Australia so far... :)

So its been pretty hectic down under. I've been traveling and coaching pretty much the whole time since I arrived.

I landed last Tuesday, Dec. 8th, chilled out in Melbourne and got used to the time difference (5hours). Then on Wednesday I met up with Adam and Lou and drove from Melbourne all the way up to Sydney for some schools at Eastern Creek. It was just over an 8 hour drive and some parts of the Australian countryside reminded me a lot of parts of central California.

Thursday and Friday I coached at Eastern Creek. It is a pretty fun track with some challenging corners. The weather was great, not too hot, and it was a good couple of days.

Friday night there was a Christmas party put on by the school, consisted of bowling and beer, and good company. After that Adam and I and some other guys from the school went out to a club/bar and I had a few drinks. Okay... more than a few lol. It ended up being a long night but all was good in the end.

Then Saturday Adam and I drove back down to Melbourne after attempting to get to the northern beaches in Sydney. Originally we were going to chill out at the beach before driving home, but we ended up just driving in circles before giving up and heading back to Melbourne. lol

Sunday I hung out with Darren, a coach from New Zealand and checked out Melbourne. We cruised around and check out the scenery, it was a very mellow day. We eventually made out way to Phillip Island to get ready for a couple school days... now I was getting really excited...

The last two days have been AMAZING. The weather couldn't have been better and Phillip Island is the most amazing track I've ever ridden, but Jerez is a very close second. The track is really fast and has a really nice flow to it, makes it an absolute pleasure to ride. Not to mention that when you come over the crest on the straightaway you're looking right at the ocean, its a phenomenal view.

Tomorrow I'm hanging out with Kris, another Aussie coach, at some point we're going to make our way to beach because its supposed to be about 105 degrees tomorrow :)

I'm going to hit the hay now, internet has been hard to come by but I'll try to keep you all updated as often as I can!

South Africa

I can't really explain now, but SA is a big change from everywhere else I've been... but still a very cool place.

I've been offered the chance to race a ZX-10 on Saturday, in a spec class. Should be very fun.

Here's the abbreviated version of what my next few days will be like:

Thursday - more coaching at Kyalami
Friday - Yamaha day at Kyalami, includes bs'ing with important Yamaha people and filming
Saturday - Racing at a track called Zwartkops in the ZX-10 Cup, includes TV coverage and a guest interview
Sunday - private coaching at Phakisa, an ex-GP track
Monday - tactical shooting of custom made hand guns, then flying back to London

Pics to come later!

London via motorcycles

Two days ago Adam and I flew back to London and headed to the crash pad we had set up. A girl named Tasha who we met through the school offered us her pad to crash at and has been showing us around London. Yesterday we rented bikes to rip around the city. Due to my age, I couldn't rent a proper sportbike such as an R6... but what I could rent was a 125 four stroke Honda. So, Adam and I both rented little POS bikes to rip around the city. Tasha has a Suzi 750, and has been navigating her way through London for years. This created quite a task for Adam and I, who had unfamiliar bikes in an unfamiliar place with 1/5 the horsepower. What that means for those of you who don't ride bikes is that Adam and I couldn't squirt through traffic the way Tasha could, so keeping up was a hell of a ride!!!

Yesterday we ripped around London with Tasha. We headed into central London, got coffee, and just people watched for a while. Later in the night we did a little tour of London. First we went to a place called the world renowned Ace Cafe. The Ace Cafe is a huge motorcycle hangout for all of London where people gather to hangout, bullshit, and watch idiots do wheelies and burnouts in the street. Then we headed back to the coffee shop we had been at earlier in the day. It was an awesome way to get a real feel for the city. London is a very diverse city, possibly the most diverse city I've ever been to (yes, more than SF or NY or any of the others...) and it was entertainment enough just watching people walk by. After a bit we headed to Leister Square to people watch some more. Because the bars don't close, people stay out until all hours. Therefore, even at 2:30am, there was plenty of drama to see. Cops, arguments, tramps, drunks, etc... It was a ton of fun, not to mention during the evening we were with a big time stunt rider named Sparky who was a super cool guy and could do some things that are completely out of my skill set... fucking impressive.

Today Tasha, Adam and I just hung out and watched some MotoGP qualifying. Afterwards we cruised through the city and went to Camden Town. Reminded me of the the Pier 39 area of SF... very cool. Now we are just hanging out at her apartment, listening to sweet music, drinking beer, sharing stories, and eating doritos.

Tomorrow we head back out to Wellingborough before heading to South Africa... more adventures to come...

City adventure and another long night

So yesterday Adam and I had nice wander through Munich. The city is one of the coolest I've been too in the world, and I was quite surprised at some of the nature that is throughout the city. There's a river that runs right through the city and and trails that go through trees and forest next to the river. It doesn't feel as if you are in a big city at all when walking on the trails. The architecture throughout the city is very cool as well. Very grand and historic, cool to see buildings that were around 400+ years ago.

After wandering around for a while Adam and I ended up back at the biergarten we were at on Monday. We hung out there and had a couple litres of beer before heading back to Krissi's apartment to meet up with her and go out to check out more of Munich.

Krissi took us on a tour of Munich that ultimately ended up at the Hofbräuhaus, a very cool brewery that is the icon of beer in Munich. Every beer mug used at Oktoberfest has their logo on it. It was a lot of fun cruising around with Krissi, she showed us things we wouldn't have seen otherwise. Unfortunately, Krissi couldn't hang out all night because she needed to go and study for school. After she split Adam and I hung out at the Hofbräuhaus for a bit longer and had a couple more litres of beer. SO, at this point we were now 5 LITRES deep, we had had 2 at the biergarten and then 3 at the Hofbräuhaus. This is when we decided it would be a good idea to go out and party some more considering this was really the last night we were responsibility free.

At Silvana's recommendation from a few days prior Adam and I headed to downtown Munich to a club called Milchbar. This is where things got out of hand... Let's just say that Adam and I weren't empty handed for the entire night. So as you can imagine we were feeling pretty good! Anyhow, after about 5 hours of dancing and partying and talking with tons of random people from all over the world we headed back to Krissi's apartment.

It was quite a journey just to get back due to the fact that neither of us were in the proper frame of mind to navigate a train system with multiple lines and multiple ways to get to the same destination. Also, Adam was absolutely hammered because some random German guy was buying Adam drinks when the guy found out Adam was from Australia. lol. We managed to make it back to the station nearby Krissi's apartment and then ate some food at a cafe that was open for people going to work! After it was all said and done we made it back and crashed in bed around 7am. What a crazy night!

Today we just chilled out, I had lunch with Krissi while Adam slept off his hangover until about 4pm! Then we went down to a cool local bar and met some of Krissi's friends before saying farewell to Krissi who we won't see tomorrow because we fly out to London. All in all its been a fantastic time in Munich, I wish we had more time, but we have to get back to London and prepare for South Africa which will be a trip all on its own...

The beer gardens and Oktoberfest

So Adam and I slept most of the day today, got up around 4pm and got some food. After that we headed down the street from where we are to a famous beer garden. It was very mellow and relaxed and we had a couple litres of beer there just hanging out and having some great conversation. Spent some time playing with the Autostitch program on my iPhone and taking lots of pictures.

After that we got some food and headed down to Oktoberfest. It was a short train ride to the festival, and it was quite a surprise when we got there. Neither of us expected it to be what it was, it a HUGE festival, like a state fair, except with multiple barns dedicated to drinking beer and singing songs. These barns hold roughly two thousand people, and no one in the entire place is actually sitting down. Everyone was standing on the chairs and benches and singing and drinking wearing traditional clothing. It was crazy fun, and we're very excited to go tomorrow. The train ride home was short, and we spent some time wandering about looking for food before finally giving up and heading back to Krissi's apartment. Now we are getting ready to actually get some decent sleep for a long day of drinking tomorrow!

Germany, confusion, and bier!

Last night Adam and I shared a bed, and I'm quite sure, that at some stage, I played the role of 'little spoon'... let me explain...

A few weeks ago I met a girl named Silvana at the UC Berkeley campus while I was cruising around Berkeley with my good friend Tom. Just so happens she was an exchange student from Munich (where Oktoberfest is) and had a friend in Munich that offered us a place to stay (thanks Krissi and Silvana!). Only issue was that on the night we got into Munich, Krissi was celebrating her mom's 50th birthday and wasn't going to be around to let us in. Krissi suggested we stay in a hostel, which was most likely to be full due to Oktoberfest, OR we just pull an all nighter and meet her in the morning before she went to school. Which option do you think we chose?!

So after arriving in Munich airport at 10:30pm, Adam and I began the long and difficult process of getting ourselves into downtown Munich. In reality it shouldn't be difficult at all, but due the fact that all of the writing on the ticket machine was in German, we stuggled to buy train tickets. After much confusion and asking multiple people we finally managed to get tickets to get us into Munich. Then because we're just plain stupid, we got on the train that goes the longest way possible to get to the stop we needed to get to. All in all we made it into the city around 12:30am.

Then began the drinking...

We went to multiple bars/nightclubs, the first of which was a tiny bar playing German music with people singing loudly and dancing and jumping about. After a few drinks there we headed off to a night club type place which was almost entirely filled with dudes. Naturally we only stayed there long enough to get our drinks down. Then we went next door to a much larger night club with more girls (but still a lot of dudes). It was funny to me that even though I was 7000 miles from home I knew probably 90% of the music. They were playing the same music you would hear in an American club, except every now and again they would throw in some ACDC... lol. Adam and I spent nearly the entire night observing and attempting to speak English with hammered Germans which was extrememly entertaining! As one would imagine there's only so many people out partying at 4am on a Sunday night.

About 5am we headed back to the train station, stuggled some more to buy the proper train ticket, and then made our way to the exit where we were going to meet Krissi. We chowed down some food at little bakery, then met up with Krissi around 7am and headed to her apartment. She lives in a large apartment complex similar to dorms you'd find at any college so she only has one full size bed with no couches and a tile floor. In the drunken state we were in naturally neither Adam or I gave a shit, so we piled in the bed and passed out. According to Adam, he woke up at some point in the night with his face in my back very confused as to where in the world he was... and so that's how I played the role of 'little spoon'!

Now its almost 1 in the afternoon, and I'm going back to sleep... I need to get my body ready for much more beer consumption very soon...

Portugal and Portimao... better than Jerez?

So here I am at the hotel, or should I say golf resort, reflecting on my last two days at Portimao. This track, puts almost all tracks in the world to shame, the elevation, the facilities, and the layout are ridiculous. I can't believe how amazing this track is. Yesterday I rode the R6, today the new R1. With the elevation changes the R1 is a toy, wheelies all over the place. Jakey.... imagine T9 at Thunderhill except steeper, and multiple corners like that... don't worry, I have video, and photos of some saaawweeeeeet wheelies. This trip has been life altering, and I'm only one week in. I can't wait for the things to come!!!!

Spain and Jerez... Wow...

Sorry for the delay... But wifi has been hard to come by here in Spain. So I flew down to Spain on Sunday, just a short flight from London. Customs here in Spain was a joke compared to when I first got into London... We pretty much just got a stamp and blazed right through here in Spain! Anyway we arrived to amazing weather, got our bags and headed to the hotel. Got checked in and had a nice dinner, and got ready for Jerez the next day. BTW, the hotel is ridiculous, it's literally right next to the track and it's beautiful inside. Sunday night I could barely sleep because I was dreaming of exotic racetracks in far off places... which worked out because I'm at one!! Woke up and had some breakfast and then headed to the track. The track, even from my first impression... BLEW MY MIND!! The facilities are top notch, not to mention the grandstands everywhere that carry as much as 120,000 people on a MotoGP weekend. When I got on it, I couldn't get over how unreal the place and the track was!! It instantly jumped to my favorite track ever, and the R6 I was riding was pretty fucking awesome as well! To sum it up (which I have to do because I could go on for pages and pages) it was one of the best riding experiences I've ever had in my life, perhaps the best, and I have tons of pictures and video to go along with it. We've just finished the second day and I'm still blown away to this instant, at 4am, and when someone so much as says the word "Jerez" I instantly start smiling ear to ear :). I can't believe I've just started this trip and still have multiple tracks to go... Well I'm off to sleep now, we're driving to Portugal tomorrow where I'll be riding another incredible track, Portimao. I can't wait.... :-) ahhhhhhhh!!!!!! Goodnight, and thanks for reading!

Jog in Wellingborough

So after sleeping all day after a long night at the local pub/ nightclub, I mustered up the energy to go for a jog. Jogging through Wellingborough felt like a trip back in time, because the buildings and houses are what I usually see in movies that are based back in the 1800's. Street after street of brick houses butted against each other, with cars parked on the sidewalks because the streets are too narrow. At times it almost feels fake, like a Hollywood movie set that's going to end when I turn the next corner. It was very enjoyable, and going for a jog in Wellingborough gave me real feel for the city. I'm excited for the jogs I'll be going on in the places to come...

We've landed!

So today was the first day in the UK and my first day overseas ever! The flight wasn't bad at all, only 10hrs and you had your own personal tv screen with a wide selection of movies to choose from. I watched "The Hangover" for the first time... hilarious! Why didn't I watch it sooner!!

Anyhow, once I arrived in London I had to wait a little while for my buddy Adam from Australia to arrive, he'll be doing the whole trip with me. We made our way via multiple train stops (with a little confusion and many stops for help!) out to Wellingborough where we are staying at a friends house for the weekend. Wellingborough is about an hour and a half out of London, and the train rides through the countryside were gorgeous... not how I envisioned the UK at all. Wellingborough is an awesome town with a quaint, romantic feel to it created by the little streets, overgrown gardens, and Victorian style brick houses. Pics of Wellingborough to come tomorrow when I go on a morning run...

A picture of Adam confused in Paddington Station!

It's just after 8pm here and Adam and I are getting ready for a pub crawl, should be great times considering everything is within walking distance! Cheers!