Canadian Adventures The world is a giant book, if you don't travel you're only reading the first page!

Heya Snowbunnies,

After a massive New Years with Dee in Sydney I headed to Austria to catch up with Verena for some snowboarding and to check out some of the sights. It was a marathon flight to Frankfurt followed by trains to Munich and Innsbruck. By the time I arrived I was knackered but still blown away by Innsbruck which is surrounded on all sides by snow capped mountains. Getting off the train I nearly died from the cold, wearing only jeans and a shirt, minus 15 degrees was pretty harsh!

First night in town and what else to do but to drink booze!! Had Schnapps and beers at the Down Under Bar (where else??) and hung out with an Italian model and other impossibly good looking people. Verena and her sister Claudia are almost identical, especially after a few beers though I had no major problems telling them apart. They introduced me to some of their mates, awesome people, especially Claudia's boyfriend Stefan who is a great bloke also and soooooo laid back.

I spent two weeks in town, working on snowboarding and checking out the sights. Snowboarding is awesome fun, but hard work. I had some massive stacks, but the view from the top of the mountains made it all worthwhile. The only thing that pissed me off was cheeky little French kids, probably only three years old doing backflips and 360's whilst I could hardly stand up. After a while standing and turning was OK, just stopping with any grace or dignity is now the problem!

Verena and I headed to Munich to catch up with her brother and we visited Hoffenbrau House for Steins (1 litre beers) and funky music. I would love to come back here for Octoberfest! The city has an awesome vibe and would be amazing in summer. Also made it down to Italy for authentic pizza and amazing coffee. Verena's home is only an hours drive from the Italian border through some of the most impressive mountain scenery that I have ever seen. We also caught up with Verena's best friend Regina and her boyfriend Claus (dead ringer for Metallica's lead singer) who took me out for a very cool night at the Harley Davidson Club. All in all a very eventful couple of weeks.

Keep smiling, Ben.