Arrival in Poland‏

Dzien dobry nowa zeland,

We have arrived in Poland after another massive couple of days.

After our marathon day of exploring Venice we returned and crashed back in Jesolo at our hotel. The following day (sunday) we packed up our bags, checked out of the hotel and made a trip to Acqualandia: one of the most famous water-parks in Europe which boasts the highest / steepest drop on a hydroslide in the world (or so the brochures say).
Luke, DJ and myself opted to go first but by the time we were up ten stories plus we were all trying to play it cool but obviously a little apprehensive (as evidenced by Luke having to pry my shaking hands from the handrail on the final slight of stairs...) *Cough* I mean... I'm sweet... Bro. I just.. Tripped." :D

It was high enough to feel the tower shaking a little from side to side. Which was fun. And so was being airborne for what feels like a few seconds... Hopefully I'll send you through a picture of that. A real sweet rush that kinda left the other slides feeling a little lame was the only down side...

So after our sunburning experience at Acqualandia with it's wave pools and crazy basketballing trampoline slam dunk shows we trekked back into venice from Jesolo (where our hotel was situated) by bus, taxi, water taxi boat, and finally into a couple of taxi drivers who weren't afraid to get a little "fast and the furious" while we were on the motorway out to catch our 10.25pm flight back to London. Murphy's law of course though, we turn up and the flight is delayed anyway...
We made it into London around 1am local time and immediately checked into our transit hotel courtesy of the excellent planning skills of Miss Dillen ;) DJ was crashed and spread eagled before I could even get my shoes off - a reflection on how the 4 hours of sleep or so that we managed to get before our early morning flight was much needed by all.

Our flight was fairly uneventful, just hard to sleep as the chairs don't recline on the most budget of British airlines "Ryanair"... still, we arrived in Poland in a cheerful mood and were happy to note the temperature was far more like summer at home at around 26 or 27 degrees C.

After spending a few hours in Wroclaw (in the South West of Poland near the border with Czech Republic) we jumped on ANOTHER bus off to the smaller town of Nowa Ruda which is where I am writing this from. Nowa ruda is really tiny - we're talking the size of a small - average size rural town along state highway 1 back home... Luke and DJ in particular have received quite a lot of attention on account of their unusual looks relative to the locals and other camp partcipants. The last leg of the trip took around 2 hours and left us relieved that we wouldn't be living out of our suitcases for the next ten days.

So far we have been introduced to Master Loboda (the head of the AETF: All Europe Taekwon-Do Federation) and all around nice guy. He even has a t-shirt with text in a bold white font on a black background that translates as "THE BOSS OF ALL BOSSES"

We've been informed that there are 9 countries represented here at camp including Poland itself and while not all participants have arrived there should be around 200 - 300 people in total. So far I think I've seen around 200 from countries such as Ireland, Belgium, Poland and ourselves...

Tomorrow morning is our first training session. We have been divided into four groups in total. A junior group and three adult groups divided into lower gup grades, higher gup grades and blackbelts. Other than that we just smile, nod and wave so the plan for each day is still largely a suprise for us. I'm really looking forward to it :) Everybody here has been so friendly, welcoming and helpful...

I'll drop ya'll another update tomorrow post morning and afternoon trainings to let you know how it went. Until then... ZZZZZZZZZZZ

Carl VR