Downhilling in Whistler, BC

We left Paris behind (in my case reluctantly - I could easily live there!) and flew with Lufthansa on a very uncomfortable plane for 10 hours to Vancouver. The seats were very hard on the plane and I was well glad to get off in British Columbia (BC). We were pretty jet lagged as BC is about 9 hours behind Paris so we taxied to the hotel in Vancouver and chilled for a couple of nights. Ben and I were still not all that well either.

From Berlin to Milan

Bussed up to Whistler (2-3 hours) through 120 km of roadworks getting the place ready for the 2010 winter Olympics and stayed in the village in an apartment in the MarketPlace for those who know Whistler. It was great being right in the middle of things - you can walk everywhere with a fantastic supermarket selling everything you want or need except grog - its at a different 'liquor store' just like home. We had gotten used to the European way of having everything all together in one shop (hypermarche) or everything in all different shops (boulanger, boucherie, patisier, Champion, etc).

From Berlin to Milan

Ben rode downhill bikes for the next 4 days - I lasted a day and couldn't go anymore than that. The Bike Park is brilliant with 3 lifts running and over 200km of downhill trails to ride at three different levels - green (easy), blue (medium) and black (hardest). We rode De Vinci bikes (made near Toronto), Norco bikes (made in Vancouver) and Specialized bikes (made I know not where). The place was very busy with both bike riders and boarders/skiers - there was still enough snow on Blackcomb mountain to have better cover than Mount Perisher has in a good season in winter!

Bussed back to Vancouver and caught the 15 hour direct flight home to Sydney - was a great trip home with Air Canada.

The Left Bank

From Berlin to Milan

Well our milk drinking got the better of Ben and I and we had to partake of the French medical service and see a doctor. I was a little concerned about costs etc but we were really not very well. We saw a doctor near to where we were staying on Rue de Boulanger near the Pantheon and he was great - would accept no money, made sure we came back the next day to see that we were improving, made recommendations for us when the medications he rescribed ran out, etc, etc. As I keep saying through the blog, we have been very lucky and been helped by some fabulous people wherever we've gone.

From Berlin to Milan

Anyway, Paris was great as of course it always is - I love the place and the people. I love trying out my French and being being spoken to in French in return. We have had to try a bit harder on the trip with languages because it seems like wherever we went, we were in areas of Germany, Italy and Romania where little English was spoken. But it was great fun.
Staying on the left bank in an apartment allowed us a view of the city we hadn't had before - we have previously stayed near the Moulin Rouge a couple of times and so we saw Notre Dame (still lots of gypsy beggars here - watch your monies - a new scam was a lady would seem to pick up a gold ring just in front of you and ask you if it was yours while the kids crowded around you while you were distracted by this and make a lunge for the wallet or similar). Did you also know that Americans pronounce Notre Dame as Noter Dame?
The Pantheon, Jardin et la Palais du Luxembourg, Tour Eiffel, etc - what a great city!
Paris is also a leading example of providing bikes for people to use and encouraging their use with bike paths specifically marked on the roads. On many streets, there are say 25 bikes for hire using a parking meter type of gadget to hire it - first hour is free. You can return it to any of the similar bike stations throughout the city and it is locked into place and the computerised locking system tells the central system that you have 'returned' it and to compute a final price. The bikes have lights front and back, gearbox rear hub and very easy to ride. Roads here are narrow but again drivers are pretty forgiving and everyone 'fits' on the roads.

The Romanian Leg

Sorry for the delays for updates but things happen.
We caught up with Tania's Romanian cousins in Cassano d'Adda, Trezzo sur d'Adda and Crema - all near Bergamo. Found out that Pelligrino mineral water is bottled here as well! I knew I liked it.
We donated our bikes to the cousins and mine was already in use by the time we left for Romania. Bike riding is much more of a way of life here than in Australia and rain, hail, shine as well. The roads are probably not as good in Italy as the general roads in Australia either but the drivers are very forgiving and just wait if they have to in order to pass bike riders on the narrower roads. We were very impressed.
The other thing to note about Italians is how hard they work compared to home. A typical day is 7am to 7pm with a half hour break. Often its 6 days per week and they get 2 weeks annual leave. We have it pretty good at home really.
We (eventually!) flew on to Romania with WizzAir - can't really recommend them if anyone is thinking of travelling cheaply around Europe. We had two flights booked with them - one was delayed for three hours and the other was cancelled due to a pilot strike! Anyway, we flew to Cluj Napoca and hired a car and drove the 339km (which took nearly 9 hours such are the state of the roads BTW) to Tania's Aunts/Uncles in Bogota in Eastern Romania.

From Berlin to Milan

This was an emotional time for me as I hadn't been there since 1987 ie. before Ceaucescu was toppled. It was great to see the freedom and general sense of well-being now though there is a vast lack of 18-40 year olds in Romania as they have mostly left to other EU countries for the higher wages. Cluj Napoca though was a university city and was very vibrant and alive though many still said that they would be seeking work in other EU countries when they were finished study.

From Berlin to Milan

We rebooked flights out of Cluj Napoca with Tarom Air since our WizzAir flight was cancelled and had a dream flight back to Milan and onto Paris via Zurich. Unfortunately Ben and I had picked up food poisoning - our own fault really I suppose - we were drinking and enjoying lapte (milk) straight from the milked cow until it caught up with us and we are still recovering even now some weeks later.