Sunday, April 01, 2007

Episode 7 - Live Blog (Leg 7 AND 8)

Sorry folks, no time to blog Episode 6, for a full recap and all the airport woes that left several teams DAYS behind, check out the official site.

To make up for it, heres's a LIVE BLOG - SPOILER ALERT! (Updated every commercial break)

Eric & Danielle = ED
Uchenna & Joyce = UJ
Dustin & Kandice = BQs
Oswald & Danny = OD
Charla & Mirna = CM
Joe & Bill = JB

Teams take off from Zanzibar to head to Warsaw, Poland. Everyone jumps out of the gates and heads to a travel agent. UJ try to connect by phone but teams that are present in the Travel Agency, urge the attendant to hang up on them. Trying to book the best flight out proves to be a bit of a struggle, everyone trying to get to Poland before a 12:00pm arrival.

The BQs get the first booking (arriving at 9:10am), and the flights fill up. UJ have the same luck, meanwhile CM, OD and ED are all still waiting at the Travel Agent. CM and OD are on their way while ED are sitting out on a curb, pouting and questioning their relationship.

Due to the LATE LATE arrival times (almost 12 hours apart) from the last Episode, JB are just leaving while other teams are already on flights. They get booked on the same plane as ED. Unfortunately their connecting flight was late and their plane is on the runway, with no turning back.

(Commercial)

Eric, "We're going to be about 3 days behind the other teams now." JB and ED check into a hotel while UJ and BQs are connecting in Frankfurt. UJ have to pick up their connecting tickets in Frankfurt but they get yanked off the flight for some reason.

On the ground in Poland the BQs (the only ones in the country right now) have to make their way to a palace to find "Chopin" playing the piano to pick up their clue. OD and CM arrive in Warsaw ahead of UJ who are still in Frankfurt. ED and JB are finally leaving Africa for Europe.

DETOUR: Chose between

Perfect Pitch: Go to the palace, chose a grand piano and tune it - then a pianist must play Chopin and determine it in tune to get their clue.

Perfect Angle - Pick up a mannequin and carry it to a lab, use an x-ray to locate a clue inside their mannequin.

BQs - Perfect Pitch - one of them determined which key was out of tune (she's been playing piano since she was 6) and they get to work right away.

Teams must now figure out the name on their clue is to a monument, where they will find their next clue.

CM are running around Warsaw, trying to find someone "friendly looking enough" to help them. They are getting frustrated trying to find the palace. OD pass them in a cab and they chose Perfect Pitch.

BQs reach their clue at the monument, they need to search the grounds to find the mat and check in. They're team #1 and they win a prize - but is the race over....?

CM finally get to the clue and chose Perfect Pitch as well.

UJ finally get to Warsaw and instead of searching for "Chopin" playing the piano on the grounds of the palace, they start wandering around the school of music. They get back on track and head to Perfect Pitch. OD have troubles tuning the piano, and actually break 2 strings. CM has also been there an hour and both teams give up and consider heading to the other challenge.

(Commercial)

OD don't give up and get the job done, praising their pianist, "If I were in town, I'd ask for your number!" CM stay a while longer but after OD leave, they head for the other task with the mannequins. UJ arrive to tune pianos as CM head for Escada and grab mannequin to transport to the lab. Walking down the street they don't have any more luck getting instructions from locals. Meanwhile, OD check in as team #2.

CM find someone to help them, and while walking their mannequin down the street body parts start falling off. They arrive at the lab to get xrays and hopefully find their clue. UJ finish up at Perfect Pitch and head to the mat, finishing #3.

JB and ED are getting on their final flight to Poland while CM head to the mat in the dark, #4. It will now be a head to head battle to the pit stop between JB and ED, who have all been traveling for 30 hours.

With teams spread so far apart, BQs are starting Leg 8 while two teams are just arriving in Poland, not even at the Detour yet.

They need to head to Auschwitz, first locating a monument which will feature a box containing tickets. Teams must pick some up for one of two charter buses. Departure times are 4 hours apart.

(Commercial)

JB chose the mannequin task while ED head to Perfect Pitch. JB are having troubles locating the clue in the mannequin, CM had to turn it in its side to get the right reading of the clue. ED break a string and get frustrated.

OD depart for Leg 8.

JB can't get a proper reading and start guessing words. ED tune their piano and head to the statue - where they will find the clue that points them to the mat. Both teams are en route via taxi, ED run over to Phil and finish #5.

UJ rip open their clue and as per usual, are wide eyed and excited about their destination. They always truly appreciate the places they visit - the history, significance, the natural beauty etc. With Auschwitz you can only imagine how somber teams must feel, I wonder how it will affect them.

Joe and Bill come in #6 - but it's NOT an elimination leg. They are now MARKER FOR ELIMINATION and must make up 12 hours in Leg 8.

LEG 8

Teams on bus 1 are UJ, OD, BQ. Eric and Danielle (ED) have a lovers' spat over spending money on coffee while they wait for charter bus #2. Joe and Bill (JB) depart on Leg 8 and head to get on a bus. They are on the 5:00pm bus along with ED and CM. The first bus arrives, in the fog a candle lit path leads them to a note about the history of Auschwitz. Teams get choked up as they read about the genocide and tour the grounds, which remain standing as a reminder - not to forget.

Teams then head to taxis, driving 40 miles to find a theatre in which they will find their next clue.

INTERSECTION - teams must join forces with another team until the next task is completed, then they can split again.

There is also FAST FORWARD in the box: The joined team must climb two towers, calculating the amount of steps in each tower. The sum must be right when they tell a nearby guard, in order to get their new clue. Since there are only THREE teams at the intersection, the BQs are out of luck and have to wait for team #4 to arrive so they can join up (this means waiting about 4 hours - sucky!). OD and UJ are on their way to the Fast Forward task while the BQs have to wait for another team, then go on and complete a DETOUR.

(Commercial)

The combined team of UJ and OD climb the first tower and count 111 steps together, on the second they come up with different numbers. Uchenna and Oswald go with their gut, 348 steps total as they ALL head to the pit stop directly - no more tasks!

JB, CM and ED arrive at Auschwitz and read their history letter. All teams observe a moment of silence and light a candle before heading to their taxis.

There is a thick fog covering the land, the next team to get to the clue will team up with the BQs.

UJ and OD all arrive at the mat, all linking arms like the Wizard of Oz group - all joyful and ALL deemed team #1. There is only on "first place" prize and OD give it up to UJ "our pleasure, we just won't be giving away the million dollars."

BQs sitting at the clue box for hours contemplate which team they would want to pair up with the most, chosing Joe and Bill. CM are the first to arrive so they really have no choice, coming out from their hiding place the girls all team up.

DETOUR: Eat it up or roll it out.

Eat it up: Use traditional methods to make 1 three inch link of kielbasa sausage. Then each person must has eat 2 feet of sausage.

Roll it out: Find a bakery, roll out 20 bagels, make their way on foot to deliver the fresh bagels.

CM and BQ experience "female bonding over sausages" in the Eat it up task. JB and ED head to the roll it out task.

(Commercial)

The girls team gear up for their 2 feet of sausage each. ED and JB couldn't find the roll it out task so they head over to eat it up. The all girl team of CM and BQ try to down their meat while the other conjoined team finished their kielbasa making and chows down.

Meanwhile, JB are at the mercy of their now team mates, ED, since they have the 30 minute penalty. Just as Dustin and Kandice finish their plates, one of them leans over and spews chewed up sausage all over the floor, Eric comments "Ladies and gentlemen, Miss California!"

Charla makes herself vomit into a bucket, inducing stinky, smelly, noisy gagging noises - making the other team lose their appetite. They all finish at once.

Newly separated teams must find a marked car and drive to a castle where they will find their next clue. It's everyone for themselves now. BQs find their car first and snag a taxi to follow in order to reach the next clue the quickest.

It seems like no one's ever driven before, they're all amazed they have to "drive themselves" to the next clue. *Screetch!* "That must be Mirna trying to start a car"... "which one is the brake?!"

JB stop at a gas station to get directions. CM follow apparently TWO taxis down the road, and try to ditch one - would suck to pay for both, although I'm sure what they're screaming isn't coming across in the translation. The two cab drivers are bartering for fares, wasting CM's time - then they slam the door in their face and take off. The girls start crying "please show us where to go, I'm begging you!"

(Commercial)

BQs arrive at the ROAD BLOCK first. One person must don a full suit of authentic medieval armor and lead a horse to a castle, handing it off to a stable boy. From there they get a clue and head to the pit stop.

CM reach the clue box and Charla dressed up like a knight and having a lot of trouble leading the horse. Dustin is in gear for the BQs. ED and JB reach the clue box at the same time. BQs get to the mat as team #3 - which I believe they rightfully deserve, after having to wait at the intersection for so long.

CM are having a lot of trouble as Charla keeps doing face plants, but they still manage to arrive team #4. JB arrive #5 and have to serve their 30 minute penalty, with ED right on their heels, who arrive #5 instead. Joe and Bill check in and have been eliminated.

6 comments:

Aaron said...

Wow talk about a marathon of an episode ... I only hope that I didnt distract you to much when I said hello earlier :) ...

Excellent episode and one that I think should rank up pretty high as an all time best episode. Before it started the wife and I really wondered if they would start the teams like normal; 12 hours after they finished. Thinking that it would be almost impossible for the last place team to catch up. You really have to hand it to J&B and E&D those two teams have had a nightmare of last couple legs and then having to make up 12+ hour difference was just simply amazing.

The detours this episode were cool. None of them really seemed to be gimme's at all. The BQ's really shined I think in the "Perfect Pitch" detour. Looked like it took them only a matter of minutes to get theirs in tune and moving on. Did anyone else think that after the BQ's some of the other teams got off kind of easy? It almost seemed that after the second or third string was broken that they only had to come close to correct tuning to get the clue. Several of the others sounded okay, but even I could tell that they were not tuned as well as the BQ's had done theirs.

Kudo's to the Amazing Race for not turning the Auschwitz stop into something disrespectful. I have to admit that I wasnt a fan of the teams running around the Hanoi Hilton in the previous season, so it was nice to see that there was no rushing around Auschwitz to get something done.

I was wondering when the eating task would surface. Now I love sausage as much as the next person ... but two feet of it LOL. Oh crap that would have been hard. Truthfully that looked like an Atkins diet nightmare LOL .. although maybe a little stone ground mustard might have helped :).

Someone tell me where they found a midget sized suit of plate armor LOL ... poor girl looked like a reject from the kids production of Lord of the Rings LOL :) ... I was just sitting there thinking how horrible it would be if that horse had just taken off. Sparks flying as she gets dragged along behind the horse.

In the end though that was a tough leg even for the first starting team ... a real step up a notch or two for the race in general, which it should have been for an all-stars race. Sad to Joe and Bill go, but hopefully soon Charla and Mirna will join them.

Aaron

Miss 604 said...

Haha I'm sorry but I was laughing at the wee suit of armor too :-P

It was definitely and great run and holy crap - gotta hand it to a couple teams for making up lost ground for sure. Joe and Bill I didn't really care for, and I hope Eric and Danielle are next - or Charla and Mirna. The BQs, U&J and Os & Danny are my faves. O & D just CRACK me up.

The Fast Forward stair counting could have been disastrous with 4 people counting. When I did the local version of the Amazing Race (The Amazing Hunt) there was a bead counting task. AHHHH like 200 tiny beads, I never did get the number right I just took a penalty and we kept going.

Aaron said...

LOL .. remember the counting task in the season with the wrestling husband and wife? The choice was between assembling a desk from an Ikea factory or counting a number of items that were sometimes individual items, sometimes grouped items. I remember a number of teams getting held up by that one.

O&D are funny .. I loved watching them chase Phil around when there were covered in coal dust. You can tell that they are having fun during the race, even while taking it seriously. Although it does look like they get into a good fight this coming Sunday. Have to see.

BQ, UJ, and OD are the ones I would like to see in the final three this time around.

Aaron

Gus said...

Charla and Mira annoyed me! Enough said! :)

Aaron said...

Gus ... yeah I gotta agree with you. They try to come off as strong women who can do anything, but are quick to play the helpless female role when they know they can get some where with it.

And that fake ass accent that the tale one uses when dealing with other people. My god can you get any more insulting than that. She is seriously the type of person that gives the rest of us who like to travel to foreign countries a bad name.

If I had been that cab driver I would have driven them to the middle of no-where and just sped off.

Aaron

Anonymous said...

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