Getting from Canada to the UK with my bicycle was an easy and simple process, Airtransat the airline were friendly and provided me with smiles and even a bag to put my bicycle in.
Thanks RyanAir you are a fucking nightmare, notice I didn't censor the swear word and I'll continue not to throughout this rant. I showed up at the airport a good 3 hours before my departure which I thought would be adequate time to repackage my things, get my boarding pass, put my bicycle in oversize luggage go through security and board the plane. As I have done this many times before I was confident all would be well.
Approaching the check-in desk with my bicycle automatically I could tell the woman was annoyed that she had to deal with someone with oversized luggage. With a young plain face, unenthusiastic and clearly unhappy she wore fake contact lenses making her eyes blue, why you would do this I wouldn't have a fucking clue - a simple smile is all that is needed. Anyway she told me that I had to print off my boarding pass between 15 days and 4 hours before the flight, this was written in the documentation of the confirmation sent to me when I booked the flight. The fine for not having this during check-in is an extortionate £60, and for what, not having a piece of paper where we try so hard to recycle, where every other airline I have flown with has no need for just a passport and where I can legitimately say that I work so hard planting these trees that at some point gets turned into this for-spoken paper. Fuck!
Having paid the £60 at the other end of the airport I rushed to repack all my belongings and wrap up my bicycle so that I have it easy for the luggage handlers to get it aboard the aircraft.
Dismantling the bike wasn't a problem, just a lengthy process, with an hour before my flight I had everything again at the check-in with the same emotionless fake-eyed bitch where she told me my bags were overweight and she was closing checkin in 5 minutes frustrated I moved some of my belongings from my backpack to inside the plastic bag where my bicycle was. The girl rushed me to the oversized baggage area where 2 Indian guys who just looked retarded looked at my bicycle and said "no, it won't fit" regarding to my bike an the extralarge conveyer-belt. I said what do I do now and these fuckers just said "I don't know". I took a gander and saw that it could obviously fit and climbed up on the system and gently guided it through with no hiccups.
Now, I had only 40 minutes to run to the gate and through security. I shoved through the line of people at security apologizing constantly and managed to get through promptly. Running from here to the gate was ridiculous as you had to run through all the duty free shops in a circle, sweating exhausted and hurting I made it to the gate just in time.
Boarding the plane obviously pissed off they sat me down we took off. Telling the terribly dressed stewards and stewardess' that I was dying of thirst having run around the whole airport they had the nerve to charge me £3 for a small bottle of water, I refused to pay and asked for tap water - obviously a no-go, so I drank the water from the tap in the toilet.
I'm writing this aboard the plane thinking nothing else can go wrong... I'll have to wait and see. Also, Fuck-you Ryanair!
Ok, so arriving in Rygge airport about 80 south of Oslo I got my bicycle and it all seemed fine.
I placed it and my other bags onto a trolley and made my way to an open space in the airport to reassemble it and sort out my things to have even weight distribution throughout my pannier bags.
I even took a timelapse of the process that didn't come out all that well, but if I find the time to put it all together I'll post it up here.
Thinking all was well and I could make my way towards Oslo this evening I was struck with some issues with my bike, first the pin in my rear tire valve had been broken off, the rear rack was all bent out of place and my dynamo generator was ruined. Thanks Ryanair!
I had to spend the night at the airport be size it was too late to look for a bike shop in the area but thankfully there was free wifi to find a bike shop close to Oslo near a train station.
I waited out the evening chatting to the girls a the information booth and updated my blog from earlier in the year.
Tuesday, 4 September 2012
22/08/2012 - the worst airport experience of my life.
20/08/2012 to 21/08/2012 - Munich and London.
My flight back to London wasn't until the late afternoon so I had some time to kill in Munich, I decided to go on a walking tour that was recommended to me last night when I went out drinking with an Irish dude I met and two Israelis girls who I met at the festival.
Ozzy who was our guide was a gay, German, black man and by far and away the best tour guide I have ever had. Ozzy was informative, funny, direct and increadibly well spoken.
If anyone were to go to Munich and is looking for a tour, Ozzy would be the guy I would highly recommend. Everything I learnt about Germany history in school, with all the lessons and countless hours was presented with more depth with this 3.5 hour walking tour.
After the tour I rested back the hostel until I had to be my flight.
It was all very straight forward getting back to London although the plane arrived a tad bit late, and be because I was meeting Natalie at the cooks place I rushed it back into London on the very expensive £18 express train to Victoria. This is where I was told the circle tube line wasn't running so I took an alternative route to get to Notting hill gate, this didn't get me there all the way and I had to run from Kensington high street.
Finally meeting up with natalie drinking a few gin and juices we bounced around.
The following day I spent with Natalie wandering around shops and drinking coffee. It was good fun times.
I made my best efforts to prepare for my next and last flight to Norway tomorrow making my backpack into a pannier and sorting out packing some things.
SUMMERBREEZE Festival 15/08/2012 to 19/08/2012
I have been looking forward To this festival for some time now 5 of my currently favorite bands were playing and they did not disappoint although I must admit that the copious amount of alcohol that I consumed left gaps in my memory o he experience.
The first night was and always is at a festival quite a messy night with me running about chatting to everyone and having a very social time often loosing my voice. Fortunately I didn't and I was grateful.
One down side to the first night was that it did rain and the tent I was borrowing from Kya (Nash's friend Adam's girlfriend) wasn't at all resistant to water and the following morning I woke up in a puddle of water that was an inch deep also killing my camera and some other electronics of mine. This means no photos for my time at the festival. :(
Seeing a Swiss band named Eluveitie I experienced something at a metal festival that I had never attempted before and that is to crowd surf. I don't know why I hadn't perhaps the idea of loosing my camera or things in my pocket - so having not taken my camera to the stage area made me experience this surreal as my new found fun.
Throughout the festival I reckon I experienced the bands from above the hands of the screaming festival goers at least a dozen times but during the set of my favorite band, Dark Tranquillity I was thrown and landed straight on my ass in a gap in the crowd injuring my ass for the last 15 minutes of their set.
Hobbling around the festival grounds I managed to make it back to camp to drink the pain away and set off on a mission to meet people.
The group of five who I was camping with (Kya, Adam, Nash and Sarah) that I got to know quite well were well equipped for the festival with chairs, a stove and even a generator unfortunately not with a tarpaulins large enough to cover my tent when it rained, but oh well.
We adopted an American guy named Hal who joined us to wherever we went and was enjoyable company. He was out there by himself experiencing the German festival scene alone and we all got along fantastically.
Unfortunately no luck on the lady front for me this festival apart from a make out session with a petite German girl named Lala - I swear I'm not making this up - I would like to say she was cool but at 3am piss drunk I honestly don't remember anything about her. Ahh, festivals.
Another new thing for me that I have never done at a festival is wait in the long lines to get the autographs of band members at the signing booth, I got the signatures of all the band members of Be'Lakor, Dark Tranquillity and Insomnium, I was in awe meeting them all too, what a cool experience!
All in all this festival was just awesome and having changed my plans to a later date to cycle from Norway to Israel for this festival and to catch up with Nash was well worth it.
A lot of money was spent, alcohol drunk, cigarettes smoked, great people met and only one injury, Summerbreeze! pure awesomeness!
unfortunately because my camera died in puddle of water this is the only pic i was able to get fromm Nash’s facebook upload. Still i got to meet my idol, Mikael Stanne – lead singer from Dark tranquillity
14/08/2012
With not much sleep I had to get up early to get my bus to Cambridge to catch up with Monty who I snowboarded with back in France many years ago. We had a quick pint In town and headed for his place where he lived on the side of a small river, he had a sick place that he built with his own hands; including 2 river boats that he also built. After a few more drinks we went for a cruise down the river. It was good time catching with with him and like I did with Danny reminiscing over old times.
Monty took me to the airport and I caught my flight to Munich.
Arriving in Munich I had directions to meet up with Nash at one of his buddies places. Getting on the train towards the city center I chatted away to an American girl now living in Germany - a fun chat and got some advice with getting to the area I was going to stay.
Whilst waiting of a public bus I was approached by a beaut on a bicycle who informed me that the bus stop was not in Service - good thing she did because I can't speak (or read) a word of German.
Lucy told me that I could sit on the back of her bicycle and she would cycle me to where I wanted to go. Of course I agreed and we cycled together for many kilometers getting lost around the city. Asking for directions we met another random also on a bicycle who joined us for a drink at a gas station, the three of us sat there drinking away for a good two hours before I was taken home to Lucy's place where I spent the night.
13/08/2012
Last night when I left Natalie and Ben I asked Natalie to come around for lunch before she headed back to Leeds. She was happy enough to change her plans and get a later bus there.
Not that I was trying to impress her with the smorgasbord of food that I put together but I also wanted to treat the Cooks to a nice meal because I haven't had the chance to cook up a nice meal for them as gratitude for letting me stay with them.
natalie enjoyed it as did Ric, he just got back from Bloodstock Festival and hadn't eaten anything healthy in days.
After Lunch natalie and I went for a single drink at a pub down the road and later spent a couple of hours giggling in my room.
I saw her off at the tube station and headed out to Camden to see Fiona who I met down in South America. Fiona, I introduced her to the whole backpacking scene and showed her the ropes.
I met with her and her slightly odd acquaintance for a drink where I met a bunch of Germans and brits, we discussed the difference of attitude between these two countries and obviously I was on the German's side.
I got involved chatting away to Nadine who may host me when I cycle through the Black forest area in the south of Germany.
A little tipsy I made it back at a reasonable hour for enough rest before getting ready for my flight to Germany tomorrow.
12/08/2012
Because of Facebook I managed to get in contact with Jenny who is a cousin of mine that I haven't seen in almost 7 years.
She was working in London, volunteering at the Olympics.
There was only one occasion before today that I had seen and met Jenny, it was really fantastic catching up with her around the Olympic stadium, having a beer and chatting away, well, I was about my travels and adventures, and stories, and everything else In-between.
But Unfortunately I was only able to spend a few hours with her as she had a train back home to Nottingham.
Shortly after I managed with a bit of difficulty Getting a hold of her I finally got her in the end we (with her ex-boyfriend) which was a little strange as Natalie and I had a bit of a thing together in Nicaragua.
Natalie, Ben and myself walked around Hyde park where I was able to slip in a quick kiss before parting ways where I go on a bus back to Notting Hill gate where I was staying with the cooks.
11/08/2012
Danny, an old snowboarding buddy from when I was doing winter seasons in France wanted to catch up. I cycled in the mid afternoon to see him in the Islington area of London where he had moved into a new place. It had been 4 years since I last saw him and he now has a 4 year old boy named Miro with his partner Mags. Unfortunately I didn't get to catch up with Mags or Miro but certainly it was awesome to reminisce with Danny.
We went to the park and played a decent amount of table tennis where I just marginally won. Having 3 unbelievably close games was all good fun but our skills were dwarfed by the skills of the competitors in the Olympics going on around London Town.
We had a few drinks in a bar before heading to eat dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant that was delicious, and ended the night back at his place for more beer and Olympic sports in TV.
I was going to spend the night at his but decided it would be fun cycling around the city late on a Saturday night where I was tipsy and lost.
Having announced that I was lost on the 10 mile cycle back to Notting Hill Gate I met some great girls (of course I asked the pretty girls for directions). I'm glad I did because one Hungarian girl I met invited me to stay with her in Budapest when I cycle through. Yay!
A group of girls I asked for directions immediately responded no to what ever I was asking - now this is the typical London attitude to why I hate this place but I did met many great people on the cycle home so the good people outweighed the bad.
I made it back unscathed.