Chris' Eurotrip 2011

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Wow, 2.5 years without leaving the country, it doesn't seem that long. A member from Diamond Valley reminded me about this blog, I completely forgot about it, I may use it if I have time when I'm abroad.

Anyway 2 years of uni (Physical Education @ Victoria University) done and I'm off again thanks to uni!! They're giving me $4000 to boot!! How could I refuse?!?

I'm heading to the German Sports University in Cologne for a semester. Subjects I'll be doing are: soccer, football/cricket (weekend course), Mental coaching, Teaching Values through Sport (Football 4 Peace project based in Israel), International School Project (teaching sports in schools from my culture)

I'll get credits for 4 subjects and have 3 subjects to complete my degree when I get back.

So I'm flying out from Melbourne to Kuala Lumpur to visit relatives for 5 days, then I fly to Kota Kinabalu where I was in 2005 but this trip is to play an ultimate frisbee* hat tournament^. It's the 2nd annual Borneo Headhunters Hat. I will be the first 'non-Asian' participant from outside of Asia LMAO. From there I fly back to KL for 3 days.

Then I'm flying to Phnom Penh, Cambodia for another hat tournament^...

Then I fly back to KL for 2 days before flying out to London on March 9th. I'm flying with Air Asia from Melb - London (Stansted) for $447 inc. 20kg bag, insurance and a meal from KL-London. Specials for both legs! Bargain!!

I have 10 days in London, touristy things planned for London along with trips to Bath, Stonehenge and Portsmouth.

A train to Paris for 10 days touristy stuff here.

Then train to Cologne March 30th. Orientation days are 31st March & 1st April. Classes start on the 4th but at the moment I only have classes Tues-Thurs (I don't know when one of my classes is - here's hoping it's also on a Tues/Wed/Thur so I can have a 4 day weekend to travel more!!)

My accommodation is paid for until Sep 30th so I'll travel more once the semester is finished (July) and spend the summer in Europe instead of coming back to winter and 2nd semester...

Planning to play a lot of ultimate (have tourneys picked out in various countries throughout the semester, 2 will be in Cologne one of which the club Fruhesport (translates to early sport) I will play with will organise. The other will be with team of expats with English as their mother tongue, hence the team name Mother Tongue!

Yes I'm addicted to ultimate frisbee* - check out this video to see how it is played - it's the final from World Games bw USA & Japan. USA v Aus is available but is shown from ground level.

Wide World Of Sports segment on Ultimate here

* Ultimate Frisbee - explained in 10 simple rules
^ Hat tournament - players put themselves in skill categories - beginner/intermediate/advanced/worlds - teams are drawn out of a hat, ie. 2 beginners, 5 intermediates, 3 advanced, 1 worlds player.
Other tournaments are team based - open (men), women, mixed, junior, masters, grandmasters

I'm also planning to go to the French Open and Wimbledon to complete my grand slam of attending tennis tournaments after going to the US Open Quarter Finals in 2007 and going to the Australian Open countless times.

You can keep track of me here You don't need to be a member or have a FB account to view it but if you want to post/comment then you do!

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