Itinerary (Draft)

Right, finally getting some dates together for this trip. My first rough draft is:
10/02/14 (Mon) Luton to Gdansk 14:55-18:05 (Wizz Air) - £25.99 

12/02/14 (Wed) Gdansk to Turku 10:05-12:25 (Wizz Air) - £16.99 

13/02/14 (Thu) Turku to Stockholm 08:45-18:55 (Viking Line) - £13.50 

16/02/14 (Sun) Stockholm to Copenhagen 15:20-16:30 (Norwegian Air) - £41.80 

18/02/14 (Tue) Copenhagen to Manchester 17:20-18:25 (Easyjet) - £32.77 

Travel Total = 16 Hours

Travel Cost = £131.05

Due to the amount of places I had planned to visit, and the short amount of time available, Malmo has had to be dropped from the list. Otherwise I think it would be too busy and I wouldn't have time to take in the various cities along the way.

Next step then, accommodation.

PS. Me and Helen. Manchester-Berlin. 16/19 January.

Viking!

"The derived Old Norse masculine noun víkingr appears in Viking Age skaldic poetry and on several rune stones found in Scandinavia, where it refers to a seaman or warrior who takes part in an expedition overseas."
From Wiki

Firstly, let me point out that mixing Christian Graugarts "BJJ Globetrotter" book with an impressionable young fighter and his newly acquired passport is always going to lead to disaster. Therefore, let me announce my project for next year. A jolly around Northern Europe, taking in as many continental gyms as possible.

The initial plan is as follows:
London - Gdansk, Poland - Turku, Finland - Stockholm, Sweden - Malmo, Sweden - Copenhagen, Denmark - Manchester

Over the next few months I intend to post up my ideas and progress on this trip, bookmarking it together with some sortttt of hastagging system. Maybeeeee #stone-to-scandanavia? That'll do.

If I plan this just right, the travelling part should cost less than £150 all in. That could potentially swing either way, but from my research so far, I'm not too far off the mark.

So, what's next? Save! Make sure there is enough dough squirreled away to make this possible. Also, it may be worthwhile learning a bit of the local dialogue. As a start, here is my first phrase I will attempt to commit to memory.

Witam, mam na imię Chris. Proszę przestać dusi mnie. (Polish)
Hei, nimeni on Chris. Lopeta tukehtuminen minua. (Finnish)
Hej, mitt namn är Chris. Vänligen sluta kväva mig. (Swedish)
Hej, mit navn er Chris. Venligst stop kvælning mig. (Danish)
Hello, my name is Chris. Please stop choking me.

I also need to make sure I mention the following. This whole idea, it's weird inception through to it's ultimate realisation, can only be done with my very loving and very supporting wi-girl-fianc-fe (currently in a state of flux). Once the final dust is settled and the last blood spatters are cleaned from my Gi, the full stop would be a small holiday with her to the same place/s. We shall see.

2530 Miles (ish)

Biggest Job Ever!

Monday morning, at 04:11, I was called out to probably the largest job of my career to date. Well, it was the largest job in West Midlands history, a more modern Buncefield. In Smethwick, Birmingham 50,000-100,000 tonnes of plastic had gone up in flames.
We were called out to act as relief for the crews already over the border. Upon hearing from Jess that we were going to a "make pumps 35" I thought it was some weird early morning sarcasm. Apparently not.
So, without further do, when kids ask "what was your biggest job", here is the main contender.