This morning, Jerome came by and we took the train to Gare de Lyon, where we had breakfast before I jumped on the train to Montpellier.

Since I came home late from my Eiffel Tower walk, I only got about 6 hours of sleep. That totals 10 hours in two days, which is the minimum I sleep daily. Was really difficult to stay awake in the train (3,5 hours), but I made it and met up with Thomas at the station. He trained in my gym in Copenhagen a while back, but moved here to study a year ago. He was the first person I talked to about coming by on my trip, so it was cool for me to finally get here after so much preparation.

I am right now sitting in his apartment and relaxing after a nice French style lunch. There is training tonight, but I’ll have to wait and see a bit if I have the energy for it. Also, my knee injury was really sore today, so is very nervous about it :-/ it needs to last for another four and a half month!

I was really tired when I got home from training around midnight, but I convinced myself that I should walk to the Eiffel tower and try to get a good shot of it. It is lit up at night and with the rain and fog on my only one night in Paris, I couldn’t let this photo opportunity pass.

I was glad I did it. What an amazingly beautiful structure it is. Especially on a night like this and with no tourists around. I was totally alone there, it was really a cool experience. Got some other shots on the way, but it was getting late, the rain was getting heavier and my fingers started to freeze.

Today was my first training session as a BJJ Globetrotter, and what an experience. I had my first training in Hybrid Team Jiu Jitsu, which is being run by black belt Olivier Millet.

Before I left for the trip, I was sick and had some problems with my knee so today was the first training in over three weeks. I must admit that I was a little nervous about going into this training, because I step into a completely unknown gym, wearing my brown belt (which in many places translates as a target on my back) and just coming back from a knee injury. You never know what kind of guys you run into, and it could potentially end really bad if someone just decides to give it everything and rip your legs off.

Fortunately, the gym I went to wasn’t anything like that. Arthur, who showed me around the city all day, trained there and I brought Jerome with me since his own gym only had MMA training tonight. We met the trainer and he was a super nice guy, welcomed us both with open arms.

The class was a mix of gi, no-gi and mma sparring at the same time. The facilities were very simple, I think it was a room at a public swim hall. We waited for a karate class to end before we could start training. Very informal atmosphere, just like it prefer it :) most guys were not wearing their belts, everyone seemed to have a good time and there was lots of laughs and smiles, always a good sign.

We did some isolation drills from side control and quarters and the instructor showed a way to turn over the turtle that I really liked and will remember for my own game.

We did two or three round of sparring. I only got to do nogi, but I am not in a hurry and should have lots of options to spar with the gi in the next four months :)

Got some good rounds of sparring with some tough guys. No headhunting and technical rolls going back and forth. Had a roll with my host Jerome, who did very well and is quite heavy to move around :) also I got to roll with a brown belt and it was a great round.

No problems with the knee and now I am sitting in the metro going back to the apartment to wash my gi and get some sleep. Feeling really high on BJJ, it was such a rush to roll again and a great feeling to once again walk into a gym and meet some super cool guys. If this is s sign of what will come the next four and a half months, then this trip is going to be epic :)

I am right now standing outside a mcdonalds and uploading this blog post. Really need to sleep, it has been a long day zzz

I recommend anyone in Paris to stop by the gym for some training! Here is some info about it from Arthur (the guide ;)):

training schedule for BJJ :
Monday 21h/22h30 + thursday at 19h30/22h30 at the “cour des lions” 9 Rue Alphonse Baudin 75011 Paris

There’s also courses in the suburb at the Henri wallon gym in Bagneux on tuesdays, fridays, from 18h to 20h and on sundays from 10h 13h : 2, Avenue Stalingrad , 92220 Bagneux

and finally a grappling class from 10 to 13h on saturdays at the marcel cachin gym in Bagneux too : 4 RUE DES CUVERONS 92220 Bagneux

contact : +33677105928
or the facebook group : HYBRID TEAM JUI JITSU

Tomorrow I will have brunch with Jerome and Arthur and then I take the train down to Montpellier to continue the amazing adventures of the BJJ globetrotter ;)

Since Jerome was busy today, I met up with Arthur, who is a guy from the Sherdog forum that contacted me about coming to train when I was in Paris. He is studying English, so while I could help him practice the language, he could be a tourist guide for me in the city :)

I met up with him today at 14:30 and we walked around for some hours and talked about BJJ. Beautiful city even though the weather was really boring. I took some photos, but it was difficult as I am more into blue skies and sunshine. I guess I could use some more practice in taking “sad mood” photos :)

I arrived well in Paris Charles de Gaulle airport and took the train to the city. I didn’t have data coverage on my phone so I had to do with my handwritten travel directions. I like that better actually, there is some kind of romantic thing about finding my way in a place I have never been before. Yes, I am a little weird, I know ;)

Made it to the Motte Picquet Grenelle metro station and met Jerome there. In fact it was his friend Sacha, who first contacted me about coming to Paris, but since he is in Japan now, he hooked me up with Jerome instead. I am staying in his small, but nice, apartment close to the Eiffel tower, while he will be sleeping at his girlfriends place.

I must say I was pretty excited to finally meet up with the first BJJ stranger on my trip, who I had met just through this blog. Tonight wee are going to a small gym to train a bit, will be interesting! Especially taking into consideration that I haven’t rolled in three and a half weeks basically.

When this post is being published, I am sitting on a plane towards the first destination of my four and a half month long journey around the world. Doing something like this is a dream, that I have had for as long as I can remember. In some periods of my life, it has been very clear and concrete, and in other periods, it has been vague and almost forgotten. But is has always been there, and this day I know, that I am doing the right thing. This is what I want to do, this is where I want to be. This is what I want to do with my life.

I will leave with a track from my favorite movie of all time, “Into the Wild”. It is a beautiful film with a beautiful soundtrack, and together with a very tragic event happening around the time I watched this, it really gave me the push I needed to make this dream reality. We have one life and one chance, that not everyone takes before it suddenly one day, out of the blue, can be too late.

Backpack weighed in at 14.3 kilos. I guess this is actually happening :)

Just checked the stats of my blog and was surprised by the large number of visits I get these days. I appreciate everyone’s interest in my project and can’t wait to get out there tomorrow morning.

Got back from an all-weekend competition (news from danish website) and now just getting all the last little things done tonight.

Tonight I found all the things I will pack in my backpack and put it out to get an overview of the situation. I don’t think it will be a problem to fit in everything, in fact I might have a little extra space available. Not going to fill it up with wooden statue souvenirs, but maybe I should get myself some more socks. Sorting through my current ones, I find out that I do not have many thin, light ones. Lots of thick winter socks though, but not gonna work for my trip. Better find some more, so I don’t have too smelly socks on the trip ;)

Leaving in one day and 12 hours!

I already have the super light weight black gi from Kauai Kimonos and now I have the second one, which is cotton so I can use it in competitions.

It is an experimental model from Kauai not on the market yet, so I will give it a thorough test by taking it around the world to tons of different gyms. The material is quite different from anything I have ever seen before, and takes some time to get used to, but I am getting there and like it more and more. The material is super light and takes up very little space in my backpack (some more than my black ripstop though). It also dries really quickly, which is an important thing to me while traveling.

I have been waiting for some patches to pimp it up before I posted about it here, but now it is finished and I took some photos of it. Also got a Scramble patch that I sew on the pants of my black gi. Looks sweet!

Went to the pharmacy today to get the last things I needed for the trip. My friend Martin already hooked me up with lots of probiotics pills, and today I bought some anti-inflammation painkillers, malaria medicine (just in case) and something if I get a sore throat. I also plan to shit a lot when I eat all kinds of strange, exotic foods, so got something to help me there as well ;)

Picked up my visa at the Indian embassy today. If I had been one day later with my application, I wouldn’t have made it in time. Living on the edge!

Yesterday, I was teaching my last classes before I leave monday. I am free on Fridays and in the weekend we are going to a tournament with the team.

As I posted yesterday, I baked an awesome cake for the guys. In fact I made two of them, but the other one was too ugly to take a photo of lol

It was a nice evening in the gym, even though I couldn’t really train myself. I rolled a bit with the young boys and was yet again surprised at how skilled they are. I know I am their coach and trainer, so it is “my own work”, but I am genuinely impressed with their level.

It was kind of an emotional evening for me. I see these people many days a week and consider them all my friends, so it is strange to think that I won’t see them for so long. I am definitely going to miss them all a lot, both as friends and as training partners.

Here are some photos where I officially present the cakes to my junior team and adult team.

This weekend we are taking the team to a tournament, so tonight is the last class I teach in my gym before I leave. Is there any better way to say goodbye, than with a cake?? I think not. So I’ve been in the kitchen all day, working my magic, and of course the result was stunningly beautiful:

Bought myself a sleeping bag and a microfiber travel towel today. It was pretty expensive (1138 dkr total) but I think it will be worth it. Really good quality and with two gi’s in my backpack I don’t have much room for other stuff, so these super compact items are necessary.

Yesterday I found out that I need a visa to enter India, and I had to go to the Indian embassy to get it. Leaving in six days, so I thought I’d better get it done today (which turned out to be a good idea since it was last possible day for me to do it in time :)).

I thought I was just going to go there and drop off the papers, which I filled out yesterday, but no. There was 35 people in the line in front of me when I got there and one women working to receive the forms and payment, who was NOT in a hurry. About two hours of waiting later, it was finally my turn.

350 dkr paid for a four day visa.

Still haven’t decided on what I should bring of my DSLR equipment. I wish I had room for all of it so I won’t miss out on any photo opportunities, but I know that is not realistic.

I think I’ll go for the 50mm f/1.8 for action/competition/training shots, 8mm fisheye for scenery and either my high quality 20-35mm or cheap 18-55mm. I’ll see what I can find room for in the bag…

So my plan was to gain some weight before the trip, but with all the training I have been doing (up until I hurt my knee at least), it has been almost impossible for me to put on weight. In the summer, I was up at around 83-84, which I wanted to get back to before the trip, but I am still at 78, so not much has happened. I guess I should have eaten even more food :) I feel kind of comfortable around this weight though, the only problem is that I know I will lose weight when I travel (I always do), and I wanna keep a bit padding for all that hard training.

It is not long ago when I was up at 90, but my body somehow just rejects muscle mass if I don’t eat and train like crazy ALL the time, so it was too much work to stay there.

Side effect of this is, that I can’t really fit much of my clothes anymore. In fact, I didn’t own a single pair of pants that fitted me around the waist. So I had to get a new pair of jeans for the trip and found some the other day. Gone down from size 36 to size 33 it looks like.