Budapest - Moscow Extravaganza!

A Two week trip. Always tough to settle in, and by the time you get properly accustomed to life its time to go home. Beautiful Hungary was the first destination and Budapest, as always, welcomed us. No doubt apartment living is much better than hotel, especially in Europe. And now we know the city almost as well as our own things become much easier and a system happens that helps the comfort level. For instance, Training at Vasas during the day, dinner at Via Luna in the evenings and packs of 10 tickets for the metro bought from the landlord of the apartment for 10% cheaper than at the station....perfecto!

This tournament is always the first Grande Prix of the season. But even though it's the first doesn't mean it's the easiest. Rather, all the teams are there to make a statement and when you see country's like Italy and Russia warming up for an hour longer than usual you know something is up.

I went 4/2 in the pool round, got a "bye" and then won my first Direct Elimination round match 15/14 over Belgian fencer Seppe Van Holsbeke. Standing at 6'4" he caused many problems, especially with his reach but with my new found focus and concentration I played it exactly as planned and made the last touch. The next day I was up against US Olympian and motivational speaker Tim Morehouse. Ranked in the top 16 in the world I had never fenced him before in competition but new his game quite well from watching clips on "YouTube"......or as some say "Internet cheating"! I lost 12/15 but gave him a bout he will never forget. Great first result for me!

We spent the rest of the week training and hanging out in the Buda. Honestly, I don't think we left our neighbourhood once....and when Kyle says "nothing on the Internet tonight" you can obviously imagine how many hours were spent inside, ha!

Flying back to Frankfurt only to take another plane to Moscow turned a 3hr trip into a 13hr trip.

That was rough. Arriving into Russia with -20 degrees and snowy with big heavy fencing bags is not fun.....and then 45min bus ride to the hotel. This is the second time I've been to Russia and I was still amazed how hard it is to get anything done. Life is not easy there...nore is trying to get a pork schnitzel ordered to your room. I think it took me 2.5 hours, 25 phone calls to room service and 3 visits to the manager......and then the ice cream wasn't even free?!

Once again I made 4/2 in my pool. Went through to the next round but this time lost 14/15 to Russian Fencer Matvey Matushkin who just also happens to be fluent in French. We battled it out in front of his home crowd and at times I couldn't even hear the referee the cheers from the stands were so loud (obviously not for me). Still, I was pleased with the bout and how I structured it. Right now that is what I'm focused on....how to win by thinking. Team event went better than expected and we went 2/2 absolutely crushing the Japanese 45/29. I was last to fence, the most important spot, and proved that even after a long day (and 12 days of traveling) that with determination and the will to fight anything is possible.

Letting loose (another aspect of how to unwind) a few of us made it out to one of the biggest clubs in Moscow called LONDON. That was an experience in its own. With "face control" in full effect I've never seen so many beautiful people in one room in my entire life. No wonder drinks were $15. I'll leave it up to your imagination as to what happened but all I will say is that it was EPIC!

On the way home I ran into Daniel Nestor in the lounge in Frankfurt. We ate yogurt together and he signed my boarding pass!!!......we were on the same flight home to Toronto but he didn't want to give up his First Class seat.....hey, if I had one I wouldn't either, ha!

Germany and Tunisia next month. Keeping it real! Ciao