Pritchard Windsurfing

Traveling.. traveling with 14 bags, 12 of them windsurfing bags,  one person traveling.. hauling, carrying, stressing.. So I started out 6am in Fuerteventura.. It was kinda fun to go to load all the gear and see thousands of people still partying in the Carpa, which is the party tent that is in Fuerte, and it was a Friday night so it was packed. I was like wow.. that looks crazy! I went the entire Canaries tour without going out once.. I don't think I was out past 12:30 the entire time. So after seeing everyone party it up and me being too lazy to even go out one night even after I didn't have to compete I was like man I must be getting old or something. Or smarter.. well i doubt the last one but you never know. SO loaded all the bags, took the truck to the airport, went to check in and of course no room for all your bags on this plane. I was stressing out a bit but I lucky for me the manager at Air Berlin was very nice and checked in all my bags in on standby and said that they could go if the pilot said it was ok.. So I wasn't totally out in the clear but it could have been much much worse. So as I am getting on the plane I see them loading all the bags and I was like yes!! that is great.. SO i take a plane up to Dusseldorf 4 hours in the complete wrong direction, and then to Istanbul.. I managed to get upgraded to Business Class which made me smile.. I guess that smile at the check in really paid off!! Good to know you still have it!

Got to Istanbul and that is a pretty major airport, if you dont know where you are going and what you are doing you could get pretty lost. So I had a hour and a half layover, which is kinda short for Istanbul cause you have to go through customs, passport control, then hike across to the domestic terminal, go through security and find your plane. Just when I thought I was safe and ready to get on the plane to Izmir, there were two planes and I must have been tired because I was waiting for the wrong plain and almost missed mine. Anyhow made it to Izmir, only to find out ... guess what.. NO BAGS... So I am waiting for my bags for two hours, almost missed my driver that we had organized.. I ended up meeting up with him, and called Banu, the very nice lady who is helping me out here, organizing everything for me.. she is awesome.. She told the truck driver to get me a taxi to Alacati and call her when I got there and she would help me out with a place to stay for the evening. Well it was 4 a.m by the time i arrived and the driver took me to a nice hotel and I was like, it is late, I talked to front desk in Turkish, and I said Banu, he said yes, and showed me to a room. I was like WOW that was easy. Turns out it was the wrong hotel and I wasn't supposed to stay there at all. The people were so nice though and said all you have to pay is for the breakfast. Sorry about the misunderstanding.. I was like WOW.. now that is lucky! So I hope my luck continues with finding my bags so I can get out on the water and start testing my gear for the upcoming event! Maybe I will win the thing with all this good luck coming my way!

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Well these are the best photos I could take. I guess when you are tired of the sand, you are tired of the sand... not my best shots but at least got out there. Now I am on my way to Turkey. Should be fun.

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