Gdansk - Poland

So now I'm back at work which means no kayaking photos until I make my way to scando land to terrorize more Norwegians and do battle with their rivers. In the mean time I'll be making the best of what Poland has to offer and so far that has been a lot. Seeing as I'm living in a hotel with other guys from work we eat out most nights (at works expense of course) and that often escalates to a night out drinking but hey I'm not complaining. Not all has been remembered but I'm sure all was enjoyed!! Well before this turns into more drinking stories here is a quick summary of Poland so far... The food good and cheap plus there are places to eat out everywhere, beer is cheep and there are plenty of paces to sit outside in the sun and enjoy the fact that there are more beautiful girls in Poland than any other country I have been in to date, they are everywhere.... EVERYWHERE. The western bulge hasn't hit Poland yet that's for sure. The place has a very relaxed feel to it with many parks spread throughout the city and trees everywhere, more so even than Christchurch back home which is really saying something. Gdansk has a rather active night life in which day of the week doesn't seem to matter and all the best places to go are in a part of the city call 'Old Town' which looks like it was built hundreds of years ago, although I have no idea how many. This certainly adds to the atmosphere though. For the time being I don't have to work Sundays so I got a chance to get out and explore the city (and snap away happily even if I did look like a tourist). Right I best be back to work so I'll leave my brief description where it stands except to add that at face value Poland is a sweet place, much more so than I expected (and I was expecting good things). If you ever get the chance to visit then definitely take it... and make sure you include Gdansk in your exploring, especially Old Town. Enjoy the photos... the second half are of some graffiti that I found close to the center of the city and was also some of the best I have seen.

The South Merced

One of the craziest flower I have ever seen... the stamen is over two inches high

Here are some pictures from our two day trip on the South Merced River, one of my favourites in California. Unlike Royal Gorge, the water level was far from low so we enjoyed punching holes instead of hitting rocks. I managed to rein in my under sized, overloaded kayak for all but one off the biggest rapids when she got away on me a wee bit. After (almost) styling the entrance I gracefully stern squirted my way down the middle of the rapid before plugging deep in the guts of a massive hole I had intended to skirt around… no worries for a small boat though with lots of gear in it though – straight underneath. The only down side is that Evan didn’t have his video camera out in time… bugger. Anyhow, before this becomes a story, I’ll leave it at that and show you all dem pritty pictures yo’ll love so much. Story to follow… maybe.

Weeeeee... Lizzy showing the guys how it's done

Chris G on the same slide

Chris G probing to see if the hole is as sticky as it looks

Where's Chris K... see if you can find him, he's up there somewhere and he says portage Once In A Life Time on the right!!

Evan hanging out with his new buddy

Before running the shit. His new buddy wasn't so keen though so the two of them parted ways

Chris K finding the tongue after surfing the wave above. Nice work buddy

Chris G styles this drop and so though he'd have a go at wave wheeling the next (see below)

Sure it looks good in the photo but not so in real life... ask Chris.

More big slides... Evan leading the way

Lizzy showing the guys how it's done... again

Food!!! Chris K and Chris G fighting over the peanut butter at the take out

Mean while Evan had his own 'little' big gun show

Lizzy wasn't so impressed though...