A Week in Poland

Monday night we visited a mall for a little different view of the world. And to be out of the rather bitter cold that arrived. The grocery store has 2 main sections: vodka and deli meat counter.



Everything else is almost a rounding error in the scale of things. It was impressive to see an entire aisle of olives.



I really enjoyed the personal touches found everywhere. Breakfast buffet included a cute stuffed otter.



The arrival of colder weather and snow brought focus on garments and practices. Coat closets are real and used. My shoes were covered in snow from the walk to work. Entry doors have extra floor mats and frequently someone mops up the wet foot prints. Some folks seem to have shoes for the office and shoes for the commute. I felt guilty tracking water around :(.



Yep, cold arrived evidenced by cicles forming on signs.



I awoke the next morning to a fresh coating of snow



And enjoyed exploring the winter wonderland on the walk to work.



Parks look great with fresh coat of white.



Nice inviting bench, or not.



Can't say I've seen this display before.



More snow pics because it's new in general and especially new in contrast to the first few days.






Cyclist barely visible in this pic. Krakow has an active cycling community. People biked to work on the coldest days of my visit. Local news articles praised the easy cycling commute with the mild winter. One article said riding is the easy part; slipping only begins when you stop and attempt to put your feet down.



Krakow was full of construction. There were several construction cranes in the skyline. Pretty interesting to watch them pumping concrete into a building.


On the residential side of the river the water front is a bit more rural. A few taxis parked here to nap.



Walking home in the dark the lights on bridges are delightful. I really enjoy how light displays and Christmas decorations stay up through the cold of January and come down on Feb 2.


Lots of good desserts. I found the apple pie with ice cream disappointing. It seemed a traditional dessert. It certainly wasn't "mom's apple pie" as we know it in the US. Chocolate cake and crapes were great!



Friday? was a particularly cold walk into the office. I was shivering in my layers while birds chilled in the river. It was 9 degrees F.



Appetizers, soups, and desserts were generally smaller portions. In the local culture lunch is the large meal. All meals are very hardy with heavy vegetables and lots of meat. I'm not a fan of cabbage anywhere else but the cabbage and sauerkraut in PL was quite tasty. My favorite is still the Hunter's Stew.



Patricia helped us navigate a dinner menu written only in Polish. It was a good chance to test our recognition of words. We mostly recognized the words similar to English. Patricia sounds much more elegant with Polish enunciation. After a few questions about the menu we figured out that Italian didn't really come through in Polish.

First Weekend in Poland

[reposted to fix pics]

Adventures in Poland are going a bit slower with extra sleep to ward off an interminable cold. Friday night after work I met Sarah at a cafe to finish respective meetings. Nice place in Jewish district with wifi, tea, and sitting on the floor. Tables available we just enjoyed sitting lower.



Then we toured the Jewish district more.



Most of the bridges around Wawel are lit with lights blue in the foreground here, white chandeliers in the background are another bridge.



After a nice long sleep we enjoyed linner at Piwnica Pod Kominkiem on near market square. I knocked my head twice in short stair wells leading down to an intimate dining area. Along the ceiling toward the street there was a a clear chute. Presumably previously used for shovel coal or similar down to the basement. The "duo soup" was delicious with mashed pea on one side and horseradish on the other. Small flakes of egg and ham in the middle. Amazingly it stayed separated down to the last bite.



I do not remember the other appetizer. Sarah enjoyed the raw fish, tomatoes, and other bits. I enjoyed the red peppers.


First main entree was potato latke esque with meat sauce on top. Delicious and has all of the makings of a great hangover cure.



We also had part of a pork knuckle. Our eyes were bigger than our stomaches on this visit. I highly recommend this restaurant. Great service (for poland) and great food.

We're slowly learning that polish service mostly responds to requests or demands. "Natural flow" of a meal, driven by waiters & waitresses would either be impossibly long or infinite. We haven't had the patience to find out which yet. Some folks know how impatient I can get. Even Sarah gets a bit impatient here.

Afterwords we walked around market square more. Sarah found an apothecary that carried vodka mixed with pretty much everything including elderberry.


Afterwords more market square exploration. The square was hopping well into the night (2am).



We strolled back by the river with chill of the night setting in. Swans were clustered together sleeping in the river with heads tucked under their wings.



We found a perch overlooking the hotel lobby and chatted further into the morning. I was amazed at how innocuous the water and ice machine was. Here it is built into the wall and partially hidden by a plant. Things that are engineered here are done so to the 9's. It's really exact and refreshing. I'm amazed at how closely the doors seal even with all of the traffic and humidity. I'd expect that to cause wood to swell and contract so doors scrape or don't close firmly. The doors to really well and they're not even the typical industrialized aluminum or steel.



Sunday we ventured across the river for breakfast at a place that more closely resembled someone's private kitchen than a restaurant. I highly recommend Konfederacka 4 to anyone traveling through. We started to put it together a trend of restaurants known only by their address. Sunday morning was a slow time so we were able to chat with the cook and hostess throughout our meal. More good food and great company. I was again amazed at the general diet. 3 egg omelette with sausage and just a few pieces of green pepper. Lots of protein here.



After that more walking. This time along Jozefa Dietla. This was near a church with MPs, armed with actual hand guns or similarly shaped tazers, covering the entrance and directing traffic.


Somewhere along the way we found this statue. It reminds me of communist era symbolism. More research required.

Beautiful parks everywhere:


Christmas works a bit different here. Lights and christmas trees stay up until Feb 2. Allegedly displays similar to the one below originated in this reason. They are also on display throughout January. I've heard a few anecdotes that all of this is inspiration/light for the dark and cold of winter. I'm still working on more personal tour of local culture.


Lunch found us in the Jewish district again. This time at Moment. This the most american scene and food we've seen. I like that Pepsi is the most common soda here :) .


In the evening we toured the Museum of Anthropology for free. This proved interesting with all labels in Polish. Ever the engineer the stairs are what caught my attention the most. Every stair had these brackets on both sides. What are they?




Circling around the city again we found another route near market square. I'm continually amazed and calmed by the parks that permeate this place. They're everywhere. And they're great.






Inside joke. Some of you will get it.






Dinner was great with another variation of hunter's stew. This apple pie dessert looked amazing with powdered sugar decoration. Taste didn't live up to appearance. Sarah swooped in to the rescue and shared her meringue cake. Yum! Bitter coffee was great with all that sugar.






Monday brought new levels of cold and rain. Nice trip to wet and dry sauna, hot tub, and heated pool helped to thaw my core. More soon.

Boots on the ground in Krakow

Hello from Krakow, Poland. Hammering out a quick update as experiences are fast and furious.

Flew through Frankfurt. Didn't do a good job of living on destination time 24 hours before arrival (too tempted by movies). "The Butler" was a great movie. Found a dark quiet hallway for a 1 hour nap in FRA.



Arrived in KRK, had first meal, and crashed hard. Awoke and went for dinner at Market Square. Beet broth soup was mediocre; hunters stew was delicious! Saw a quite entertaining tradition where 3 people in costume storm the restaurant playing music. They were supposed to be The Sun, The King, and a Buffalo. I still struggle to offer coffee abroad. "Coffee with milk" isn't the same as a venti Starbucks with half and half. And no blonde roast to be found!

People are quite jovial and really seem to enjoy life. I heard guys singing and whooping it up on the square just having fun.



A nice 2 mile work from the hotel to work this morning. Love the walk/bike lanes. Cool air and walk really help clear travel fog.






I really love how walkable the city is. So many buildings have rounded roofs, windows, arches. "Straight and square" are accepted while nice curves appear appreciated.

A pig, on its back, on sticks for a bonfire? As a statue in the river. Lots of pork based dining options.



I love the walking city. Fun seeing the world and interacting, even in passing, with the people. I'm still learning to understand local enunciation and learning to read signs. Lots of C,Z,J,W in odd places. My current approach is to memorize the position of the first "odd" letter in the word where "J3" means the street with j as the 3rd letter. So far I see more jumble of letters than words. More acclimating to do! The office was a warm reception.

Divorce Part I

November would have been my 10th wedding anniversary. Instead it became the start of a life as a divorcee. I'm writing about it to help myself move on and in hopes it might help someone else. Lessons this painful should not be in vein.



I've started this post on paper, in electronic format, and in my head no less than 100 times. I never get through it so I'm going to slow down and take it one step at a time.



North Carolina recently passed legislation to make marriage "a union between one man and one woman". That took aim at alternative lifestyles. That legislation also betrays traditional marriages. A marriage is not between one man and one woman; rather it is between one man, one woman, and several disparate systems. The effects of those systems cannot be overstated.



One of those systems is "marriage counseling". Every profession has a range of practitioners. Those practitioners cater to a broad range of clients. What works for one may not work for another. In my case I feel very strongly that my counselor was more of a hindrance than a help to my at-risk marriage. I didn't have experience with counseling before this experience and therefore lacked any baseline of comparison. My gut reaction was to distrust our counselor. Every feedback I've received since then reinforces that position.



First my counselor shared very personal details about her own experiences. This should have been a red flag. Her personal experiences underscore a personal bias which she would neither confirm nor deny, not even in the paradigm of communication she presented. Beyond that she explored the deep dark corners of my consciousness in full view of my partner; my partner who already regarded me with great apprehension. I needed help and counseling. That work needed to happen independently of my partner. This was a waste of her time and likely reinforced her existing negative perception. Therapy is an ugly process and should be approached in a safe environment with great confidence. Attempting this with a tenuous/biased counselor in full view of an already wounded partner is a poor combination.



Somewhere along the way lawyers will get involved. Once lawyers are involved do not be misled; the game has changed. Therapy, at least for me, was focusing on the other person as a human, practicing acceptance, and seeking compromise. Once lawyers are involved these principles are out the window. Every bit of compassion I used in the legal proceedings was used against me. Every olive branch I extended was sharpened and used to stab me.



The legal system, including lawyers, judges, mediators, court system, local laws, and legal precedent are the next "system" in marriage. These entities all come with their own agendas. I found most of those agendas to be contrary to common sense and the values my partner and I shared in our marriage. I want to make this clear - what we agreed upon and stated during our marriage did not matter.



These entities come in with their own agendas. Again, I cannot overstate that.



I'm going to close here with one overarching point - prenuptial agreements. I always heard these as a "forecast of doom for the marriage". In reality these are agreements that say "we are each responsible for ourselves". This is a key underpinning to any successful relationship. Each party must act responsibly, maintain their own balance, and tend to their own needs. This creates a healthy individual who can then participate in a healthy relationship.



A prenup is not a condemnation of a relationship; rather it is a foundation for a healthy relationship.

Friends and Adventures

More of both. Be agreeable and find reasons to say yes. Thanks to all of you. Just a few of the more memorable questions below.

Need a place to stay?

Want a ride to DC to do that bike ride on the C&O?

Can you patch a 29er?

Via text message pedaling down the trail: can you login remotely and...?

Mind if I ride with you for a while?

How about a tour of Quantico?

Have you considered a life coach?

Dinner?

How do you feel about India?

Want to hike up a mountain to a holy site?

We are cycling in Kerala, join us?

Want to go skiing?

How about a hockey game?

Hike on the AT?

Coffee?

Want to join our 200 mile relay run team?

Ever done a mud run?

Want to help collect poisonous plants?

Another relay in New England and Raleigh?

There are more. These are the few that came to mind in the van with friends enroute to the next adventure.

Skiing, Running, Charity, and Friends

What happened to the first quarter of 2013? Here's a quick recap with plans for more frequent posts going forward.

January and February were even more snow in Raleigh.

Late season snow supported my first ever ski trip to Snowshoe, WV. Great times with great friends. I'd do it again. Thanks Jeff for use of the gear and great instruction.

 Snow AND I'm smiling? That's not supposed to happen...

March sucked. I finally made it back out in April to finally run Raven Rock State Park

And I found some mud for the Jeep to really justify a wash job.

Squeeze into this weekend roller blading and a bike ride. It was really a smorgasbord of activities - and lots of fun. It was a smorgasbord of food as well - Thai, Italian, American, French, and Arabic. Yum. I swim/bike/run/blade/hike/burn calories so I can enjoy replacing them!


Mid April I joined a great new running group for the Palmetto 200 Relay thanks to an invite from an old family friend - you know who you are - and THANK YOU! We ran from Columbia to Charleston, SC in just over 26 hours. This was so crazy fun I signed up for two more relays. Highlight was a solo 9+ mile run on SC backroads at 11PM with no van support. Our van had a bit of an accident and we would handoff to our other van at the end of my running leg. Thanks to Van 2 for picking up the other runner and a shot of Advil in the last mile! This night also included being stranded at a church with a friend, no phone, no money, and only running clothes on our backs and sleeping on church pews. It really was a blast - you had to be there.

Lead off of first leg - I got places to go!

3rd leg of our 2nd shift and our first leg in the dark.

Van 1 all legs done around 10am(?) on Saturday.

Van 1 and Van 2, all 12 of us, together at the finish.

And view of the bridges before Sunday morning departure.

5.69 miles at 7:30/mi on Friday at 10am, 9.67 miles at 8:00/mi on Friday around 11pm, and 3.75 miles at 6:55/mi on Saturday around 5am. The last leg felt especially good. It was my finish line, time to lay it all out, nice and cool, and the blinky lights of other teams just barely visible in the distance waiting to be caught. With 1/2 mile left my respiration peaked and I knew I was toast. I knuckled down the last few minutes, handed off to my awesome team, and relaxed.

Then squeezed in some team building and community service at Hope Reins of Raleigh. Operating a shovel can be VERY therapeutic. Sharp eyes on our team found the head of a sledge hammer which I brought home to re-handle and return because, well, I enjoy the craft of putting new handles in tools.

Then a Memorial run after explosions at the 2013 Boston Marathon. About 3,000 people turned out in downtown Raleigh for the run. Nearly all of my running friends from all circles came out to this event. It was quite the confluence of people and a great event to share.

Then a hockey game. Good seats, good game (overtime and shootout), good friends, and a great time.

That's a quick 4 months. More gas, less brake. Life's an adventure - get out there!

I'd Apprecaite Your Help

I've been working on some personal changes and it's time to see how I'm doing. I entreat you to have a chat with me and see if you notice any differences.

After a month I'll share what I've been up to and the results.


If you're just here for adventures and pictures...

In January I amped up training for my first attempt at an ultra marathon - the Uwharrie Mountain Run. Increased training including running on the frozen days of January.



Frozen and winterized Umstead still has nice views. This is on Sycamore trail:


Some more visible ice


Bundled up for cold runs. I love my Buff!


The glasses in the picture are my biking-running-all purpose athletic glasses. They have transitions lenses. From the inside I never notice the tint. Pictures showing the tint always amaze me. I did have occasion to notice the tint today. I stopped for gear adjustment and laid the glasses down. When I put them on there was an obvious line in the lenses. What? How'd that happen? I put them down with half the lenses exposed to the sun and the other half in the shade. These aren't the new Iridium(?) tint. They get crystal clear for night riding and running. And they get sufficiently dark in the daylight; I just don't notice from the inside.

Loblolly trail has been rerouted away from an bridge and onto this rock crossing. Fun until the water gets deep!



The Uwharrie Mountain Run didn't work out. I didn't even make it to the start. Wednesday night before the race I got sick. I had focused on my core for the race and still vomited hard enough to make my abs sore. Thursday I ate nothing. Friday I was feeling bold and socially enabled. I ate proper pre-race meals. That didn't work out. My stomach wasn't ready for solid or plentiful food. Relapse #1. Saturday was no food again. Sunday was soft foods. Monday I felt good and had a big salad for lunch. Bad idea. Relapse #2. I finally learned my lesson and stayed on soft foods until late in the week. It wasn't an "A" race for me but as it turns out I was really looking forward to it. Missing the race really hit me hard and that compounded being sick.

Finally this was Saturday's snowfall:


It snowed all day as far as I was aware. Next event on the calendar is Umstead Marathon.