USA – Bradenton with Sharapova & Jankovic

After backpacking through Spain sharing a room with 7 people, I was glad to check in to the Nick Bollettieri tennis academy in Bradenton Florida. The tennis academy has produced many top players including Agassi, Sharapova, Jankovic, and Seles.  Originally just a tennis academy for nationally ranked tennis players, the academy now has a 9 month junior program and a year round adult program. The 350 acre campus now offers golf, baseball, football, soccer, and tennis.

Day one was a bit shaky after not having played much tennis on the trip. It did not help that due to the rain Sharapova and Jelena Janjovic were training on 2 of the 4 courts next to me as I am warming up. They were both training for the US open which starts next week. Bollettieri is very proud of both of the women for reaching the top ranks and watches them from the side. He looks over at my court and sees one of the players in my group having issues and walks over to correct her stroke. He then takes the time to watch all over us hit. After watching me hit my forehand cross court, he extends his hand and congratulates me. It is something I will remember for the rest of my life. After day one I am exhausted, my feet are blistered and my quads are incredibly sore.

Six hours of tennis a day playing on green clay took all the energy out of me. The food on campus is delicious and servings are massive. I find myself eating 2-3 full plates of food with at least 2 types of protein at each meal. My clothes are drenched after each session and I limp back to my room and fall asleep by 10pm every night.

I had a private lesson with the coach of Marcelo Rios every morning where we work on my groundstrokes, volley, and serve. His main observation is that I play very tight at the beginning of warm up and in my matches. The rest of the coaches also comment on how I just need to let things go and accept making mistakes on the court and not be afraid of errors. During mental conditioning sessions, the coach shows me video and I realise that I am a good player.  Prior to watching the video I was disappointed about all the errors that morning.  It’s interesting how our perception of ourselves can be way off from reality.

Today is my final day in the US and it is bittersweet. I enjoyed having the delicious large meals and intense training, but I am glad to be back in Canada tonight with friends in Montreal. I’m almost in Vancouver and I can’t wait to unpack the backpack which is getting very full and heavy.

Spain – Olympic Clay, Tapas, and Picasso

Today is the final day in Europe and one of the most stressful flights out of the entire trip. The first flight starts at 6am from Madrid to Frankfurt, 10am from Frankfurt to Charlotte, 6pm from Charlotte to Sarasota where my dream of training at the Nick Bollettieri school comes true. This post may be a bit scattered as I’m writing at the Starbucks shop bumming free internet(good ol’America) at the Charlotte airport waiting to board my flight to Sarasota.

One of my goals for my stop in Spain was to see the Barcelona 92 Olympic site, the Picasso museum, and the beach. Not only was I able to see the Olympic sites, I was able to get some court time on centre court of the 92 Olympic games. It was my first time on clay and it threw off my technique during warm-up, but eventually I got a good hitting rhythm. The clay court plays very slow and is unpredictable in taking on the spin of the tennis ball. One of the biggest challenges for me to date is overcoming my nerves when leading in a tennis match. Up 3-0 serving, I completely lose it and for the next 5 games unable to gather my composure. The match ends at 4-6 which was a bit of a disappointment, but hopefully I can work on my nerves during tennis training in Florida this week.

The week went by very quickly and I found myself spending most of my time wandering around the city admiring the beautiful architecture. Aside from Gaudi’s work, there are many architects from around the world who have contributed their designs to the landmarks in the city.  After wandering the streets, there were plenty of delicious tapas bars to grab a bite to eat and nice cold drink.  For the first time in my life, I was offered free drinks in order to fill out the ratios at the local clubs while I was passing the bars with a mate of mine.  This would not be sustainable in North America or Australia to give free drinks to get people into the bar.

With all the travelling, my language is all mangled with random outbursts of French, Japanese, and Spanish coming out. A part of me is glad to be in going to Florida where I wont have issues with language.

Sweet Swedish Stockholm – The people who created IKEA, Skype, and H&M

Besides the IKEA store, I really did not know much about Sweden before visiting. I landed late on Sunday night with a bit of a cold from Paris and hung-over from one too many glasses of red wine. While I waited for the baggage to come off the belt I converted my Euros to Krons and was ready to get out of there. A short walk takes me to the Arlanda Express which is one of the most impressive airport to city trains I’ve taken so far. The train reached speeds of 240km/hr which you would not know from how stable and quiet the train ran.

For my week in Stockholm I stayed near Gamla Stan, which is the old city of Stockholm with beautiful cobblestone walkways and little shops. I even found a coffee shop for my daily dose of caffeine. Surprisingly my barista is actually Australian and splits his time between Melbourne and Stockholm. Looking out onto the street everyday as I enjoy my double shot latte, I feels like living in Barbie’s world with a herd of beautiful blond haired blue/green eyed people speeding past on their push bikes. The large number of cyclists and the focus on eco-friendly sustainable solutions really impressed me. My favourite Swedish invention is the one developed by the local university that converts energy from water waves into energy.

It was great to meet up with friends and learn about the research they were doing, play some beach volleyball (man made courts), and eat crayfish for the first time. One of my favourite evenings was in a restaurant called the five houses with two great friends.  The restaurant was underground and had five different chambers. My dinner consisted of reindeer steak and elk carpaccio for the first time. Both were incredible and I hope I get to eat it again sometime.

Travelling has made me try new things and face many of my fears including chatting with strangers. One of the nights and I decided to head to the local pub in Gamla Stan after walking around the whole day. After grabbing a pint and chilling among the locals, I made a few Swedish friends and was invited to continue on partying with them. The drinks kept flowing till the early hours of the next morning and it ended on a high note.

France - Biarritz and Paris

After a peaceful and relaxing week in France, my plan is to head off to Stockholm tomorrow. This week was full of surprises and a lot of it was from not having over planned my time. Surfing every morning for two hours was quite a workout. The surf was rough on sometimes and strong down shore currents pulled me downshore. I started off the week riding an eight foot board working on getting up on my feet and by the end of the week I progressed to a 7 foot 9 board traversing across waves before they broke. The surfing was out at Casernes beach which had a small crepe shop next to the surf shop. The sandwiches and crepes were delicious and I tried to get one after surfing each morning.

Here is where Casernes is:


View Larger Map

I stayed at an eco-friendly lodge 10 minutes away from the beach. The other surfers were quite chill and from all parts of the globe, including a girl from Vancouver who moved to Boston to study at MIT before moving to Paris to work in corporate finance. My flatemate for the week works for Google Poland, originally from Boston and plans on moving back to the Google headquarters in California. Many of us joined in on the yoga session at the lodge to stretch out our tired muscles from surfing. The relaxation and mediation aspects of yoga may have been a little too peaceful, which left many of us struggling to stay focused and awake during the session.

In a few hours I will board a plane back from Biarritz back to Paris for a final night at the Champs Elysée Marriott. All those out of town consulting assignments have earned me a free night at the beautiful hotel. Tomorrow I board an evening flight to Stockholm, which means I will have half a day to check out the louvre with one of my new friends from the lodge.

Over the course of the week I realised how nice it is to be out in the country and away from the busy city-life. The people out in Biarritz are relaxed and have all the essentials to lead a happy and healthy lifestyle. It'd be great to have a holiday home in Biarritz. The weakened Euro makes the real estate out here quite affordable compared to Sydney and Vancouver.  I will need to brush up on my broken French that I haven't used in 12 years if I want to spend more time here.