Europe 2002/2003

Circuit Travelling - Andrew Circosta

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Update - December 18

About Sunday lunch time December 1 we were off to Sydney airport for our check-in. With a weight limit which we were well over we decided to arrive early and luck was on our side as we both got all our luggage on board, only one problem being that we were not issued our boarding passes for our connecting flight from Vienna to Munich. On to the plane we go…….. Rawkus [Matt O'Rourke] was highly impressed with the fact that we had a little TV screen each as well as a mini phone/ game controller in the seat, all was well till they broke but that was towards the end of the flight anyway. After landing in Vienna we had all of 30mins to our connecting flight, off the plane we hop and into a huge line of people who were also queueing for various other inquiries. Finally at the front we were told "if you run now to the other end of the airport you might get your flight!" not also mentioning we had to go through a passport check which also had a line up, not to worry we made it.

Once on the ground in Munich Rawkus trotted off to fetch our car while I sat in the airport watching all our gear, exciting as it sounds I did how ever manage to get bailed up by the police for a random passport check and a short interrogation……….Rawkus finally returning and all we needed was KT to show and we would be on our way to Switzerland. Not long after KT arrived and we were off with a short stop at Peter Schlickenrieder's house to gather some equipment as well as tea, biscuits and a wicked potato casserole. Next stop was a small Swiss town going by the name Klosters (10km up the road from Davos) to stay with Seraina Boner and Family (who I previously met on last years trip). The closer we got the more it began to snow, just what we needed! After about 36 hours of travelling we were all finally going to get some much needed sleep. After a short feed and introductions we all hit the hay.

After the over night snowfall it was time to test out our cars capabilities on the snow….. not so good and then discovering that the two sets of chains we had in the car did not fit, although some time later we managed to get the car up the steep drive way that we were now at the bottom of and back onto the main road, time to ski! In the evening of our first day there we were invited to do a training session with Seraina's younger sister, Katja and one of the local teams. KT and I accepted the invite and headed along, maybe not one of the best options as we were treated to a killer strength workout down at the local school gymnasium with coach Bjorn, we were going to sleep well tonight!

Spending most of the week training down in Davos on the limited tracks they had there, returning home in the evenings to be treated to great home cooked dinners, including a Swiss cheese fondue (interesting but we decided it tasted a lot like vegemite) and chatting away with the youngest of the daughters, Eliane, who found our aussie accents and word pronunciation to be quite amusing, as we did to some of her English words. To keep up our end of the deal we whipped up a delicious Aussie (?) dish that somehow got nicknamed Kangaroo Mix…but they seemed to like it…. We also learnt of the Swiss Christmas traditions and were treated to heaps of really nice biscuits, little bread men and tones of peanuts and were told that Santa Claus (Sammi Klaus) would take us away in a huge sack if we'd been naughty……….bad luck, we're all still here! As the week drew on we began to see appearances for some of the national teams, the world cup was about to make its stop in Davos, and with it more track to ski on! The day before the race we were once again invited to join the local team but this time to do a time trial on the race course for the upcoming world cup to test the TV cameras and time equipment etc, after being told that it was only probably going to be about 6km we thought why not?………Then arriving and being told it was 11km for Rawkus and I and 6km for KT. Nearly missing the start, KT was the first of us to depart on her way around the course but to knowing too well were to go KT spent most of the time following the girl in front of her, as for Rawkus and I who had a only been on skis for 3 days and were still suffering the effects of jet jag……… we finish finally a little tired and stuffed but too far off the pace. The next two days were the 10/15km skate and 4x5/10km relay world cup races. With all sorts of activities happening around the town we discovered a cool little race track for smaller kids which consisted of jumps and other obstacles, while no one was watching we made a dash, onto the track, and began weaving and dodging obstacles until about 20 metres into it I got tangled up in a mini pine forest and ended face down beneath the trees while Rawkus and KT had a good laugh. For the next day KT was asked if she wanted to help out at the race, which she gladly accepted and was fortunate enough to meet some of the Norwegian women. And as for the family we were staying with it was Seraina's first start in a world cup as she was lining up with the Swiss 2 team doing the second classic leg, so Rawkus and I shot up the track and took up our cheering positions. After the race it was time to leave, off to trusty old Ramsau.

Upon arrival it was made obvious that there was something missing, a little something called snow. There was a little patch of man-made snow in the stadium but not a great deal more. Spending most of the week doing a session on snow and a dry land session in the afternoon so as no to go insane on such a small track, also KT and Rawkus ventured up to glacier for a day. Each day the track grew and by the end of this week there was nearly a 2.5km track as well as this there was the opening weekend and a couple of hundred people crammed onto to the small track. The end of the weekend arrived and so did Finn and Paul. With opening weekend over and finally a little more room to move on the track or so we thought, now crammed with all the world cup skiers preparing for the up coming race this weekend, although unfortunately we will be watching the race from a TV somewhere in Czech.

To finish for now I would like to greatly thank the Boner Family and the next door neighbour, Frau Dietrich, for putting themselves out for us and taking extremely good care of us for the whole week. I'm sure we have corrupted their views on Australians for years to come.

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