Hey hey!! its a little late for a Christmas note - but i think we are still in the season right? So Merry Christmas from Chamonix, France.
So snow is crazy. Not sticky enough to make snow balls or snow men with though. And we had to go to the French alps 3000 or so meters up just to make we actually saw the stuff. A few days in the freezing cold was pretty challenging after some of the warmest days of the whole trip in Cinque Terre.
None the less, we rugged up in our own Perth-esc way and took a ski lift 2000 meters up to some of the most amazing and far away from home views I´ve seen in my life. Mountains covered in snow and stepping knee deep in all that white fluffy goodness. Thanks to Steph I was well equipped with good hiking\snow shoes.
A wimpy but successful cut off branch for a Christmas tree, decorated with Rom and Mels jewelery (as well as some alfoil from a chocolate wrapper), we surrounded it with presents we had sneakily brought each other over the trip.
Croissants for breaky, a lot of cheese fondue for lunch, and an amazing true Christmas dinner at the hostel.
We ice skated in the evening and i enviously watched some young kids play ice hockey on an outdoor rink surrounded by mountains. Coup fell over a lot.
On boxing day we wondered about the test results and decided we better set up a competition of our own. Seen in the video is the final of our €3 schled slide down a little hill race. It was one all in a best of 3 final. Rom took the trophy after Mel cheated with an early start (see 3rd umpire video).

So now we are in Barcelona for new years and Coup and I are a bit hungover after trying to out-drink a Canadian linebacker called Dave. Hes about 300 pounds (thats probably an over statement but he is pretty big). I don´t think we really had a chance after 1 too many Mojitos.

.Geno

On a side note...

In Cinque Terre a pizza cook approached me with a small pen and paper and sort of motioned that he wanted my autograph. He then said something in Italian and then said "...You are Steven Spielberg!... We all laughed thinking he was joking. He wasn´t. He actually thought I was Steven Spielberg. Mel told him the truth and i think he was pretty embarrassed. In other words - my beard is coming along nicely.