Where to next?

DUCATI!

mick2077 — Wed, 2 Jul 2008 18:45:00 GMT

The Ducati riding experience was awsome. I so glad I went. I started the day in the fast group with an english speaking italian journelist as my instructor. As I was still getting used to the bike and the track I was quite a bit slower than them. After the 2nd session I changed groups and my new instructor was a 3 times world sidecar champion. He was also involed in the development of new bikes. Monza is an intersting track to ride around as it has very fast straights that lead into really slow corners. The main straight I was getting over 284kph everytime and the next corner was 2nd gear 60kph. Lots of high speeds and hard braking. Awsome fun :)

They gave us a show bag too with a t-shirt and catalogues, and they had a prestentation at the end and we all got certificates, a badge and David, my instuctor gave me his business card. We had a chat after and he said to keep in touch and he could let me know before the release date about up coming days. Maybe I'll come back next year.

Assen was good fun, a very different vibe to spain and italy. It was a lot more subdiude. The camp ground was quite civilised too. Food and beer were cheap but the food sucked, but the 500ml beers for $5.60AU made up for it. The same sized beer in spain, at the gp, was about $18AU.

I got into Helsinki last night and will be checking it out this afternoon after washing my clothes, which are about 9 days old. Yeah a bit gross. Last night though it was only darkish for about 2-3 hours and it wasn't that dark. I couldn't sleep so was still awake when the sun started coming back up at about 2:30. I'm get lagged and all I've done is travel north.

Off to New York tomorrow which I'm looking forward too. One of my room-mates is from the US and he was pretty excited for me being there on the 4th of July.

I'm having an absolute ball and so much is happening I'm only really telling you about 10%. I better go and get my washing.

Mickle

Switzerland, Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam

mick2077 — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 01:27:00 GMT

My timing on this trip is impecable. Where ever I go there is always something on. Switzerland is hosting the EUFA football cup. Zurich had a big strip on the river set up with tents and markee's with beer and tv's everywhere. Always loads of people out. Picture grandfinal night, but every night. Pity now that I'm in Holland that they are out. For those that don't know, I hired a bike(BMW F650GS) for 3 days and went to Grindelwald in the Swiss alps. Maybe it was the altitude or the clean air and water, but that place was beautifil. It was like being in a postcard. I rode around to see what I could, went paragliding which was awsome. I thought I had gotten over my fear of heights, but as soon as we were in the air it came right on back. Flying around in the thermals is petty interesting, getting thrown around by the wind and they don't feel warm at all. I also got to fly it for a little while. Towards the end he threw it around abit. Doing tight turns with high g forces and twisting and turning around. That was a bit scary. Then as we were coming in to land there was someone else coming in too so he threw it around again but really close to the ground. Scary but fun, I'd highly recommend it to anyone. The ride back to Zurich was just amazing. I picked a route which looked pretty winedy on the map, but I didn't expect 1st and 2nd gear corners for almost 2 hours. I think I could have shaved an hour of my trip if I didn't stop so much to look at the view. When I left Grindelwald it was about 18 and at the top of the passes it must have only been about 8, but no wind. There was heaps of snow everywhere. It was well worth going to Switzerland just for that ride back to Zurich. I caught the TGV to Paris and stayed there saturday and sunday night. I think there must have been a festival on in town because there was band playing on street corners and thousands of people everywhere. Or maybe that's just paris on a saturday night. The Eiffel tower was pretty cool at night. I was up there at about midnight, great view, lots of people, excellent. Sunday though the place was dead. I spent most of the day trying to find somewhere to watch the motogp on tv. That didn't work out, so I went to an internet cafe and watched it there. Me and train stations in Brussels just don't get on, but anyway CHOCOLATE! I glad I only spent 1 night in Brussels as I would have gotten very fat and spent lots of money. Where I was staying was surrounded by chocolate shops, ice-cream shops, waffle bars, restaurants, pubs, if it was food related and indugent it was here. Funnily enough the ice cream shop with the most people out the front was the Australian Ice Cream shop. Another train ride today and now I'm in Amsterdam. I'll be here for a night then head out to Assen for the next few days for the race and bike festival out there. I'm expecting craziness. Bye for now Micheal :)

Food poisoning, music and football

mick2077 — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 19:31:00 GMT

WOW is the best way to describe the Sagrada Famillia(Antonio Gaudi church). I wouldn't have thought you could do that with stone. The whole building has a very organic feel to it. Inside has the feel like a forrest the way the pillars are made. The attention to detail has to been seen. It's difficult to describe.

After the church, I was quite hungry and there is a maccas accross the road so I went and got a big mac meal with a beer instead of a coke. Later on that night I wasn't feeling that good, funny belly, couldn't sleep, so I got up to go to the toilet and had a nice little spew whilst I was there. Felt much better afterwoods(?).

The Daydream festival(Radiohead concert) was awsome. Radioheads set was the best live show I have seen. I was right near the front of the stage, about 15m from the band in the mosh pit. The crowd was fun and lively. Sound was clear and loud. The light show was outstanding, so alive and suited the music perfectly. Steve you would have been very happy with it :)

They did 2 encores and played for about 2 hours, I'll get some photos and video up soon.

I'm now in Zurich, staying with Lisa's brother Trent for a few days. Switzerland is hosting the EUFA football cup, so it's crazy town here at the moment. I'll probably head into germany and france for a couple of days from here.

I'm off to see the sights of Zurich now. Bye for now.

Mickle

Catalunya GP and Barcelona

mick2077 — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 05:20:00 GMT

I was deffinatly sitting in the right area at the GP, the atmosphere was like being at the MCG for a 1 day cricket match. Beachballs being thrown around, mexican waves, fireworks, etc. Lots of fun.

There was a different vibe there too, less hoolagans and alot more family friendly. I would say about 1/3 of the crowd was women and kids. The food and drinks though were crap and very expensive.

In Barcelona atm, just chilling, looking at churches and swimming at the beach. Although I had the best haircut of my life last night. I was just walking around looking for a laundrymat and went past a barber shop with 3 guys watching the football in there. I thought why not and headed in.

Talk about being looked after, cut, shave and wash for 10euro and the attention to detail was excellent. I felt really looked after. I think they liked practing their english on me too.

Just hangin out for the next few days not really doing much, abit of swimming and sight seeing with no real goals, nice and relaxing. I could get used to this.

Wish you were all here.

Micheal

xoxoxox

Milan, Monza and the Ducati factory

mick2077 — Fri, 6 Jun 2008 06:17:00 GMT

If you are looking for somewhere to go for your next holiday, make sure you put Firenze(Florence) and Bologna on the list. Absolutly beautiful and the food is amazing.

Now Ducati. When I went to the factory I missed the tour through the factory, so only had a look through the museum. For me it was well worth the effort to go still. I didn´t know that Ducati started out as an eletronics company making radios, electric shaver, etc and after WW2 they started making engine powered bicycles. I wont go on too much, but it was pretty good to see how the bikes have changed and progressed through the years.

Monza. To make everyone who is not me feel better, the race day was cancelled because of rain. I almost had a little cry when they told me. At least I wasn´t the only one who had come from the otherside of the world though, there was a guy from South Africa too. They will be letting me know what happens next, most likely a refund.

On the bright side I the best pasta I´ve ever had for lunch that day, didn´t really make up for it though.

I´m in Barcalona now and the difference is quite significant. It feels very much like home here, except no one speaks english :) There isn´t the crampted feeling like everyone is in each others pockets like there was in Italy, but I didn´t notice that that´s what it was until it was gone. The part of Barcelona I am in is very modern, where as nowhere in Italy that I saw looked modern. Though the gelati here isn´t as good as Italy :)

I´m off to Montomelo(about 15kms out of town) tomorrow for the Catalunya GP. I´m very much looking forward to it, I just hope the rain stops. I think I´ve only seen blue sky here once so far.

I´ll be off now and will be putting up some photos too.

Micheal

Mugello MotoGP

mick2077 — Mon, 2 Jun 2008 19:06:00 GMT

Getting to the track was an adventure. When I got to the train station there was nothing to indicate I was even in the right town. No signs, buses, taxis or anything. As I was looking around to see if I was in the right place 2 guys jumped on the back of bikes with no helmets on to get a lift to the track.

A taxi finally turned up asking for people going to Mugello, but he wouldn't take me because I needed to go to an atm first. An old italian man ended up giving me a lift to an atm, which didn't like my cards. It was about now that I was having a little freak out because I only had 65 euro, no spoke english and it was pretty scary tearing around this little town with a strange man on the wrong side of the road, flying around blind corners in tiny little streets.

Luckly the next atm worked and we attempted to talk, with very limited success, on the way to the track. finally got there, very relieved and set up my tent and went for a look around. It pretty much rained from when I started putting up my tent to just after I got the fly on, then on and off for the rest of the day. Very wet and muddy.

Mugello was a madhouse. It's like a little country with no rules. Pretty much anything goes. 7 people on a 4 wheeler, scooters and bikes with no exhausts, little engines with megaphones for exhaust pipes, crazy scooter tricks. It was pretty much about getting drunk and making as much noise as possible. Quite often what was happening off the track was louder than the bikes on the track.

A couple of memorable moments, a guy riding a scooter doing a burn out then taking off and going straight into a wheely that lasted for about 40m. A triumph speed triple with a huge megaphone for a muffler. A scooter with a flame thrower in the exhaust. Pocket bikes with 2 people on them(pocket bikes are tiny little bikes).

There was probably more people there on saturday than there was for the whole weekend at Phillip Island. For all the people, drunkeness, crazyness and carrying on I saw no crashes off the track and no fights.

I'm in Bologna now to tour the ducati factory, but it's a public holiday so nothing is open. Tomorrow then. So up early tomorrow tour the factory then training over to Milan for the Ducati Riding Experience at Monza on Wednesday.

Starting to get into the swing of things now and how differently everything works. I'll upload some photo's when I can, I left the cable in my bag today.

Having a great time.

Micheal

Roma

mick2077 — Thu, 29 May 2008 23:53:00 GMT

This place is pretty crazy. The traffic is pretty intense. It looks like there are no rules cars, buses and millions of scooters dodging and weaving everywhere. Scooters are the dominant species here. Every traffic light looks like the start of a gp, with 10 bikes abreast waiting for the green or even just a gap.

As crazy as it looks, after watching for a while you can see the method in the madness. For all the chaos it just works. It has to be seen to be believed.

The tourists really stand out either driving on the road or tying to cross it. You really have to commit and just push your way in, if you hesitate it's to late.

One thing I'll give the Italian's is they sure do know how to build monuments and churches. You don't need a guide book to find the good stuff just go for a walk and it's on every street or around the next corner. It looks like everyone lives in a 400 year old piece of history. Or maybe they just build everything to look that way :)

After checking into my room last evening, I showered and lay on my bed listening to a phrase book and fell asleep and pretty much didn't wake up until about 6am. I slept for close to 12hrs. Now I hope that helps my jet lag.

At the Trevi fountain I spied a man who appeared more interested in what was in the fountain rather than the fountain itself. He had a telescopic rod like a car antenna fishing out the coins that he could reach. He was very sly about it.

ciao

Micheal