Trip to Bucarest
I always getting a huge smile in my face when mike comes up with a “hey do you wanna go to…” he isn´t even done asking i am already like “yeah man, for sure…” this time it has been rumania and i was looking forward to go because i haven´t been to rumania at all.So lets skip going to the airport way too early, having no breakfast and so on because you know how this things go sometime…
if you´re not prepared haha. well the first impression always counts, right?! and as soon as we landed i´ve had a really good feeling about the whole trip already. the city of bucarest is probably around 800 years old but looks way older with the kind of architecture of the buidings. lots of huge old buildings and palaces from back then when the politics when Mr. Nicolae Ceau?escu was in charge. the people seem kinda sad and angry because nowadays the country stucks in a crisis and people aren´t able to earn enough money for taking care of themselfs because the goverment is cutting their paychecks and what not. so a way to taking care of themselfs anyway is to steal things and that´s why there´re security guys everwhere in the city.
well carhartt store owner and super nice guy caprian and also his store mate mugur and his lovely wife took care of us and our needs. it´s been so awesome because those guys where worrying about us all the time and made sure we´re happy and having a good time, seriously amazing. the festival where the contest was held called “street heroes”. the programm was filled with different kinds of competitions such as graffiti, dance, skateboarding and bmx contests. the skatepark had 3 good looking bowls and a real street area with lots of banks, curbs, rails and so on.
since bucarest has go their first skatepark ever it hasn´t been a surprise that the riders from there haven´t been riding bowls before and so the bmx contest was going on in the street area. even it wasn´t mine and stefan lantschner´s thing at all we´ve had a lot of fun in it. it´s all about doesn´t taking things too serious and that´s exactly what we did and the people enjoyed it very much. stefan brought a friend from italy, a very quiet super nice guy and awesome rider with him who felt like home because this was exactly what he likes to ride and we´ve all could see that, style, tricks, control, you name it, everything was how it suppose to be and mr. simone barraco from italy took the trophy, more than deserved. for my big surprise i took second place and for entering my first ever real street contest i´ve been more than happy. well because of it wasn´t stefan´s thing at all he landed 4th place but was showing everyone how to ride/carve a huge bowl with a huge smile on his face, seriously amazing to watch him ride something like that and the people noticed “yes that is what he can do like no other”
so after 5 days in 40 degrees i couldn´t wait to come home into the rain…NOT! i wish i have could stay longer because the people has been amazing and careful. i will definitely go back because there´s so much more to see and to ride. a super big “THANK YOU” goes to caprian, mugur and madelina for all your kindness, help and dedication. another time i´ve got showed another time that all the people of the carhartt family do everything with their heart. everyone had a really good time and i for myself had one of the best times in my BMX life. thanks for the memories and for being such amazing friends now. i really apriciate the time i´ve had with all of you and can´t wait for next time.
cheers!
Paddy
