Just a quick note in between my Swiss posts (currently on hiatus of two months...): in the middle of otherwise dreary autumn with Yankees ousted from the play offs by some moribund franchisee from Texas, I have finished off my running year by participating in Ljubljana halfmarathon.
Although running slower than personnel best (official time: 1:40:29), considering the circumstances I did more or less alright. Day before I drove 800km from Prague to Maribor (stopping in Sered to visit friend), slept in an apartment with no heating at c. 14 degrees room temperature - thanks Teja :) - and drove back to Prague 45 minutes after finish to take part on a training which was cancelled anyway.
Anyway, as my goals remain unfulfilled, you can bet on some other halfmarathons posts to come (Novi Sad - I got my eyes on you!). In the meanwhile you can look forward to completion of the Swiss series and some China updates...
10/31/2010
8/12/2010
Alpen Alpen uber alles! (vol. 4)
Day 8
After fairly good breakfast we set off in the direction of Eita, at least that’s what we thought. As the trail disappeared under our feet we realised that we were following some game path leading nowhere near our trail. Grinding teeth and climbing steeply up we finally come across huge bike trail which we learned was actually posing as a hiking trail to Eita as well. Looking back it seems fairly impossible to miss and we must have looked fairly odd to passing cyclists walking out of the deep forest catching breath like running the marathon.
Remainder of the stage R72 was fairly relaxing / boring walk along biking trail through Passo di Verva (2,301m) all the way to Eita (1,703m) which we covered in good time and pressed onwards. Second stage for the day turned out to be more interesting. First there was steep climb up towards alpine meadows above Eita and around Laghi di Tres (2,216m) and second, there was no clear path beyond Laghi.
We basically went from mark to mark as we spotted them as this part of Via Alpina is so little used that no trail was established yet. Last three hundred vertical meters turned to be real fun as we imitated mountain goats and jumped from rock to rock in order to get to the Passo di Vermolera (2,732m) and around snowfields (as my bro by this time on the trip basically walked his shoes through and was little scared to get his feet wet – totally understandably :) ).
Reaching the pass felt satisfying and long descent towards Maghlera (1,964m) was entertaining as again no clear path (down until Pian del Lago 2,316m) was visible and marks were distantly spread. Stone pyramids set up by previous hikers turned out to be great help to us hastening our descent (we tried to keep this tradition and enhanced some of the structures).
Beyond Pian del Lago path appeared from nowhere and comfortably indicated our way towards the biggest positive surprise on our journey – Rifugio Maghlera (1,964m). Maghlera is hut or rather cottage run by locals – specifically three ladies out of which only one speaks English – and also suits for local gatherings (which we had pleasure to join during our stay). Although full of shouting Italian children on their summer camp, we had pleasure to enjoy proper and hot shower, eight bed room for only two of us and most importantly we had pleasure to eat local food with locals (long live pizzocheri!!!). For a bargain price of EUR 45 we had dinner, sleepover and breakfast for two (and landlady did not even include price for cakes, cheese platter and coke we had been invited to taste with our hostesses). Up until now Maghlera is crème de la crème of this trip with its hospitability and atmosphere. Thank you!
Vertical meters (up only):4,145m
Distance: 26.700km
VA stages: R72, R73
Day 9
Long before Malghera we came to realisation that our initial plan of covering over 630km and seeing all the cities we wanted to visit is more of a fata morgana than actual plan. It was only meter of time when we would decide to start skipping stages and “catching up” with Via Alpina. That point came in Malghera when after peering through map we commandeered in Arnoga (at least we got something for that horrendous money :) ) we decided to skip three stages circling Alltelina valley and massifs around and traverse from Malghera to Poschiavo. By doing this we think we manage to avoid fairly long walks through some valleys which appeared likely from the description given in Via Alpina print outs we possessed. Furthermore, at least one of the three stages was from Tirano, start of Bernina railway to Poschiavo, which was basically climb from 441m to 1,014m. As experienced mountaineers we refused to waste our time and decided to skip stages R74, R75 and R76.
Hike to Poschiavo turned out to be pleasant hike along alpine pastures and Lago di Malghera – obviously very popular fishing spot for locals. Other side – i.e. Switzerland as we crossed borders again – included long winding and zigzagging paved road all the way to Poschiavo (by the time we reached middle of it we were drooling from boredom). In Poschiavo upon further examination of commandeered map, consideration of the lag we had compared to original plan little brother come up with idea to skip additional three stages, jump on the Bernina railway (btw UNESCO listed heritage site) and explore St. Moritz – The place where The rich meet. Of course after three nights when I whined myself to bed I agreed (also afraid of another huge climb from Poschiavo to Passo di Campagneda – 2,609m and beyond).
Bernina railway did not turned out totally to its billing (literally and metaphorically) as it was not only completely commercialized, but our untrained eye failed to fully understand “greatness” of it as the highest non-stack railway in Europe. Honestly? Bernina although completed in 1912 and as high as 2,300m is still good 2,700m lower than that Chinese civilization tool for Tibet. In this case, have to hand it to eastern tiger.
Quick walk through St. Moritz made us realized that this is not the city for us (yet) as even with special Bernina pass (which is free for the passengers) and long list of cooperating discounts-offering establishments, all prices including discounts were out of our price range :) All I was allowed to buy (as my brother held the cash bank in that time) was one postcard and stamp (could not afford anything else really :) ). Anyway, perplexed we hoped on our familiar and now not so expensive Post bus and went to our start for next stage – Maloja.
After searching for some moderately priced hotel we had to settle for – according to recommendation we received – the cheapest option in the town – Sport Hotel for CHF 105 (believe me or not it was even cheaper than lager rooms offered). I have to admit that the whole Engadin valley seemed a bit overpriced even for Swiss standards. Somehow, without discussing or even speaking a word about it, we ended up having small dinner in the hotel’s restaurant. It turned out to be another lucky decision as we met another two Slovak girls working there during school vacation.
Vertical meters (up only):778m
Distance: 15.000km
VA stages: none
Day 10
From Maloja we started off towards source of river Inn – Lagh dal Lunghin (2,484m) – and triple watershed of Lunghin pass (2,645m) (rivers flowing to Adriatic, Black and North Sea start on its slopes). Afterwards, R80 led us through Septimer pass (2,310m) and Forcellina pass (2,672m) towards village of Juf. Allegedly Juf is the highest European year round inhabited settlement (again let me point out towards Asia and countries / territories around Himalayas).
Anyway, back to our story. Descent from Forcellina turned out to be slow and rigorous as numerous zig zags tried resilience of my right foot which started to hurt two-three days ago. In Juf we faced another decision whether to follow Via Alpina further and walk entire length of Bergell valley to Innerferrera or cowardly jump on the bus. Once again our mountaineering ignorance prevented us from simple walk along the valley and we jumped on a bus. Instead of Innerferrera we purchased tickets to Thusis in order to follow yet another diversion from Via Alpina (which we basically abandoned for now). As we passed through Innerferrera we quickly checked that indeed the rumors in our guide were true and only hotel in the village was closed on Monday (in fact the day we planned to stay there) and our ignorance was blessed :)
From Thusis we intended to transfer further to Glasspass where we intended to stay overnight. From there on we planned to walk to Illanz and hop on train to Andermatt and further so we can resume hiking in better terrain. This was due to our mutual observation that Via Alpina in this part of its course turned into valley walks with crossings over moderate passes while we sought some more demanding trails (again our newly found mountaineering ignorance in full swing).
Post bus saved us again and we happily rode it to Obertschapinna. From there we hiked last three kilometers to Glasspass and our officially unofficial accommodation. We stayed overnight in the house of local family after lady running one-and-only and fully booked pension confirmed reservation for us.
Vertical meters (up only):2,325m
Distance: 17.900km
VA stages: R80
After fairly good breakfast we set off in the direction of Eita, at least that’s what we thought. As the trail disappeared under our feet we realised that we were following some game path leading nowhere near our trail. Grinding teeth and climbing steeply up we finally come across huge bike trail which we learned was actually posing as a hiking trail to Eita as well. Looking back it seems fairly impossible to miss and we must have looked fairly odd to passing cyclists walking out of the deep forest catching breath like running the marathon.
Remainder of the stage R72 was fairly relaxing / boring walk along biking trail through Passo di Verva (2,301m) all the way to Eita (1,703m) which we covered in good time and pressed onwards. Second stage for the day turned out to be more interesting. First there was steep climb up towards alpine meadows above Eita and around Laghi di Tres (2,216m) and second, there was no clear path beyond Laghi.
We basically went from mark to mark as we spotted them as this part of Via Alpina is so little used that no trail was established yet. Last three hundred vertical meters turned to be real fun as we imitated mountain goats and jumped from rock to rock in order to get to the Passo di Vermolera (2,732m) and around snowfields (as my bro by this time on the trip basically walked his shoes through and was little scared to get his feet wet – totally understandably :) ).
Reaching the pass felt satisfying and long descent towards Maghlera (1,964m) was entertaining as again no clear path (down until Pian del Lago 2,316m) was visible and marks were distantly spread. Stone pyramids set up by previous hikers turned out to be great help to us hastening our descent (we tried to keep this tradition and enhanced some of the structures).
Beyond Pian del Lago path appeared from nowhere and comfortably indicated our way towards the biggest positive surprise on our journey – Rifugio Maghlera (1,964m). Maghlera is hut or rather cottage run by locals – specifically three ladies out of which only one speaks English – and also suits for local gatherings (which we had pleasure to join during our stay). Although full of shouting Italian children on their summer camp, we had pleasure to enjoy proper and hot shower, eight bed room for only two of us and most importantly we had pleasure to eat local food with locals (long live pizzocheri!!!). For a bargain price of EUR 45 we had dinner, sleepover and breakfast for two (and landlady did not even include price for cakes, cheese platter and coke we had been invited to taste with our hostesses). Up until now Maghlera is crème de la crème of this trip with its hospitability and atmosphere. Thank you!
Vertical meters (up only):4,145m
Distance: 26.700km
VA stages: R72, R73
Day 9
Long before Malghera we came to realisation that our initial plan of covering over 630km and seeing all the cities we wanted to visit is more of a fata morgana than actual plan. It was only meter of time when we would decide to start skipping stages and “catching up” with Via Alpina. That point came in Malghera when after peering through map we commandeered in Arnoga (at least we got something for that horrendous money :) ) we decided to skip three stages circling Alltelina valley and massifs around and traverse from Malghera to Poschiavo. By doing this we think we manage to avoid fairly long walks through some valleys which appeared likely from the description given in Via Alpina print outs we possessed. Furthermore, at least one of the three stages was from Tirano, start of Bernina railway to Poschiavo, which was basically climb from 441m to 1,014m. As experienced mountaineers we refused to waste our time and decided to skip stages R74, R75 and R76.
Hike to Poschiavo turned out to be pleasant hike along alpine pastures and Lago di Malghera – obviously very popular fishing spot for locals. Other side – i.e. Switzerland as we crossed borders again – included long winding and zigzagging paved road all the way to Poschiavo (by the time we reached middle of it we were drooling from boredom). In Poschiavo upon further examination of commandeered map, consideration of the lag we had compared to original plan little brother come up with idea to skip additional three stages, jump on the Bernina railway (btw UNESCO listed heritage site) and explore St. Moritz – The place where The rich meet. Of course after three nights when I whined myself to bed I agreed (also afraid of another huge climb from Poschiavo to Passo di Campagneda – 2,609m and beyond).
Bernina railway did not turned out totally to its billing (literally and metaphorically) as it was not only completely commercialized, but our untrained eye failed to fully understand “greatness” of it as the highest non-stack railway in Europe. Honestly? Bernina although completed in 1912 and as high as 2,300m is still good 2,700m lower than that Chinese civilization tool for Tibet. In this case, have to hand it to eastern tiger.
Quick walk through St. Moritz made us realized that this is not the city for us (yet) as even with special Bernina pass (which is free for the passengers) and long list of cooperating discounts-offering establishments, all prices including discounts were out of our price range :) All I was allowed to buy (as my brother held the cash bank in that time) was one postcard and stamp (could not afford anything else really :) ). Anyway, perplexed we hoped on our familiar and now not so expensive Post bus and went to our start for next stage – Maloja.
After searching for some moderately priced hotel we had to settle for – according to recommendation we received – the cheapest option in the town – Sport Hotel for CHF 105 (believe me or not it was even cheaper than lager rooms offered). I have to admit that the whole Engadin valley seemed a bit overpriced even for Swiss standards. Somehow, without discussing or even speaking a word about it, we ended up having small dinner in the hotel’s restaurant. It turned out to be another lucky decision as we met another two Slovak girls working there during school vacation.
Vertical meters (up only):778m
Distance: 15.000km
VA stages: none
Day 10
From Maloja we started off towards source of river Inn – Lagh dal Lunghin (2,484m) – and triple watershed of Lunghin pass (2,645m) (rivers flowing to Adriatic, Black and North Sea start on its slopes). Afterwards, R80 led us through Septimer pass (2,310m) and Forcellina pass (2,672m) towards village of Juf. Allegedly Juf is the highest European year round inhabited settlement (again let me point out towards Asia and countries / territories around Himalayas).
Anyway, back to our story. Descent from Forcellina turned out to be slow and rigorous as numerous zig zags tried resilience of my right foot which started to hurt two-three days ago. In Juf we faced another decision whether to follow Via Alpina further and walk entire length of Bergell valley to Innerferrera or cowardly jump on the bus. Once again our mountaineering ignorance prevented us from simple walk along the valley and we jumped on a bus. Instead of Innerferrera we purchased tickets to Thusis in order to follow yet another diversion from Via Alpina (which we basically abandoned for now). As we passed through Innerferrera we quickly checked that indeed the rumors in our guide were true and only hotel in the village was closed on Monday (in fact the day we planned to stay there) and our ignorance was blessed :)
From Thusis we intended to transfer further to Glasspass where we intended to stay overnight. From there on we planned to walk to Illanz and hop on train to Andermatt and further so we can resume hiking in better terrain. This was due to our mutual observation that Via Alpina in this part of its course turned into valley walks with crossings over moderate passes while we sought some more demanding trails (again our newly found mountaineering ignorance in full swing).
Post bus saved us again and we happily rode it to Obertschapinna. From there we hiked last three kilometers to Glasspass and our officially unofficial accommodation. We stayed overnight in the house of local family after lady running one-and-only and fully booked pension confirmed reservation for us.
Vertical meters (up only):2,325m
Distance: 17.900km
VA stages: R80
8/01/2010
Alpen Alpen uber alles! (vol. 3)
Day 5
From Madlener Haus (1,986m), along the Silvretta reservoir and Runder Kopf (2,376m) we crossed from Voralberg to Tyrol and headed towards Getschnerscharte pass (2,839m). The views offered early in the morning were gorgeous peaks and glaciers of Silvretta range on a backdrop of clear blue sky (which showed up every morning after rainstorms of the night).
Last kilometre up required some mountaineering skills as stones bearing trail marks were swept by water and slopes were covered by large snowfields. Closely followed by another hiker we scratched and clambered our way up through and around some impressive boulders and loose stones only to descent in a similar fashion on the other side :)
Down to Jamtalhutte (2,165m) for a proper ‘Bergsteiger’ lunch and two Spezis in a wonderful restaurant (and also quite cheap compared to what they asked for in Schweiz!). Enticing some doubtful looks we set off on a next stage of Via Alpina and continued towards Scuol.
After crossing Futschol pass (2,773m) we discussed descending into Schweiz pros and cons of world championship going to Spain. My brother was presenting his theory of Netherlands winning it all as would substantiate us – i.e. Slovakia - losing to eventual world champions (allegedly less hurtful). I simply claimed that better should win and for what we knew, Spain was fully deserving. Cheers compagneros!!! Believe me it was long discussion as descent to Ftan turned out to be first (and the longest) of the procession of long valley-descending trails included in Via Alpina in this region.
In Ftan (1,633m and c. 4.3km in front of Scuol) we agreed on skipping remainder of the day’s descent and jump on a last bus leaving town for the day. For the first time thus we had pleasure to ‘enjoy’ uber-expensive and entirely not worth it services of Post bus. This bus service run by Swiss post is more expensive than any client-ripping cab from Prague airport. My mind is still trying to figure out why is the public transport so expensive in Switzerland but besides lack of competition and certain historic reasons I cannot come up with satisfying idea (if you, dear reader, do, please post it in comments area).
We found our accommodation fairly easily as local branch of our favourite hostel chain is opposite to the bus/train station.
We should mention at this place that in Ftan started our run of marvellous little villages and towns on Italian / Switzerland border (e.g. Ftan, Stelvio etc.) with narrow streets (donkey cart wide) and fountains almost at every house. All accompanied with flower garlands makes these towns postcard worthy :)
Please also note that although we bring out our complains about long and boring valley descents along Via Alpina trail, after wasting substantial time on peering through maps for the region we could not come up with any better / passable alternative (although we did not have in our possession any proper tourist maps of 1:25,000 range).
Vertical meters (up only):4,055m
Distance: 33.700km
VA stages: R65, R66
Day 6
In order to keep up with our original plan we mutually decided to skip Scuol-S-charl stage of Via Alpina (R67) and hop on bus which covered the distance in mere 40min (another Post bus). It was nice to see the valley from the seat of the bus but walking through it seemed less intriguing.
From S-charl (1,810m) we headed off towards Cruschetta (2,296m) and Taufers (1,240m), village on Italian side of the border. In vain hope of refilling our supplies in cheaper and euro denominated Italian Taufers we hurried in 30 degrees heat. Arriving at noon we learned the hard way what does it mean to have a siesta. Virtually all shops were closed from 12.00pm to 3.00pm. As a last resort we crossed the border to Switzerland (mere kilometre away) and waited till 1.30pm till local shop opens. Really down on supplies we complained about the selection but ultimately filled our basket and emptied our pockets...
Leaving Taufers and local shops angry we continued towards Rifair Alm (2,146m) and further through Plaschweller Kamm (2,455m) into Stelvio / Stilfs (1,306m). In Stelvio with a bit of luck and help of locals we were navigated towards Pension zur Sonne (or something with sun) – only moderately priced option for accommodation in the village (as it seems). This little family joint run by old German speaking couple looked nowhere near Italian. Whole Stelvio had some German soul (or I am completely wrong) with locals mostly speaking German instead of Italian.
Here I would like to point out that vertical meters climbed stated below are from official Via Alpina website and guide. On the other hand it seems highly unlikely that office rat like me, after one week of hiking would be able to climb half of Everest in a single day...
Vertical meters (up only):4,749m
Distance: 33.000km
VA stages: R68, R69
Day 7
In the morning we started early after breakfast on a way towards Stelvio pass following instructions from Via Alpina website. Luckily, clearly stated instructions and landmarks were easy to recognise on the trail (e.g. St. Martin chapel, deer enclosure etc.).
Steadily we pushed through valleys and passes were battles of Great War were fought (Italian front in the Alps). After visiting artillery positions along the trail and watching eagle couple circling above our heads we reached Dreisprachenspitze peak area (2,843m)) and ruins of Austrian encampments located there. Have to admit I found some respects for soldiers staying there during winter, above 2,700m. Although views are awesome even today with zig-zagging roads from both sides, to actually fight over the rocks in two meters of snow must have been terrible.
Only short hop and we were at the stage end above Passo di Stelvio at Rifugio Garibaldi (2.841m) we had our quick lunch (polenta with two sausages for EUR 9 each) and listened to a roar of motorbikes coming up. We did not realize yet but we reached the turning point of our trip – at least according to my brother. From then on everything went downhill (blame it on that overpriced crap we had to eat there) :) Up until now we enjoyed awesome weather, beautiful hiking and magnificent views of Ortler Alps and Ortler peak (3,905m). From now on it would be a struggle with long boring descents through valleys and constant fear of weather turning bad sparkled with limited options for accommodation along Via Alpina.
Quickly we left and after Spezi and beer combo at Umbrail pass (2,480m) which calmed our rebelling digestion system after polenta we continued towards Bocchetta fi Forcola (2,768m) and Lago di Cancano (1,960m). In Forcola we coughed up with for cyclists who started slightly ahead of us from Umbrail pass and headed towards Bormio. After that we were no match for their wheels shooting downhill. Descending towards Lago di Cancano we were constantly made aware that we entered obese Alp rat (a.k.a. marmot) habitat by theirs warning whistles. Unlike their Swiss cousins they were shy creatures and usually we saw only their bushy tails running for cover.
Following 8km descent to Lago we had another 11km (according to Via Alpina, but certainly more according to my humble calculation) walk to the end of the Via Alpina stage. Basically we run for last two hours in order to reach Arnoga (1,850m) before night but anyway we arrived only around 9.30pm. After some vain attempts to bring to life reception of local two star hotel (Hotel Viola) we had to settle for three star EUR 50 per person variant (Hotel Li Arnoga). Please be warned that beyond Passo di Stelvio accommodation options along Via Alpina are very limited.
Vertical meters (up only):3,990m
Distance: 40.750km
VA stages: R70, R71
From Madlener Haus (1,986m), along the Silvretta reservoir and Runder Kopf (2,376m) we crossed from Voralberg to Tyrol and headed towards Getschnerscharte pass (2,839m). The views offered early in the morning were gorgeous peaks and glaciers of Silvretta range on a backdrop of clear blue sky (which showed up every morning after rainstorms of the night).
Last kilometre up required some mountaineering skills as stones bearing trail marks were swept by water and slopes were covered by large snowfields. Closely followed by another hiker we scratched and clambered our way up through and around some impressive boulders and loose stones only to descent in a similar fashion on the other side :)
Down to Jamtalhutte (2,165m) for a proper ‘Bergsteiger’ lunch and two Spezis in a wonderful restaurant (and also quite cheap compared to what they asked for in Schweiz!). Enticing some doubtful looks we set off on a next stage of Via Alpina and continued towards Scuol.
After crossing Futschol pass (2,773m) we discussed descending into Schweiz pros and cons of world championship going to Spain. My brother was presenting his theory of Netherlands winning it all as would substantiate us – i.e. Slovakia - losing to eventual world champions (allegedly less hurtful). I simply claimed that better should win and for what we knew, Spain was fully deserving. Cheers compagneros!!! Believe me it was long discussion as descent to Ftan turned out to be first (and the longest) of the procession of long valley-descending trails included in Via Alpina in this region.
In Ftan (1,633m and c. 4.3km in front of Scuol) we agreed on skipping remainder of the day’s descent and jump on a last bus leaving town for the day. For the first time thus we had pleasure to ‘enjoy’ uber-expensive and entirely not worth it services of Post bus. This bus service run by Swiss post is more expensive than any client-ripping cab from Prague airport. My mind is still trying to figure out why is the public transport so expensive in Switzerland but besides lack of competition and certain historic reasons I cannot come up with satisfying idea (if you, dear reader, do, please post it in comments area).
We found our accommodation fairly easily as local branch of our favourite hostel chain is opposite to the bus/train station.
We should mention at this place that in Ftan started our run of marvellous little villages and towns on Italian / Switzerland border (e.g. Ftan, Stelvio etc.) with narrow streets (donkey cart wide) and fountains almost at every house. All accompanied with flower garlands makes these towns postcard worthy :)
Please also note that although we bring out our complains about long and boring valley descents along Via Alpina trail, after wasting substantial time on peering through maps for the region we could not come up with any better / passable alternative (although we did not have in our possession any proper tourist maps of 1:25,000 range).
Vertical meters (up only):4,055m
Distance: 33.700km
VA stages: R65, R66
Day 6
In order to keep up with our original plan we mutually decided to skip Scuol-S-charl stage of Via Alpina (R67) and hop on bus which covered the distance in mere 40min (another Post bus). It was nice to see the valley from the seat of the bus but walking through it seemed less intriguing.
From S-charl (1,810m) we headed off towards Cruschetta (2,296m) and Taufers (1,240m), village on Italian side of the border. In vain hope of refilling our supplies in cheaper and euro denominated Italian Taufers we hurried in 30 degrees heat. Arriving at noon we learned the hard way what does it mean to have a siesta. Virtually all shops were closed from 12.00pm to 3.00pm. As a last resort we crossed the border to Switzerland (mere kilometre away) and waited till 1.30pm till local shop opens. Really down on supplies we complained about the selection but ultimately filled our basket and emptied our pockets...
Leaving Taufers and local shops angry we continued towards Rifair Alm (2,146m) and further through Plaschweller Kamm (2,455m) into Stelvio / Stilfs (1,306m). In Stelvio with a bit of luck and help of locals we were navigated towards Pension zur Sonne (or something with sun) – only moderately priced option for accommodation in the village (as it seems). This little family joint run by old German speaking couple looked nowhere near Italian. Whole Stelvio had some German soul (or I am completely wrong) with locals mostly speaking German instead of Italian.
Here I would like to point out that vertical meters climbed stated below are from official Via Alpina website and guide. On the other hand it seems highly unlikely that office rat like me, after one week of hiking would be able to climb half of Everest in a single day...
Vertical meters (up only):4,749m
Distance: 33.000km
VA stages: R68, R69
Day 7
In the morning we started early after breakfast on a way towards Stelvio pass following instructions from Via Alpina website. Luckily, clearly stated instructions and landmarks were easy to recognise on the trail (e.g. St. Martin chapel, deer enclosure etc.).
Steadily we pushed through valleys and passes were battles of Great War were fought (Italian front in the Alps). After visiting artillery positions along the trail and watching eagle couple circling above our heads we reached Dreisprachenspitze peak area (2,843m)) and ruins of Austrian encampments located there. Have to admit I found some respects for soldiers staying there during winter, above 2,700m. Although views are awesome even today with zig-zagging roads from both sides, to actually fight over the rocks in two meters of snow must have been terrible.
Only short hop and we were at the stage end above Passo di Stelvio at Rifugio Garibaldi (2.841m) we had our quick lunch (polenta with two sausages for EUR 9 each) and listened to a roar of motorbikes coming up. We did not realize yet but we reached the turning point of our trip – at least according to my brother. From then on everything went downhill (blame it on that overpriced crap we had to eat there) :) Up until now we enjoyed awesome weather, beautiful hiking and magnificent views of Ortler Alps and Ortler peak (3,905m). From now on it would be a struggle with long boring descents through valleys and constant fear of weather turning bad sparkled with limited options for accommodation along Via Alpina.
Quickly we left and after Spezi and beer combo at Umbrail pass (2,480m) which calmed our rebelling digestion system after polenta we continued towards Bocchetta fi Forcola (2,768m) and Lago di Cancano (1,960m). In Forcola we coughed up with for cyclists who started slightly ahead of us from Umbrail pass and headed towards Bormio. After that we were no match for their wheels shooting downhill. Descending towards Lago di Cancano we were constantly made aware that we entered obese Alp rat (a.k.a. marmot) habitat by theirs warning whistles. Unlike their Swiss cousins they were shy creatures and usually we saw only their bushy tails running for cover.
Following 8km descent to Lago we had another 11km (according to Via Alpina, but certainly more according to my humble calculation) walk to the end of the Via Alpina stage. Basically we run for last two hours in order to reach Arnoga (1,850m) before night but anyway we arrived only around 9.30pm. After some vain attempts to bring to life reception of local two star hotel (Hotel Viola) we had to settle for three star EUR 50 per person variant (Hotel Li Arnoga). Please be warned that beyond Passo di Stelvio accommodation options along Via Alpina are very limited.
Vertical meters (up only):3,990m
Distance: 40.750km
VA stages: R70, R71
7/26/2010
Alpen Alpen uber alles! (vol. 2)
Day 2
Not yet fully realising what it means to travel in Alpine countries (and what it is to sleep in a sheep stack) I was woken up at 3.00am by bells of sheep literally knocking on our / theirs doors. After some ‘discussion’ we prevailed and were let to rest additional two hours before watching sunrise over Alps and hitting the road.
Early morning we climbed back to place of our return, ascended Garsellikopf (2,105m) and Kuhgrat (2,123m) where we met first hikers going in opposite direction. Proud with our achievement we exchanged pleasantries and chocolates :) Little we knew that soon ascents of 2,100m peaks would become boring and not sufficient. Old adage of ‘with food grows the appetite’ was never truer :)
Quick descent to Sucka (1,402m) completed our first Via Alpina stage. After refilling our water bottles we continued to Pfalzerhutte (2,108m) – terminus of second stage scheduled for the day. Walking through marvellous alpine valleys (not yet boring for us), close encounter with horse herd high above usual habitat and completing murderous (in that time it almost killed me) climb of last kilometre made the gulash suppe and Radler taste incredibly delicious.
In order to use up as much sunlight as possible we continued in the direction of Schesaplana hutte (end of third stage on our list). First we had to crossed Gross Furgga (2,339m) pass which made me breath like someone with heavy asthma attack (my tongue licked its way through snowfields on the northern side of the pass :) ). Afterwards long descent to Schesaplana hutte(1,908m) awaited. It should be noted that marking provided on Via Alpina website (as of 11 July 2010) is incorrect and that kilometres stated are much lower (stage is long c. 14km instead of stated 18.6km).
On this very hut we met our first country woman – girl named Gabi who was working there during vacation. Briefly discussing our experience so far and plans for next couple of days, we briefly considered climbing Schesaplana peak (2,964m). Ultimately we abandoned the idea as mountains of same height awaited further on along the road. After brief some-kind-of-bath in cold water we zipped ourselves in sleeping bags.
Vertical meters (up only):3,196m
Distance: 32.158km
VA stages: R57 (partially), R58, R59
Day 3
Here comes another warning (specifically to our fellow budget travellers) for those travelling along Via Alpina. Breakfast at mountain huts are vastly overpriced (10EUR / CHF for two slices of bread, cheese, some marmalade and pot of tea). If you can bring your own supplies, which will suit your needs better than breakfast provided. If possible ask first whether breakfast are served buffet style (if yes go for it, if not eat your own crackers), otherwise it is highly advisable to book only sleeping place.
Anyway, after my first real mountain breakfast (although warned by my brother, I ordered one and paid dearly) we set off to Carschinahutte (2,221m). Trail led through valleys where we were kept company by marmots doing their morning hygiene. Fairly flat stage and Radler at its end was followed by steep descent to St. Antonien (1,420m) (in fact only my brother went there to refill our supplies in local shop as I, traditionally wasted after sharp descent, waited 200m outside of the village) we continued further on to Gargellen (Austrian village at the end of the third stage for the day).
We arrived to Gargellen fairly late after crossing St. Antonien Joch (pass at 2,379m on Madrisa round tour which follows ridges around St. Antonien) and very happy to find out that Gargellen is fairly equipped mountain centre with plenty of accommodation offered. Even better, in a true 21st century manner, tourist can find out all information through touchscreen provided on the wall of tourist office eliminating any annoying human contact :)
We spent the night in the cheapest option offered (EUR 35 per person). First time my brother had chance to experience my uf and ach sounds (he compared my movement around the room to 70 year old pensioner) which became more familiar during following days as we kept our mad tempo.
Vertical meters (up only):3,857m
Distance: 33.500km
VA stages: R60, R61, R62
Day 4
Following day after rich buffet breakfast we once again refilled our supplies in local Spar and continued along Via Alpina through mountain passes of Austria. First we crossed Vergaldajoch (2,515m) and then Mittelbergjoch (2,415m) both high enough to include snowfields along the way. Tubinger hutte (2,191m) was quick lunch stop (from now on I switched from Radler to Spezi as a sugar/energy provider) as we aimed to catch up with our plan for Via Alpina (at that time we were back three ambitious stages).
From Tubinger hutte through Hochmaderer Joch (2,505m) we continued in the direction of Madlener Haus (end of another stage). Unfortunately weather got into our way as storms from previous days (since Day 1 c. at 7.00pm and further on, storms raged on) increased streams through-flows to impassable levels (we did our best to take our shoes off twice, third time we were not lucky enough).
Unhappy but in one piece we abandoned hiking trail circa half a kilometre in front of Madlener Haus, descended to the nearest paved road and hitchhiked our way up to Silvretta reservoir and destination for the day. This detour and delay put the pitchfork to any attempt for additional stage.
Vertical meters (up only):2,463m
Distance: 26.200km
VA stages: R63, R64
Not yet fully realising what it means to travel in Alpine countries (and what it is to sleep in a sheep stack) I was woken up at 3.00am by bells of sheep literally knocking on our / theirs doors. After some ‘discussion’ we prevailed and were let to rest additional two hours before watching sunrise over Alps and hitting the road.
Early morning we climbed back to place of our return, ascended Garsellikopf (2,105m) and Kuhgrat (2,123m) where we met first hikers going in opposite direction. Proud with our achievement we exchanged pleasantries and chocolates :) Little we knew that soon ascents of 2,100m peaks would become boring and not sufficient. Old adage of ‘with food grows the appetite’ was never truer :)
Quick descent to Sucka (1,402m) completed our first Via Alpina stage. After refilling our water bottles we continued to Pfalzerhutte (2,108m) – terminus of second stage scheduled for the day. Walking through marvellous alpine valleys (not yet boring for us), close encounter with horse herd high above usual habitat and completing murderous (in that time it almost killed me) climb of last kilometre made the gulash suppe and Radler taste incredibly delicious.
In order to use up as much sunlight as possible we continued in the direction of Schesaplana hutte (end of third stage on our list). First we had to crossed Gross Furgga (2,339m) pass which made me breath like someone with heavy asthma attack (my tongue licked its way through snowfields on the northern side of the pass :) ). Afterwards long descent to Schesaplana hutte(1,908m) awaited. It should be noted that marking provided on Via Alpina website (as of 11 July 2010) is incorrect and that kilometres stated are much lower (stage is long c. 14km instead of stated 18.6km).
On this very hut we met our first country woman – girl named Gabi who was working there during vacation. Briefly discussing our experience so far and plans for next couple of days, we briefly considered climbing Schesaplana peak (2,964m). Ultimately we abandoned the idea as mountains of same height awaited further on along the road. After brief some-kind-of-bath in cold water we zipped ourselves in sleeping bags.
Vertical meters (up only):3,196m
Distance: 32.158km
VA stages: R57 (partially), R58, R59
Day 3
Here comes another warning (specifically to our fellow budget travellers) for those travelling along Via Alpina. Breakfast at mountain huts are vastly overpriced (10EUR / CHF for two slices of bread, cheese, some marmalade and pot of tea). If you can bring your own supplies, which will suit your needs better than breakfast provided. If possible ask first whether breakfast are served buffet style (if yes go for it, if not eat your own crackers), otherwise it is highly advisable to book only sleeping place.
Anyway, after my first real mountain breakfast (although warned by my brother, I ordered one and paid dearly) we set off to Carschinahutte (2,221m). Trail led through valleys where we were kept company by marmots doing their morning hygiene. Fairly flat stage and Radler at its end was followed by steep descent to St. Antonien (1,420m) (in fact only my brother went there to refill our supplies in local shop as I, traditionally wasted after sharp descent, waited 200m outside of the village) we continued further on to Gargellen (Austrian village at the end of the third stage for the day).
We arrived to Gargellen fairly late after crossing St. Antonien Joch (pass at 2,379m on Madrisa round tour which follows ridges around St. Antonien) and very happy to find out that Gargellen is fairly equipped mountain centre with plenty of accommodation offered. Even better, in a true 21st century manner, tourist can find out all information through touchscreen provided on the wall of tourist office eliminating any annoying human contact :)
We spent the night in the cheapest option offered (EUR 35 per person). First time my brother had chance to experience my uf and ach sounds (he compared my movement around the room to 70 year old pensioner) which became more familiar during following days as we kept our mad tempo.
Vertical meters (up only):3,857m
Distance: 33.500km
VA stages: R60, R61, R62
Day 4
Following day after rich buffet breakfast we once again refilled our supplies in local Spar and continued along Via Alpina through mountain passes of Austria. First we crossed Vergaldajoch (2,515m) and then Mittelbergjoch (2,415m) both high enough to include snowfields along the way. Tubinger hutte (2,191m) was quick lunch stop (from now on I switched from Radler to Spezi as a sugar/energy provider) as we aimed to catch up with our plan for Via Alpina (at that time we were back three ambitious stages).
From Tubinger hutte through Hochmaderer Joch (2,505m) we continued in the direction of Madlener Haus (end of another stage). Unfortunately weather got into our way as storms from previous days (since Day 1 c. at 7.00pm and further on, storms raged on) increased streams through-flows to impassable levels (we did our best to take our shoes off twice, third time we were not lucky enough).
Unhappy but in one piece we abandoned hiking trail circa half a kilometre in front of Madlener Haus, descended to the nearest paved road and hitchhiked our way up to Silvretta reservoir and destination for the day. This detour and delay put the pitchfork to any attempt for additional stage.
Vertical meters (up only):2,463m
Distance: 26.200km
VA stages: R63, R64
7/25/2010
Alpen Alpen uber alles! (vol. 1)
Here follows account of my trip with my small brother across the Alps of Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Italy and France. Originally we planned to follow Via Alpina’s Red trail from Liechtenstein to Brig Glis (c. 45 stages and c. 630km in 17 days) but as you will see later we abandoned the original plan due to lack of time (or better lacking physical conditioning) and decision to visit Jungfrau region instead.
Besides Via Alpina we planned to visit Chamonix and Mt. Blanc region as well as several cities of Switzerland (similarly to our previous trip to Spain where we explored historic and cultural sites in August 2008) masterfully balancing nature and culture during this three weeks stint. Unfortunately due to scheduling reasons (I had to postpone my flight one week later) we had to amend this plan to each individuals need. My brother visited cities and Mt. Blanc region week prior to my arrival and I plan to visit them (in the time of writing this post) after his departure.
What follows are short summaries of daily experiences including some data (certainly not vital). Kilometres walked and vertical meters ascended are based on guide printed out of Via Alpina website (some data as pointed out later are clearly wrong and / or misleading), maps we obtained during our trip and best guess / estimate I made based on them (particularly in later stage of our trip when we abandoned Via Alpina).
Please read on!
Day 1
Day before, I landed in Zurich and transported my sorry back, with overweight backpack on top of it, to Sargans where I met my brother. Afterwards we set off to Liechtenstein, our destination for a day. Day one of the uber-trip over the Alps started with half a day sightseeing in Vaduz and Schaan (city we stayed). I managed to see Kuntsmuseum and Landes museum (only worth to visit with Liechtenstein pass you can obtain for 25 Swiss francs – hereinafter CHF). Pass included visit and tasting in Hofkelerei (Liechtenstein’s monarch’s vineyards) and me milking the employees for all available information about growing wines.
Around 1.30pm we set off on our journey to the unknown and left low lands of Rhine valley for mighty Alps, their peaks and passes. Of course, we did not even set our feet out of township of Schaan and we made our first mistake. Instead of taking public transport bus (included within pass described earlier are fares for all public buses throughout Liechtenstein) to village of Planken we walked our way up. Later we paid dearly for time lost (especially me – the unofficial office rat on our two men team). After first 1,000 vertical meters I almost died reaching Gafadurahutte (point where we were about to join Via Alpina). After resting and drinking my first Radler of the summer we started off to Drei Schwestern (2,055 meters above sea level) and other peaks lying on day’s stage.
As usual all plans ended up worthless and due to upcoming storm we turned down in the pass just after Drei Schwestern and headed do the nearest waterproof looking lodge. It turned out to be sheep station with complete group of shepherd and shepherdesses. They were so kind to let us sleep in their barn (with two other unlucky hikers). To be honest, the very first night made an all star highlights reel of this trip as probably nothing can beat dry and comfi hay mixed with old sheep poop from previous months and a wakeup call of sheep bells (more on that later)...
Vertical meters (up only): 1,596m
Distance: 8.1km
VA stages: R57 (partially)
Besides Via Alpina we planned to visit Chamonix and Mt. Blanc region as well as several cities of Switzerland (similarly to our previous trip to Spain where we explored historic and cultural sites in August 2008) masterfully balancing nature and culture during this three weeks stint. Unfortunately due to scheduling reasons (I had to postpone my flight one week later) we had to amend this plan to each individuals need. My brother visited cities and Mt. Blanc region week prior to my arrival and I plan to visit them (in the time of writing this post) after his departure.
What follows are short summaries of daily experiences including some data (certainly not vital). Kilometres walked and vertical meters ascended are based on guide printed out of Via Alpina website (some data as pointed out later are clearly wrong and / or misleading), maps we obtained during our trip and best guess / estimate I made based on them (particularly in later stage of our trip when we abandoned Via Alpina).
Please read on!
Day 1
Day before, I landed in Zurich and transported my sorry back, with overweight backpack on top of it, to Sargans where I met my brother. Afterwards we set off to Liechtenstein, our destination for a day. Day one of the uber-trip over the Alps started with half a day sightseeing in Vaduz and Schaan (city we stayed). I managed to see Kuntsmuseum and Landes museum (only worth to visit with Liechtenstein pass you can obtain for 25 Swiss francs – hereinafter CHF). Pass included visit and tasting in Hofkelerei (Liechtenstein’s monarch’s vineyards) and me milking the employees for all available information about growing wines.
Around 1.30pm we set off on our journey to the unknown and left low lands of Rhine valley for mighty Alps, their peaks and passes. Of course, we did not even set our feet out of township of Schaan and we made our first mistake. Instead of taking public transport bus (included within pass described earlier are fares for all public buses throughout Liechtenstein) to village of Planken we walked our way up. Later we paid dearly for time lost (especially me – the unofficial office rat on our two men team). After first 1,000 vertical meters I almost died reaching Gafadurahutte (point where we were about to join Via Alpina). After resting and drinking my first Radler of the summer we started off to Drei Schwestern (2,055 meters above sea level) and other peaks lying on day’s stage.
As usual all plans ended up worthless and due to upcoming storm we turned down in the pass just after Drei Schwestern and headed do the nearest waterproof looking lodge. It turned out to be sheep station with complete group of shepherd and shepherdesses. They were so kind to let us sleep in their barn (with two other unlucky hikers). To be honest, the very first night made an all star highlights reel of this trip as probably nothing can beat dry and comfi hay mixed with old sheep poop from previous months and a wakeup call of sheep bells (more on that later)...
Vertical meters (up only): 1,596m
Distance: 8.1km
VA stages: R57 (partially)
6/29/2010
Nurturing the culture
This is a short post about unculturally cultural five days in Prague on a break of summer. I flew back to Prague on Friday (May 21) to satisfy my thirst for classical music and to attend at least some of the concerts of Prague Spring me and my brother bought tickets for. Basically out of the eight concerts I originally intended to see I managed to attend only four but luckily for me at least two of them were THE Concerts.
On Friday we had pleasure to listen to conductor / piano soloist Mr. Perahia and The Academy of St Martin in the Fields. As a typical uneducated eastern Slovak, I was so tired my head dropped every few seconds and I almost fell asleep during the best part of the performance (Concert for piano and orchestra in C moll, KV 491).
After nurturing (or torturing) our sight sense by attending screening of new Ridley Scott / Russel Crowe vehicle – Robin Hood (incomparably worse than good old Gladiator) we attended concert of Bayerische Rundfunk Orchestra (‘BRO’) which is according to some, one of the best ensembles in the world. Although half of the audience preferred to watch Hockey World Championships final game (congrats to Czech Republic as it won gold) this was a concert of the concerts. Mahler’s Kindertoddliche Liede were nice although not-understood appetizer for main course of Schubert’s Great symphony (No. 9 but depends on who is doing the numbering). BRO can claim that they awaken Schubert’s appreciation in me. Their rendition of his grandest symphony was pure pleasure and received standing ovation of a half empty Obecni dum.
On Monday we continued to broaden our horizons (in my brother’s words – ‘self-educate’) and attended Prague chamber orchestra performance. Out of the four concerts we attended, it was the most uninteresting (if someone like can say something like this) but still important piece of puzzle of overall Prague Spring 2010 experience. Last but most definitely the first concert among those I attended had almost everything - charismatic conductor, full count orchestra, world premier, exceptional soloist and many other attributes I do not know about. State Philharmonic from Kosice performed in a Czech premier concert for giora and orchestra of Peter Breiner (who was also conducting). What a pleasure! What a joy! The concert was so good and so much enjoyed by performers (ensemble, conductor and soloist), audience and everyone else that it received standing ovation.
Wonderfully played by a by-far the youngest orchestra we have seen this year it handily overcome performances of Mr. Gardiner and Czech Philharmonic Orchestra (as described in previous posts) or BRO. It should be duly noted that I am biased Kosice-born observer :) Second half composed of short Mozart’s concert and another masterpiece of Jean Sibelius (a selection from Kuningas Kristian II) performed by Kosice orchestra.
It appears that those culturally overdosed days in Prague had to leave some impression on me as I am writing this post just before boarding plane to Prague and c. one month after the above mentioned happened. Or maybe it’s just me trying to present myself as a intellectually deep person. In this case please take my post with huge pile of salt as it is well known that there are no intellectuals born in eastern Slovakia :)
On Friday we had pleasure to listen to conductor / piano soloist Mr. Perahia and The Academy of St Martin in the Fields. As a typical uneducated eastern Slovak, I was so tired my head dropped every few seconds and I almost fell asleep during the best part of the performance (Concert for piano and orchestra in C moll, KV 491).
After nurturing (or torturing) our sight sense by attending screening of new Ridley Scott / Russel Crowe vehicle – Robin Hood (incomparably worse than good old Gladiator) we attended concert of Bayerische Rundfunk Orchestra (‘BRO’) which is according to some, one of the best ensembles in the world. Although half of the audience preferred to watch Hockey World Championships final game (congrats to Czech Republic as it won gold) this was a concert of the concerts. Mahler’s Kindertoddliche Liede were nice although not-understood appetizer for main course of Schubert’s Great symphony (No. 9 but depends on who is doing the numbering). BRO can claim that they awaken Schubert’s appreciation in me. Their rendition of his grandest symphony was pure pleasure and received standing ovation of a half empty Obecni dum.
On Monday we continued to broaden our horizons (in my brother’s words – ‘self-educate’) and attended Prague chamber orchestra performance. Out of the four concerts we attended, it was the most uninteresting (if someone like can say something like this) but still important piece of puzzle of overall Prague Spring 2010 experience. Last but most definitely the first concert among those I attended had almost everything - charismatic conductor, full count orchestra, world premier, exceptional soloist and many other attributes I do not know about. State Philharmonic from Kosice performed in a Czech premier concert for giora and orchestra of Peter Breiner (who was also conducting). What a pleasure! What a joy! The concert was so good and so much enjoyed by performers (ensemble, conductor and soloist), audience and everyone else that it received standing ovation.
Wonderfully played by a by-far the youngest orchestra we have seen this year it handily overcome performances of Mr. Gardiner and Czech Philharmonic Orchestra (as described in previous posts) or BRO. It should be duly noted that I am biased Kosice-born observer :) Second half composed of short Mozart’s concert and another masterpiece of Jean Sibelius (a selection from Kuningas Kristian II) performed by Kosice orchestra.
It appears that those culturally overdosed days in Prague had to leave some impression on me as I am writing this post just before boarding plane to Prague and c. one month after the above mentioned happened. Or maybe it’s just me trying to present myself as a intellectually deep person. In this case please take my post with huge pile of salt as it is well known that there are no intellectuals born in eastern Slovakia :)
5/27/2010
Stranded in Bucharest
Seven weeks (not sure actually anymore) into my prolonged business trip to Romanian capital and I still feel a bit unfamiliar with Romania. Maybe it’s because I have not seen the country yet and my stay is so far limited to Bucharest. Maybe it’s because it is truly country on periphery of Europe where various cultures mixed over past two millennia. Or maybe it’s because it is true that as you travel east you travel back in time as well (right now it is Czech Republic and Slovakia in early 1990’s all over again). Anyway for those who are not ready to read long long post here is short summary: a) the more restaurants you visit the better chance you have eating actually well (shotgun approach recommended), b) dogs travel in packs and look alike but locals love them anyway, c) cars are everyone’s best friend, d) Bucharest is one city in need of London’s congestion charge, e) second dustiest city of Europe I had pleasure to visit, f) aah those woman :) Below comes the long version.
Eating
We had ‘pleasure’ to try number of restaurants around the city. Although all of the restaurants showed some flaw, average Joe would be satisfied in couple of them. Local cuisine is a bit heavy but all eateries offer variety of fish dishes on their menu which is positively awesome after beer and pork diet of Czech counterparts. Oh yeah, and there is that lemonade.
Among the best we had pleasure to dine at were; Le Bistro at Centerville complex (a bit pricey and got worn out after third visit) which can be found at the back of Radisson hotel, Harbour (with slightly overpriced dishes when considering quality) – an expat joint at Piata Amzei and French restaurant opposite to Dirty Harry’s pub at pedestrian city center. Nice trendy atmosphere can be found in local Hard Rock Cafe at city’s biggest park whose name I do not dare to guess.
Definitely best location to go out for dinner, couple of drinks and summer / spring walk is pedestrian zone between National Bank and Piata Unirii – also known as Old Town. In there you can find Irish pub on every corner and cocktail and cafe bars in between. All of the restaurants have summer gardens prepared as soon as the weather permits with the staff and overall atmosphere (of hip youth) making you feel that the legends about Paris of the east were actually right.
Wine
Hm, where to start? Coming in I did not have much expectation for tasting or even drinking any wine but as usual I was completely wrong :) Seems like winemaking in Romania is fairly big and as hopeful future winemaker (more on this in next posts) I felt obliged to try as much of local wine as possible. Of course business dinners helped greatly :)
Anyway, I have to admit that Romanian wine (especially Prince Matei merlot) is the second biggest positive surprise I stumbled upon here (the biggest are undisputedly women). Especially reds are wonderful and fully rounded (still talking about wine, for girls see below) to such an extent that they reversed my recent obsession with whites.
Cars and congestions
Completely different story is traffic in Romanian capital. Seems like every citizen feels urgent need to invest his lifelong savings into some new / old big / small piece of metal. And when doing so, he needs to notify everyone around and honks as much as possible, making streets noisy like a true jungle.
Truly to the free spirits of buccaneers, these pirates on wheels use traffic rules more like a guidelines than actual rules. Instead of facilitating traffic flow, local drivers and their driving style (every green light results in formula like acceleration only to break as hard as possible 100 meters farther) make awesome ground for enormous congestions Bucharest has to deal with every day. Congestions happen despite unusually wide boulevards with three or even more lanes in one direction.
I have to admit, there is unusually large number of fancy expensive cars (from Porsches to Bentleys and everything you can imagine in between) for a city with buildings literally falling apart. My thorough research into the matter resulted in various answers but clear theme emerged, stating that Romanians like to show off and the best way to do that is by buying a car. Of course, I did not understand why would anybody need to show off so much and especially when 80% of old grand villas in the city centre are falling apart piece by piece. Why not to invest into real estate? Here the answers were not that clear and ranged from: real estate is expensive and out of reach for ordinary man, to: in past we did not have enough cars and now we can buy it so we buy it, or: to show off is in our Balkan nature and we are who we are.
My friend (also Romanian and owing already two cars with his wife) asked me what I think Romanian man would do with EUR 20,000 which he won in lottery. My answer that he would immediately buy a car was incorrect. He would borrow another EUR 20,000 and buy a BMW :) Other people added that he would buy BMW and still continue to live in his crappy old apartment from 70’s.
Dogs
As you have already heard (I hope), Romania and especially Bucharest are well known for their dog population. This is just to confirm that all the rumours are true and not at all exaggerating. So called community dogs roam the streets either alone or in packs and citizens do not complain. Even more, they enjoy their company. Any attempt to get rid of these dogs met stark resistance (e.g. one of past majors tried to do that and now he ended up as a president). Local people feed them resulting in obese population (mainly in city centre) compared to outskirts shanty town cousins of industrial district. As killing them is deemed inhuman they are left to reproduce and multiply.
Girls, women and ladies
This is another rumour I can completely confirm. Girls in Romania are one of the most beautiful in the world. Dark haired, flirty and never far away from laugh, they are the one good thing which make anyone like show off nature of Balkan people. In this case it means they dress more carefully and with greater sense.
Dust and everything else
Besides passion for red fountains (no clue why) citizens of Bucharest enjoy flowers above all. I guess this is to enliven dusty environment they live in. After Moscow, Bucharest is the dustiest city (besides those desert towns around Taklamakan) I have pleasure to visit. Unexpectedly, without any desert in sight and flushed in rich Danube estuary, Bucharest is covered in veil of dust.
Most of my observations are affected by the fact that I have not been able to get out of the city and stayed for past two months within city proper. Even receptionist at our hotel expressed hope for me to “see other parts of Romania which are by far better than Bucharest” :)
Eating
We had ‘pleasure’ to try number of restaurants around the city. Although all of the restaurants showed some flaw, average Joe would be satisfied in couple of them. Local cuisine is a bit heavy but all eateries offer variety of fish dishes on their menu which is positively awesome after beer and pork diet of Czech counterparts. Oh yeah, and there is that lemonade.
Among the best we had pleasure to dine at were; Le Bistro at Centerville complex (a bit pricey and got worn out after third visit) which can be found at the back of Radisson hotel, Harbour (with slightly overpriced dishes when considering quality) – an expat joint at Piata Amzei and French restaurant opposite to Dirty Harry’s pub at pedestrian city center. Nice trendy atmosphere can be found in local Hard Rock Cafe at city’s biggest park whose name I do not dare to guess.
Definitely best location to go out for dinner, couple of drinks and summer / spring walk is pedestrian zone between National Bank and Piata Unirii – also known as Old Town. In there you can find Irish pub on every corner and cocktail and cafe bars in between. All of the restaurants have summer gardens prepared as soon as the weather permits with the staff and overall atmosphere (of hip youth) making you feel that the legends about Paris of the east were actually right.
Wine
Hm, where to start? Coming in I did not have much expectation for tasting or even drinking any wine but as usual I was completely wrong :) Seems like winemaking in Romania is fairly big and as hopeful future winemaker (more on this in next posts) I felt obliged to try as much of local wine as possible. Of course business dinners helped greatly :)
Anyway, I have to admit that Romanian wine (especially Prince Matei merlot) is the second biggest positive surprise I stumbled upon here (the biggest are undisputedly women). Especially reds are wonderful and fully rounded (still talking about wine, for girls see below) to such an extent that they reversed my recent obsession with whites.
Cars and congestions
Completely different story is traffic in Romanian capital. Seems like every citizen feels urgent need to invest his lifelong savings into some new / old big / small piece of metal. And when doing so, he needs to notify everyone around and honks as much as possible, making streets noisy like a true jungle.
Truly to the free spirits of buccaneers, these pirates on wheels use traffic rules more like a guidelines than actual rules. Instead of facilitating traffic flow, local drivers and their driving style (every green light results in formula like acceleration only to break as hard as possible 100 meters farther) make awesome ground for enormous congestions Bucharest has to deal with every day. Congestions happen despite unusually wide boulevards with three or even more lanes in one direction.
I have to admit, there is unusually large number of fancy expensive cars (from Porsches to Bentleys and everything you can imagine in between) for a city with buildings literally falling apart. My thorough research into the matter resulted in various answers but clear theme emerged, stating that Romanians like to show off and the best way to do that is by buying a car. Of course, I did not understand why would anybody need to show off so much and especially when 80% of old grand villas in the city centre are falling apart piece by piece. Why not to invest into real estate? Here the answers were not that clear and ranged from: real estate is expensive and out of reach for ordinary man, to: in past we did not have enough cars and now we can buy it so we buy it, or: to show off is in our Balkan nature and we are who we are.
My friend (also Romanian and owing already two cars with his wife) asked me what I think Romanian man would do with EUR 20,000 which he won in lottery. My answer that he would immediately buy a car was incorrect. He would borrow another EUR 20,000 and buy a BMW :) Other people added that he would buy BMW and still continue to live in his crappy old apartment from 70’s.
Dogs
As you have already heard (I hope), Romania and especially Bucharest are well known for their dog population. This is just to confirm that all the rumours are true and not at all exaggerating. So called community dogs roam the streets either alone or in packs and citizens do not complain. Even more, they enjoy their company. Any attempt to get rid of these dogs met stark resistance (e.g. one of past majors tried to do that and now he ended up as a president). Local people feed them resulting in obese population (mainly in city centre) compared to outskirts shanty town cousins of industrial district. As killing them is deemed inhuman they are left to reproduce and multiply.
Girls, women and ladies
This is another rumour I can completely confirm. Girls in Romania are one of the most beautiful in the world. Dark haired, flirty and never far away from laugh, they are the one good thing which make anyone like show off nature of Balkan people. In this case it means they dress more carefully and with greater sense.
Dust and everything else
Besides passion for red fountains (no clue why) citizens of Bucharest enjoy flowers above all. I guess this is to enliven dusty environment they live in. After Moscow, Bucharest is the dustiest city (besides those desert towns around Taklamakan) I have pleasure to visit. Unexpectedly, without any desert in sight and flushed in rich Danube estuary, Bucharest is covered in veil of dust.
Most of my observations are affected by the fact that I have not been able to get out of the city and stayed for past two months within city proper. Even receptionist at our hotel expressed hope for me to “see other parts of Romania which are by far better than Bucharest” :)
4/05/2010
Spring is finally here!
Winter is finally gone! Once again sky is blue, water is wet and new baseball season just began :) Yesterday marked begining of new Major League Baseball season and there is no better way to open it other than starting another chapter in the biggest rivalry in sports. Boston Red Sox played New York Yankees (a defending World Series Champion) at Fenway :) Forget football, hockey or basketball - baseball at American League East is what it is about for next seven months :)
Enjoy the spring!
Enjoy the spring!
3/28/2010
I did it! I did it! I did it! 2.0
Hehe today I am all giddy as for the fourth time I managed to run a half marathon (this time I successfully completed course of PIM). As a cherry on top I improved my personal best and run it in 1.39.23 (official) or 1.39.27 (my own measurement) depending on view :) Anyway, kudos to fellow runners from Deloitte (Peter, Dalibor, Garret and Miro) and my brother who again successfully beat me by almost six minutes (that little freak run it in 1.33.45). Besides terrible wind, weather conditions were ideal for runners and although course was a bit too up and down I enjoyed it pretty much - thank you!
3/05/2010
Springs of culture
Finally spring arrived to Prague and in its footsteps my mom for a short visit combined with conference she participated at. Upon her request we make arrangements for all three of us to visit certain cultural events. Events handpicked by my little brother were concert of Czech Philharmonic Orchestra (with Sir John Eliot Gardiner acting as visiting conductor) and theatre play Hrdina Zapadu (written by Mr. John Millington Synge) in Cinoherni klub. This weekend with its loaded cultural program turned out to be ideal spring board for our eight concert marathon during Prague Spring festival (oh boy am I giddy about this :) ).
We were particularly delighted by tickets to Sir Gardiner concert as we previously fruitlessly pursued these for his Prague Spring performances. Czech Philharmonic Orchestra under his leadership played two Schuman’s symphonies (Concert piece for 4 horns and Symphony no. 2 C dur op. 61) and two pieces from Mr. Martinu (Symphony no. 6 and Frescoes of Piero della Francesca). Two and a half hour long pure delight of music put all three of us into completely different dimension. Of course, some mean individuals would be all too eager to point out that me and my brother drunk ourselves to this dimension as we drunk three and four pilsner beers during our dinner just before the concert – believe me (as I want to believe myself) it was not the case. Especially the Concert piece and its horns’ parts were particularly beautiful causing my mom to reflect on it and happily talk about it for the rest of the weekend.
For the first time I had also opportunity to see an artist who knows his value and is not willing to reward audience which does not value his performance. Especially during last part of the concert some of spectators were napping or their heads started nodding. Also during applause those who preferred to get their coats and jackets as soon as possible turned their backs to Sir Gardiner and orchestra hurrying towards the exits. Seeing this, Sir Gardiner turned his back in return and left the podium although half of us applauded while standing. Hats off for his courage :) Of course, more possible explanation would be that he was really tired after more than two hours of intensive physical conducting (and sweating from pure exhaustion).
On Saturday we decided to quench our thirst for theatre and experienced above mentioned play. Maybe a socially groundbreaking play in 1900’s and also winner of 2007 Radok Prize for the best production, we did not find it particularly funny or outstanding. Probably it is due to fact that we do not find couple of curses and middle finger that humorous...
Anyway, overall it was pleasant experience and some culture for all of us after long winter hiatus. Let the Prague Spring come!
We were particularly delighted by tickets to Sir Gardiner concert as we previously fruitlessly pursued these for his Prague Spring performances. Czech Philharmonic Orchestra under his leadership played two Schuman’s symphonies (Concert piece for 4 horns and Symphony no. 2 C dur op. 61) and two pieces from Mr. Martinu (Symphony no. 6 and Frescoes of Piero della Francesca). Two and a half hour long pure delight of music put all three of us into completely different dimension. Of course, some mean individuals would be all too eager to point out that me and my brother drunk ourselves to this dimension as we drunk three and four pilsner beers during our dinner just before the concert – believe me (as I want to believe myself) it was not the case. Especially the Concert piece and its horns’ parts were particularly beautiful causing my mom to reflect on it and happily talk about it for the rest of the weekend.
For the first time I had also opportunity to see an artist who knows his value and is not willing to reward audience which does not value his performance. Especially during last part of the concert some of spectators were napping or their heads started nodding. Also during applause those who preferred to get their coats and jackets as soon as possible turned their backs to Sir Gardiner and orchestra hurrying towards the exits. Seeing this, Sir Gardiner turned his back in return and left the podium although half of us applauded while standing. Hats off for his courage :) Of course, more possible explanation would be that he was really tired after more than two hours of intensive physical conducting (and sweating from pure exhaustion).
On Saturday we decided to quench our thirst for theatre and experienced above mentioned play. Maybe a socially groundbreaking play in 1900’s and also winner of 2007 Radok Prize for the best production, we did not find it particularly funny or outstanding. Probably it is due to fact that we do not find couple of curses and middle finger that humorous...
Anyway, overall it was pleasant experience and some culture for all of us after long winter hiatus. Let the Prague Spring come!
2/17/2010
On casting
The first contribution (rather too long) in the newly launched ‘On series’ will focus on intelligence and degrees of intelligence as I see it. It will briefly outline three casts of intelligence or stupidity as one might say (the one who sees glasses half empty rather than half full) – smart, average and stupid. Furthermore, we will explore their life prospects and coexistence with other casts. Of course, theory is far from complete or perfect and as such it does not encompass all aspects of life or outliers (e.g. professor of physics from former Soviet Union country who cleans toilettes in CALTECH, or Will Hunting who is social outcast and ignored by the system). Anyway, if you find it boring please skip it and wait for more interesting travel topics :)
The whole theory is based on axiom of motivation to work. This axiom (invented during some excessive drinking sessions and following deliriums in December 2009 and January 2010) states that all of us are motivated to work only by two things – remuneration (or money) and self-realisation. Please note that this is in line with basic assumptions of classical economics* :) We try to maximize our utility and this can be done either by buying things (for money) or by creating something lasting / useful (sort of self-realisation).
The world as I see it, is a home to three distinct casts of people: a) those who are smart enough to establish their own companies, posses unique brain power to invent and come up with world altering solutions, b) average or not-so-smart people who are smart enough not to work manually and use (sort of) their brain to earn their living, and last but not least c) stupid. Third cast’s name is not meant in derogative form and I would personally refer to it as rather imprecise but all encompassing and generalising. It is used only due to fact that cast includes also people of wrong character who do not deserve any other title. Besides criminals it complies of all manual workers who live by their hands and administration employees (e.g. state and government bureaucracy).
As already mentioned first cast is of Brims and Gates who establish their companies and boldly explore opportunities market economy offers**. Alongside entrepreneurs we should put scientists who have gift of superior intelligence and decide to use it in research rather than commercial way. To those individuals belongs my biggest admiration (also I am compensating for my lack of intelligence as I do not see myself anywhere in their company :) ). Unlike entrepreneurs, scientists never become ultrarich but are happiest folks of them all anyway. Commercially successful inventors become rich beyond any measure but need extensive network of ‘mediocre’ protectors – more on that in a moment. Only certain individuals of ultrarich ‘businessmen’ who exploited lawlessness following fall of communism are included in this cast. 99% of them are criminals but that one percent is smart enough to keep their riches together and increase their wealth even after law and order was brought to town.
Second cast, the cast where I humbly position myself, people of mediocre intelligence who are not capable of great things but are good enough for middle management. They are employees of private sector working on management positions and creating standards and templates to facilitate understanding of processes and tasks. Second cast is the buffer cast separating the bright from the stupid. Included in this cast are all the advisory firms which feed of potential and ideas of the smart ones. Any accounting, financial advisory and services firm is basically creating buffer between inventors and consumers and criminals. Basically we can say that finance industry is run by average for protection of smart from stupid. While smart invent, average play with numbers so the stupid buy the ideas of smart and / or do not steal from smart. This was handily summarised by prof. K. J. Arrow in his lecture given at Fudan University in Shanghai, China on 30 October 2008: ‘Economists are the guardians of possibilities of civilisation’ (I am 99% sure he meant something different but anyway...).
Third and the last cast is the cast of those who mindlessly consume products invented by smart and sold by average. Of course, same stupid need to manually produce these products in a first place :) In order to avoid manual work they cheat or try to get into one of the previously mentioned classes. This attempt is encouraged by government (usually by attempting to increase percentage of college educated population) which itself comprises of stupid.
We assume that no smart man will waste his time and energy on politics (fairly obvious observation) as he will find better remuneration or self-realisation in research or business. Assumption was violated in 19th century when institutional environment and blending of public and private institutions (e.g. East India Company) enabled satisfactory self-realisation for young men in service of her majesty.
Mingling of the categories is possible as some of the average end up in first class - by exploiting certain circumstances specific for time and place (e.g. Central and Eastern Europe in 1990’s and China today, offering opportunities for eager and bold students to study in the US); some of the stupid end up in second cast (mostly criminals who in attempt to disguise their lack of brain or ability, cover their tracks in illegal manner – e.g. cases of Nick Leeson and Jerome Kerviel) and vice versa (for both examples listed). Although jumping two classes above or below your abilities is extremely difficult it is possible in certain extraordinary circumstances (e.g. revolutions, dictatorship, military junta or anarchy).
This mingling of the casts is main facilitator of economic crisis as in time of plenty we (especially average – charged with protection of smart) let our guard down and allow sufficiently high number of stupid to enter our ranks and to wreak havoc in the system. Imagine giving control panel (managed by average) of nuclear arsenal (assembled by smart ones) to a toddler (guess who). Same goes with mingling of first and second cast as system encourages sufficiently high number of average to enter the cast of smart and dilute the invention process (some degenerate rip off of Schumpeter’s business cycle theory).
Anyway, as you can see although broadly outlined this theory still does not cover all aspects of life. Additional angles can be revealed later in other posts or in comments section. This post’s aim was to sketch ideas I was playing with in past few months and propose simple explanation of some aspects of our lives. If you find it interesting please do not hesitate to post your comments below (usual decency rules apply).
Notes: * JFGI; ** Cases of other regimes will be discussed in following posts.
The whole theory is based on axiom of motivation to work. This axiom (invented during some excessive drinking sessions and following deliriums in December 2009 and January 2010) states that all of us are motivated to work only by two things – remuneration (or money) and self-realisation. Please note that this is in line with basic assumptions of classical economics* :) We try to maximize our utility and this can be done either by buying things (for money) or by creating something lasting / useful (sort of self-realisation).
The world as I see it, is a home to three distinct casts of people: a) those who are smart enough to establish their own companies, posses unique brain power to invent and come up with world altering solutions, b) average or not-so-smart people who are smart enough not to work manually and use (sort of) their brain to earn their living, and last but not least c) stupid. Third cast’s name is not meant in derogative form and I would personally refer to it as rather imprecise but all encompassing and generalising. It is used only due to fact that cast includes also people of wrong character who do not deserve any other title. Besides criminals it complies of all manual workers who live by their hands and administration employees (e.g. state and government bureaucracy).
As already mentioned first cast is of Brims and Gates who establish their companies and boldly explore opportunities market economy offers**. Alongside entrepreneurs we should put scientists who have gift of superior intelligence and decide to use it in research rather than commercial way. To those individuals belongs my biggest admiration (also I am compensating for my lack of intelligence as I do not see myself anywhere in their company :) ). Unlike entrepreneurs, scientists never become ultrarich but are happiest folks of them all anyway. Commercially successful inventors become rich beyond any measure but need extensive network of ‘mediocre’ protectors – more on that in a moment. Only certain individuals of ultrarich ‘businessmen’ who exploited lawlessness following fall of communism are included in this cast. 99% of them are criminals but that one percent is smart enough to keep their riches together and increase their wealth even after law and order was brought to town.
Second cast, the cast where I humbly position myself, people of mediocre intelligence who are not capable of great things but are good enough for middle management. They are employees of private sector working on management positions and creating standards and templates to facilitate understanding of processes and tasks. Second cast is the buffer cast separating the bright from the stupid. Included in this cast are all the advisory firms which feed of potential and ideas of the smart ones. Any accounting, financial advisory and services firm is basically creating buffer between inventors and consumers and criminals. Basically we can say that finance industry is run by average for protection of smart from stupid. While smart invent, average play with numbers so the stupid buy the ideas of smart and / or do not steal from smart. This was handily summarised by prof. K. J. Arrow in his lecture given at Fudan University in Shanghai, China on 30 October 2008: ‘Economists are the guardians of possibilities of civilisation’ (I am 99% sure he meant something different but anyway...).
Third and the last cast is the cast of those who mindlessly consume products invented by smart and sold by average. Of course, same stupid need to manually produce these products in a first place :) In order to avoid manual work they cheat or try to get into one of the previously mentioned classes. This attempt is encouraged by government (usually by attempting to increase percentage of college educated population) which itself comprises of stupid.
We assume that no smart man will waste his time and energy on politics (fairly obvious observation) as he will find better remuneration or self-realisation in research or business. Assumption was violated in 19th century when institutional environment and blending of public and private institutions (e.g. East India Company) enabled satisfactory self-realisation for young men in service of her majesty.
Mingling of the categories is possible as some of the average end up in first class - by exploiting certain circumstances specific for time and place (e.g. Central and Eastern Europe in 1990’s and China today, offering opportunities for eager and bold students to study in the US); some of the stupid end up in second cast (mostly criminals who in attempt to disguise their lack of brain or ability, cover their tracks in illegal manner – e.g. cases of Nick Leeson and Jerome Kerviel) and vice versa (for both examples listed). Although jumping two classes above or below your abilities is extremely difficult it is possible in certain extraordinary circumstances (e.g. revolutions, dictatorship, military junta or anarchy).
This mingling of the casts is main facilitator of economic crisis as in time of plenty we (especially average – charged with protection of smart) let our guard down and allow sufficiently high number of stupid to enter our ranks and to wreak havoc in the system. Imagine giving control panel (managed by average) of nuclear arsenal (assembled by smart ones) to a toddler (guess who). Same goes with mingling of first and second cast as system encourages sufficiently high number of average to enter the cast of smart and dilute the invention process (some degenerate rip off of Schumpeter’s business cycle theory).
Anyway, as you can see although broadly outlined this theory still does not cover all aspects of life. Additional angles can be revealed later in other posts or in comments section. This post’s aim was to sketch ideas I was playing with in past few months and propose simple explanation of some aspects of our lives. If you find it interesting please do not hesitate to post your comments below (usual decency rules apply).
Notes: * JFGI; ** Cases of other regimes will be discussed in following posts.
2/12/2010
On series
As most of you already noticed I returned from China sometime in September 2009. Happily joining taxpaying workforce in Czech Republic I have realized that my China focused blog is not up to date (so to say). In view of this truly life changing realization i have decided to reload my blog and make it more ‘present’. Starting now, I am launching new series of so called 'On' articles.
Don’t be worried ya ole traveller! Besides the On series I will continue to provide you with description of my occasional adventures outside of comfort zone of my single bedroom apartment. Unfortunately due to sad reality that there is no chance to continue travelling as intensively as during my stay in China, I will use this blog to provide you with my opinions on everything and nothing.
This insights and opinion articles would cover wide range of topics from social issues (hopefully the very next post not including travellers notes), politics (yeah we will enter this filthy realm), economics (nothing but mere rip off of ideas of giants), international relations (just to make my brother angry) and hopefully many others.
Of course somebody would argue that I descent to the abyss of popular crap only in vane desire to increase my own popularity and readership base, but rest assured that I do not vie to enlist any new readers besides YOU my fateful five :) Enjoy!
Don’t be worried ya ole traveller! Besides the On series I will continue to provide you with description of my occasional adventures outside of comfort zone of my single bedroom apartment. Unfortunately due to sad reality that there is no chance to continue travelling as intensively as during my stay in China, I will use this blog to provide you with my opinions on everything and nothing.
This insights and opinion articles would cover wide range of topics from social issues (hopefully the very next post not including travellers notes), politics (yeah we will enter this filthy realm), economics (nothing but mere rip off of ideas of giants), international relations (just to make my brother angry) and hopefully many others.
Of course somebody would argue that I descent to the abyss of popular crap only in vane desire to increase my own popularity and readership base, but rest assured that I do not vie to enlist any new readers besides YOU my fateful five :) Enjoy!
2/08/2010
(Almost not) skiing in Maribor
After much ado, huge snowfall and freezing weather which swept across European continent, I have decided to continue my tradition of skiing in Maribor, Slovenia. Although little off the map of usual ski loving population Mariborske Pohorje hosts FIS women slalom competition (‘Zlata Lisica’). The whole arrangement is very comfortable for me as I exploit good heartedness of my friends from Maribor, whom i met during my stay in Rotterdam, Netherlands as an exchange student.
Of course as usual with my travels complication caught up with me fairly soon. This time I hit the bump even before start of my journey. My perfect plan of 14 hours train ride (with four aimless wandering hours in Murzzuschlag incorporated) from Prague to Maribor fell apart as a house of cards. Of course, that also meant half a day less of skiing so instead of two full days I faced reality of mere 1.5 days of skiing. Anyway, thanks to train delay in Germany I would have missed my next connection in Vienna and as such I would have been forced either to spent a night in there or take a later train. Of course I choose the more comfortable way and enriched my brother's Friday evening by complaining about everything, eating all what was left in his fridge and forcing him to prepare crepes for us as a dinner of last resort.
This whole delay thing turned out to be sort of a blessing in disguise as 2 hours spent on Vienna Meidling train station (i.e. nine platforms without any station building or heated waiting room – in fact the least equipped train station I had pleasure to spent time on - including all those Chinese barnhouses) were maximum of what I could have taken in below zero weather. Vision of four hours of wandering around Murzzuschlag in case my original train would make it was pushed deeply in the dumpster of memories.
Making long story short – after my arrival to Maribor we went for afternoon skiing session. Heavy snowfall helped to provide us with the edge between lacklustre experience and memorable ski day. Shortly after dinner we gathered all who is important in Maribor and went for night of sports and hot wine. Plezka was word of the day as my hosts decided to introduce me to small wooden stool nailed to c. 60cm piece of old ski (meaning ski without any curvature) - home made skibobs we should say.
First ride was introductory (for me who was only one not familiar with this concept) with lights for night skiing on (yes we did ‘skate’ on the main slopes in between legs of skiers). Second ride was planned after some drinking session at skiing hut with the loudest music (not that we did not drink during first ride). At this hut we earned reverence of ‘Sef’ (a.k.a. the boss) to such an extent that he started giving us food for free. Of course our continuous ordering of 10 kuhano vino (hot vine) and liquer-weak colourful form of blue berry schnapps (Berentzen sort of mouth glue) greatly helped our cause.
We joined or better forced ourselves into attention of private party held at this hut. It turned out to be party of the most popular TV channel in Slovenia (POP TV). We danced shouted and drank till late late night and when all slope maintenance machines finished their work we tested our skating / sliding skills on newly woven manchester :)
Speeding downhill on wooden seat with no breaks (other than your feet and mouth), no steering mechanism (besides your feet and careful shifting of weight) and no lights (other than the stars and moon) turned out to be great fun. Of course prudent of you would argue that after litres of hot wine anything dangerous and crazy would look like great fun. Believe me, the sight of Maribor and its lights from the top of the slope was all worth it. With snow in any conceivable part of you clothing we went to bed happy and cold.
Next day few of us followed initial plan through and went for skiing as early as possible. We fully exploited fresh snow and newly built gondola (built only and exclusively because the old one literally fell down in fall last year - pun intended) as well as newly cut Pisker ski slope (one year old 40m wide ski slope with ultra quick chairlift and virtually no people). The monotonous up and down cycle was occasionally interrupted by hot tea breaks (somehow after excesses of previous night we could not muster any desire to drink hot wine). Monotonous because we literally had to hop on the chairlift as there were no people in line whenever we bothered to ski down :) We will see what will happen to this paradise when plan of prolonging Pisker ski slope to the bottom of Pohorje will be followed trough this summer. It will end its seclusion from main slopes of Pohorje (Stadion and Bellevue) by net of sophisticated connections. On the other hand lost gems of slopes between Areh and Bellevue will be even more forgotten (you can easily ski on perfectly maintained ski slopes by yourself) – which makes me giddy even thinking about it.
Anyway, after last ride down the icy trails we had our last dinner (best pizza since I came back) and I started my train journey to Prague. Besides one small feud with co-travellers about their need of keeping lights on after 2.00am journey was as boring as it can be :)
Of course as usual with my travels complication caught up with me fairly soon. This time I hit the bump even before start of my journey. My perfect plan of 14 hours train ride (with four aimless wandering hours in Murzzuschlag incorporated) from Prague to Maribor fell apart as a house of cards. Of course, that also meant half a day less of skiing so instead of two full days I faced reality of mere 1.5 days of skiing. Anyway, thanks to train delay in Germany I would have missed my next connection in Vienna and as such I would have been forced either to spent a night in there or take a later train. Of course I choose the more comfortable way and enriched my brother's Friday evening by complaining about everything, eating all what was left in his fridge and forcing him to prepare crepes for us as a dinner of last resort.
This whole delay thing turned out to be sort of a blessing in disguise as 2 hours spent on Vienna Meidling train station (i.e. nine platforms without any station building or heated waiting room – in fact the least equipped train station I had pleasure to spent time on - including all those Chinese barnhouses) were maximum of what I could have taken in below zero weather. Vision of four hours of wandering around Murzzuschlag in case my original train would make it was pushed deeply in the dumpster of memories.
Making long story short – after my arrival to Maribor we went for afternoon skiing session. Heavy snowfall helped to provide us with the edge between lacklustre experience and memorable ski day. Shortly after dinner we gathered all who is important in Maribor and went for night of sports and hot wine. Plezka was word of the day as my hosts decided to introduce me to small wooden stool nailed to c. 60cm piece of old ski (meaning ski without any curvature) - home made skibobs we should say.
First ride was introductory (for me who was only one not familiar with this concept) with lights for night skiing on (yes we did ‘skate’ on the main slopes in between legs of skiers). Second ride was planned after some drinking session at skiing hut with the loudest music (not that we did not drink during first ride). At this hut we earned reverence of ‘Sef’ (a.k.a. the boss) to such an extent that he started giving us food for free. Of course our continuous ordering of 10 kuhano vino (hot vine) and liquer-weak colourful form of blue berry schnapps (Berentzen sort of mouth glue) greatly helped our cause.
We joined or better forced ourselves into attention of private party held at this hut. It turned out to be party of the most popular TV channel in Slovenia (POP TV). We danced shouted and drank till late late night and when all slope maintenance machines finished their work we tested our skating / sliding skills on newly woven manchester :)
Speeding downhill on wooden seat with no breaks (other than your feet and mouth), no steering mechanism (besides your feet and careful shifting of weight) and no lights (other than the stars and moon) turned out to be great fun. Of course prudent of you would argue that after litres of hot wine anything dangerous and crazy would look like great fun. Believe me, the sight of Maribor and its lights from the top of the slope was all worth it. With snow in any conceivable part of you clothing we went to bed happy and cold.
Next day few of us followed initial plan through and went for skiing as early as possible. We fully exploited fresh snow and newly built gondola (built only and exclusively because the old one literally fell down in fall last year - pun intended) as well as newly cut Pisker ski slope (one year old 40m wide ski slope with ultra quick chairlift and virtually no people). The monotonous up and down cycle was occasionally interrupted by hot tea breaks (somehow after excesses of previous night we could not muster any desire to drink hot wine). Monotonous because we literally had to hop on the chairlift as there were no people in line whenever we bothered to ski down :) We will see what will happen to this paradise when plan of prolonging Pisker ski slope to the bottom of Pohorje will be followed trough this summer. It will end its seclusion from main slopes of Pohorje (Stadion and Bellevue) by net of sophisticated connections. On the other hand lost gems of slopes between Areh and Bellevue will be even more forgotten (you can easily ski on perfectly maintained ski slopes by yourself) – which makes me giddy even thinking about it.
Anyway, after last ride down the icy trails we had our last dinner (best pizza since I came back) and I started my train journey to Prague. Besides one small feud with co-travellers about their need of keeping lights on after 2.00am journey was as boring as it can be :)
1/02/2010
Skiing frenzy
In order to start new year in proper manner me, my brother and my two high school friends decided to go skiing. As I am pretty sure most of you are not interested in description of what I did on 1.1.2010, I guess you can take this as a recipe for cheap skiing.
We decided to go to the Slovakia's highest mountains - Tatras. There we planned to ski on one of the longest (if not the longest) ski slopes in my home country at Strbske Pleso resort. Of course, there are many other options to ski in Slovakia but me and my brother had very good experience from past and my friends were glad to tag along. Furthermore, in combination with special promotion with Slovakrail (personal rail transport provider in Slovakia) it was by far the cheapest option to ski on New Years Day.
In price of EUR 27 you purchase return ticket from any railway station in Slovakia, return ticket for Tatras' electric tram servicing cities in Tatras region, one day skipass (separate EUR 5 deposit is paid for skipass), 20% discount on rental of skiing gear in local rental shop and a tea at ski hut on top of the ski slopes (those less experienced can receive 10% discount on ski school). Similar promotions are available for various ski resorts across Slovakia (different conditions apply) and can be found on Slovakrail website.
Main idea was to go skiing on "day after" immediately upon opening of chairlifts when everybody will sleep off long celebrations (it also means that our celebrations were of very limited nature :) ) and we would enjoy empty slopes. Our predictions came through (at least for first two hours) and we enjoyed high quality skiing and incredible weather - perfect inversion. The best feeling is when you ski above clouds - little more worisome is feeling you have when skiing into that cloudy milk...
Anyway after good five hours of skiing we jumped on train and returned home tired like dogs (who wouldn't be after spending these hours cutting curves with knees bent). Wonderfully eventful day provided us with much needed activity after days of abundance and price made it even more awesome. One day ski pass outside of this promotion costs EUR 26.5 during high season and EUR 22 since Jan 4, 2010 till early March (outside of season one day skipass costs EUR 16). Hope at least somebody will find inspiration in this (at least Czech ski resorts and railways operators :)
We decided to go to the Slovakia's highest mountains - Tatras. There we planned to ski on one of the longest (if not the longest) ski slopes in my home country at Strbske Pleso resort. Of course, there are many other options to ski in Slovakia but me and my brother had very good experience from past and my friends were glad to tag along. Furthermore, in combination with special promotion with Slovakrail (personal rail transport provider in Slovakia) it was by far the cheapest option to ski on New Years Day.
In price of EUR 27 you purchase return ticket from any railway station in Slovakia, return ticket for Tatras' electric tram servicing cities in Tatras region, one day skipass (separate EUR 5 deposit is paid for skipass), 20% discount on rental of skiing gear in local rental shop and a tea at ski hut on top of the ski slopes (those less experienced can receive 10% discount on ski school). Similar promotions are available for various ski resorts across Slovakia (different conditions apply) and can be found on Slovakrail website.
Main idea was to go skiing on "day after" immediately upon opening of chairlifts when everybody will sleep off long celebrations (it also means that our celebrations were of very limited nature :) ) and we would enjoy empty slopes. Our predictions came through (at least for first two hours) and we enjoyed high quality skiing and incredible weather - perfect inversion. The best feeling is when you ski above clouds - little more worisome is feeling you have when skiing into that cloudy milk...
Anyway after good five hours of skiing we jumped on train and returned home tired like dogs (who wouldn't be after spending these hours cutting curves with knees bent). Wonderfully eventful day provided us with much needed activity after days of abundance and price made it even more awesome. One day ski pass outside of this promotion costs EUR 26.5 during high season and EUR 22 since Jan 4, 2010 till early March (outside of season one day skipass costs EUR 16). Hope at least somebody will find inspiration in this (at least Czech ski resorts and railways operators :)
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