Full Noise Traveller - Matsurfing Germany and Poland

Full Noise

Kia ora team,

It’s been an epic couple of months, I’ve met some amazing people, caught up with old and new friends and seen some beautiful places.

Massive thank you to everyone who has been so welcoming, you all give BJJ a very good name <3

-here’s the recap!

Poland

I finished babysitting my German Pointers in Southern Poland and while I didn’t find anywhere to grapple, I did have a successful biking boot-camp – a bit of a scandi girl pre-season. Turns out it’s just like riding a bike … the lack of helmets feels unnecessarily sketchy, though as my Dutch friend explained: “wearing a helmet in Europe is like admitting to the whole world that you’re a little bitch …” still not sure I’m sold but we’ll see if I’m brave enough to put these biking skills to the test in the Netherlands (spoiler alert I was not).

From there I had a quick stop in Wroclaw where I went gnome hunting. You’ve gotta love a city that leans into a whimsical history and searching for little bronze gnomes was a great way to get around the city, 10/10 would recommend.

After some THOROUGH sampling I’m going to give Pierogis a solid 8/10 – points docked for the existence of sweet pierogies though, not sure I can get behind that one. I made the fatal error of eating these particular Pierogis about 20mins before training. I have never felt regret like it (no points docked though – I think I’m the problem there).

Cęstochowa

The next stop was Rio Grappling in Cęstochowa.

Coach Marcin was kind enough to let me stay in the gym which was awesome (best training commute ever and I felt strangely at home sleeping in a padded room…)

I loved training with the team here, it was such a fun group and I was stoked to have a crack at some Judo gymnastics again (can confirm I still have a ways to go here – more falling on my head will be required)

Promise I did visit the historical sights, but the highlight of Cęstochowa was learning to play squash – who was going to tell me there’s a type of tennis where you can talk the whole time! Previously the only squash court I’d been in was the one my high-school rowing coach used as our erg testing room, so this really healed some high-school rowing trauma I didn’t know I had.

Poznan

I moved north from here to Poznan, my last stop in Poland. Unfortunately, all of the gyms were closed for a public holiday and some Covid for my globetrotter hosts meant that I had no real plans for Poznan. Despite this, Poznan was actually one of my favourite cities of this trip, I loved the mix of modern and historic buildings, and there was a really cool café and bar scene. It also helped that there was a big music festival on so the city was full of people!

Germany

Berlin

Then it was a short trip across to Berlin. I loved Berlin, busy streets, cool cafes and amazing thrift markets! After a few days of exploring the mitte I was so grateful to stay with Jorge – a friend from the Pärnu camp, it was cool to see such a tourist hot spot through local eyes. It was a week filled with plenty of coffee and kuchen and a wee bit of thesis work. A highlight of the trip was my tourist run where I made good use of the vest I’ve been dragging around (yes I packed a running vest and a Gi – PRIORITIES) I managed to get around most of the main sites, however seriously underestimated the impact of cobblestones – my calves are still recovering.

I was stoked to get a session in at Fenriz BJJ, wild to train in such a massive gym and I got some fun rounds in here – including one with Björn from Pärnu camp!

Bochum

Now meet Yoda (affectionately dubbed devil smush by my mates)

Yoda was my bestie for the next 2 weeks in Bochum while I worked on my thesis – I was stoked to get my first full draft sent in (standing by to receive it back obliterated with red pen).

Bochum was a great reset, the first weights gym I’d seen since leaving NZ, super cool running trails, and some great training at Metagame. Metagame is crawling with globetrotters and has the best energy! I timed it perfectly to be there for their monthly disco open mat, which was such a vibe, I’m a full convert and will begin petitioning for strobe lights in my home gym the moment I get back. So grateful for the warm welcome here and the coaching, I particularly enjoyed the intro to wrestling workshop, definitely as aspect of the game I want to work on more!

Unfortunately, I sprained my ankle in Bochum so training was a bit one footed from here.

Dusseldorf

It was awesome to jump into Chimp gym for an open mat in Dusseldorf, I felt really at home in this gym, super friendly energy and the guys gave me some great coaching points throughout. I was gutted this was such a short stop, definitely one to come back to! Massive shout out to Sandy who was an epic training partner and gave me some perfect reccs for exploring Dusseldorf and training in the Rhine <3

Cologne

I was only here for 1 day so wasn’t planning on training but Helios were doing a women’s Gi class so how could I not! – as you’ll see this turned into a mixed no-gi class but still a lot of fun!

Before class started I met a lovely lady who was just finishing her session and had a box of chocolates to deliver from Sandy at Chimp gym (the perfect post-workout treat!) This was such a lovely surprise and so cool to see that even in Europe, where jits is so much bigger than at home, we really are just a little community.

The next part of the trip was a bit different, I met up with Sarah, an old gym friend (non-BJJ) to explore Paris for the week. I loved pulling out my (awful) middle-school French even if it came at the cost of a few wonky orders. Paris was a surprisingly good city for budget travelling, we walked about a million steps a day and saw so many cool galleries and museums, and I mean croissants for breakfast, baguettes for dinner – what’s not to like?

My mum joined me for the next couple of weeks to travel through Belgium, The Netherlands and up to Copenhagen. This was epic! I loved the bike culture and tasted a good few Belgium choccies (10/10), but Copenhagen won me over for sure. I loved poking through the boutiques and running along the boardwalks by the water, I even got in for a very chilly swim – shout out to Netto prepared salads for keeping me alive in Copenhagen, I will have to return on a non-backpacking budget to try all the yummy looking cafes (don’t worry though, I did try a cardamon bun).

I’m looking forward to getting back into some training now – it definitely feels like I’ve had a long time off the mats but I think this was actually well timed to properly heal my ankle (I’d heard rumors that resting is good for injuries and unfortunately this seems to be true).