Running my Vacation

(Sorry, guys... forgot to upload all my pictures to my computer, so this is a text-only blog post.  Stay tuned for more pictures soon, I promise!)

One constant for me on this vacation has been going for a run, wherever I am.  I signed up to run the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon at the beginning of November.  Not long after pressing the accept button to process the payment for the race, I sat, scouring the internet for the best training program.  In my previous marathons, I trained using the Hal Higdon training plans.  They’re spectacular, especially for beginners, and if you’re thinking of doing a marathon (or half-marathon, or 10K or 5K), I’d highly recommend them.  I’d been hearing a lot about a new training plan, though, and decided I’d give it a shot.  So at the beginning of July, I started out on the Hanson’s marathon training plan.

I didn’t really think about the fact that I’d have to find a way to fit in my training while traveling.  To be honest, I really haven’t had a good track record of exercising on vacation.  I might have good intentions and make resolutions to run on vacation, but then an early morning flight or hot weather or the lure of delicious food or the attraction of staying in bed longer always derails my efforts.

 

But I don’t think I’ve taken an extended vacation while training for a marathon before. 

Marathon training, for me, has become something to be taken way too seriously.  I read everything I can about the best way to do this or that or the best gear or nutrition or whatever.  I read blogs and forums and magazines.  I geek out, marathon-running style.

Given all this, there was no way I wouldn’t run during my vacation.  I’m in the midst of traveling for more than a month.  No way I’m going to be able to not run for that long.  Additionally, sleeping in a tent for the better part of this journey through very northern countries in the summer means that I’m up early (not quite with the sun, since the sun has been rising at between 4-5am in a lot of the places I've been). 

So I get up and I run.  I run past ruins, past ancient castles and buildings.  I run past war monuments and city parks.  I see birds and foxes and rabbits and drunken Norwegians, stumbling back to their hostels.  I see the cities I visit coming awake, coming to life.  I smell the bread being baked and the fresh air off the water.  And never have I been more thankful to a pastime.

I don’t know how many of you reading this run.  It’s not a sport that everyone can do or likes to do.  But I do hope that all of you at some point this summer will go out and run, walk or cycle through a city you don’t know well.  Go out and explore while the locals are still sleeping.  Don’t worry about getting lost—just bring enough money for bus/metro/cab fare back to your starting point if you get too far off track.  You don’t have to go fast or far, but you do have to go.  The focus is just on the act of getting yourself moving with no intent other than to be grateful for motion and the chance to soak in a new environment . 

As the years go by, I find myself becoming more and more dedicated to running, not because I’ll ever be a great runner, but because running gives me so much in return for my measly 30 minutes or so of time each day.  Thanks, running!

So Poland has changed a lot in 12 years

After Riga, I took a bus (an overnight bus) to Warsaw, Poland.  I was last in Poland in 2000-2001, the year after graduating from high school, when I lived in Olsztyn as a Rotary International Exchange Student.  That time in Poland marked my very first trip outside of the USA, and the first time I'd seriously studied a foreign language--out of complete necessity.  In 2000, Poland wasn't a member of the European Union, not too many people spoke English very well (at least not outside of Warsaw), and, let's face it, the world was a lot less technologically developed.  I used an AOL email address, and loading a single email (when I went to the internet cafe in town) took about 7 minutes.  It was a different time and place, wherever you were.

I wasn't sure exactly what to expect in Warsaw in 2012.  I also wasn't planning on staying for too terribly long, since it's a place I've been to before.  I was missing Sam and wanting to get on to Vienna to see him (it had been over a month, after all!) and to see Vienna (a major world destination, after all!).  In fact, I probably should have stayed in Warsaw longer.  All I can say is, if Warsaw isn't on your list of top 10 cities to visit in the world, it should be.  I'll give you a minute to adjust your lists.  

Now I'll go on to showing you some photo evidence to back up my claims.

First, this was my bus from Riga to Warsaw:

Individual monitors, Wifi, cappuccino, comfy seats... it wasn't too rough a journey

Warsaw's Old Town (made famous in the first unit of my first Polish book, entitled "Co to jest?", or "What is this?" when we learn how to say "Co to jest?-- To jest columna Krola Zygmunta.", or "What is this?--This is the column to King Sigismund.")

The Euro Cup 2012 Stadium was a very new addition to the Warsaw skyline 

This store is called the "Sugar Owl".  Just thought it was a cute name and a cute sign.

The Old Town, including this main square, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, despite being completely destroyed by the Nazis during WW2 and rebuilt after the war

The mermaid symbol of Warsaw

The Warsaw History Museum was closed, but had posted fantastic multi-lingual signs all over town about different historic things.  In the main square, they had an overview of Poland in the olympics.  I really liked the picture of the pole vault in the early 20th century, which looks to be over a lower bar than high jumpers clear nowadays

The Little Insurgent Monument

The Warsaw Uprising Monument.   I was glad to see this, even though I mistakenly came here when my intended destination had been the Warsaw Rising Museum.  This is a fantastic museum, probably one of the best I've been to and a good enough reason on its own to go to Warsaw.  Seriously.  Go to Poland.

...But the uprising failed, the Germans destroyed the city, the Soviets came in and "liberated" it, and Warsaw's skyline still includes a big Soviet building

The Warsaw Rising museum has a cool video of Pope John Paul 2's speech in 1979 when he visited Poland, where he talked about this statue being destroyed during the uprising.  I think it might be from this speech, but I can't remember now.  Regardless, watching the videos and the crowd reactions was incredible.

Another cool statue in Old Town

I happened into St. Anne's church just in time for an organ concert

The restored organ sounded incredible

During my wonderful visit in Warsaw, my stay was made all the more memorable and pleasant in that I was able to stay with some friends.  In truth, Stephanie is my sister Jenny's best friend from high school.  Stephanie and her husband, along with their three adorable kiddos, have been living in Warsaw for two years and very graciously invited me to stay with them.

K, playing with the best $2 gift I could have ever possibly bought, some bendy building block thingies

S was not to be outdone by his big sis

M was a little too little for the building block things, but I'll be gosh-darned if she wasn't about the cutest living thing that crawls

K likes to write stories on the bus

Stephanie and S playing a quiz game on the bus

M was content with a "Bah!" on the bus

The kids really got into self portraits!

In the end, my short trip to Poland was way, way too short.  Sam has never been, though, so I'm hoping to make it back with him again sometime in the near future.  And, to all of you who have now added Poland to your must-travel-to lists--LET ME KNOW when you go!  I'd love to go with you!

Country 29—Latvia

I departed Tallinn for Riga, the capital city of neighboring Baltic country, Latvia.  Although I’d been to Lithuania and Estonia before this trip, I’ve somehow always missed the middle sister.  Go figure. Counting up, Latvia is now the 29^th country I’ve been to in the world.  By the end of this trip, I’ll have hit 31 countries, (although I’ve still never been to Canada).

The Riga Old Town has some beautiful streets

And they open up into lovely little squares

The old Powder Tower was home to a lot swallows today

There were lots of beautiful church spires, too

I could have taken pictures of all of the buildings around town (and by the end of this post you may think that I did)

My host family in Akhalkalaki was especially excited that I was including Riga on my itinerary.  Host uncle, Pavlik, studied at the Riga University and Emilia and Akop took a long vacation to visit him and get him settled in at some point (I don’t know the exact date, but it would have been between 1989 and 1991).  Emilia would often reminisce about those days, about how difficult things were for the family then, and about how much she loved that vacation and Riga in particular. (As an aside for background, in 1988 there was a devastating earthquake in Armenia that also affected Akhalakalaki, then Emilia’s husband passed away in 1989 or 1990, while she had two sons in college.  It was a tough period, even without considering the 1991 collapse of the USSR, the only country Emilia had ever lived in.  Given all of this, I'm surprised she could keep it all together and move forward, but she did and this trip seems like it was one of the first highlights after a very dark, difficult time.)  I got tips from Emilia about what to see and do and where to eat, which the others would chuckle at, because things have undoubtedly changed in the 22-year interim.

Another beautiful square in the old town

An old wooden church that was burned down and reconstructed 8 times in its 400+ year history

The ruins of a synagogue.  Riga's Jewish population was almost completely decimated during WW2

Of course Riga has its nice, Stalinist buildings as well.  They call this one "Stalin's Birthday Cake"

Another cool old town building, now a bank, but with the coats of arms of all the regions of Latvia decorating the side

Emilia was absolutely right about one thing, though—Riga is a beautiful city, with lots to do, see and eat.  It has a very different feel from Tallinn.  It lacks the medieval wall and watchtowers, for starters, and has many more buildings with distinct styles.  From my Riga Free Tour guide, I learned that about 40 percent of the buildings are designed in the Art Nouveau style, thanks to a British mayor of the city in the early 1900s.  Like Estonia, Latvia has been invaded, conquered, occupied, and overrun for centuries, and has a lot of different cultural influences that have shaped it. 

A cool Art Nouveau building

The House of the Blackheads, an old German merchant guild house

St. Peter's Cathedral spire

One of the main parks.  There are apparently beavers living in this canal, but I didn't see any of them

In this park, it's tradition for newlyweds to lock a lock onto a bridge and throw the key into the canal, to symbolize that their union will never come undone

The parks were beautifully landscaped and overflowing with flowers

Laima is one of the biggest chocolate companies in Latvia.  The Freedom Monument is visible in the background

The flower market was incredible

Since I didn’t have the chance to do a day trip out to the countryside, I did the next best thing: I went to the Open Air Ethnographic Museum on the outskirts of town and spent a day wandering around.  The museum includes over 100 houses and buildings from all over Latvia, ranging in age from 500-100 years old, and typical of all different types of building styles across Latvia.  It helped that there was beautiful weather and a beautiful natural setting, and that the cafeteria served up really tasty traditional Latvian cuisine (I got a big bowl of beet soup with rye bread and a big plate of fried squash with carrot cream sauce, with a Latvian beer to drink) at non-museum prices (all of my food and drink together cost about $3) didn’t hurt either. 

The faux-baroque alter inside an 18th century church

The ceiling had paintings of angels playing drums

Typical grave markers for 18th century Latvia

A roadside Mary-Jesus monument that looks like it was made by the creator of Beavis and Butthead

There were lots of cool old houses and barns

I definitely prefer modern conveniences to 19th century peasant houses, but these were cool to see

It's hard to imagine how they moved all these buildings to the museum

Cool cross on top of one of the museum's churches

A locomobile!

They had an art display of old wooden carvings done by a Latvian from the western region of the country

A 17th century tavern

Self portrait by the lake

I’ve mentioned that I camped while in Finland, and I camped in Latvia as well.  The campsite in Riga is just outside of the Old Town, on an island in the middle of the river.  It takes about 15-20 minutes to get downtown, and for that small price I get some spectacular views across the river at the town.  The island itself is home to a bunch of 19^th century fishing and shipping related buildings that have been transformed into some really swanky houses (or are awaiting renovation and high selling prices, I’m sure). 

One of the old wooden houses just begging to be renovated

Not too shabby a view from the campsite, huh?

In planning this trip I saw a lot of options to take about 2 weeks to bike through the Baltics, hitting up different natural wonders and cultural events, as well as seeing all of the major cities.  There have been a number of tourists doing this as I’ve made my more meager trip.  As I leave one country for another and continue my journeys, I’m already hatching a plan to come back and try out the Baltics-by-Bike adventure.  Maybe I can convince my brother to join me?

These buildings make up the central market of Riga, a very cool covered market where you can get all kinds of fresh produce.  The buildings were supposed to be zeppelin hangars, but once they started to crash and burn, the idea of housing a huge number of blimps suddenly became not so ideal, so they transformed the building into a bazaar