!!
Eating at IHOP was a rewarding meal after the morning exercise, and during our meal we got to meet the other half of the group; Andrea and Blake!

----Im getting cut short right now as we are boarding our flight! (vancouver to London---London to Baku Azerbaijan---- Baku to Georgia!)

Its been an amazing couple days so far and I will have more to post in the next couple days!! Hope all is well and stay tuned!

Das ve' Danya!

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