Karl New York City, United States of America.

Bienvenue à Paris!

I love Paris. Always have, always will. Such a beautiful old and enchanting city. I was here for only one purpose this time, Le Tour de France! I spent most of my time in the hostel cooking food, meeting other Australians and Americans who where here for the Tour as well. Since I have been here serveral times before, I wasn’t fussed about the sights, more so than saving money, eating and drinking well, and seeing the tour… but that didn’t get in the way of me having a little fun with the locals.

Everyone in the foreground (apart from the guy on the far right) were staying in the same hostel as me. Last time I was there I managed to wrangle a group of people together to head to the Sacré-Cœur to drink wine and watch the sun set. Seeing as I had such a great time doing it 3 years ago, I thought I would try and conjure up a group to do it all again.

We spent several hours drinking wine, eating cheese and discussing where we were from in Australia or America and life in general. Always good times spent on those steps, well, apart from the last night we were up there and we were almost robbed! Lucky 3 Australian blokes don’t take much nonsense from a lowly Parisian rat!

All of that aside, nothing could take the hype, excitement and thrill away from watching Le Tour de France live in the flesh. I am still coming to grips with the whole ordeal.

We got to the Place de la Concorde at about 12pm, ready and willing to wait the full 4.5 hours until the peloton screams by. It was already getting crowded and the streets were lined with people, also happy to sit the 4.5 hour wait. I was getting nervous at this point as I wasn’t yet willing to gamble on trying to squeeze in a spot on the Champs-Élysées, so my hostel friends went on without me while I tried to find a bank, some food, and a great spot for photos.

View Tour Nightmare in a larger map

Well, 30 minutes went by and I was on my own, playing chess on my iPhone with nobody to talk too. I figured that I couldn’t stand another 4 hours of this, so went on the mission to find my hostel companions. It was a decent 1km walk from where I was to one of the secure entrances to the Champs-Élysées, and by that time there was already litterally thousands of people storming their way around finding spots.

I knew I was screwed.

I walked towards the Arc de Triomphe, in hope to find my hostel mate (who was wearing a Le Tour de France 2009 gold shirt, like the 1000’s of others). It was shoulder-to-shoulder, step-by-step movements up the Champs-Élysées. At one point we were standing still waiting for the hordes of people to sort it out and keep moving.

I walked around the Arc de Triomphe, and back down the other side of the Champs-Élysées, this had taken an hour to walk 1km already, and as time was ticking closer, me without any sort of decent view of the street and no friends, I was getting rather annoyed with myself.

I ended up right down the other end of the Champs-Élysées, near the big monitors and finish line, when I decided to call my hostel friends one more time to see if I could get their where-a-bouts. Turns out they were on the exact opposite side of the Champs-Élysées as me, which meant I had to make some life changing decisions. 1, I walk all the way back, waste another hour and hope that by then I can squeeze to the front, or 2, try and get across the Champs-Élysées.

Some police walked by and after we both realised we don’t want to talk in our own respective languages, I managed to find out that the subway below the Champs-Élysées is my only hope. I walked into the subway, and of course, this subway doesn’t go under the street, you must ride the subway!

So, I took the subway back to Place de la Concorde, and there I was, back where I started, with little over 1 hour to get back to where my friends where.

I high-tailed it, managed to find my friends who were already 10 people deep (as you can see, and yes, that’s the Arc de Triomphe in the distance…)

We waited for another 30 minutes, however we were entertained by all the official sponsors of the Tour riding past in their floats. Lots of hilarity to be had, giant squirrels, giant cyclists, lots of off comments from the crowd and horrendous bad French breath!

The wait was over, and it was worth every second. We were watching the super giant TV of the live race coverage, and the excitement of the crowd as the peloton rode into Paris erupted. The crowd surged forward about 10 meters, and we all waited silently for the peloton to reach the Champs-Élysées. You could have closed your eyes and seen the peloton scream past, as there was a thunderous roar from the crowd following them throughout the entire 7 laps. Silence, then as they approach, cheers, screams and applause for the 5 seconds you see them, and then the roar moves up the Champs-Élysées like a mexican wave. Like nothing I’ve ever witnessed before! Incredible!

We did that 7 times, I tried my best to get close and take photos, however my wandering of the Champs-Élysées for 2 hours rendered that exercise useless, and I was just happy to be there at the end of it all.

Turns out our position was right in front of the podium, and we got to witness the top riders of our lifetime graciously accepting awards from the Tour organisers etc.

Until next year, Vive Le Tour!!!!

Yesterday I tried to ride to Vaxholm. Vaxholm is one of the first points of the Stockholm archipelago, and is easy to get to by boat, and almost impossible by bike.

Stockholm in general has excellent bike paths, well signed with distances, wide and smooth. That is, until the council can’t be bothered anymore. Several times on this trip I ended up on dirt roads, industrial areas and peoples back yards. At point I was heading on to a highway. One minute I’m following bike path directions, the next I’m on the E18 heading to Oslo.

So I got frustrated and had to abort my mission. I was around 15 kms from my goal, which would have rendered me spending the afternoon on an island, drinking beer and having fun. Instead, I returned to Stockholm, and drank beer in the park with some friends.

It’s also nice to ride back to places I ventured to when it was snowing, this is a totally different town now. Summer is here, the rides are long and the beer is cold. Loving summer!

Today I took another trip out to Lidingö with 3 guys from the Stockholm fixed gear fraternity. Lovely people, great ride, and super windy. This time we took the back way at the northern part of Lidingö, which provided much up hill stress for my already weary body. I plan not to do much for the next few days!

Smashed it!

Well, what a week. My first week back since Australia and I feel like it’s a whole new city. The weather has been hovering around 17ºc – 20ºc during the days and just below 10ºc at night, perfect.

I sit here in my kitchen, with a bottle of French riesling to help me reflect on the week and weekend just gone, and I must say that Stockholm is a place to visit when the sun is out. The trees have leafs, the rivers are flowing with boats & kiyaks, the parks are full of people and and the city is alive! The long dark winter is finally paying off, and everybody is making the most of it, including me.

Saturday I woke up early and took a walk through Östermalm in an attempt to get into some spring gear. I spent a fair amount of my time though taking photos of the beautiful cherry blossoms that line Kungsträgåden (King’s Garden). I will be uploading the rest of the blossom shots this week. It was really nice to be out taking photos again, headphones on (DJ Krush only with spiritual enlightenment thanks to DJ Krush – Zen). I sat and watched the people for a good while and realised that Spring has definitely landed.

Last night I caught up with NYC legend and fellow Fi employee Priscilla (Lil’ Pri, Ludapris, The Mexican) at Mosebacke, which lead us on to pizza and then a crazy apartment party, which while didn’t go late into the night (we packed it in at 1am), still managed to attract the attention of the Stockholm Polis who claimed they could hear us from 5 floors down on the street. We weren’t playing music loud, but because it’s spring, we have our windows open, and the sound echos across the area like nothing else. Oh well… they were cool with it.

As in my previous post, I woke up with an itch to get on the bike. After making a cracking breakfast with Canadian housemate Liam and Italian housemate Matteo, I jumped on the saddle and belted out 45kms. I decided to head south as far as I could go. I am so happy that Stockholm has such awesome bike paths. They’re wide, well directed and so smooth. It was like riding on a skating rink for 4 hours. I rode hard and fast for what felt like forever, there were a few moments when I realised I had been day dreaming and had to snap back to reality. It was that good.

I got as far as Skogår, which is about 20 km’s south of Stockholm. I know this because I managed to jack some unsecured wifi connection and Twittered about it. It was amazing. A rich area I would suspect, with houses raised high on cliffs overlooking peaceful lakes and amazing forests. It doesn’t take long out of Stockholm before you’re immersed in nature. The best way to see it is obviously on a fixed gear bike.

I arrived home exhausted and made up a nice plate of cheese and meat and am currently finishing off that bottle of riesling, almost topping off the perfect weekend, apart from the obvious.

I’m back to no drinking this week, and also running hopefully 4 of the 5 nights. I bought a great running jacket, and now that it’s warming up, the sun is out longer so I can run longer and avoid getting the flu.

Until next time… hej dåg!

Today was another beautiful day in Stockholm, so having an empty diary I decided it was time me and the bike got reaquainted. I smashed 45kms by simply following a bike path to who knows where. I ended up in Skogås, which is on the water, simply beautiful. It was like a little paradise away from Stockholm. Lots-a money out there, me thinks!

Knackered!

There’s me at third last, however, if you notice the times, I’m actually 26 seconds behind the peloton. The messengers ran the race in a cool hour, and we were 45 minutes behind them. Insane.

This was a fairly long race. I didn’t understand any of the instructions so kept close with my team mates Sönke, Erik H and På (who’s nickname on the list I’m unsure of). The idea was to race to our first spot, get the 2 numbers on the door, do some math, and use that result to find our next location. Rinse and repeat 20 times (throw in a stop that includes vodka and caviar) and you made it. Our group was ahead by about 15 minutes at one point until a slight miscalculation rendered us at the back of the main group. We slogged it through the city and with a little help of my Östermalm knowledge, we were back in the group. It was a long haul as you can see, it was also -10ºc and the snot, sweat, and tears froze to my face as we bashed through the late afternoon traffic.

We finished up at pub, ate bratwurst and drank stout (oops), and I managed to climb home at some late hour. Thanks for your hospitality Sönke! I hope you got home alright mate.

This is me and Sönke starting to ride. For full details of the race in Swedish and lots of photos, read this thread.

Hej då!

My first Stockholm Alleycat. Let’s roll.

I miss the weather, the food, the fashion, and kids doing this. I’ll be back.