Beon Giorno and Ciao from Genoa!

 

Today when we got in to port Genoa looked like a crowded city. We had training in the middle of the day, so mom wasn’t able to get to Milan to see some art. Instead we got on a Hop On Hop Off but to see the city. In Genoa, the bus had a channel just for kids so I got to hear about the city without the boring stuff. While we were driving through the city everything was tall (the buildings) and I saw a lot of pharmacies (maybe because they all have a flashing green cross in front of them).

We got off at a street with a lot of hops and walked around a bit. I got a toy car. I was an Alpha Romeo and is red and the doors open! It’s awesome.

We got back on the bus and made another stop to have lunch. We had lunch at a restaurant in a very narrow street. Cars were going by right behind my chair. It was kind of scary. For lunch, I first got a super good pizza — a Margherita pizza they called it. My soda came in a glass bottle and that was pretty cool. Then I had some ravioli too!

After lunch we went to a bookstore. They had some Star Wars books, but they were all in Italian so I couldn’t really understand them.

Then we headed across town to Gracie Genoa. It was a really hard private lesson for me because I haven’t been training like usual. I kind of got frustrated because I had a hard time understanding (I don’t speak Italian). But I did learn two sweeps from butterfly guard. I don’t really use butterfly guard too often (that was Professor Andrea’s favorite position) so it was helpful. I also learned an escape from an arm bar.

Mom found out (she can speak some Spanish and Professor Andrea could too) that the Italian kids don’t train during the summer. I’ve only had a few weeks off, I can’t imagine having the whole summer with no training!

After class we got an ice cream. Mom accidentally pulled the alarm in the bathroom for the second time on this trip AND almost locked herself in the bathroom! Dad heard the alarm and knew mom was the cause. It was pretty funny. She was embarrassed, but we all laughed pretty hard about it after.

Then we headed back to the boat.

Next stop —Florence!

My day in Marseille, France

 

Marseille is the second largest city in France. It didn’t look like France to me because I didn’t see a lot of flags around. I expected to see more French flags.

We took a bus into town and I noticed a lot of grafitti. We walked around and saw a huge church called Cathedrale La Major — it was bigger than the cathedral I saw in Barcelona!

I was excited about the day because it was going to be a training day for me!

We walked to the mall before my lesson because my mom had run out of something. I noticed a ton of security. They checked all our bags before we even got inside. It was a huge mall. I saw a lot of sandwich shops. The mall bathroom had awesome sinks — the hand drier was attached to the faucet. It was a Dyson, and was super cool!

We took a taxi to get to Gracie Barra Marseille. The streets were narrow with no sidewalks. Our driver drove a little crazy, but we made it.

I trained for an hour with Professor Sebastian. He was really fun. The gym was super clean, and a really nice place to train. I learned a sweep and a triangle from spider guard, and a way to perfect my triangle. I got a lot of rolling in too. Luckily, it wasn’t as hot as it had been in Greece. Professor Sebastian kept doing ankle picks on me. I think I need to work on my ankle pick defense.

After training we went to lunch, and then back to the boat.

Today’s jiu jitsu class was fun. I’m glad I was able to train — but mom and dad said I was a little rusty. Good thing I’m training again tomorrow in Genoa, Italy!

Columbus, GA/ Fort Benning

     I know it’s been a bit since I have posted but I have been stationary in Columbus, GA, for the past month or so. Now that I am back on the road and traveling more, I am planning on making the posts more frequently.

     Columbus in located along the Georgia and Alabama border and it a fairly large city on the banks of the Chatahoochee River. I lived in Columbus previously, for about two and half years, and returned to help a close friend prepare for an upcoming Mixed Martial Arts fight (hence the reason I was there so long). I really enjoy this town, and when it is time for us to stop traveling and settle down, it’s a pretty safe bet that I will return to this area.

     The uptown district, what most would call downtown, is riddled with numerous shops, restaurants, bars, and clubs. On weekend mornings there is a pretty nice farmer’s market, which offers all kids of local produce and handmade crafts. The rest of Columbus is kind of like any other city; there is pretty much any kind of food and entertainment you can think of. I thoroughly enjoy Thai food and my favorite is Thai House. Whenever I am in Columbus it is guaranteed that at some point during my visit, I will be walking through the doors of that small restaurant.

     As I’ve said, Columbus is a fairly large city, third largest in the state of Georgia I believe, and a lot of its population comes from Fort Benning. Fort Benning is a US Army base that is the home of the Infantry; because of this they are home to the National Infantry Museum. The museum is located just outside on of the access gates and is open to the public. I have been through the museum a few times and it is a truly humbling experience.

Standing outside the National Infantry Museum

     Now for the training; while in Columbus I trained at three different locations. Blind Fury BJJ is owned and operated by my friend Jason “Blind Fury” Keaton. He is called “Blind Fury” because he is legally blind, but don’t think that he considers this a handicap. He is an accomplished grappler and has even had a few MMA fights. I always enjoy training with Professor Keaton as we can sit and talk about jiujitsu philosophy and heavy metal after training (in case you’re wondering he is quite versed in both).

After training pic with Professor Keaton (third from right)

     F3 MMA is another gym in Columbus, owned and operated by Joseph “Dark Knight” Creer, a well-known boxer and MMA Fighter on the regional circuits and a BJJ Brown Belt. Every time I walk in his gym I am greeted by the smell of sweat and the sound of gloves hitting their target. I am almost guaranteed to see his young daughter playing with toys or mimicking his movements while shadow boxing. I love his gym, and the people that train there make it a great place to be.

Joe, Brandon, Professor Farris, and myself at F3 after training

     Probably the place that I did most of my training while in Columbus was actually on Ft. Benning. The United States Army Combatives School is located there and they host Fort Benning Jiu Jitsu. Classes are free three nights a week and are open to anyone that has access to the base. Classes are mainly conducted by Professor Tim Farris, a black belt under Matt Larsen and the Alliance lineage. When Professor Farris cannot be there, the classes are run by some of the USACS instructors. I claim USACS as my home gym because it is where my training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu became more serious and I started to get a better grasp of the art.

     One last thing before I wrap this up, while training with Professor Farris for the past month, he saw fit to promote me to the rank of purple belt. Honestly I was not expecting it but am more than happy that I was given the honor.

Professor Farris and I after my promotion

     We left Columbus a couple days ago and hit the road again, so expect to see some more posts from the spots we stop in!!

Cartegena and Gibralter

Our ship landed in Cartegena on Sunday morning, but I got sick. I had a really high fever and a bad headache. I had to see the boat’s medical center. I met a man from São Paulo, Brazil while at the doctor. He told me I need to train in Brazil because jiu jitsu comes from Brazil. I told him I definitely plan on it!

When we got back to our room, my mom asked our room steward if he could sing or dance and he said no. [ Mom’s note: I did, in fact ask the steward if he could sing or dance — in response to his question of, “Is there anything more I can do for you?”. I was joking, of course. He knew Eli was unwell and we were both trying to lighten his spirits.]. But then he came back to our room a while later and he had made me a penguin out of towels (I LOVE penguins)! The penguin looked super funny, but it cheered me up a bit.

I don’t have much to say about my day in Cartegena, Spain because I didn’t really get to visit the city.

Our next stop was Gibraltar. I was still feeling sick but we did go on a tour of the harbor to go dolphin watching (and whale watching). We didn’t see any whales and I was sad about that, but we did see dolphins. We saw striped dolphins leaping out of the water making splashes to scare away fish (that’s what the guide said). We saw little babies, a dolphin without a fin, and a dolphin with a lung infections (it made a weird noise as it came out of the water).

After the tour I was feeling more sick and we walked to a pharmacy to get me more medicine. We walked to the ship which was a little ways and stopped at this phone booth because I have a friend whose dad is from England. I thought this would make a funny picture.

Today I also caught three new mons in Pokémon Go. So that made it a good day!

Casablanca & Marrakesh Morocco

Greetings From Casablanca and Marrakesh Morocco!

I made it to the hotel easy enough, I was enjoying the sea breeze as I walked down the street from the train station. It was only a short, 2 or 3 hour train ride from Rabat to Casablanca. I got a hold of Hicham (the first Hicham, I’ll explain later) and we decided to meet up the next day while I spent the evening getting settled in and finding a nearby market to buy some water and fruit and food. The hotel I was staying at was really nice and had some good wifi now, so I had some work to do and as well. I wish I could say I actually got to the work and got caught up on blogging but that would be a lie. I was still feeling down about my friend not meeting me in Morocco and probably watched more Netflix than any actual work being done.

Here’s looking at you, kid.

Casablanca, Finally Some Breeze!

The first thing I noticed about Casablanca was the sea breeze, as I stepped out of the train I felt it blowing through the station. There wasn’t much of a breeze, if any, in Rabat so it was quite welcome, cutting the humidity and cooling me off. I took my time walking down to the hotel, stopping to look at Google maps whenever a good breeze blew down the street. It felt good to be cooled off from the sticky Moroccan heat for once.

This is Center Ville, a big square where the streetcar, or tram, stops and all sorts of displays, vendors, rallies etc are held.

I didn’t get a chance to walk around the Casablanca Medina this time but I did walk by outside of it while walking around the city, well a few blocks radius from my hotel anyways. Casa is a big city so if I wanted to get around and see a lot of it I would either need to take the streetcar, which was only one line, or grab a city taxi. I wasn’t in the mood for either really and I missed the opportunity to take some photos when around some of the places I did see, or was just driving by and couldn’t take any. For that reason I don’t have a lot of pictures of Casa but I will tell you about some of the things I did see.

The wall to the Medina.

One place I passed everyday and didn’t get around to taking pictures of was Mohamed V Square. The square itself has a water fountain that lights up at night and also tends to have a lot of people setting up booths to vend whatever it is they’re selling, making for an active area. The area across the street was cool to see as well, it was an open square with different metal figures and other statues around it. The city was working on it and had fences up around it with equipment everywhere so taking pictures wasn’t much of an option, tried and they looked like crap and didn’t do the view any justice. There was also a cool market Hicham brought me to that was big area lined with all sorts of seafood where you can walk around and pick what you want and they’ll take you to a grill and have it cooked and served to you right away. They also have a huge selection of other things. It seemed pretty cool to see but I wasn’t in the mood for trying it out, and I’m not much of a seafood person, but I would recommend it to anyone who likes seafood and is looking for something different. Sorry I don’t have a name for the market or a link to it.    

Training With Equipe Elite

When I was first planning out my stay, at at the start of planning the Odyssey as my last post explained, I was referred to Hicham by several people. Hicham runs a Jiu-Jitsu gym in Casablanca and is a black belt. He’s the go to guy setting up visits to Morocco and seems to know everyone and all the gyms and is very helpful. Once I got into Casablanca I contacted him and we planned out meeting up. The first meet up was at the Center Ville square, we met up and Hicham showed me around a little bit before grabbing some food. We strolled around the city, talked about training and meeting cool people and Hicham told all about Casablanca, the market and the tourism industry that Casa thrives on. I also had some of the best shawarma I’ve ever had.

Later that night we met up and Hicham took me to the gym to meet the rest of the club. The Jiu-Jitsu club, Equipe Elite, is inside a crossfit gym, Gym Factory. The Jiu-Jitsu club is the upstairs of the gym, in a big open mat space. It’s a nice clean, newer looking place that had all sorts of different classes going on. It’s a good place for the Jiu-Jitsu club. The students were all friendly, those who I talked to, some were shy as they didn’t speak much English and my French is horrible and I have no knowledge of Arabic. The classes were big too, at least 20 people, much bigger than a lot of gyms I had been visiting lately. Hicham started class with a good long warm up, and I couldn’t help but feel a step behind everyone, the heat was definitely getting to me, and I’m not as athletic as most of them, and whatever other excuses I can think of I’ll add in later. There were a lot of drills we did on our own, working the movements that the techniques he would be teaching us would involve. I have seen this kind of drilling a few times now and I really like it, even though I usually get destroyed and by the end, but I tend to get a higher understanding of the move and retain those details. We were doing double leg takedowns, or a chain of moves that started with one, and my legs were jello by the end after all those drills and then working techniques. But I really honed in the little details I need to work on to make my less than stellar shoot in work, and the pain of my legs the next day definitely set them to memory.

There was some rolling time after class and we also had an open mat another day. A lot of the guys were pretty athletic so I knew I had my work cut out for me when it came to rolling. I was right. The guys were all pumped to roll with a new guy and all brought their A game. Some were strong, some were fast, some were both, so I was mainly just trying to survive. Rolling with Hicham made me have to re-think my entire game plan, you know when you meet someone who just has a move that completely shuts your game down? I walked right into Hicham’s go-to move and was instantly armbarred, over and over again. He gave me some tips on how to look out for his move and how to change my actions to make it not so open to his trap, something I’ve had playing back to me constantly since. It was a good learning experience for sure. Definitely changed the way I see my game. The whole experience of rolling with people on a higher level of ambition was a great learning opportunity. All part of learning to work my game against different situations. Thank you Equipe Elite, it was a great time together!  

Hicham Hakam

I was originally going to stay with Hicham but got a hotel room since I was supposed to have a friend coming to visit (which never happened) but I was always in contact with him and Hicham was always helping me in any way he could. He showed me around the city, took me out to a few good places to eat, told me all about the culture and how to get around, at any point if I ever needed any help for anything all I had to do was text Hicham and he’d be there if he could. So in between Hicham showing me around and us training I met up with him and we did an interview. It was my last day in Casablanca and I was really burnt from being at the beach the day before and not feeling too well so I had to pass on our plans to meet up and go for food with the guys from the club, but we got through this interview and I think it’s great for telling us how the Jiu-Jitsu scene is in Morocco. Since I can’t load videos here check it out over on the Panda’s Odyssey YouTube Channel and watch it there. While there please show some love, like, comment, share or maybe even subscribe, thanks!

The Beach…And The Sun!

There are good panoramic photos I took that I couldn’t upload here, head over to my Flickr account to see them.

One day Hicham and I went to the beach to relax, this is where I got way too much sun and ended up with a severe sunburn. It wasn’t all bad though, the beach is a great place, it was full of people suntanning and playing sports and families building sand castles and playing in the waves, it was a fun place to relax and take in the view. There were some guys walking around with horses and ponies and I believe I even saw a camel that offered people to ride them, for a price of course. I enjoyed watching the waves come in, getting bigger as the afternoon got on, crashing into all the kids and adults playing in the shallow waters.

I got out into the water to cool and down a few times, the water was really refreshing but also very salty. I didn’t go out too far as the waves were a bit intimidating for me, having no real sea swimming experience. I would walk out and stand facing the waves and let them knock me back a little, and then later when the waves come in more I would turn and sit down and float and let the wave carry me in. It was a fun way to cool down, until a big wave came crashing down on me and knocked my sunglasses off. I saw them bobbing just a few feet away, then another wave crashed and suddenly they were a few meters away, then another wave and they were gone. I had just bought them in Lisbon, after the pair I had bought in Idaho while visiting Keith Owen during my west coast trip almost 2 years ago finally broke. That pair of sunglasses and I together had been all over Canada, the west coast of the USA, even to Tokyo, not to mention every stop in the Odyssey before they broke; and I bought them used so no telling how much of the USA they had seen before becoming mine. Losing those sunglasses sucked. This replacement pair I had just bought on the other hand, I wasn’t near as torn losing them, although I did curse at the waves a few times. I hope a kid found them and have been wearing them everyday since. 

 

A bunch of the guys from the gym showed up to hang out with us too, this is where I met ‘the other’ Hicham. This Hicham I had also been talking to online through BJJ Globetrotters and he also helped me out with telling who to contact and setting me up with places to train at. He was also a student of black belt Hicham, having been training for some time now, and him and I had a great talk about goal setting and mindset while training. In fact I had some great conversation about Jiu-Jitsu philosophy with a few of the guys that day. After the beach we went to a cafe and I had some Moroccan tea, which I had fallen in love with, and the guys were all keen to ask me questions about training and visiting clubs and tips for traveling. As the conversations went on I started to feel the sun burn coming in.

You see, as I found out later on, the Sun in Morocco is much stronger than in Canada, but with the sea breeze coming in you don’t ever feel being baked. I had a base coat of sunscreen on and re-applied to my head and arms, but not to my body as I wanted to get a little colour. Well I got a lot of colour! The burn didn’t come in until after being in the shade at the cafe, then I started to feel the heat of a good burn coming from, well, all over except my head and arms, which were saved. Once I got back the hotel I started to feel sick, fever and diarrhea were starting to hit me as me body punished me for cooking it in the Moroccan Sun all afternoon. It was a horrible night to a awesome day.     

Good times in the sun! The rest of the guys were way back behind me chilling out, I think this is right before I lost my sunglasses.

Marrakesh, Too Hot!

The day after the beach, my birthday, I did the interview with Hicham and then went back to the hotel feeling like shit, the day after that I took the train to Marrakesh. The train ride was a easy one, I relaxed and slept some of the way. Getting ready for the train was quite the task. Packing wasn’t the issue, the problem was dealing with my sunburned body. The burn was so bad that I couldn’t shower, cold water felt like needles piercing my body and warm and hot water felt like flaming needles. In order to bathe I needed to draw a bath that was basically room temperature and slowly wash myself. After that I then needed to cover the burns in lotion. My chest and sides were stiff from the skin losing it’s elasticity, being dried out and burned. Across my chest I was starting to get blisters, even had one big one in my belly button that was very annoying. Wearing a t-shirt wasn’t possible for long times, it felt like sandpaper on my skin even with the lotion, it was just too painful to wear a top for more than a few hours. This whole thing was a long slow process and it hurt. As soon as I got into the hotel in Marrakesh I turned on the air conditioning (because Marrakesh was freaking hot!) and whipped off my shirt and just lay on my bed in my underwear. I could hover my hand over my chest and feel the heat coming off.

After about 4 or 5 days, the blisters have gone and you can really see where was burnt the most.

Now that I was in Marrakesh it was very hot, for me at least (+40C), and there was no breeze like in Casablanca. It was like being in an oven, a beautiful oven but still an oven. Because I was dealing with the severe sunburn, and the high heat and humidity, I didn’t get out to see much of Marrakesh but what I did see was great and what I saw online of the sights I missed were amazing. The center of the city, downtown if you will, is small, everything I could need was just a five minute walk away. Marrakesh in it’s entirety is much bigger with sprawling residential and industrial neighborhoods and some huge beautiful gardens through the city. I managed to see one garden while I was there but it was while I passed by, taking a taxi to the airport. It was early in the morning and still dark so I couldn’t take any pictures but it looked very well taken care of with lights along the walkways, vine covered lattice arches and stone benches for people to sit on and take in the view.    

Training With Marrakesh Fight Club  

During my planning of visiting Morocco I met Rafe online and he was my helpful contact for Marrakesh and the club he trains at, Marrakesh Fight Club, which has recently been re-named to the Gentle Art Academy Marrakesh. Rafe and I had been in contact for a long time, since the start of looking up Morocco as an option, I believe he was one of the guys who referred me to Hicham in Casablanca actually. I was looking forward to meeting him and training with the club. Unfortunately he had to work when I was in town so I would miss out on training with him and the amazing training sessions he has at his place. From pictures I’ve seen online Rafe has a very nice set up for outdoor classes, complete with mats and places to sit in the shade. Luckily we got to meet up for breakfast one morning, which also showed me where to go for breakfast for the remainder of my stay in Marrakesh. Rafe and I and his wife talked about living in Marrakesh and the sights and markets, and of course traveling and training.  

A random place I thought looked nice.

Marathon Village where it gets filled with vendors in the evening. I missed out seeing that too.

Through Rafe I met Dex, the head coach at the gym. I had the schedule and address of the gym and let Dex know when I’d be by, just to watch at first because I was still healing. The Jiu-Jitsu club is inside a gym and it’s quite a small space, since the gym owner is a boxing champ and the gym focuses a lot on boxing there was a boxing ring that took up a lot of the space. For this reason Dex limits the people in his classes and runs more than one class a day to fit everyone in. He was really happy to see me when I finally made it out to visit and him and the rest of the class were super friendly. The first time out I just watched class, watching Dex teach some techniques and how the students interacted, I could tell they were a close club by how they got on with one another. In between teaching techniques and correcting the students Dex and I would talk, he had a bunch of questions for me, curious about my training and my travels. I also had questions for him and the techniques he was showing, being a taller guy who’s all long limbs he had a very different style from me so some of the movements were new to me.

The only picture I have of training in Marrakesh, I’m sure More were taken but this is all I have.

The next time I came back I had my gi and was ready to train, I wasn’t quite ready to roll too much as the rashguard on my chest was really irritating the burn but I was there training. I remember telling Dex this exact same thing, that I couldn’t really roll because of the burn, but then he somehow got me into rolling with him for almost half an hour. And then we did some training and more rolling with other students. Funny how that works. The rest of the students for class were young and somewhat new, or newer than me, to BJJ and so I helped them out when their techniques and gave them tips for rolling, Dex was very appreciative of the help and actually loves people coming and visiting and showing off techniques and giving out tips. The students were also appreciative, although shy to talk to me, given the language barrier, and class was pretty fun training together. Both classes, the one I watch and the one I joined in, the students seem very enthusiastic to learn and train, which a great thing to have for a club. I’m looking forward to seeing this club grow and become a club of submission assassins.  

Dex has a tradition with his club, everyone who visits his club has to show off one technique to the class. It can be anything and doesn’t have to be some crazy new technique they’ve never seen, just teach one technique. Everyone has their own way of doing things and I bet if you watched 100 people do an armbar you could find a small detail to pick up from each one of them. I decided to show off my guard break that I showed the guys in Rabat, but this time it was filmed and posted online (and has over 1k views!) Showing the technique was a lot of fun, Dex was genuinely interested in it, he asked to see it a few times over and had a bunch of questions about it and then drilled it asking me if it was correct. It was a cool feeling being able to share a little knowledge with people so appreciative. There’s the link to the guard break again. I talked about it and posted this link back when I talked about first teaching it in Rabat but here it is again in case you missed it or want to see it again. Panda’s Guard Break Video!

And after a few weeks of traveling and training, and burning, in Morocco it was time to head for Italy! My first stop was in the island of Sicily, Palermo to be exact, where I would be staying with a fellow Globetrotter. But first I had the craziest flying experience to date that ended with me losing my luggage…

Left Morocco in the morning but didn’t land in Italy until night.

Until next time,

see you on the mats!

OSSS!!

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On to Burning Man

We’ve been back home now for almost a month, and we’re slowly settling back in to the routine. I’ve been training at Guerilla and at Komainu, my home gyms. We’re still living in the trailer, since I rented our place out, and it’s pretty tight for two people plus fur babies. All in all, Jen hiked over 400 miles, which is more than most of us will ever do in our life times. I dropped in and rolled at 15 different academies, and broke in my purple belt proper. 

I’m on to the next phase, planning for Burning Man. I run a BJJ and Muay Thai camp there, 7:15 and C for those of you who know the way the city is laid out. We have black belt instructors, about 20 loaner gis, 400 s.f. of roll out mats, shade, and lots of fun. No, we have never had staph or ringworm. I think the city is too dry and hot for that stuff to live, plus we wipe down the mats with bleach after the class. 

Anybody wants to come and roll with us, I don’t know how much more exotic a location you could find than Black Rock City. There won’t be any surf, but I promise you’ll have fun!

Belgrade: The One Stop Shop

The country: Serbia
Gyms visited: Kimura Academy, Old School
Atmosphere: Instant friends
 
Read anywhere online and the forums will tell you Belgrade is party central Eastern Europe with floating clubs and women like goddesses. I was most excited for this stop on my summer trip around Europe, but for a different reason. That reason was Kimura Academy. After hearing about this gym through several traveling bjj sources I knew I had to make a stop there. I wasn’t disappointed.

 Kimura Academy is tucked away in the middle of the city with a large mat space that’s filled up each class. There’s a lot of heart on the mats and I had to push myself to get rolls in till the end of each class. I’ve noticed they also train much later here than I’m used to in Eastern Europe with classes easily beginning later than 9pm and going until 11 at night. The real gold in this gym for travelers lies with the efforts of the instructors to make you feel welcome and have a great experience. I feel very fortunate to have met Professor Gile who has an excellent reputation in this part of the world and in the BJJ community. 


From my last class with this team

I definitely indulged in some of the nightlife with the cheap booze and floating clubs. One of my better nights spent off the mats was at a Kafana which plays local Serbian folk music that I didn’t understand but had a welcoming crowd cheering out the words of every song. There’s also a great place to look out from the giant old fortress and plenty of river reflected lights surrounding the city. Belgrade is full of great views if you search for them.


The gleaming Church of Saint Sava with a gold plated basement

I was able to get a private lesson with very talented Serbian black belt Uroš Čulić. In a short 90 minutes I learned more than I could in weeks. I was very fortunate to have this opportunity as it changed my perspective on a couple parts of training. After, he invited me to train at his gym Old School which is located a short drive from the city. Old School is filled with very tough guys that might have tried their best to friendly take a limb or two off me, but I left with all still attached. 


 
 Nothing is as humbling as rolling with someone this good for an hour 

Serbia taught me a lot and gave me new friends. There was so much value in this week long trip I can’t recommend it enough. Thanks to everyone that helped me out!

Barcelona, Spain

Our next stop, after a sea day, was Barcelona, Spain. When we first arrived, Barcelona looked super small — from the Port. But when we got on to the Hop On/Hop Off bus, I figured out it was much bigger than I thought!

We first stopped to get a snack and mom figured out the Picasso Museum was nearby. So we started walking there. On the way, I saw some cool grafitti pictures on roll-up doors. I liked this one of a dog the best!

When we got to the Museum it was closed! We figured out it was St. John the Baptist Day — a national holiday. That’s why so many shops were closed. Mom was sad to miss the Museum.

We got back on the bus to check out the Cathedral — which is a church. It was very huge and I’ve never seen a church just like that before. The church had carvings and was a very strange shape. There is only one church like this in the world so it is very special. They aren’t finished building it either.

After the cathedral, we got back on the bus and went through the city. We stopped and had lunch and then started walking around. We decided to catch a taxi to get back to the huge statue of Christopher Columbus. There were some shops along the water there and I bought a swimming dinosaur’s tooth. Dad let’s me keep his coins, and in Europe there are coins that are worth 1 whole Euro and 2 whole Euros — not just coins like our coins. I love dinosaurs and sharks.

And that was our day in Barcelona!

[Dad’s note: I had tried to contact three jiu jitsu academies prior to our trip to set up some training for Eli. It’s been a week since he’s trained and that’s a long time for Eli. Initially, it seemed promising that we’d be able to connect with one of the gyms. But, after the first contact, I was having trouble confirming a time. Now I realize that the only day we were available was a national holiday – so training wasn’t going to be possible. Why they couldn’t just tell me that I dint know. But, gyms get back to people! Hopefully, we can get connect with a gym in Marseille or Genoa in a few days.]

Pompeii

Our cruise landed in Naples on Thursday. When we got into port we first saw a big castle. But we were going to take a tour of Pompeii, so we had to get on a bus to get to the ruins. I was the only kid in our group. Once we got to the ruins, we got a radio and headphones so we could hear our guide better. Our guide’s name was Elena — my mom said, “Elena, like the Disney movie?”, but I told her the Elena from the Disney movie was spelled the same but you actually say “Ah-lay-nah” and for our tour guide, her name was like “Ellen” with an “a” at the end.

Before we entered the city of Pompeii, we first went to a shop that sells cameos — that’s what my mom called them, but they are faces carved into shells. We got to see how they were made. I guess Naples is known for their cameos.

Inside the ruins, I was amazed at what the houses and shops looked like. I was surprised at how important water was — they had fountains all over the city, and they had baths with water running through the walls to keep the room warm. We went into the gymnasium where the people got to train. They even had a swimming pool! We also saw some Pompeiian fast food places.

Pompeii was super hot, and there were so many people, it was like Disneyland in summer. It was so hot that I had to get some gelato before we left. I got cookies and cream AND mint! [Mom’s note: I was not aware that Eli had two kinds of gelato…that was Dad’s doing!]

It was a really hot day, but fun too.

Messina & Taormina, Sicily

Today was a really good day! We started the day in Messina and then we drove up through the hills to Taormina. We had a tour of Corso Umberto — the Main Street in Taormina. We almost got in a bus accident trying to get there because the road was so narrow and windey. There were a lot of long tunnels on the drive too.

On the Main Street we saw churches, shops, and gelaterias. We saw an old mosaic too. There was one narrow alley that was so narrow I could barely fit through it. The view was really nice.

We went to the Greek Theater in Taormina. The theater was cracked with missing parts and I accidentally kicked one of the stones out of place when I jumped off a wall! Oops. On the way out, dad spotted an apricot tree. Mom and I tasted an apricot — I saved my seed for my Nana to try to grow a tree.

On the way back through the street I had my first gelato — it was mint chip. Dad got watermelon and it REALLY tasted like watermelon! It was so watermelon-y. Mom couldn’t have gelato so she got a strawberry popsicle instead.

Back in Messina, we saw the largest astronomical clock in the world. But since we weren’t there at noon, we didn’t get to see it move.

The island of Sicily was very pretty. There was a lot of green, and not as many smokers as Greece.

To make the day even greater, I also caught a super rare Pokémon. My coach, Coach Pablo, says you can only get Mr. Mime in Europe. Today I got to catch two of them!

Mom told me that the island of Sicily is triangle shaped. I remembered that in Greece I learned a new triangle AND learned how to say triangle in Greek. Triangles seem to keep popping up on this trip!

Ciao for now!

Santorini and Kotor (Montenegro)

Santorini and Kotor (Montenegro)

Our next stop (after a day at sea) was Santorini, the island. To get to the city, you have to take a cable car up the really steep hillside. Mom was freaking out during the ride up to town. I thought it was fun, but mom really did not! [Mom’s note: I, in fact, did not enjoy the ride up. Heights make me queasy, and I opted to close my eyes for the few minutes it took to get to the top.]. You can also ride a donkey to get up the mountain, but we didn’t do that. We had to get to mass at St. John the Baptist Cathedral. It looked very holy inside.

After lunch we went on a boat ride to the nearby volcano. On our hike up the volcano, we met an Australian boy who was a blue belt in Japanese jiu jitsu. I thought it was cool to hear him talk about Japanese jiu jitsu, and what martial arts are popular where he lives.

On this volcano island I made a rock pile. In Ventura, near our harbor there are these towers of rocks that people have piled up. So I wanted to make one on this island — to remind me of home. It isn’t as easy as it seems! We went to another island and saw billy goats running down the steep hillside to greet us. That was so cool!

Overall, I really looked Santorini. But the roads were squished and it was hard to get around with all the tourists on the squished roads.

We next visited a place called Kotor. In Kotor, we were supposed to take a tour hiking to the top of a mountain. We were to meet in a park. I got to play in the park but somehow we missed our tour group. We took a bus ride around instead. The water was clear and blue-green and there were also a lot of green trees.

We stopped and saw an old Roman house — well, what was left of it. All that is left are some really cool mosaics. They looked really ancient. It was a short day in Montenegro, so there’s not much to tell. Next up — Sicily (but I’m really looking forward to Naples because that’s where pizza comes from!).

Joshua Tree and a Mad Dash for the Coast!

Although my time in Las Vegas left much to be desired, there was still one stop that needed to be made before dipping my toes in the Pacific for the first time. I decided to cut west and head to Joshua Tree National Park in Eastern California. As an avid climber and boulderer, JTree has always been on my mind as a place to explore. 

 

Driving through the desert, I couldn’t ignore the thoughts of pioneers that came before me. They navigated the high peaks and the barren desert with all of their earthly belongings in tow. Here I was, hundreds of years later, tearing across the paved highways in a 97 Jeep, all of my earthly belongings in tow. Something in that resonated with me as I pulled into the town Joshua Tree. The town itself is exactly what I’d seen with most desert towns: a sweet shell of southwestern architecture on the outskirts of town, filled with a creamy center of fast food joints, car washes, and strip malls. I hung around near the edge of the city, stopping briefly at an outdoor shop about five minutes from the entrance to the park before making my way to the land of the boulders.

 

Jiu Jitsu and Rock Climbing aren’t too different: they take strength, but technique conquers all! This pano was taken atop a 60-foot boulder in the middle of JTree National Park!

 

Joshua Tree National Park was beautiful. The scattered boulders, some bigger than houses, were like an unexplored playground. The experiences of the early American climbers of the 70’s and 80’s ran through my head. I pictured John Bachar and John Long investigating the secrets of these rocks for weeks on end before taking their skills to Yosemite. As I approached a boulder for my first session, I noticed a climber racking up his gear to get out on another wall. I approached, asking if he needed a partner to climb with, and he happily obliged. His name was John, and was a 23-year-old marine from a nearby military base. We climbed for a few hours that afternoon, and all felt good. It was a breath of fresh air to take a few days away from BJJ. I’m finding on this trip that supplemental training is just as important as days in the gym; it keeps things fresh and interesting.

John and I parted ways and I went to the nearest Walmart to sleep for the evening. Following a quick oil change in the parking lot, I spent the next day exploring the park, too tired to climb from the day before. As I drove through the valley, and the dust kicked up in the wind behind my Jeep, I listened to my stereo. About 25 years earlier, my father had been doing the same. He’d been in the valley with a friend of his, and while there, wrote a song, Desert Wind. I played the song through my stereo as I navigated the dirt roads, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t get a little emotional. I left Joshua Tree that afternoon, happy with my time there. It was the type of beautiful a special type of person could only appreciate. I’d recommend anyone spend time there if given the chance. The mountains whisper, and the valley itself speaks volumes. 

 

Gotta keep my globetrotter running smooth!

 

From Joshua Tree, I hoofed it to the coast with a vigor. I needed to feel the ocean. Around 9:30pm on June 7th, I dipped my toes in the Pacific for the first time. It was cold, I was tired, and I was done driving for the day, but I cried as I realized that I’d achieved a dream. I’d driven from coast to coast. I made it. I realized that, without BJJ, I probably wouldn’t have. When planning this trip, before joining Globetrotters, I’d only planned on going as far as Yosemite National Park. When I started thinking of places to train after being blessed with this blogger gig, San Diego and the coast was an obvious option. 

I slept in my car about 150 yards from the ocean that night before waking up to train the next morning. I’d always wanted to train with Xande and Saulo Ribero, and I was excited to make this desire a reality. I sent a quick Facebook message to the team over at the academy, and they were happy to oblige my drop in. I arrived at the academy for noon gi class, which was taught by Xande himself. I’ll admit I was a little starstruck. After seeing him at NoGi Pan Ams back in 2015, I thought those feelings would’ve gone away. I was wrong. I payed my mat fee, got changed, and got to work!

 

The main training area for advanced classes!

 

The academy, tucked away in the corner of a small strip mall in San Diego, was the cleanest, most beautiful school I’ve visited to this point. Amongst the framed portraits of the University of Jiu Jitsu lineage were also medals from Xande and Saulo, the gi Xande wore when he beat Roger in absolute, and the like. The mat areas (there were two of them) were clean as a whistle, and followed the yellow, black, and white color scheme of the Ribeiro brothers.

 

The history behind this gi is astounding…

 

Class went very well. Xande introduced me to the class before beginning warm ups, and everyone at the academy was very welcoming and were happy to have an outsider to train with. I partnered up for drills with one of the brown belts. After warm ups and some short drilling rounds, it was time to roll. Their rolling was very structured; everyone lined up, and the highest rank picked their partner. This was repeated with the next highest rank until everyone was partnered up. We kneeled in front of our partner, bowed, and got to work. I was glad to see that I was able to hold my own against the students of a legend. The brown belts and black belts throttled me, but I an even match against the blue belts and purple belts. This might sound cheesy, but training here reaffirmed the fact that BJJ is a universal language. Many of the students in this early class spoke little to no english; only Portuguese. Despite that, the jiu jitsu was the lingua franca in this school. After class, I asked Xande for a photo, and he was more than happy to take one. He asked about my Globetrotters blog, and seemed interested enough. He asked if I’d be back for the night class, which was apparently the advanced class. I quickly said I would be.

 

Some inspiration on the walls. Never too late to learn!

 

A quick note on the ranking system: I was surprised to find a wealth of green belts at the academy. From what I was told, the green adult belt is a carryover from the Judo background of both Saulo and Xande. I found the judo hommage very inspiring! It’s clear that the Ribeiro brothers are serious about emphasizing the importance of jiu jitsu stand-up in competition. VERY inspiring!

 

I spent the day exploring San Diego; walking on the beach, seeing the city, and so forth. The city was quite nice; a scene from “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy” played through my mind as I traversed the streets. I ate a hearty late lunch of cold Chef Boyardee ravioli on the beach and relaxed before the night class. I arrived at the academy just in time for class. I was introduced to the class by the instructor, a black belt named Jeremy. Class was structured very similar to the morning’s class: quick warm up, drilling, then rolling. I found the sessions of each to be considerably longer than noon class, but that was fine; there was cute a bit of In-N-Out burger that needed to be worked off that class. Jeremy taught some slick RDLR attacks, and even a transition into X-Guard. I found this useful as I’ve always hated RDLR as a position, but I’ve been seeing it used much more often on this trip. Plus, the X-Guard transition fit right with my game. I drilled with one of the blue belts, Todd, and he was very interested in my journey in general. After drilling for a half hour or so, it was time to roll. We rolled five six-minute rounds, and boy was I put into the ringer. I don’t think I rolled with anyone lower than a purple belt that class. I held my ground, even sweeping one of the brown belts, but overall it was like being tossed in a washing machine. They shut down most of my defenses until I was able to sneak under to full X or overlook X. Jeremy called me over for my third roll and swept me with the same RDLR series we’d worked in class. I loved seeing the difference between belt levels. Every black belt was simply more versed than the brown belts, and every brown belt was more versed than the purple belt. 

 

Bald and beautiful. The way it should be!

 

My time at University of Jiu Jitsu is time that I won’t forget. DEFINITELY worth a drop in if you’re in San Diego. I’d hate to end this blog post on a bad note, but the one thing that I struggled the most with in San Diego was drop-in fees. I understand that owning gyms are a business, but charging a $30, $40, $50 for a drop-in mat fee seems unreasonable. I spent two days in a jiu jitsu “mecca” of the world, and could only afford a trip to one gym while there. I suppose it’s just a part of the culture nowadays. 

Rain, cows and finally some mat time

Except for one glorious day of sunshine, the last few days in Goa have been filled with torrential, unending monsoon rains – surprise surprise.

So we’ve had plenty of time to relax and do some yoga – and I’ve discovered that I don’t have bad posture, I have terrible, mind-numbingly horrific posture. #bjjruinedmylife ?

That one day of sunshine

However, the hotel we’ve been staying at – Shanti Morada – has been amazing. It’s a small boutique resort with incredibly friendly and attentive staff, as well as some of the best food we’ve had in India, and because of monsoon we’ve had it basically all to ourselves at a bargain price.

The rain hasn’t stopped us from having fun and exploring on our rickety scooter though – visiting various old Portuguese forts along the coast, the UNESCO World Heritage Site Basilica of Bom Jesus and various beaches, Hindu temples and spice plantations.

Cows, cows everywhere though. Or buffalo?

On the way to visit Chapora Fort in North Goa, the rains got so violent we were forced to take shelter under a tiny covered area used for parking bikes. A local saw and took pity on us, and invited us to wait out the worst of the storm in his home. He said that while he was a Muslim and his wife was a Christian, they fell in love and got married regardless of tradition or religion. And they lived in their small house with his mother, her mother, 5 cats and 3 dogs – in short they were an awesome, friendly couple and it was great to meet them.

And on our last day in Goa, we found out there was an MMA gym in a town nearby run by pro fighter Nelson Paes. While they didn’t have any BJJ there (yet!), they had a great mat space so we called and asked if we could rent the mats for a few hours. It was Alessia’s first time back on the mats since leaving London for India almost 3 months ago, so we did a lot of revision as well as live sparring, and Nelson joined in for a few rounds. Thanks for having us!

Now we’re off to New York where it is also storming ? it’s going to be a looong flight. Till next time!

Repping RGA at Goa airport

 

@alessiabjj

@marcust.bjj

http://northtosouth.bjjglobetrotters.com/

Rabat Morocco

Greetings From Rabat Morocco!

Getting to the hotel was an adventure, I knew it would be so it wasn’t a surprise or unwelcome, just some fun on the way. I arrived at the airport early in the morning as my flight was an early one, so I didn’t get to say goodbye the roommates in Malaga instead just leaving a Panda patch on their bags as I quietly left. When checking in for my flight they demanded I show them my exit ticket, which I had completely forgotten to buy. So with my phone I found a ticket for the right day, although a bit more expensive than I’d like, and bought it on the spot. The funny thing is the flight attendant was pretty strict with me having this ticket, and was generally quite the asshole in general, siting that if I didn’t have an exit ticket I’d have to buy a visa or the customs might kick me out, meanwhile all my interactions with the customs in Morocco were smooth and easy. They just simply read my front page, saw I was a Canadian citizen with a valid passport and stamped it accordingly without any questions. In fact the customs guard when entering Morocco just gave me a big stupid smile the whole time starring at my tattoos. He spent more time checking me out than the passport.

The flight into Morocco was short, I just hoped over from Malaga to Tangier rather than fly all the way to Rabat or Casablanca which would have cost several hundred dollars more for the ticket. From Tangier I took a taxi to the train station, which zig-zagged all through the city instead of just taking the main roads and had me thinking I was going to end up in a back dead-end alley being robbed any minute. I arrived at the train station in one piece but I really don’t think he saved any time at all in his route, quite the opposite I’d say. I then took a train to Rabat, which took about 3 hours but I was in no rush and was armed with a full powered Nintendo 3DS and laptop with downloaded movies. In total, taxi, train and snacks, I spent well under $100 CDN after conversion when it would have cost me over $200 CDN more to fly to Rabat from Malaga. This was a way more fun way, I got to more of the country as well as save a few dollars.

Once I got to Rabat the hotel was just a short 10 minute walk up to the Medina from the train station. The Medina is the marketplace, it’s a huge place full of small shops side by side and booths everywhere, the roads are tight and crammed with people. There’s one in each city and although it may be off in the corner of town it’s the heart of the city for shopping, bargain hunting and haggling. My hotel was a few blocks into the Medina so I was surrounded by the market, which meant cheap food right nearby.

The view landing in Tangier. I wasn’t in a good position to take pics on the train but similar view the whole way.

Staying In The Medina 

Daily I would pass shops and stands selling fruit, meat, nuts, other foods and all kinds of things. I would usually start the day off by walking down the street to the grocery store and picking up a 7L jug of water and some cheese. Passing back through the Medina I would stop off and get some fruit, which usually more fresh and either the same price or cheaper than the grocery store, some nuts, walnuts were everywhere and cheap, and some loafs of this fresh bread that was sold all through the Medina. It was a circle and kinda flat but not a pita, I don’t what it’s called but it was tasty with cheese. I didn’t trust the butchers or vendors enough to try any of the meat being cooked and sold there, fearing it might upset my stomach or I could get food poison, but it smelled very favourful when passing them. Sometimes there would be a vendor selling boiled corn and I’d pick some up as well. This was my diet for my time in Rabat, fruits, nuts, bread and cheese and copious amounts of water. All this was very cheap, I think at most I spent $15 CDN a day in food.

Rabat city square, or a busy city square anyways, I believe this building was a museum of some sort.

 

The entrance, or one of, to the Medina.

while walking about this daily trek, I didn’t get out to any of the sights because of some negative head space, I took some pictures of the city. There’s not a lot of photos compared to some places I’ve visited but I wasn’t in a picture taking mood. A close friend was supposed to meet me in Morocco and at the last minute everything went to hell and they didn’t make it, making me feel down. I wasn’t really feeling like going sight seeing and on adventures that were supposed to be had together. Then again maybe I was just better off relaxing anyways.  

Inside the Medina.

Art of Submission Morocco

I’ve been planning out Morocco since the start of planning the Odyssey. It was a complicated list of planning, I wanted to go to Russia but I needed to do visa paperwork and could only apply within six months of visiting. When I planned on going to Russia depended on when my time allowed in the European Schegan Zone, as I’m only allowed 90 days within 180 (3 months in, 3 months out) was up. When that time came up depended on if I would be going to Morocco. So basically the starting outline for the Odyssey outside of Canada was London and the UK in March, Morocco in May, and Russia for July and then I started in filling in spots and connect the dots after that.

Life sized Hulk statue!

During all that planning and talking to countless people I made a few contacts for Morocco, most were in Casablanca and Marrakech, which will be my next article, but I also met Simo through the BJJ Globetrotters matsurfing connection. Simo actually isn’t in Morocco anymore, he’s moved to Amsterdam but still has many contacts in Morocco and helped me out a lot. One of the people Simo connected me with was Mouhcine. Mouhcine trains in a club in Temura, which is a town right next to Rabat. I got in contact with Mouhcine and sorted out the schedule and when would be good to train and set out to meet him and the club. The original plan was to meet Mouhcine at the train station and get a drive to the club, the problem was my SIM card data plan didn’t work in Morocco and there wasn’t any wifi at the train station, so I had no way of being able to contact him once I arrived at the train station. Luckily I had the gym saved to Google Maps and that the map’s GPS works offline. The gym was just up a few blocks from the train station so I was easy enough to make it to and I made it just in time for class. The Jiu-Jitsu club, Art of Submission Morocco which is under Prof. Mehdi Khalil, is located downstairs in the gym Monster Gym which has some cool art around the place, like paintings of Arnold and other body builders, or pictures of old boxers.

Rolling time!

It was a smaller class, there were 4 or 5 of us, and a few of them were very new to Jiu-Jitsu so we went over a lot of the fundamentals for class. everyone was happy to have me visit, I even did an interview with Mouhcine for his YouTube Channel after class (you can watch the video HERE), I don’t think they get too many visitors in Morocco so when a traveler like myself shows up they’re very happy to have you join them. During the class the new guys were open to me helping, I believe we were working guard passing, and everyone was eager to take their turn with me when it came to rolling, in fact I’m pretty sure I rolled with one or two of them more than once. It was a fun time, hardly even noticed the language barrier, although the fence wall with guys working out on the other side watching us roll was a new feeling.

Mouhcine, in the middle, with the AOS class.

After class Mouhcine took me out for some food at a nice Italian place he was friends with. The pizza I had was really good and I think the only meat I had while in Rabat haha. The guy who ran the restaurant was friendly and funny guy and Mouhcine was filming the whole time, making me real welcome and almost like a celebrity. Later I learned it’s part of the culture in Morocco to accept you in and make you feel very at home and taken care of. I definitely felt like that I whole time in Morocco and Mouhcine and his club were a great first stop!    

De La Riva Rabat

Another club I was looking to visit was De La Riva Rabat, or I think it’s a De La Riva club, apparently the clubs have changed affiliations and instructors a few times so names have changed. On Google Maps this place comes up at De La Riva Rabat, but their website link sends them to Mehdi Khalil’s AOS Morocco Facebook page, which leads me to believe Prof. Khalil runs both clubs. Whatever the name they were a very friendly group in that held classes inside a gym, with their own matted room, I think it was originally a judo or wrestling room. The head instructor was away for a seminar so there were only a few students for class and they were all lower ranks, I think all white belts, maybe one blue belt, so they asked me to teach them a technique or two since I was the highest ranking student there. This was an odd feeling. I feel weird when I show up and I’m the highest ranked student next to the teacher, but to suddenly be the guy in charge at a club I’m visiting is something to me, in my limited teaching experience, is very new. So I went back to the basics and showed them a simple guard break I’ve been working on and using with good success.

It’s a really simple seated guard break that I’ve put together from little tips I’ve picked up from traveling around. I actually found a video with a guard break that is very similar but I have a few added things that I think make it better. There’s no standing or doing anything flashy but it works very well, I was going to post the video I found but as it happens I was recorded teaching the technique again at another club so I’ll just post that instead. Here’s the Video from Marrakech Fight Club, which I will post again for that article too.

During rolling time I had my hands full, these guys were full of energy, but I used my time to just keep to working on the very technique I just showed them. What’s funny is they seemed to want to use more energy to get a triangle or maybe a sweep as I used the technique on them, like they were trying to shut down what I taught them, which actually just helped the technique more. It’s not perfect but I’m having fun with it. To top it off I had some of the guys say they used it while rolling and it was working great for them, that’s the best compliment you can get!

My young eager class in Rabat, these guys are going to be killers!

I was supposed to visit a third club, Hicham from Casablanca (there are two Hicham’s in Casablanca this is the ‘other Hicham’ as the Hicham who’s a black belt and runs Equipe Elite says) was going to set me up with a friend that trains there but I ended up having a headache and taking a nap and totally missed it. So after good start to my visit to Morocco I was off to Casablanca to meet the two Hichams and train and get some (too much) sun for my birthday! But that’s another story..  

Until next time,

see you on the mats!

OSSS!!

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Grindavík, Iceland. I have landed back on the ice.

Before I started my three months journey I thought I knew how it would impact me. I was even a little afraid that I was too self aware for it to actually impact me. Once I got moving and met all the wonderful people on the road I realized my ideas were quite presumptuous and didn’t turn out to come true. The trip caught me totally off guard and it shaped me in a way that I would never have thought of. Something deep inside of me is different. I understood that my experience while travelling is personal and each persons trip is going to be unique. Coming home was similar, I had an idea what would happen. How I would act and how the people waiting for me back home would act. Then when I finally got home my predictions were in no way in line with reality.

 

Welcome home gift.

Welcome home gift.

I got home to Iceland in the middle of the night, my best friend Daníel picked me up and dropped me home. I enter my room and everything is where I left it, I fell into bed and was knocked out almost immediately. Over the course of a week I met up with friends and family, we hugged, smiled and they asked me how it was, I said amazing and that’s that. It’s like I never left. Three months isn’t that long of a time period, not much had changed. Some pregnancies and pregnancy announcements. It was like I stepped into a different world, full of responsibilities and routine. I felt like an alien in human disguise. These three months had been packed with adventure and life changing stories. Then suddenly I come back, like it never happened.

 

Had a new nephew waiting for me.

The hardest thing for me coming back is the mundane stress. I’ve always been quite vulnerable to stress. Suddenly I see it all around me, people being stressed about everything down to the small detail. I have no desire to make those a part of my life again. Few weeks ago the only worry that I had was, “where do I go next?”. I mean it’s just life, enjoy it while you can. Build a life that is not only worth living, but a life you can enjoy. I am still determined to hold on to the fire inside and stick to the lessons I learned on the road and I would like to leave a few of them here.

  • Enjoy life while you can.
  • Positivity always returns tenfold.
  • We are all the same in how different we are.
  • Follow your passion.
  • The world is a big place that gets smaller the more you travel.
  • Pura Vida!

Days 2 and 3 – Athens Finally

Days 2 and 3 — Athens…finally!

We arrived in Athens at 1:30 am. I don’t think I’ve ever stayed up this late (on purpose) before in my life! Our flight to Athens was also delayed and our luggage was lost. So we were super tired, but in good spirits.

Our taxi driver (whose daughter’s name was Agape which I learned means “love”) gave me a bunch of Greek candies. It was the best kind of candy I have ever had. The taxi driver also gave me an extra lollipop — it tasted like peach, orange AND lemon. He also gave me a traditional sesame and honey candy. It was crunchy and tasted really good too.

After a good night’s sleep, I was able to see the Acropolis from our hotel. When I first saw all of the old ruins I was really amazed and couldn’t wait to explore them. But it was a hot day, and we didn’t have a change of clothes so mom decided we should check out Syntagma Square which was a huge garden and park. We saw turtles, ducks, chickens, peacocks and A LOT of pigeons. But I found a bug that looked like a leaf and I let it crawl on my hand. The but was a lot cooler to me than the birds! I also found a really cool tree to climb, but dad was afraid I’d slip. Later, I drew a picture of my favorite things from the park.

It was a really hot day (for us) but as we were eating lunch, it started to rain! We didn’t expect THAT to happen! At lunch, I noticed that most people do not use ice in their drinks, but it was such a hot day that we HAD to ask for some ice in our drinks.

Next we went shopping. I don’t really like shopping so I got a chocolate and vanilla swirl ice cream instead.

 

After an afternoon break, we hopped on a bus to catch a view of the city. It was cloudy out, and it seemed like a good time to see the Acropolis (since it wasn’t the hottest part of the day). We got off the bus and hiked our way to the top of the hill. The stone and rock path was pretty slippery and dad noticed clouds getting darker. Just as we reached the top, it started pouring down rain, with thunder and some lightening too! It NEVER rains like that in Southern California. We all got soaked! I was a little scared, so we got down the hill as fast as we could.

 

 

The next morning (Saturday) I got to train at Alliance Athens with Professor David Dimopoulos Said. I had a private lesson and learned the waiter’s sweep with two arm bars that can be done after the sweep. I also learned a cool guard sweep. He was super nice, and really wanted to work on moves that worked for my style. I really think I’ll be able to use the moves I learned in my next competition!

After the lesson, I stayed for their kids class. I had asked Professor if his class ever plays dodgeball, because that’s one of my favorite ways to warm up. He said they did, and we got to play two games, but they used a smaller ball (we use a large exercise ball at Paragon). At my academy, when you get hit and are out of the game, you have to do some push-ups (usually 15 or 20). Alliance Athens doesn’t have to push-up rule. But I didn’t know that, so when I got hit, I started with my usual push-ups. The other kids didn’t know what I was doing. When my parents explained, then the other kids ended up doing push-ups too! I hope they didn’t mind.

We got to do some three minute matches, and I found out that the boys in the class were some real beasts! Check out the bruise I got! Professor said there aren’t a lot of competitions in Greece like at home, but I think those boys will do great in their next one.

The move of the day, that we learned was a triangle, and I figured out that “trigono” means triangle in Greek.

After two hours of training, I was really sweaty. I definitely needed some lunch! After lunch, it was off to port to catch our boat. We start our cruise today!

[Mom’s note: I just want to jump in here and say how impressed I was with Professor Dimopoulos Said. He was so gracious and kind, very welcoming and knowledgeable. I really appreciated that he took care to show Eli moves that suited his style and his body type. He was an excellent teacher, and very well-suited to communicating with children. I am sure Eli will look forward to having the opportunity to train with him again. He is doing wonderful work to help the sport grow in Greece, and we are happy to support his efforts. Thank you so much Professor for a memorable training session!]

Finally… Classes Without English

I trained across Southeast Asia for 4 months and English was spoken in every gym. Now, in Belgrade, I have to rely on my existing bank of BJJ techniques and principles to make sense of the Serbian instructions… I love it. Eight years of mechanically setting up armbars, repping guard passes and shrimping across the mat has prepared me for classes where I don’t understand a single word.

 

Seeing How BJJ Cuts Across Language Barriers

 

My first weekend in Eastern Europe started strong with a visit to Kimura Academy for nogi class. The first thing I noticed was how massive everyone was. I feel like child walking down the street among these Serbian horse-sized men… Now I get to fight them.

The gym was on the second floor of a badass semi-abandoned looking warehouse.

The second thing I noticed was that no one was speaking English. The Asian gyms I went to had lots of expats and all the lessons were in English. I was looking forward to training in foreign environments my whole trip and I felt like was finally getting to experience it.

I was a little worried at first that I would just be completely lost, but I quickly realized that I understood just about everything in the lesson without comprehending a word. Eight years of training under different instructors across America had given me everything I needed to know that the professor was telling me to use a gable grip for the seatbelt and to scoot by butt out to the side if I needed room to get a hook in.

It’s amazing to experience how BJJ can break through cultural and language barriers. Someone across the world is learning the same things I am and even though we can’t understand each other, we can communicate through training. This was a major reason that I wanted to go on my trip.

 

Learning what Cool Noises My Elbow Can Make

 

After my first successful Serbian BJJ class, I decided to check out Gracie Barra Srbija during the week because their classes fit my work schedule better. Once again, they were in Serbian and I was loving how I could catch minor details just by watching things like hand placement.

The gym was on the second floor of a badass semi-abandoned looking warehouse.

I was starting to feel a little better after I just got over a two-week-long cough and my rolls were feeling a little more natural again. I just got done sparring with a feisty teenager and I was moving onto a 6’5” Judo brown belt. He was my training partner for the first class and I had a fun roll with him before. The round started light and he caught me in a kimura. As I rolled out of it, he quickly transitioned into an arm crush. It was locked in immediately and before I had time to tap, a loud crunching/popping noise burst from my elbow. I was actually impressed with how loud it was.

Knowing that I was traveling and training for a whole year, I assumed I would get injured eventually. Luckily, nothing broke and it will only keep me off the mat for a week or two. In the meantime, I’ll just have to spend my recovery time in some of Belgrade’s many pubs and riverside nightclub spavs.

 

Here are a few pictures from my Serbian adventure so far:

Old’ Blighty: London

From Thailand I flew into London, my first stop. I arrived bright and early, and went to drop my stuff off at what will be my home for the next two years. It was 26 degrees, sunny and warm. Quite the contrary of what I’d heard about the London weather, but a welcome shock.

 

I put my travel gi in my backpack and jumped on the tube into the city. There was a heightened level of security after the Manchester atrocities, with a lot of armed police patrolling the streets. People didn’t seem to let it bother them, however – it was ‘business as usual’. It seems the clowns that are resorting to violence aren’t succeeding in making people change their way of life, or in dividing people.

 

I spent the best part of the day walking around, marveling at the various structures and landmarks that have been standing for centuries. The long history of this country and city would be something that continually struck me as I wandered around. I’ve come from a young country, so it’s pretty bewildering to see a place that has survived two world wars, is responsible for the Beatles and so much more. The lifestyle is great too. Green parks with people drinking beers in the sun, beautiful old pubs and art galleries with paintings that transport you to another time.

 

That afternoon I come across London Fight Factory’s open mat, which consists of roughly 2 hours of eight-minute rounds. Add a bit of jetlag on top of that and it’s a grueling session, but I feel better for having trained afterwards. The jetlag is something I’ll struggle with for the next couple of days. Sometimes your body just seems to stop, regardless of how hard mentally you try to push through it. Good way to work on defending while being turtled, I guess…

 

I spend the next week visiting as many of the gyms in London as I can. All the gyms here have a high level, just as I’d hoped for and the trainings are strenuous, but filled with good techniques, and nuggets of wisdom. Despite being once city, each gym seems to have a completely different style to the next which is refreshing. It’s like I’m visiting a different city or country each time I go to a new gym. Different people, different techniques and different stories.

 

On the bank holiday I visit Roger Gracie’s academy, and arrive to an open mat full of colour belts and Roger himself! It’s been said a thousand times before, but there’s not many sports that allow you to train alongside, let alone meet your idols at all. How likely are you to be able to shoot hoops with Kobe Bryant? I got to roll with a black belt called Joe who was like a human backpack. Very humbling and fun, I’m looking forward to visiting Roger’s academy again in the future.

 

The next morning I wake up at 5am (the one time jetlag’s actually come in handy) and head into Fightzone in Bethnal Green to visit my friend Tony. The morning class was great, we worked on some really cool passing and sequences, did some specific training and then rolled for ages. Such a good way to start the morning, and a really cool crew with a great vibe. Tony’s visited my home gym in Australia a couple of times, so it was great to roll with him at his home gym, for his last session before he moves across to the big apple! After this session I wander up the road to visit another friend, Mo, who’s in the U.K exhibiting his artworks. He and I do some gymnastics with his coach, before he walks me around the Shoreditch area. It’s one of the coolest areas I’d been to in London yet, with street art, beautiful parks and heaps more interesting stuff scattered through our path.

 

What strikes me about London is the variety of things there is to do. Maybe this is just by virtue of me being a tourist – so my eyes might be more open to things to do than if I lived there. Regardless, I love the endless subcultures that exist. That evening I head to a performance that explores lies and humanity, which was pretty different and interesting. You can fully immerse yourself in one culture, or sample all of them like a mezze plate at a restaurant. It’s refreshing and fun, and all of the people seem lovely.

 

I went to Wave BJJ the next evening for their Nogi class which was great fun, we worked some leg lock concepts – something I’ve been missing while I travel. It’s always hard to know if a gym is cool with heelhooks and knee reaping style submissions, so it’s super exciting for me to jump in on a class focusing one exactly that.

 

From here it’s on the bus and ferry across to the temptation’s paradise that is Amsterdam.

 

Cheerio.

Monsoons and introductions

Hey guys!
 
Alessia and I writing this first blog post by the pool in Goa, India even though there is a torrential Monsoon storm heading our way shortly – no complaints though ?.
 
We’re Marcus and Alessia, two BJJ travellers just about to begin our journey through North and South America, training wherever we go.
 
 
We’ve been living and training in London at Roger Gracie Academy Gymbox the past 3 years, but have decided to seek warmer weather, train around the world and hopefully find a new home at the end of it. Our rough plan for the rest of the year is New York, San Diego, LA, San Francisco, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile and Argentina. After that we plan to spend a few weeks back at my home in Australia and then on to Asia!
 
 
The last few months have been intense for both of us, so besides a few casual drills in the pool, we’re now enjoying some well-deserved down-time before we kick off in New York next week. Alessia just finished completing a 500 hours Yoga Alliance Teacher Training course in Rishikesh, India – the capital and spiritual home of yoga. Her insane schedule saw her waking up every morning at 5am with non-stop practice, study and meditation until 9pm, 6 days a week, in constant 40 degree heat. I now have my own personal expert yoga trainer and maybe by the end of this trip I will be like a supple, supple leopard, rather than a T-Rex with rigor mortis.
 
 
Meanwhile, I was hanging back in London to save a bit more money and train as much as possible. After resigning from my day-job in marketing, I was unemployed and technically homeless, but couldn’t be happier as I was living on my instructor’s couch, training twice a day. I received my brown belt a few weeks before leaving – In a really touching move, my good friend and instructor Ross Nicholls gave me his old personal brown belt, which not only means I have big shoes to fill but is also likely to get my steamrolled at every gym we come across as it looks like I’ve been a brown belt for ages. Thanks coach ?.
 
 
As I write this, the skies are looking rather ominous and the first few drops splashing down are making it difficult to type. Until next time!
 
Marcus and Alessia
 
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Day One travel day to Athens

Hello everyone!

So my excitement began before I even left for the airport. The day before my trip (Tuesday) was actually my last day of 2nd grade. After school, I got an adjustment by my mom’s chiropractor. She actually had an appointment, but since I came along, I got to get adjusted too. It’s really fun. Dr. Matt cracked my neck just like Maui from Moana! It is so cool.

But even more exciting than the end of school, my jiu jitsu academy (Paragon in Ventura, California) had a belt ceremony Tuesday night and I got promoted to solid grey belt. I was super excited. I train hard and LOVE jiu jitsu.

Wednesday morning we left for the airport. It took a long time to get there because a big truck had turned over on its side in the middle of the road! It looked really scary. But we made it to the airport with no problem.

When we walked up to the gate I couldn’t believe my eyes. We were going to fly on one of those two-story planes. It was so BIG! My dad has been on one before, but not my mom or me. As soon as we got to our seat, they had the coolest screens with movies and music. I got to watch two movies before my mom made me go to sleep.


Did you know Moana is Vaiana in French? I thought that was funny. I watched Moana (or Vaiana) after my nap.

We landed in Paris late so we missed our flight into Athens. We are now hanging out in the Paris airport waiting for the next flight to Athens.

 

 

This has been the longest day of my life! At least I got to catch a few new Pokémon in the airport!!

–Eli