Wow, what an awesome event
Cue long write up - or just lots of pictures for anyone who doesnt want to read!
I spent two days dismantling and packing my stilts, and my clothes - trying to make it all fit into the suitcase and weigh less than 20kg. Charged everything for the camera and packed that too.
Friday2.45am - alarm went off, followed by leaving the house at 3.30am, to get to the airpoort for 4.30am to meet Carl. Checked in no problem, but Carl's bag was too big... involved walking round to another place so they could check it in. Apparently they x-ray the checked in luggage too, and were rather confused with the x-ray of Carls bag, and asked to search it! He then spent the next 5minutes explaining what they were to the x-ray man!
Finally all checked in and ready to go we were off to find the plane!
Arrived in Prague airport and found our way to the bus stop
then managed to get on the correct bus, and pay the right amount of money (although I got very confused as they have 50CZK notes and coins) Got to the train station with no trouble at all...
After carrying bags down 4? 5? flights of stairs (they weigh a lot - clothes and stilts) we finally found the ticket office! Then had to work out what we needed to buy and from which of the desks! We spoke English, they spoke Czech and we ended up with the correct tickets
We had been told to look for a blue screen, apparently all the details of where our train would be and when would be on this screen. Found the screen, found some seats and made ourselves comfortable while we tried to decode the screen.... 10mins later we saw the only english word on the screen "Arrivals" oops!
Carried the bags back up 2 of the 4/5 flights of stairs to the "Departures" screen - this one made far more sense! Joined the huge crowd of people watching the screen and waited for our platform number to appear.
Apparently the whole crowd was waiting for our train as they all charged at the stairs in one go when the platform number arrived. We struggled along behind, up more flights of stairs to the platform!
The train was on time (exactly to the minute)
and was a Harry Potter style train, with little cabins with slidy doors and everything! Carl and I joined 3 Czech people in a cabin, with our bags, and they helped us put them on a shelf out of the way. *3 hours later* we arrived in Ostrava, the very helpful Czech people got my bag back down for me and left the train. We got off at our stop and followed the Poweriser bag we had spotted down two more flights of stairs and out of the station into the carpark, where we introduced ourselves to the owner of the poweriser bag, who unsurprisingly was also headed to Aubria!
David came and collected us from the station and took us to the Town Hall where thre were lots of bockers already bocking!
We then went to the hotel we were staying in to unpack. We were in a room of 6 bockers, and each person arrived to a welcome card and gift! Think we took over the entire hotel too - bockers everywhere!
In the evening we all went to Lanoven centru for a welcome party! "Mohito" was the theme of the night, and I challenge anyone to remember how many mohitos we drunk between us! After playing on the trampoline we were all welcomed to the event and given goody bags containing our event tshirt and our passes for the weekend, as well as several other goodies! The rest of the evening was spent with a Mohito in one hand whilst singing karoke, playing on the wii, meeting bockers from the 10? different countries represented (including Czech Republic, UK, Austria, Germany, Russia, Belarus and Poland) and more Mohitos!
SaturdayWe were up early for breakfast, and then went to a sports ground for the mornings competitions! Womens 100m was first, with two heats, followed by the mens 100m at which point it started to rain
we all crowded under the trees (not that that made any difference to the rain) and waited for it to stop.... it didnt! So several people continued bocking in the rain, until we were all so soaked we went to have food!
After a huge lunch David had managed to organise an indoor gym for us to use, so the rest of the afternoon was spent bocking in an indoor dome tennis centre! Lots of people trying new things on the crash mats, and a TV company were there filming too! By 5pm we were all shattered, but a large group went to visit the local mining museum!
Sorry no photos, I was too busy bocking!The evening was spent in the rope centre - a huge high ropes place. Lots of swinging from trees, climbing posts and then jumping from rope to rope took place, while everyone competed to build the highest crate tower!
We then ventured out in Ostrava and ended up with Mohitos!
SundayLater start Sunday morning, and then we were taken to a huge outdoor swimming pool!
On the field by the pool there were inflatables, trampolines, gift shops, food places... the event was open to the public as well as to us, but for us entry was free. After spending several hours on the trampolines, again, everyone went to watch the mens high jump heats. Anyone clearing 1.60m was into the final, but anyone could take part in the heats. The bar started low, and slowly people were knocked out as it got higher and higher.
After a bit of a break was the womens High Jump competition, which again everyone went to watch.
Elena from Belarus came 1st, Kamka from the Czech Republic came 2nd and I came 3rd!
Then it was the boys turn!
Radek from the Czech Republic came first with a height of 2m40?
Danny from the Czech Republic came 2nd, and ChriZ from Germany came 3rd
Third place winners!
Each person (1st/2nd/3rd) were presented with a medal and a goody bag, and 1st place also won a set of springs!
Uwe from Austria then flipped the sponsor's car
We then headed over to the other side of the pool to watch the team displays (via some lampposts)
The public that were attending the event were all seated ready to watch the displays, which started with Elena from Belarus.
The Czech team
The Range of Motion Team, plus Carl and Dawesome
The ROM+UK team won, and were presented with goody bags and a certificate from Half-Animal giving them free items from his online shop.
After a freestyle show by anyone who wanted to take part we then moved to the pier that went into the swimming pool, for a bit of a dip! (on bocks, obviously)
For the rest of the afternoon and evening we were free to enjoy all of the activities on offer. I spent the entire evening on a floating trampoline in the middle of the pool, and Carl took lots and lots of photos for us!
thank you Carl
We all then spent the last few hours of the weekend writing down email addresses and taking photos of all the people we had met during the very busy 2 1/2 days we had been there.
MondayThis involved a return trip to England and was nowhere near as complicated as on the way there! Possibly as we had Dawesome helping us!
So a huge thank you to everyone that organised Aubria, to all the people who drove us around, and to everyone there. I had an awesome weekend, and am really looking forward to next years. Best of all, including flights and hotel and food, the whole weekend only cost about £400! When can I book for next years?
