Europe - E.T.

Evan Turpen made it to Maribor to race at this weekend's world cup. We wish him the best of luck!

Holy $h@t...where do I begin?

It's 12:25 pm I am sat up in the Maribor parking lot taking advantage of the free wi-fi available in the nearby hotel and trying to think of what to type.

The last couple days has been a journey. The flight was long, but went smoothly. My bike arrived to Munich un-scathed although in transit they somehow managed to rip open my reinforced packing tape job. Once in Munich the reality set in that I was on my own. I immediately exchanged the 600 U.S. dollars in my wallet for a mere 400 or so Euros, then headed outside to look for a taxi.



I found one large enough to fit my bike box but the driver was trying to talk me out of spending the 20 plus euros to take a taxi and just take the bus. I convinced him otherwise as I needed to get to the car rental company and didn't feel like dragging all of my luggage from a bus stop to save some coin.

The taxi driver was crap. His GPS didn't work (so he said) and even though I had the street address he had no idea where it was. After what seemed like forever, asking for directions from multiple people, we finally arrive at Sixt (the car rental company) 10km away 45minutes later.

I check in and I'm told that the Mercedes Vito van that I had reserved had been totaled so I was upgraded to a larger van for the same price. Basically a full size sprinter style van made by Iveco. Pretty freakin' big just for myself, but I'm not complaining.



Once we set the GPS for Maribor, Slovenia I am off driving for the first time in Europe. Excited and nervous I get the hang of things pretty quickly. Let me tell you one thing... Driving over here is so much better than back home. The Autobahn is chill. PINNED cars and big trucks mesh seamlessly on a 2-4 lane freeway. This could never happen in the U.S. There are too many stupid drivers out there.

Getting solidly into the 5hr drive, jet lag starts to hit me a bit and I consider not driving the entire way to Maribor. I decide to find camping in Austria for the night and deal with the rest of the drive to Maribor in the morning.

I set up camp around 7:00 at night and start to build my bike to kill some time before going to bed. Half way through building my bike I start to get some stomach pain and decide to call it quits on the bike build. I go to the bathroom and feel a little better then try to get comfortable and go to sleep. The pain worsens and worsens until I am spending the night either puking, on the toilet, pacing around in agony, or trying to sleep. One tip when you are in Europe: don't buy an egg salad sandwich from an autobahn gas station! It will be THE worst 3 euro you have ever spent, no matter how good it tastes in the moment.

I somehow make it through the night and spend almost the whole next day recovering, eventually building my bike, and finally leaving for Maribor around 5pm.

The rest of the drive went smoothly until the GPS took a turn for the worse and was trying to send me down roads that didn't exist in Slovenia. I shut it off and let my instinct take over, eventually arriving in Maribor at the race venue.



I pull my freshly built bike out of the van and search for a floor pump since I did not pack one due to weight. The first group I ask happens to be some privateer racers from the UK and they help me out. We talk a bit, hit it off well, and now I'm having a good time camping and hanging out with my fellow racers.

Em's (that's his nickname) is a unique guy. He is welsh and is the definition of a privateer. He has a sprinter kitted out with a kitchen, fridge, TV and bed. He offers to cook me dinner and I'm not one to turn down free food. He made "Portuguese rice" and pork chops. I later find out that he calls it Portuguese rice because he learned the recipe while down there for a race.

I also meet the Pombo brothers (a duo from Portugal) who are here to race. They are funny guys and we all seem to get along really well.

Anyway...it is now 1:10 in the morning and I need to crawl into my bed to catch some sleep. I feel good now that I'm not puking my brains out and I am looking forward to checking out the track with walking inspection tomorrow.

Until next time...Guten nacht!