Alive and Well

Hi All,

I am currently in Paris awaiting the rapidly approaching commencement of our cycling tour which is due to depart in less than 48 hours! So sorry it has taken me what seems like a lifetime to finally get to posting my first blog...I have had no end of excitement and dramas in the lead up and post my departure from Brisbane to Paris...which I will try to recall now...this will cover quite a bit of territory so will be quite long, so get a cup of tea and settle in!

Pre-Departure
For those that were not lucky enough to be on the receiving end of my emotional stress attacks...the lead up to departing Australia for in excess of 6 months was nothing short of chaotic! As inevitably happens with so much to organise, much got left until the last moment, including some adjustments to the bike which will carry me nearly 15,000kms...the consequence of which being that I have yet to barely ride 40km on my machine! But somehow I managed to get myself and 'most' of my luggage onto the flight to Paris. In due course I will add more information to other pages in my blog regarding all specific pre-departure issues.

Departure - 21st May 2008
The day finally arrived that saw me and my luggage (which incidentally at 61kg total weighed in at more than I did!) board a plane bound for Paris. Those closely involved with my preparations will know that I went to great lengths to ensure that I would not get slugged with massive excess luggage fees...it seems it does not pay to be organised!

I had booked myself a British Airways ticket because of their favourable baggage policy but ended up on a Qantas code-share flight. Despite being previously advised differently, at check-in I was told that because my first flight was on a Qantas plane Qantas baggage policy applies regardless of my being on a British Airways ticket. Needless to say I got quite upset when they wanted to charge me $71 PER kilogram for each and every one of my excess 41kg of luggage! Yes, that is $2,911!!!

Thankfully the check-in attendant obviously took pity on me (welling up with tears) and made a few calls and managed to get my bike onto the flight for free but ushered me on to the unattended baggage counter to ship my second bag of gear...after handing over another $300!

Flights
The flights over were actually pretty good by comparison to other long haul flights I have done and although not over quickly, were bearable. Actually, upon further reflection...the first leg from Brisbane to Singapore was undoubtedly the worst flight by service standards that I have ever been on! The plane was about 25 years old and the staff all looked like they had been working on it since its maiden voyage. The stewards were quite rude, to the point were you felt as though you were imposing to ask for a glass of juice! And to top it off I was seated in the very back row of seating, complete with posture control seating (ie. no recline) and the aroma of fuel vapours and freshly flushed toilets. The one saving grace on this flight was the company of the two other young men with whom I shared the back row.

Brian? (you all know I am terrible with names!) was from Brisbane, but returning to London where he is currently living and working. The other, Fero, living and working in Brisbane, was returning home to the Czech Republic to visit family, and...the girlfriend...whom I found out after the consumption of a few too many whisky's (by him)...was technically his ex-girlfriend due to circumstances, but had led him to believe they were to meet in Czech to re-kindle their relationship. Up until a few days before he flew home that was. Which is when she called to say she had met someone else but still wanted to meet him in Czech...just to be sure! So, the back row conversation turned into an entertaining 8 hours which could be likened to a Dr Phil episode fuelled on by too many champagnes on Brian’s part and way too many whisky's on Fero's part!

Arrival into and departure from Singapore was uneventful with exception of the fantastic massage I got to kill time. Back in the air on a much nicer British Airways plane I slept reasonably well for most of the flight...blissfully unaware that my Bike did not join me! Following a brief stopover and mad change of terminals in London I finally arrived in Paris...with only 20kg of the 61kg of luggage that I left home with! Minor blessing was that it was the most important 20kg for my first week in Paris, so I have to be thankful for something.

In Paris
So, after making a lost luggage report, myself and Allan whom I had met on the flight from Singapore, hopped on board a shuttle service into Paris which was excruciatingly slow...the combined effects of which meant that I arrived at my hostel at 1.30pm after arriving on a 9.30am flight! I stayed in the hostel for one night and had another lesson in you only get what you pay for...

Thankfully my friend Graeme who is joining me on this cycling adventure arrived into Paris early and I got to ride on his coat-tails so to speak and share in the luxury of a 4 star hotel for the second night before we moved into the apartment we had rented for a week. In the interim I spent a day wandering about Paris getting my bearings and soaking up some of the atmosphere with the help of Allan whom I met on the flight in...who was a part-time tennis coach, full-time pharmacist and self professed money-bags who was in Paris for the French open and had offered me some spare tickets, which unfortunately due to last minute preparations I just was not able to make fit into the schedule which was a bummer!

A couple of days in Paris and my sister Melissa and her boyfriend Damion flew in from Edinburgh, where they are living and working, to visit me for a few days. After 18 months not much had changed, which was nice as it helped me feel more settled in Paris and forget temporarily about the looming challenge ahead. So as we had all been to Paris before, we just did a bit of ancillary sight seeing including the Catacombs and Versailles (minus the palace which was closed) and otherwise just bummed about. It was sad to say goodbye but good to catch up.

In relay fashion Manon arrived as Melissa and Damion left. Manon is a friend of Graeme's and the 3rd in our little group to be tackling this together.

My entire time in Paris has otherwise been consumed by trip preparations. My bike was delivered to the hostel on the first day about 8 hours after I arrived, so it obviously made the next flight and thankfully found me! My unaccompanied bag on the other hand took over a week and much chasing to finally locate. It had been from Brisbane to London to Vienna to Paris!

I spent an entire morning yesterday going through the motions to regain custody of my bag, which involved catching trains and buses to the freight area of the airport in Paris and wandering about the freight area carefully dodging trucks trying to find the shipping agent as my GPS and Google Maps had given me a bum steer on the location of the street number! But I eventually found the freight agent who gave me some paperwork and sent me 500m down the road to Customs to get clearance before returning to pay a 60 Euro admin fee prior to collecting my bag.

In trying to find Customs I had to ask half a dozen people and in a combination of hand gestures and broken English was told to go to Gate 1...Gate 1 told me to go to Gate 4...and Gate 4 told me to go to Gate 2...where I finally found the customs shed to get my clearance, which thankfully they did on the basis of an international drivers permit as my Passport was in at the Azerbaijan Embassy in Paris getting a visa issued. I then did my best turtle impersonation and lugged my 21kg bag back via the bus and train network to the apartment!

Having finally been reunited with all my luggage, my next task was to hunt down a few last requirements for the pending trip. So I spent yesterday afternoon circumnavigating Paris to track down spare tubes, tyres, maps etc. And returned to the apartment to assemble my bike. So it was a jam-packed day but a very productive one.

Today I collected my Passport and visa from the Azerbaijan Embassy and have otherwise been finalising last minute tasks like re-packing and updating my blog (intermittently between having to re-visit the apartment at least every 5 hours to empty the bucket collecting water from a leak in the hot water system) in preparation for our moving from the apartment over to the Hotel from which the tour commences. So tomorrow is moving day...between the 3 of us we have about 120kg of luggage and 3 bikes to get from point A to point B!

So, that brings you up to date with what I have been doing to this point in time. From here in the real challenge starts! We start pedalling on Sunday 1st June...from there on who knows what stories I will be bringing you, so stay tuned!

Love Nic xx