The Update

I had another pretty good week here in Sant Celoni.
The kids are picking up quite a bit of English now which is good and I am starting to get a fair bit of Spanish or Catalan lingo down!
On Wednesday night I went out to a live concert in the square where there was a guy singing in Catalan. He was an excellent entertainer and really got everybody going. It went on into the early hours of the morning.
Then on Thursday night I was invited out for a BBQ dinner in a field. A fire was lit and veges and potatoes from the vege garden were cooked!! We then had dinner by candle light. One of the guys plays the guitar really well so he jammed on that into the early hours of the morning. I am still trying to get used to the Spanish time here. They eat dinner at about 9-11pm and don’t go to bed until at least 12 usually!!
On the wkd I went into Barcelona with my friend Rueben. We checked out a few magnificent buildings in the morning such as the Temple de la Sagrada Familia and the Olympic stadiums. In the arvo we went shopping and took in the sights and scenes around La Ramblers and the main streets. Our plan was to hire bikes and cruise around the city on them but after our massive all you can eat Buffet lunch(Was delicious, including loads of Gelato/Ice Cream!!) we were so stuffed we just headed out to the Barcelona Harbour. Was a wicked day!!
On the Saturday night the town was celebrating as it is the beginning of there holidays. So I was picked up by some of the locals and we cruised down for some Moheto’s and some party action. The party went on till 6am, we then went and lay on the beach as the sun rose, was so much fun!!
Then later in the day I packed my things and jumped on a train to France's 2nd biggest city, Lyon. On my train I got talking to some Spanish people who helped tell me the quickest root to Lyon which helped a lot. And I also met a girl from Sweden called Fredrica. I was a little unprepared and had only taken 1 banana for the 8hour train ride but luckily Fredrica was really nice and shared her bread with me and we enjoyed a nice quiet wine on the train. We arrived in Lyon at about 11pm and me and Fredrica were heading for a youth hostel when we ran into a French chick Emily. Emily offered us to stay in her appartment!!!She makes hats and we got to stay in her hat room which was very cool!!She also showed us around Lyon which was wicked, its a very cool city with a river running through it.
The next day I tried to find a bus to Sault-Brenaz(Kayaking course about 50km from Lyon) but there were none!!So I caught a train to the nearest town. I was planning on hitching from there to Sault-Brenaz but this lady came up and asked where I wanted to go and when I told her she just took me there!!!I couldn't quite believe my luck!!I also met a French girl Marie on the train who was from Lyon and she offered for me to come and stay also!!I think French people are super friendly and nice!!Was cool.
So anyway I spent the week camping in the beautiful surroundings of Sault-Brenaz with a club from the Netherlands. We camped right by the river which was perfect! Every morning we had Fresh French Crossants and we ended the days with wine, beer or Sangria. It was really good to be back in a boat on white water again and it was really good having new people to train with. They were a really cool bunch of paddlers and were fun to paddle and chill out with. Cheers to the team for having me and helping coach me and keeping me entertained!!It was an awesome week!!
I finally made it back to Sant Celoni and found that the house was locked and my family had gone on holiday...so I slept under the stars!! Luckily today the neighbours were home and they have lent me there spare key!!
Tommorrow my friend Andreu is heading to La Seu and I will cruise along with him and hopefully go for a paddle and take my boat back with me as I have plans for some kayaking in the next few weeks. Plans will be revealed in time...

Adios