2nd job

Time for another entry!
There’s been quite something going on since the last one …
the most exciting news is probably that I got a 2nd job for the upcoming winter season – at least that’s exciting for me!

as you may already know I will work at the cashier’s of the Reiteralm/Fageralm ski area in winter, where I’ll do my regular hours mainly on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays & Sundays … as I’m not allowed to ski due to my recent knee surgery I was searching for an additional job for the winter season – also for getting some more cash as well this is also mainly because a friend of mine invited me on a trip to Kenya next August where I really want to go and join him. So it’s good for me to get some extra cash as well …

well, the 2nd job I now have is working for the tourist office of Schladming-Rohrmoos again, mainly being responsible for graphic design for the upcoming IASF world championships which again will be held in Schladming in March 2010 (the also took place there in 2006 – Schladming at that time being the first destination hosting it twice, and now being the first one going triple).
I’m really looking forward to that job as well ’cause I always liked the working environment at the tourist office in Schladming.

Nonetheless I’m also looking forward to skiing again. I should be back on track in March when I plan to visit friends in St. Moritz & Zermatt, Switzerland. The last few weeks I also was quite busy practicing the guitar again and I’m quite happy with the output so far. My skills are getting a little better with each time I practice and I’m looking forward to my first campfire gig )))

km 6241

Hi again!
It’s 10 days again since my last blog entry from Cambria! So here’s some news!!!

Well … after the night at HI hostel Cambria I went down the rest of highway 1 towards Los Angeles. On the way I stopped several times, including Santa Barbara (very beautiful city) and Malibu beach (of course!!!). In the evening I arrived in Culver City/L.A. at the house of Christopher whom I got to know in Whistler when I was there. He is german and doing an internship in Los Angeles at the moment. His two roommates, Devin & Brett both work from @ home and doing all kinds of things including making movies ))) (check out www.themexicandream.com)

The first day in the city of angels I went down to Venice Beach and took an extensive walk along the beach up to Santa Monica pier. In the evening I went out with Christopher and his friends (Kathrin, Daniel & Tara) to celebrate Daniel’s birthday – and by the way: Kathrin’s dreads are AWESOME! The next day I made a ride along Sunset Boulevard through Bel Air, Beverly Hills and Hollywood, also to see the Hollywood sign … I ended up “parking” my car in the rear of another guy on an intersection, but the damage is just small – the left headlight is damaged. At least I now can proudly say that I also had a car accident in the States after that little adventure Christopher and I went to Manhatten Beach to watch the sunset. We first wanted to skate along the beach with longboards, but as I’m such a beginner we decided just to walk around. The day ended with dinner @ In&Out-Burger which is probably the best burger of any fastfood chain.

On Sunday I first drove Christopher to another guy in El Segundo where he picked up a wetsuit. We then went up to the Getty center to enjoy the view over L.A. and a nice cup of coffee The afternoon was spent at Venice Beach again. On Monday I left in the morning heading south to San Diego. I went thru Huntington Beach which is really neat, except the greenish smog hanging above the city. I went swimming again @ Solana Beach before I entered San Diego where I met my host there, Kenny.

Kenny is a really cool guy, loving music and his 4 rabbits (Conejo, Conejita, Chiquita & Henry). He works from at home selling mainly CD’s & DVD’s via amazon or on flea markets. Every now and then he also works as a teacher @ a public school working with autistic kids. The evening I arrived we went to a friend of his. We jumped into the Jacusi under clear darkblue star-spangled sky and Bob told some stories of his jiu jitsu career. Afterwards we watched the movie “Hitman” which was quite entertaining – especially Olga Kurylenko

The 2nd day I went downtown and to the harbour to explore the city a little bit more. The harbour is quite interesting and provides several museum ships to look at. In the evening I met there with Kenny and two of his friends at a Sushi restaurant. They had happy hour and so the food wasn’t just delicious but also super-cheap. Wednesday I mainly used to explore Balboa Park which is an awesome facility alltogether. Lots of interesting architecture inmidst a green oasis in the city – and also a nice artists quarter. Thursday I first wanted to go to Seaworld but in the end didn’t go cause the weather was bad and it would cost 65 $ (not including 12 $ for parking!!!). I spent the day mainly indoors and joined Kenny on a trip north where he purchased a guy’s DVD collection. After that we went for dinner at a really good pizzeria.

On Friday I left early in the morning to complete a 800 km journey to Flagstaff, Arizona. Going out of San Diego the highway took me on an altitude of 1,500 metres within some miles until I reached the flat of southern Arizona again. Going through Phoenix I perfectly hit rush hour again like I always do and then continued my journey north to Flagstaff where I met Erin & Kriste, my hosts for the night. The have some pretty neat dogs and we had a nice evening at their place. Today I left at 8.30 in the morning again and went to Monument Valley which is at the Arizona/Utah border. I arrived there at noon and drove around the valley for almost 2 hours – it’s very scenic there and it was a great experience. I then continued my journey to Page, which lies north of the Grand Canyon on the Colorado River. Just as my brother Christian promised me it is a small & neat town. I stay at a motel here and tomorrow will continue my journey along the Grand Canyon to Las Vegas.

Pictures from Arizona will follow soon, but I put some online from L.A. and San Diego – check it out!

km 4013

Hi there all you out on God’s awesome planet! It’s been a while since my last blog entry and I’ve quite a lot to tell you

As I told you I stayed in Fort Bragg for one night and then went on to Sacramento. Going through the mountains inlands from the coast was a great experience again – an awesome windy road with lots of ups and downs for miles and along some beautiful lakes. In the evening I arrived at Dave’s house in Sacramento. He was tidying up for the days I was there, but still provided me with a comfortable couch to sleep on. We then went out the evening to meet some friends at a close bar who gave me some advice what to do and see in Sacramento. Dave seems to be a funny guy and he was searching for a new roommate that evening as well – I would describe him as a mixture between musician/actor Jack Black and Fat Mike from NoFX.

The next day I went to see the Capitol (Arnie’s office) in Sacramento and made a walk through downtown and “Old Sacramento” which is a kind of old western town near the centre. I also watched a movie @ the mall -> Bedtime Stories with Adam Sandler, which was hilarious the next day I left early towards San Francisco. I went down highway 160 to Antioch and then west to the Bay Area. I arrived there around noon and decided to drive around (south to San Jose and back up to SF) the Bay Area to San Francisco. As there was time enough I decided to go to Golden Gate Bridge first (AWESOME BRIDGE!!!!!) and then along Lombard Street down Russian hill and up to Coit Tower. In the evening I then perfectly hit rush hour again to arrive in Walnut Creek around 7 p.m. where I met Brian and his house-mates Stephen and Dave.

The next day I followed Stephen’s advice and went up to Mt. Diablo which is near Walnut Creek – again a windy road was there for Gergi’s joy The view from the top was awesome – you could see all of the Bay Area in the west and to the Rockies in the East and far to the North and South as well. In the evening I went to the movies with Brian to see “Gran Torino”, a film with Clint Eastwood which was really good.

On Saturday Brian, Erin (a friend of his) and me went to San Francisco and they showed me around the city. We started our trip with BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) in Walnut Creek and went to Embarcadero and Pier 33 where we hopped onto the ferry to Alcatraz. We spent the morning there doing the self-guided audio-tour and getting interesting details about the former prison and military base on the island. From there we also had a tremendous view to San Francisco. At noon we went back downtown to have Clam Chowder (mmmmmmmmm) for lunch. We then went through Chinatown’s markets where we had a pork bun. Arriving at Union Square we made a short break for coffee to walk back to the Harbour building, where we caught the perfect moment when moon was rising above Bay Bridge. Back in Walnut Creek we went to a new Sushi place for dinner which was also great.

On Sunday I went to church with Brian and Erin and afterwards us 3 and Amy (another friend of Brian) went to Santa Cruz, where Brian grew up. We first met his parents at their house and then did a walk through the local Redwood forest with huge trees and some tales told After organizing some sandwiches at a local store we went to the beach @ Santa Cruz to watch some surfers there which by the end of the day where reinforced by dozens more. Brian and I had a ride with a roller coaster @ the amusement park and afterwards we got some ice-cream before going home again.

On Monday I decided to explore San Francisco on my own – I again went to Golden Gate Bridge, cause the weather was even better and then strolled around in Mountain Lake Park. In the evening I went to Coit Tower again to see the awesome sundown over San Francisco and enjoy the view to the downtown’s skyline. On Tuesday I went to Berkeley to see the University of California, which actually has 7 Nobel laureates on staff (!!!!). In the afternoon I explored downtown Walnut Creek, which is a really nice place (they also have an Apple store

The highlight of the day was definitly in the evening when Brian, Dave, Stephen and I went to San Jose to see a NHL game of the San Jose Sharks. They are currently the best team in NHL and played Tampa Bay Lightning that evening. It just took them some minutes to gain momentum and then gave short shrift of Tampa Bay and sent them home with 7:1. It was a really great experience to be at a NHL game as it is a perfect show from the second you enter the arena. Funny trivia: most of the sponsors of the Sharks are from computer industry as San Jose is somehow the heart of Silicon Valley, e.g. their arena is named “HP Pavillon” for Hewlett-Packard.

As we got back home I said good bye already to Brian and his house-mates as they had to work the next day and had to get up early. I left at 10 a.m. this morning and went down to Santa Cruz to catch highway 1 there. It was a great drive again all the way, as most time the highway leads along the coastline. Some miles before Cambria I watched the sun drowning in the vast expense of the Pacific Ocean. Then I checked in @ the hostel, made some dinner and took a walk around the town centre, which also seems to be a nice place. I had a beer @ a bar and went back to the hostel, where I’m now.

Well … that was my last 9 days in short! Hope you enjoyed reading it.

Feel hugged & be blessed,
Gergi

km 2608

Wow, days fly by

So, I let you know, what I’m currently up to.
I left from Janet’s place in Vancouver on Jan. 2nd and went down to the US border, where it took me 2 and a half hours to cross the border, as it was quite busy there. It was quite funny when I jogged out the customs building to get some documents from the car as the customs officers outside thought I’d try to cross the border )))

I then went down highway 5 through Seattle & Tacoma and got off in Olympia to go to Aberdeen. Entering Aberdeen one can easily see that it’s the birthplace of Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain – see the first picture in the gallery. I got there at about 7 pm and had no troubles finding Stephen’s apartment, which was close to the highschool Kurt Cobain went to. Stephen is a really interesting person and a real wine connoisseur working at Ocean’s Crest resort north of Aberdeen. He also hosted another couchsurfer that night – Jack, who is living in Seattle right now, but originally from Chicago. We went out for dinner to have some teriyaki and afterwards Stephen invited some of his friends to a party at his place. One of them, Bryan, is a professional wrestler and was world champion of the “Ring of Honor” (follow the link to wikipedia). We had lots of fun that evening and later on went to the “Pourhouse” – a real american-style bar with live music. After that we went back to Stephen, got to know each other a little better and finally went to bed.

On Saturday I went down to Astoria at the Columbia River and crossed Astoria bridge to get to Oregon. I then followed the Columbia upcountry to Portland where I checked in at the HI hostel. Portland seems to be a really nice city – I walked and drove around a bit and I really liked it. It also has impressive Mount Hood in the background of its panorama. That evening I went to the movies to see “Valkyrie” starring Tom Cruise as Colonel von Stauffenberg which narrates the story about a murder attempt on Hitler in 1944.

Sunday morning I had some cereals and coffee at the hostel and then made my way down highway 5 to Salem where I left it to the west to go to highway 101 at the coast. I went down there through Lincoln City and Newport reaching North Bend and Coos Bay in the end, where I met David, my host for that night. David is an architect and dancing teacher and I had the chance to see him work with one of his dancing classes and learned a few steps as well. Of course he also designed and built the house he’s living in, which is located on top of a cliff overlooking the East bay towards the city of Coos Bay – AWESOME!!!!

Today I got up at quarter to 8; David and I had breakfast (french toast with maple syrup, scrambled eggs & bananas). After that he showed me another house in Coos Bay which he currently is building – it also has a great view over the East bay and will have a huge living room. After that I left Coos Bay and went down the coast on 101 through Gold Beach and Brookings where I finally entered California …

I drove all the way down to Eureka, where I searched for the next Starbucks to check my mail if Anna (which was supposed to be my host this night) would have replied and told me her address or phone number. As I didn’t have any response I decided to go further down 101 which now turned inlands. About 1 hour later I left highway 101 to continue my drive on highway 1, which first leads through the mountains back to the coast again. These 50-60 kms of road are probably the most awesome road I was ever able to drive … I think my dad would love it as well – narrow, lots of sharp turns and a lot of ups & downs ))))

Around 7.30 pm. I finally arrived here in Fort Bragg, which is about 150 miles north of San Francisco. I got a room at the Super 8 motel and will continue my journey tomorrow, when I will go to Sacramento to meet my next couch host – Dave.

My brother Christian also helped me to get into contact with Brian, a friend of his near San Francisco. I messaged him on facebook and I will now surf his couch in Walnut Creek east of San Francisco. I also got back a positive answer from San Diego and will have a couch to surf there as well

Well, that’s what I did the past few days – hope you all are fine!!!! Let me hear something from you …

Be blessed & feel hugged,
Gergi

PS: it’s awesome that Wolfgang Loitzl finally won a worldcup event!

km 903

Hello again!
It was last year that I wrote my last blog entry so it’s time for another one.

Well … I spent Christmas in Whistler for 4 days and went skiing 3 of them. You can find some pics in the Ultimate Powder gallery. Especially Christmas Day was great for skiing, altough Whistler could make use of some more snow. I stayed at the HI hostel, which is situated directly at Alta Lake (also used to be the former name of Whistler). They provided turkey dinner on the evening of the 25th and delicious apple and pumpkin pie. I met some nice people up there and made new friends – Carolin, Arndt & Christopher (all from Germany, but on internship in Vancouver/Nanaimo/L.A.). Chris also offered me to stay at his place when I’m down in Los Angeles.

When I came back from Whistler I spent some time playing Nintendo Wii with Jacob (my 7-year old host) and had some good talks with Janet (his mom). I also went downtown Vancouver again to explore Chinatown, Granville Island and Yaletown. And I bought myself another Christmas gift – an iPod touch I also had a nice movie evening with Janet watching Saw I+II. I hadn’t seen them before as I’m not a big horror fan, but they turned out to be quite good. I also watched “21″ and Wall-E.

For New Years Eve I met with the german guys at Caro’s place where we did some “vorglühen” – I’m not sure if there’s a translation for that around 11 pm we left and met Erik (my CS buddy at Janet’s place) and went downtown, but acutally got into the new year by bus. We then went into club “Royal” next to the HI hostel on Granville street for dancing. I left around 3 am and as there was no bus I decided to walk back, which turned out to be a 2-hour & 9 km adventure across all 64 of Vancouver’s avenues

Today I just tried to relax and I’m thinking what the new year might bring. There’s so many things going wrong in so many places, so let us all make an effort to create a better place for us all.

Tomorrow I will leave Vancouver and head southwards. My first stage will take me to Aberdeen, Washington – Kurt Cobain’s birthplace. The next days I’ll then go through Portland, Coos Bay, and Eureka to Sacramento.

I get back to you when I got some stories to tell again …

In the meantime – be blessed & feel hugged,
Gergi

km 651

A blessed Christmas!

Hope you all had a good time with family and friends this evening! I’m writing these lines from the HI hostel in Whistler B.C. This was the gift to myself for this year’s Christmas: 3 days of skiing on Whistler & Blackcomb mountain.

I went skiing this day for the first time and was surprised that not all lifts were operating nor all runs were open although it is peak season and so is the price ($280 for a 3-days ski pass). I’m sure more and more runs will open the next days as it is snowing at the moment; there was not too much snow when I arrived, but it takes at least 2 – 2.5 metres of snow that you can enjoy what Whistler/Blackcomb is famous for – POWDERRUNS!!!!! The problem is that the spots for freeriding are quite stony on the ground and so it’s just ruining ones skis at the moment.

But one thing’s for sure: when there’s enough snow up here it’s one of the best freeride arenas I know! and sorry guys: no I haven’t seen the fun parks so far there are also loads of young people up here and I’m pondering about going out one day (the only problem is that the HI hostel is ca. 15 km from Whistler village).

Tomorrow I plan to get up early for the fresh tracks breakfast special up on Whistler mountain, which starts at 7.30 a.m.

Well then … so far, so good.
I’ll write some more when I’m back in Vancouver – hope to hear something from you @ home!

Feel hugged & be blessed,
Gergi

km 453

Hi there!

Just a short notice for all of you. I started my trip yesterday, leaving from Kamloops after nearly 4 months. It was a good time there. I really liked it and I’m sure I’ll go back there someday!

Kamloops @ night before I left

On the way 2 Vancouver

Well … right now I’m in Vancouver, couchsurfing again. I’m staying at Janet and her 7-year old son Jacob in the south of Vancouver. Yesterday I already helped Jacob build some sort of marble slide; was pretty funny!
There’s another couchsurfer as well – Erik from Montreal; he’s a really chilly fella, working in the software business. Tomorrow I’ll meet with some colleagues from Kamloops for a last drink downtown Vancouver, and on 23rd I’ll head up to Whistler for skiing!

Sundown over Vancouver

I’ll soon provide you with some more pics from Vancouver!

So, wish you all the best in the meantime!

Blessings,
Gergi

Pics online!

Put some pics online in the gallery! Check it out!

Greez & blessings,
Gergi

Great weekend in Lake Louise and Calgary …

Hi there at home!

Well, I want to let you know about my last weekend which I spent at the ski races in Lake Louise and in Calgary. We (Berni, Natascha, Kristin, Katharina, Stephanie K., Marc) left on early Saturday morning (3.30 a.m.) from Kamloops and hit the road towards Lake Louise. The conditions weren’t the best, but with moderate driving it was quite okay. We encountered our first highlight in form of a moufflon along the road.

Muffloun on the way to Lake Louise

We got to our hostel at 11.15, did our lunch package and went to the race straight on, which then had already started. So we missed the later winner Peter Fill. After the race we met Berni & Natascha’s colleague Alex from Graz – she is doing her exchange semester in Calgary. We then got back to the hostel to prepare dinner for ourselves (some nice pasta with tomato sauce and vegetables and some disgusting beer, that ironically tasted better after having brushed ones teeth). For the evening we went up to the Fairmont Chateau at the lake where the prize giving ceremony and the lottery for next days starting order took place. Especially the Austrian girls were perfectly in their element and started chatting with some of the skiers and Natascha managed to obtain a book given to one of them, which she then used to collect autographs of the skiers.

Approx. at 8 p.m. we went down to the Saloon bar, where we finally all started chatting with the service team members and those view skiers who had not gone to bed among them Didier Cuche was the last one to leave the party at about 1.30 a.m. We had lots of fun with service staff members and the girls did not pay one single drink I also met Hans & Franz Knauss there and talked a bit with them, while Berni was dancing with Didier Cuche. Most of us went home at about 2 a.m. with one of the 2 cabs available in Lake Louise. Berni and Natascha stayed a bit longer to explore some parts of the hotel they finally got back at 5 a.m.

On Sunday we managed to get to the Super-G on time and we all were very proud to see the Herminator win again. The Canadians also had their fun with John Kucera becoming 2nd. Didier Cuche seemed to be motivated by the evening before and went 3rd. After the race our ways seperated – Stephanie K., Marc, Katharina and Kristin went back home to Kamloops, while Berni, Natascha, Alex and me went to Calgary. We “checked in” on the campus of Alex’ university (I stayed at the room of a cool guy from Hamburg) and had some to “cultivate” ourselves. In the evening we went to a club called “Roadhouse” which is situated downtown Calgary. We got there early around 9.30 p.m. and when we entered we met some of the Austrian skiers (Reichelt, Alster, Görgl, Scheiber, Streitberger) again. Later on Hans Knauss, Oliver Polzer and some others joined the group and we had lots of fun again that evening – especially cause the beer was really cheap ($3,50 for a bottle). I had some fun dancing there with some nice girls and in the end we went home around 3 in the morning.

The next day we just hang around in Alex’ apartment and she took us for a short tour on campus. We left in the early afternoon to pick up Stephanie at Calgary airport – she was coming back from her trip to California. The pick-up worked out perfectly and we also saw the arriving Austrian Ladies ski team. Around 3.30 p.m. we started our trip back to Kamloops (650 km). Conditions until Banff were quite okay, but got really bad afterwards. Around Lake Louise road conditions were really dangerous – several trucks and cars went off the icy street. Thanks God we ourselves had no trouble as I was driving really slow, cause we had no time pressure anyway. Around 11 p.m. we got back to Kamloops, where I passed the house of some Christmas fanatics. At 11.30 p.m. I finally had delivered all my dear colleagues to their rooms and went home myself.

Today was the last day of regular clases and I now just got my exams ahead – so wish me all the best tomorrow I’ll go skiing to Sun Peaks with some friends and in the evening there’s a final class bash at Cakturs Jack’s, where we’ll go to – hope it will be fun as well.

Pics will follow soon!

Hope you’re all fine at home!

Be blessed & feel hugged!
Gergi

Pics online!

Got some pics from the trip to Seattle online now, so check out the gallery!

Greez & blessings,
Gergi