Back in Cologne!

So after being detained by the UK immigration for 3.5 hours, I was finally approved to enter the country. Unfortunately I had to abandon my comfy carpool and then found that a walk-on ticket for the ferry is €40 which is outrageous. So after waiting a couple of hours with a sign, I successfully hitchhiked with a great German guy named Tom. He had a badass LandRover and some excellent travel stories. He dropped me off at the outskirts of London, as he was traveling to Scotland and had no interest in getting stuck in London traffic. I took a train into the center and then biked to Hackney Wick in north London where I was staying. Nikola's husband Ryan met me and we went back to the canal boat that they live on. If I didn't have Nik's phone number, I'm not sure the UK officials would have let me in. The boat was awesome and I love it! It's my new dream house! I interrupted a last minute tournament planning meeting but then it was dinner/hangout time.
On Thursday I biked around London and did some sightseeing, and Friday was court-building day. Then it was time for the London Open! I played with Chris from Sheffield and Jordan from Brisbane. So it was a super international team! I had a fantastic time playing with those guys. Good polo, good attitudes. I think we tied for 13th but I'm not actually sure. Podium, the common program used to run the tournaments, crashed big time leaving the organizers at a loss. Thanks to hardworking Sophie from Bristol, the tournament was up and running again with a pen and paper.

I'm not a big fan of the London weather! Fall is approaching and within an hour you can be too warm, too cold, and soaking wet from rain. I should savor it though because I know how the weather is in Texas right now! Monday was the court teardown. 300 pallets had to be moved into a giant truck and a bunch of plywood had to be carried off. And it rained on us three times. Then I carried my belongings over to Maddie's flat since Nik had to host her father on the boat. I did some more sightseeing on Tuesday and after several difficulties finding a carpool from London to Cologne, I finally got a ride that left Wednesday around noon. It was with a nice guy named Derick from Cameroon. We listened to African party music the whole way. Finally I arrived back in Cologne after taking the last train from a city to the north of Cologne. Hooray! Today I will travel to Ulm for my 5th tournament in a row! Last night we went to a checkpoint and after party of the German cycle messenger championships. After the bar closed, a substance called Molotov soda was busted out, carried around in a gas can. It tasted like hangovers.