From Bratislava to Vienna

It's been a while since I have taken my steel horse and gone on a journey of any considerable distance which is why last weekend's trip to Vienna was particularly enjoyable but a bit painful. It was a very foggy day, but at least it was calm with no rain.
The logic behind just wearing a long-sleeved t-shirt and a fleece was that I would sweat less. It kind of worked but it meant that when I stopped, I really felt the cold. I'm not used to cycling in such low temperatures and perhaps I was wishfully thinking that it's still summer.

 The hardest part was getting out of Bratislava but once I found the bike route, it was pretty easy to follow. Crossing the border which is so close to Bratislava was a thrill as I imagined how difficult it once used to be to enter into either country. Some of the small towns in Austria along the route are really quite nice and it would have been easy to stop there for a while if I'd had a bit more time.

Hainburg an der Donau is particulary interesting mainly because of the castle perched on a hill. You can't really see it in the picture below because of the thick fog but it's a destination I would like to return to when I have more time.

I think the hardest part mentally was the road through the Donau-Auen National Park. There was a bike path all the way but the fact that it was straight with no interesting curves or turns made it challenging. This is the reason why I ditched this path and went back onto main roads. I was in need of changes in scenery and some twists and turns. Of course I got a bit lost but with the help of some locals I soon got back on track.

My sugar levels dropped radically just before reaching Vienna and I had to binge on some chocolate to get me the rest of the way there. As expected, it took a long time to get from the edge of the city into the centre but it was a pleasant ride with bike paths most of the way. Vienna has an impressive biking infrastructure which I really enjoyed using. Unfortunately Bratislava has a far inferior system but here's hoping that this will change.

To come back I took the train as I was exhausted at the end, satisfied but tired. It's definitely possible to do a return trip in one day but it really would take a lot more energy and a higher fitness level than I currently have to do it.

Next up, (perhaps in the spring) is Budapest once again.

Baring All

After coming back from a fantastic run I feel I have banished my demons for a while at least. By 'fantastic' I don't mean that this word applies to my performance but rather to the feeling gained from it. There really is no better way to clear the mind and to get the endorphins working.

I can see why Christopher McDougall in his book Born To Run advocates it so much. He believes that, like the title suggests, we are indeed made / born to run. This is how we humans hunted in the past. We were able to tire animals but by running them into submission before killing them. Before reading about this I always thought that we were not made to run at all but running was simply something I enjoyed despite the fear of injuries from doing it too much.

What he argues is that our methods are all wrong and that we should run naturally without trainers. This whole concept of barefoot running is very interesting and makes sense. If we wear thick padding under the soles of our feet, our feet don't react naturally to the different contours of the ground beneath us so we are blocking our muscles from working naturally. The problem is that how do you change your methods of running or indeed walking after wearing modern footwear for so long?

Recently I spent a small fortune on trainers called 'Vivobarefoot' which are designed to let our feet do most of the work. Needless to say, after one run I was in agony. Descending stairs was particularly gruelling for my calf muscles. I gave it a week and tried again with slightly better results. The biggest problem was trying to change my technique and land on the top of my foot in order to put less pressure on my back and spring forwards. It's difficult to change habits that are deeply ingrained into the body and mind and it does take the fun out of just running without thinking.

I haven't used this trainers for a while but that's not to say I am giving up on this method. For now I am happy to be able to run without injuries but little by little I will try out these barefoot trainers. I don't expect them to elevate me to superfitdom status but hopefully gain the benefits that the author has gained from using this barefoot technique.

For more about the barefoot debate -

Christopher McDougall's Website

To Bus or to Train It

There's something romantic about travelling by train, the sound of click, clack as old trains rattle along tracks through villages, towns and countryside that is sometimes not accessible any other way. In Poland recently there has been a surge of new bus companies springing up with really low prices and attractive routes that is putting a struggling train network under more pressure and rightly so.
Despite this, I still opted for the train on a recent trip from Przemysl to Kraków.

An old train took us as far as Rzeszów before it broke down. It was bad news for everyone but particularly for those who had their journey abruptly cut short only half a kilometre or so from the station. We had to wait while the burly driver and conductors ran up and down the train until it was towed back to the station. At least another train was arranged which was more than what happened on an Austrian train I travelled partly on not so long ago. After the train had broken down in the middle of nowhere, we had to wait for about an hour for a bus to come and take us to the nearest u-bahn stop and not the destination on our ticket, the main train station in Vienna.

So, back to the Polish journey. The train I was on was due to terminate in Tarnów but I found out from some Ukrainian travellers that there was a connecting train from there to Kraków. I was even able to buy a ticket from the conductor for the corresponding train and was told that this train would wait for us but we had to be fast.

When the train reached Tarnów, we quickly got out but our train was nowhere to be seen. Had it gone already? No. It arrived fifteen minutes later. This gleaming, modern, smooth train was quite a contrast to the previous two trains of the day. There was even information about the name day of saints on that particular day (very useful to know) and a speedometer which was quite erratic to say the least and turned off possibly due to the embarrassment of the driver as the journey was incredibly slow. At one point the conductor suggested to smokers that they go for a cigarette as we had to wait for three trains to pass by before we could go. The Ukrainians looked as bemused as I felt with the whole train experience and I am sure they were thinking how much better things are in their country regarding train travel.

The train stopped at every stop and the only thing that kept me interested was comparing the numerous modernised stations with the old discarded ones that had been abandoned to the past. Despite the modernisations, it all seemed a false as it would have been a lot faster to take a bus. I hope that PKP (the national train association) will sort it out and stop using the excuse of renovations causing delays as this can only be the case for so long. People tell me that trains used to be better in the past so perhaps all these modernisations are only for show but have no real purpose or perhaps we need to remain patient for better things to come. The fact that PKP provides bus services on some lines suggests otherwise.

An Expensive Something To Laugh About

I am questioning the logic of writing this post but there are times when I can't take myself seriously and am glad that I have a good enough sense of humour to laugh at my own expense.

So ... here it goes. I arrived home from England last Monday. Leaving at 2 in the morning to get a flight at 8:30 was not a pleasant journey. By the time I got back to the intense heat in Krakow, all I was fit for, was sleep.

With a flight due the next night, I decided to catch up with some friends in the evening, which was probably not the greatest idea since I was till suffering from a cold, but still it was nice to catch up.

The next day was a day of preparation for my flight to Georgia - a non-event of a day as these days tend to be. It was a case of patiently waiting until it was time to leave. I got out to the airport with plenty of time to spare and contemplated on how best to pass the four hours until the flight was due. Reading, eating, coffee, reading, juice and more reading seemed to work.

I had a look up at the information board just out of curiosity and that's when everything went wrong. I examined it extremely carefully but my flight was not there. I checked the ticket and the date and everything seemed fine - 30th of July but then I realised why it was not on the electronic board, the date was correct but the plane had already left at 00:50 earlier that morning.

This is not the first time something like this has happened to me. I have waited at an airport one day earlier to welcome my cousin, I have confused 6 am with 6 pm while getting a ferry from Dublin to Wales, I once bought 5 train tickets for our group of 4 and I have also booked flights to the wrong airport.

So what did I do? I contemplated getting another flight to anywhere but then decided to retreat back to Krakow. I took a bus to the train station in Katowice and thought again about going somewhere different. The shame of returning to Krakow seemed too great. Wrocław, Warsaw - these were two cities that came to mind but then I decided that it was best to return to the city I had started from and regroup.

All the buses had gone and the queue was enormous. I'm guessing they were in line to get tickets for  a festival as they looked like the type with range of quirky styles from punk to a hippy look that seemed out of place in the modern train station in Katowice. When I finally reached the top of the queue, I bought a ticket for the next train to Krakow, which was due in over 5 hours. Patience was needed once more. I amused myself by reading again and going to an Internet cafe to book another flight for later in the week. There was one option to fly from Warsaw to Georgia the next day but I chose the later one from Krakow, which was half the price.

Patience was the quality, which was once again put to the test on the train journey home. I slept for most of it thankfully.

So I am still going to Georgia but will have to be patient once more. As for these mistakes that prove to be very costly, I feel a bit resigned to the fact that I will make them again but at least they give me a reason to write.