The MT IV - Ljubljana! Wait.... where?

EDITORS NOTE: This is a NOVEL of a post.  I hope you enjoy reading, because apparently I like writing.  Skip over all the fancy words/sentences/paragraphs down to the photo journal at the end if you are so inclined.

___________________________________________________________________________________

It started off as any mystery trip should; with a burrito twist.  Well, 4 of us did have a burrito, but the burrito-less member (Ashley) was starting her day out of London for work so was going to meet us at the departure location.  That meant revealing that we were indeed taking an aeroplane for this mystery trip (shocker, I know!).  I told Ash to meet us at Stansted Airport for 15:30 leaving us lots of time check in for our flight and get through security.   The rollercoaster ride began on my walk to the local burrito hut when Ashley called me to say her train was delayed and there was a chance it might get cancelled altogether.  Various updates came with the final blow: train was cancelled, no trains were going and she was stuck 50 miles from the airport.  She held it together well and fought through the adversity and got into a cab and raced to the airport arriving pretty much at the same time as the group.  What a trooper.

Nicknames - I should probably point out the low-light of the trip before I get into its goodness.  This was a big personal failure for me as I assigned nicknames for the weekend, none of which really stuck.  I blame this on the participants of MT IV not buying in and letting the names take them over.  I don’t know why.... here were the proposed names:

                Thomas ‘The Mailman’ Benson

                Ashley ‘The Say Hey Kid’ Jakobi

                Greg Wamsley – ‘The Big Hurt’

                ‘Shoeless’ Danielle D’Lima

                Colin ‘Boom Boom’ Freeman

None of the above really stuck.  I like to think there is still a chance that they will. The dream is not dead, just on hold.

The Reveal - Anyway, so we are at the airport and the time came for the group to put on their Mystery Trip blindfolds.  This is a standard practice in Colin Freeman planned Mystery Trips – they should have expected it.  So, while they may have got a few odd looks they did the trick for the main intended purpose: to make the group look silly:

The time came to board the flight and the mystery became a little bit mysterious for some members.  Greg was the first to realize where we were going, followed by Tom and then Ashley – all before we even got on the plane.  Epic failure!  Danielle continued to happily blast music on full volume and keep her eyes off of the screens as we boarded the plane.  Before we knew it we were in the air and Danielle was still in the clouds on where we were headed.  A few hours later and we had landed in a mysterious land.  Danielle made it as far as one realistically can without knowing when she walked into the terminal at Ljubljana airport and read a few signs and figured out what city we were in.  I emphasize the word ‘city’, because she revealed that she still didn’t know where Ljubljana was and there was unaware of what country she was actually in.  Ah, the joys of travelling slightly obscure European locations.  Within a few minutes we were through and evidently the lovely Slovenian border control was a giveaway for Danielle.

Friday Night - So we were all ‘in the know’ and found the pre-arrange cab and were off to find out hotel in Ljubljana.  The highlight of the drive into the city was finding out that Elton John was actually in town and playing a concert that night.  For approximately 46 seconds we deliberated trying to track down the venue and scalp us some EJ tickets.  At the 47^th second it faded from our minds and we moved on.  I knew I had booked us a pretty swank hotel as I had done some shrewd negotiating on price, so was excited for the group to arrive likely expecting a hostel.  Turns out LJU is a pretty cheap place and November isn’t exactly high season which meant it was easy enough to weasel our way into a nice spot for the same price as a dump in most other cities.  We arrived at the hotel – or so we thought – only to be told that we were at the wrong location and needed to walk 5 minutes to another building.  In hindsight this just added to the mystery as the first spot was fairly nice leading the group to assume the second place would be a pile of crap.   

We arrived at the real location as it was as advertised.  We got shown up to our room at it was fairly ridiculous in how nice it was.  Here is a picture to show the wonderful furniture and old beam ceilings:

After settling in, we went out for some hot wine and a few cheap beers along the river.  Within a few minutes, we discovered how small the city was and managed to orient ourselves and get back to the hotel in one piece. 

Saturday

An early wake-up call and quick breakfast and we were off to the bus station for a day trip out of the city.  We headed off to Lake Bled which I had read about and heard good things about from a few other people.  It was just over an hour on the bus and we were there mid morning.  Lake Bled is a stunning little place with a castle overlooking a lake with one small island.  The colour of the water and mountains surrounding the lake make it very picturesque and you can see pretty quickly why it comes highly recommended.  We did the typical things you do in Bled, like hike up to the castle, walk around the lake, and stop and take pictures with blindfolds on:

After hours spent wandering around the lake we made our way back to Ljubljana for the evening.  We took full advantage of the Spa facilities (when in Rome? right?) before heading back out for a nice dinner and another chance to check out some local establishments.

The highlight of the night was the scrumcious dinner had by all – despite the small piece of hard plastc/glass Danielle found in her meal.  It didn’t stop her from finishing the meal and she got a nice discount – so all is well that ends well.  I will regret this sentence if she gets internal damage from said plastic/glass.

Sunday

I hopefully had lulled the group into a false sense of security in that we had stayed at the same hotel for two nights.  With hopes that they thought we were spending another day in Ljubljana, I set the group wake up time nice and early and we are out of our hotel with bags in hand by 7:30.  Back to the bus/train station we went.  Turns out the ever-so-reputable Slovenian bus company I had booked with online wasn’t quite as squeaky clean as I assumed.  The mini-bus was already full, which meant we got to ride in the bonus vehicle with no other passengers which sounded great.  Once in the vehicle it was revealed that we were headed to Mestre, which is a city about a 10 minute train ride away from Venice, Italy.  The bus ride was due to be about 3.5 hours so the group could relax, that was until said sketchy Slovenian bus company promptly began driving 170 km/h and scaring the bejeezus out of some members of the MT team.  Once those members fell asleep it was all OK and we made it to Mestre in one piece – not to mention in GREAT time (just over 2 hours). 

From there we took the quick train into Venice and spent a day like the Venitians do, assuming Venetians aimlessly wander Waterworld and do this:

And this?

The weather was impeccable - around 15 degrees in the sun (compared to 4 or 5 the day before in Bled).  We had a great full day of touring around and eating delicious food and were ready to head home on our flight late Sunday night. 

And that was that.

Key lessons learned from this MT:

- Blindfolds are awesome

- Burritos are a great pre MT meal

- Don’t eat glass as it is bad for you

- Lbuljana is underrated – very cool small city.  Highly recommended visit.

- Venice has a lot of water!  Who knew?

Next up is Danielle in late January so hopefully you don’t plan on reading this blog much over the holidays.  Good luck Backpack, you are gonna shock the world I’m sure.

Sincerely,

Boom Boom

P.S. If you skipped over all of that reading - here is a photo entry of the trip.

First, I blindfolded them to prolong the mystery.  Then Ashley continued eating chips.





Then we went to Ljubljana market and castle

Then we went to Lake Bled

Then we were still at Lake Bled

Then we went back to Ljubljana

Then, on Sunday, we went to Venice

Official preferred backpack carrying style of Mystery Trippers

The MT IV is upon us!

Hello sweet sweet world,

In t-minus one hour MT IV will launch into all of its majestic glory.  Colin's turn is up as group organizer and something special is in the air. 

Will he take the group to his dream location of Minsk?

Will he throw them a curveball and take a trip to the far east?

OR.... will the greatest mystery of all be revealed and the group will drive in circles for 48 hours straight before being returned home?

Only time will tell my friends.

Goodbye for now - stay tuned for a full recap next week.

XOXO
Gossip Girl
Anonymous Mystery Trip Blogger

The Signs

Welcome to my review of the 2002 M. Night Shyamalan/Mel Gibson classic 'Signs'.  The character development starts off well Wait a minute.... wrong blog. 

This is actually a completely unnecessary post that is only loosely related to Mystery Trips. 

The following signs/sights were seen on our recent MT3.  Some of them are funny. 

Category 1:  Random things seen around Tallinn:

I have a feeling most people would disagree with this statement

Not quite on the same intellectual level as the last graffiti artist but still a nice thought

Greg's finally found what he's been looking for....

This photo was on the wall of fame in a Tallinn restaurant... still confused.

Danielle's long lost childhood bedroom in Estonia... trophy's galore.

Category 2: NHL Hockey Players - We were shocked to find out that many current and former NHLers own commercial property/roads in both Finland and Estonia.  Here is a sampling:

The $27 million dollar man....Ville Leino

The shoulder magnet...Eric Lindros

 Finish legend...Esa Tikkanen (spelling is close enough)

 The biggest ass in the league...Tomas Holmstrom (with a guest appearance by Kid Rock)

 The Finnish Canadian American faceoff specialist..... Joel Otto

Perennial Selke Award Candidate....Jere Lehtinen

 Former Hab and apparently current brewer....Saku Koivu

 Scarface....aka Tuomo Ruutu

 Toronto Maple Leaf great and future 50 goal scorer.... Nikolai Kulemin (Kuli)

Can you tell that we are bored and can't wait until the next Mystery Trip?

The Lindaline Express - MT3

Guest Blogger ALERT!



Group: MT3 was a massive success – good work Ashley!
Ashley: Thanks guys, I’m happy to accept the award for best mystery trip 2011...

We arrived at Gatwick airport at 17:00 and checked in with Norwegian Airlines – there were several flights listed so the group still didn’t know where we going! We managed to board our flight and took-off without knowing the destination... a few minutes in to the flight, the pilot came on the pa to give an update in Norwegian – unfortunately, Helsinki still sounds like Helsinki regardless of the language, and the mystery of our destination was over! A 2.5 hour flight was just the right amount of time to recover from any leftover feelings of illness from the night before.

We arrived to our hotel, a converted factory right on the harbour, around midnight on Friday and went out for a couple hours to explore the city at night. The next morning we toured the market in the main square, went to an underground church, and walked pretty much the entire city centre – the weather was a nice 15 degrees and sunny, perfect for a couple Finnish beers on the patio. Helsinki is a really nice and clean city, a good mixture of old and very modern buildings throughout. At about 4pm on Saturday, we got our bags from the hotel and walked to the ferry terminal to head across the Baltic Sea towards another mystery destination... Tallinn, Estonia. WHAMMY, DOUBLE MYSTERY!

We had a great time in Tallinn, exploring the historic town centre and enjoying the local food and drink (a lot of Russian and German influence there – Vodka and Beer were the main drinks on offer). On Sunday we rented bikes and toured outside the walled old town along the sea. Again, we had great weather of about 16 and sunny the entire day. We flew back to London late on Sunday evening, caught a few hours of sleep and 5 lucky travellers turned back into business professionals just in time to walk through the office doors bright and early Monday morning. Man, I can’t wait for the weekend!

Highlights:

- PORK. Our Estonian traditional dinner included pork knuckles, pork roast, pork ribs, pork in jelly, pork in buns, pate, and the hottest mustard of life. All washed down with local beer and cider! Meat sweats started shortly afterwards…

- Danielle and Ashley learned the meaning of sarcasm

- Hookahs and shisha

- Visiting two countries in two days, with five of the most amazing foreigners this side of the atlantic.

Good luck Colin – you may want to enlist help from Ashley in order to ensure success on MT4.

The retro-diary

UPDATE - Great news - the blog is all up to date with full records for MT1, MT2, and MT3!!! Read on!
____________________________________________________________________________________

Due to some serious procrastination, the story of Mystery Trip 1 (MT1)and Mystery Trip 2 (MT1) will be told retro-actively.  Don't worry, the details are still fresh in our minds and we'll provide some photographic proof that they did indeed occur.

These manuscripts will be posted for your enjoyment next week so tune in then.

But here is a teaser:

MT1 - Haggis, ice, and seal treats - Organized by Greg Wamsley
MT2 - Johnny Drama, gelato, family reunions - Organized by Tom Benson

The dream

So it has been revealed that Tom had a dream nightmare this week involving MT3.  I quote:

Also dreamed that you guys ditched me on the way to the airport for MT3 and then Colin texted me from the terminal to tell me to suck it and where you were going and that I could get the porter to let me in to borrow a racquet if I wanted to go hit a ball against the wall someplace. I woke up pissed off and laughing both.

A few things we need to analyze about this dream:
1) Getting left behind from a MT? That DOES sound terrible
2) But come on.... really? Well, he can't really be blamed, because texting someone 'Suck it' is totally something Colin would do.

That's it.  Funny dream right?

The MT3 is upon us

Avid readers (yes, all 4 of you),

The time has come, MT3 is upon us.  We hit a bit of a scare this morning when the organizer (Ashley) fell under the weather.  Apparently she was over-served at an outing last night.  We are looking into disciniplary action against the establishment and server that attemped this sabotage.

But never fear, as she always does, Ash has bounced back and is ready to go.  Here's what we know:

- Be at Gatwick airport by 5:00 PM

- Prepare for weather between 10 and 16 degrees with chance of rain

- Lots of walking

- Pack your optimism

The countdown is on.  Personally, I am still convinced we are going to Minsk but that's been my guess for each of the trips thus far.  One day it will be true.

Updates and pictures to follow on Monday.

Stay tuned and wish us luck.

The Mosquitoes and Gelatos - MT2

MT2 began bright and early on a Saturday morning. Really, really early.   As in, flight from Stansted at 7:10 and taxi from Boss House at 4:00am early. Everyone was pretty good natured about it, and after some napping on the bus, and a lot of caffeine at the airport, the trippers felt much less inclined to punch one another in the face.  With some help from security and the Ryan air ground crew, strategic use of iPods, and sticking fingers in ears while screaming “LaLaLaLa, I can’t hear you” for most of the flight, the trippers were able to maintain the mystery until we were taxiing to the terminal at our first destination: Torino, Italy.

Stop 1: Torino

After a bus ride to the centre of town, we were off on a quick walking tour which included Piazza Castello (site of the Olympic Medals ceremonies and infamous IOC orgies cocktail parties), the best gelato in the entire world (according to Benson) from Fiorio, unspectacular pizza and pasta from La Pianeta, and a walk up via Roma.  After two hours in Torino, it was time to head to the train station for the next leg of the journey to…

Stop 2: Monte Carlo

Wait, nope, we’re turning east, not west.  Turns out we’re headed to…

Stop 2: Rapallo

Rapallo is a medium-sized beach town on the eastern end of the Italian Riviera.  After getting off the train, we had a five minute walk to our hotel, which Greg had to do barefoot, as he somehow managed to leave his shoes on the train.   We were all just thankful that he was able to get off the train without leaving his pants on it as well.  We arrived at the Bates Hotel Hotel Portofino, which turned out to be a very cool, very old hotel run by some extremely nice people.  It was decided that the girls would take one room and the boys would take the other down the hall.  When the girls walked into their darkened room, what did they find?  A swarthy turbie asleep on the bed.  Had Tom hired a Mystery Hooker for the rest of the trip?  A great idea for future trips, but no, after the lights came on it turned out to be Mystery Guest #1, none other than Fanny Pack, aka Bum Bag (in the UK), aka Stephanie D’Lima.  When Danielle realized what was going on, she squealed with such delight that you’d think she just found out that one of her SIMS was pregnant.

After getting all the hugging and stuff out of the way, Greg and Ash went out hunting for cheap shoes (see Greg’s mishap above) while the rest of the crew relaxed on the terrace.  They came back shoeless, but with an amazing bottle of fizzy purple wine grape juice gone bad that was shared by the group.  After a walk through Rapallo (that may have included a couple of gelato stops) we boarded the bus for Portofino.   

Stop 3: Portofino            

Portofino is an amazing seaside resort town full of mega-yachts, Russian oligarchs, mafia mistresses, fugitives from justice, and generally people with too much money/too-small dogs.  Even though we weren’t wearing Uggs, furs, or €500 sunglasses, they still served us dinner, and it was great.  After dinner, it was a bus ride back to Rapallo, a walk along the waterfront (more gelato), and we decided to turn in.

Something the ladies learned on the trip: if you are prone to mosquito attacks, and severely allergic to their bites, then don’t sleep with your window open.  The next morning Ash was fine, but the D’Lima sisters looked like they’d attended Fight Club the night before.  (And it’s possible that’s actually what happened, they’re both pretty badass).  Though we tried to convince Danielle that rather than mosquitoes she’d actually been attacked by miniature vampires all night, just like in Twilight, and that it was awesome, she wasn’t convinced and the night in Rapallo is still a black mark on their trip.  Despite our bug problem, we forged on.

Stop 4: Cinque Terre

After a run-in with the conductor on the train who tried to fine us €500 (yeah, sure, we didn’t have tickets, but the ticket office wasn’t open… sort of), we made it to Monterosso and started walking/climbing.  Tom proved what amazing shape he was in by stopping often to chat (wheeze) with the obese and/or elderly Americans who were attempting the hike.  We made it to Vernazza where most of us took a swim in the Mediterranean, the exception being the trip organizer, who should have been smart enough to bring a swim suit, but wasn’t.  From Vernazza, a train to Corniglia, a hike up with 1,000,000 stairs from the station to the town, then back down and on the train to Manarola.  From Manarola, the supposedly romantic walk along the via dell’amore to Riomaggiore brought us to town number cinque of the terras.

As we were buying our train tickets to our next destination, we got some shocking news: Train Strike!  Ah, crap.  We said our hurried, tearful (for some) goodbyes to our Mystery Guest and sent her on her way, then jumped on the first train that was headed south.  When we got to La Spezia we found chaos.  No one knew which trains were running and which weren’t, and our outlook wasn’t promising.  We hung out in McDonald’s and consoled ourselves with Spaghetti McFlurrys while Benson babbled away in Italian trying to figure out how to get us to our next stop, Pisa.

Stop 5: Pisa

Finally we finagled our way onto a passing Eurostar train and headed to the armpit of Italy, Pisa.  Like an armpit, Pisa is smelly and not particularly nice to look at, but it did have one thing we wanted to see.  We hopped a bus for the Leaning Tower of and spent a half hour taking photos (meaning attempting to take trick shots of us laying on the lawn so that the tower looked like it was our dong).  After that, bus to the Pisa Airport, and our trip was almost done.

Stop 6: London

After a flight delay, we finally made it back to Stansted, only to be greeted by The Worst Queue Ever Known to Man at immigration.  Were we going to make the last train home?  Would we have to sleep at Stansted/get fired from our jobs?  It was touch and go, but we finally made it, and everyone was home and in bed by 2:00am.  None of us were very productive the next day at work, but it was worth it.

Mystery Trip 2 was now History Trip 2, and despite a few curveballs (malarial mosquitoes, lazy Italian train workers) the trip was mostly a success – we saw new stuff, and no one died.