Full Noise Traveller – Euro Month 1 – Malta and The Baltics
Kia ora team,
Coming to you from beneath a pile of German Pointers in rural Poland …
Can’t really believe I’ve been in Europe for a month already but here’s the round-up
Quick disclaimer – in writing this blog I have realised how shocking I am at taking photos at gyms – that’ll be my work on for this next month!
MALTA
First up a week in Malta with some of my besties – imagine tiktok planned your trip … and change not much,
We ate great food, swam in amazingly clear waters and got caught up in a festa in Valletta, just a stunning week!
A major highlight for me was swimming off the cliffs at St Peters, we took a short boat trip out there from Marsaxlokk, it was such a cool vibe, and loads of fun – we even got to see Titti the diving Jack Russell in action!
On the BJJ front I managed to get a session in at BJJ team Malta in Ħamrun
A welcoming team and a nice sweaty open mat! These guys had some super fun take-down warm-up drills that I will for sure be working into my own practice! And shout out to Narah Frietas for the coaching, it was awesome to train with such an epic competitor!
ESTONIA
Then it was over to Estonia for the Globetrotters Beach camp in Pärnu and the start of my solo trip.
Here I learned a valuable lesson, a night flight does save you a night of accom but at what cost?
So after a short 1am flight where no sleep was had I arrived bright and early in Tallin for a rapid fire day of exploring before my bus to Pärnu. (This began with a starving Kiera impatiently waiting for Rimi to open).
Armed with an assortment of food that intrigued me (notably Kohuke bars, chocolate tofu bars and some strange yoghurt concoction), I then hit a hot 40k steps in my birks, wandering through old town, scoping all the street art I could find, and exploring the Balti Jaam Turg – a large market with loads of food and cool vintage bric-a-brac.
Then I hit Pärnu, Beach Camp
“Give us your best Estonian Smile”
Camp was an actual fever dream
I learned heaps and loved being able to drill the fresh techniques all week in the open mats with such fantastic training partners.
Coming from a small city in NZ there aren’t heaps of women around to train with (YET) so it was super cool being able to roll with so many women (of every belt and weight class!!) throughout the week – absolutelty a highlight for me!
I actually drank so much of the kool-aid that I signed up for the Austria Winter camp!! Can’t wait!
Post kool-aid pic …
To be clear I’m sure there were safe spaces around camp for introverts (Fins and Estonians I’m looking at you) but I was not one of those spaces 😂 For me camp was a beautiful cycle of yoga, yap, roll, eat, repeat.
With very few plans for my trip beyond this camp, I utilised the expertise of all of my new European friends to plan the next legs.
It was decided that I couldn’t leave Estonia without seeing at least one more city, so next up was Tartu, a beautiful university town with cool bars and impressive old lecture halls.
I tried to draw on the solemn Estonian academic vibes here so parked up in a university library to do some work … the first in a hot minute 😅
Top line thoughts on Estonia – Why is no one in NZ talking about Estonian summer, such cute towns, super late sunset (in summer) cool cafe and bar scenes and just the coolest BJJ camp you can imagine!
RIGA
Next Riga Latvia, here I jumped in with team Strela for a couple of sessions, I was stoked to get to try out a few techniques I’d been working on during camp. Definitely embracing the Strela motto:
Sometimes maybe good. Sometimes maybe shit.
– it’s all part of the process right 😂
Riga was a really fun city, I spent so much time in their food market, the largest in Europe – smoked fish and mushrooms – sign me up! I also had these amazing (I’m going to call them sweet salami), think a creamy cookie dough with nuts wrapped in a light chewy fruity dough, they were phenomenal and sold by a woman who can only be described as stern asf. I didn’t dare ask any more questions but will for sure be trying to recreate them back home!
High on my to-do list was a Latvian folk dance night which did not disappoint! It was so sick, an old school Latvian pub, a bass player who definitely thinks he’s playing heavy metal, and a mix of Latvians who knew all the moves and us muppets looking left and right trying not to stomp on anyone’s toes – she was a sweaty affair, and so much fun!
POLAND
So that brings me to my current spot beneath the pile of German Pointers in Imbramowice Poland, a small town outside of Wroclaw.
I’m calling this week a writing retreat – yes getting any work done has required hiding away in the Polish countryside
My main source of distraction has been sliding into the dms of gyms, because next we mat surf!
So lets go full noise!
Stats
Month – 1
Gyms Visited – 13
Current location – Poland
Thesis Progress – 50%
Danger Level Gain – 20%
Percentage of Trip planned – 60%
The gym list (in order of visit):
- Art of Combat (Palmerston North, NZ) [HOME]
- Albury Wodonga Brazillian Jiujitsu (Albury, Australia)
- Viti Blacktip Jiujitsu (Nadi, Fiji)
- Axis (Rolleston, NZ)
- WahiBJJ (Fielding, NZ)
- East side (Auckland, NZ)
- Upper Hutt BJJ (Upper Hutt, NZ)
- Workshop (Wellington, NZ)
- Alliance (Auckland, NZ)
- Coast BJJ (Albany, NZ)
- Tonga Judo Association (Tongatapu, Tonga)
- BJJ Team Malta (Ħamrun, Malta)
- Team Strela Riga (Riga, Latvia)
