Also in St Johann is Bunny’s Pub, an Aussie bar run by a bloke called Paulie who is free with a laugh and generous at handing out shots if the party’s fading. He took one look at 6’8” Mark and said “Geez, do you reckon he’s too big to get drunk? Wonder if we can get him to fall over.” I heard that he succeeded by the end of the night. There are a few tales from that evening, but for the most part they come under the banner of “what happens on tour stays on tour”.
St Johann is a great place to sit and chill and Pete, Antoinette and I did exactly that on the next morning. Learning to repugn non-Italian coffee we sat and watched friendly Austrians go past and we wandered the streets some. Pete and I had a go at the concrete toboggan track. Wow man, there’s no way this thing would be legal in Australia – not because of the state of repair of the plant or equipment, but just the inherent lack of safety that comes with hurtling down a mountainside (so high up we had to take a ski lift – the track is as long as a full ski slope) with no protection more than your own instinct of self-preservation. And just to really give it a kick, your competitive side is brought into play by there being two tracks side by side. Oh and there are jumps. Yeah! Pete and I had two goes before our afternoon’s main activity: paragliding.
Paragliding was fantastic. We started at 1700m above sea level, climbed to 1900m and finally came to rest 30mins and a few acrobatic stunts later at 700m. It’s just amazingly cool to be able to recline (yes recline) while floating up and down a kilometre above the ground amongst the alps. We were lucky to have such a great day; sharing the sky with gliders is always a good sign. The tranquillity and escapism of it all is hard to portray; I imagine the experience is similar to being a cloud.
Another crazy night at Bunny’s; we’re all having a grand time. I cleaned up the table in a game of 8 ball, much to me team mate Jan’s delight and then Antoinette and I left for some quiet time – foot rubs and deep talks. We got close and by the end realised it was too close for a holiday fling which made us take a step back, and we soon parted for the evening.
The next we arrived in Prague. Prague is every bit as lovely as I’ve been told. The streets are clean, the heritage is rich, and the entire city is interesting during the day and alive all through the night. On the first night we went to the largest night club in middle Europe (a little dingy, but full of variety and people). The following morning Jan, Peter and I rose late, went in for some late breakfast, browsed the markets (which were wonderful; I would have bought just about anything they had on sale), watched the town clock come slightly to life at the coming of the hour (1pm), visited the sex machine museum (waste of money really), found 7 of the 12 gold plates on the Charles Bridge (to find all 12 gives super-natural power), experienced a true traditional Czech meal (have a guess what “bread dumplings” are), climbed the hill to the palace, climbed the high tower of the cathedral there, and then went looking for culture.
Singapore Airlines Flight SQ235
Singapore -> Brisbane, Australia
St Johann is a great place to sit and chill and Pete, Antoinette and I did exactly that on the next morning. Learning to repugn non-Italian coffee we sat and watched friendly Austrians go past and we wandered the streets some. Pete and I had a go at the concrete toboggan track. Wow man, there’s no way this thing would be legal in Australia – not because of the state of repair of the plant or equipment, but just the inherent lack of safety that comes with hurtling down a mountainside (so high up we had to take a ski lift – the track is as long as a full ski slope) with no protection more than your own instinct of self-preservation. And just to really give it a kick, your competitive side is brought into play by there being two tracks side by side. Oh and there are jumps. Yeah! Pete and I had two goes before our afternoon’s main activity: paragliding.
Paragliding was fantastic. We started at 1700m above sea level, climbed to 1900m and finally came to rest 30mins and a few acrobatic stunts later at 700m. It’s just amazingly cool to be able to recline (yes recline) while floating up and down a kilometre above the ground amongst the alps. We were lucky to have such a great day; sharing the sky with gliders is always a good sign. The tranquillity and escapism of it all is hard to portray; I imagine the experience is similar to being a cloud.
Another crazy night at Bunny’s; we’re all having a grand time. I cleaned up the table in a game of 8 ball, much to me team mate Jan’s delight and then Antoinette and I left for some quiet time – foot rubs and deep talks. We got close and by the end realised it was too close for a holiday fling which made us take a step back, and we soon parted for the evening.
The next we arrived in Prague. Prague is every bit as lovely as I’ve been told. The streets are clean, the heritage is rich, and the entire city is interesting during the day and alive all through the night. On the first night we went to the largest night club in middle Europe (a little dingy, but full of variety and people). The following morning Jan, Peter and I rose late, went in for some late breakfast, browsed the markets (which were wonderful; I would have bought just about anything they had on sale), watched the town clock come slightly to life at the coming of the hour (1pm), visited the sex machine museum (waste of money really), found 7 of the 12 gold plates on the Charles Bridge (to find all 12 gives super-natural power), experienced a true traditional Czech meal (have a guess what “bread dumplings” are), climbed the hill to the palace, climbed the high tower of the cathedral there, and then went looking for culture.
Singapore Airlines Flight SQ235
Singapore -> Brisbane, Australia
posted by Tim at 12:05 pm
5 Comments:
Sorry to Burst your bubble Tim, but i've been on a concrete Taboggan ride here in Australia,think it was in Perth, didn't go luge (which is head first but there are concrete taboggan tracks here in OZ).
The best taboggan track in Australia though, has to be the one in Canberra, that one's a metal track, absolutely awesome. Metal tracks are definitely better than concrete, can go a lot faster.
Thank you Anonymous poster, I would never have thought something like this would be allowed in Australia, and I'm glad to hear it is (public liability isn't completely ruling).
What I would like to see to go with it though is someone to stand at the top and regulate the traffic - a way to make sure that if a kid stops halfway down that the person behind isn't right on their tail.
And wow, metal tracks too, that'd be fantastic.
Oh, and this wasn't luge - fixed the post.
It's not exactly practical to have someone standing at the top watching, there's not really that much they can do anyway if someone is flying down the track. However, in Australia, at least on the metal ones, you're pulled up the hill on a pulley system. The person at the bottom of the track doesn't let you onto that pulley system until a certain amount of time/distance has passed. When you get to the top of the track there are signs stating guidelines of when to go, like don't go until person is out of sight.
If you're a fast person you wait for a longer period of time to give the person in front a fighting chance. The whole track is also signposted with symbols saying to slow down or ease up etc. So I would say that it is pretty well safeguarding people's necks.
However that's not to say you don't go flying into people, cos i have, and have also been hit from behind. I've also known people to go off the track tacking a corner too fast at the wrong height on the track. But it's all in good fun.
APOLOGIES
Made a mistake on previous post if you can correct it somehow that would be great. LUGE is feet first, SKELETON is head first. apologies again, brain was scrambled from information overload at uni :)
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