Euro Trip Report Part 1

[JGowans]

What’s up fellas?

 

Fucked up TRIP REPORT. Got to Berlin only to discover that two of our bags didn’t make it. Just so happens it was only the fucking climbing gear. We were told that the gear was in Paris and they’d get it to us the same day on another flight. I spent the night in some shitty B&B waiting for the bags to arrive. Whenever a car drove by, I’d jump out of bed, and rush to the decidedly dodgy balcony hoping to see the backpacks. No dice. By 4am, I realized the bags weren’t coming. So, we went to Tegel Airport in Berlin and tried talking to just about everybody. Of course, Euro bureaucracy prevailed and nobody gave a shit that it was 6am, our flight to Moscow was at 9am at another airport, and out FUCKING bags had done a disappearing act. At 7am, things started to pick up once the lazy bastards came to work. Still though, nobody could help, and teh bags weren’t there. At 7.30am, we finally found out that the bags were STILL in Paris, and they’d be arriving at 9am. At that point, we still thought we could make it to the other airport and head to Moscow. However, the airline had other ideas. They decided that our final destination of Mineralinye Vody was too dangerous and they would only send our bags as far as Moscow. This of course would have meant we’d miss our flight from Moscow to Mineralinye Vody while we waited for our bags to maybe show up in Moscow. At this point, Anna and I realized we were fucked. We therefore waited in Berlin for the bags to show up by which time we’d missed our flight to Moscow. The bags arrived and we just came to Poland instead. So, no Elbrus, no Russia, no highest peak in Europe. FUCKED UP is about the best way to describe the debacle. We’re out of pocket about $2K for a trip to Russia that never happened. When I get back I’ll of course write to the airline and they will undoubtedly empathise with our situation in a canned letter and maybe offer us the standard $50 flight voucher as a consolation from the benevolent bastards that they are. Crucially though, they will of course absolve themselves of all responsibility, and that will be the end of the matter. Whatever. Fucking cunts.

 

So, we have 3 weeks now in Europe. We’re going to check out some major sites in Poland like Wraclaw, Karakov, Zakopane (hope to get some climbing in), and we’ll head up to the Baltic sea and chill out for a while on the beach. I’m. contemplating renting a car and driving to Holland to visit a buddy, but we’ve spent so much money already that it just seems too much. No worries though. It’s cool seeing where my wife grew up and meeting her family.

 

Alright nutters, time to check out. By the way, it’s 3.30am and we can’t sleep. Jetlag sucks. Thank God for the Internet. I may spend the next 3 weeks porno surfing. Oh that reminds me. Highlight of the trip so far was driving down the main road from Berlin to Poland and seeing the road littered with Russian and Romanian (I have it on good authority that they are indeed of those nationalities) prostitutes waving their grubby hands scouting for business.

[EWolfe]

That sucks about the airline BS

 

Hope it works out to somehow be worth it in unexpected adventures

 

Give Bob some penalty slack for me when you belay him, wouldja?

 

 

Thanks in advance

[Kiwi]

Fuckin sucks, mate! You know what they say: when life hands you lemons...

[texplorer]

When life hands you lemons, shove them up a frenchies ass.

Hope you guys salvage a trip and watch out for the "russian" routes on mountains.