Apples 'R Us

At ASW we have a healthy group of bicyclists who like to get off the beaten path and venture in, around and out of Warsaw on 2 wheels instead of 4. Rolf has been at the command of most of these adventures this year, taking on the role after the recently belated Don Abbott whom retired from ASW a little over a year ago. We miss ya Don!

Every Fall, for the last 5 years or so, the riders have ridden downtown, hopped on a local train and headed south for an hour or so and got off at a small town called Warka (VAR-kuh)... which is more infamously known as the home of Warka beer and the same company's 'Strong Man' competition held annually... but it's also home to some of the largest apple groves in the central Poland area.



Fortunately, we had some jovial train conductors whom didn't seem to mind us piling on our bikes on the train. Apparently they've had some real assholes in the past... but it's legal to carry them on anyway. Our train was crammed, and it was quite a sight seeing the locals crawl over the bikes just to get to the toilet, too!



Warka's a small town, obviously with some WWII heritage. There were two memorials in town, one was a MIG fighter plane and this unique sculpture/memorial:



Perhaps there were several men in the Polish Navy and this represents a battleship's canon... but it also looks like inspiration for Freddy Krueger's claws to me!

Attending this fun trip was Jill and I, Rolf, Beth, Doug, Nic, birthday boy George, Theresa and Lisa. We also got some Polish assistance from Mary, who's Polish, to help us translate our desires to pick people's apples... and that we'd pay them for them, too. This was our first time on the ride and the group was returning to a nice man's home/orchard whom was kind enough to let them pick there last year. In fact, last year he wouldn't accept money, so this year Rolf and Beth baked him a classic American Apple Pie and gave it to him in a beautiful Boleslawiec dish. After Mary left (she had driven down to deliver the pie) I was the sole translator... which wasnt' so easy!



The kind, easy-going owner had 2 kinds of apples-one which was like a Macintosh and he had unfortunately just picked his Ligols, Poland's best, most crisp red apple. We were only allowed to pick from his orchard, but his neighbor's apples were a different variety and were just too good to resist... so we had to grab a few!





We thanked the man and said we'd see him next year, loaded our panier bags and headed on a ride through more scenic countryside and picked the occasional apple while still on our saddles cruising along the rural roads. The weather held out for us, not too cold, not too windy and just enough sun to soak up before the long, dark winter ahead. Plus, we had all the apples we wanted to eat. George and Beth were surely the most aggressive at nabbing (i.e. stealing) apples w/o permission!

We found a nice spot for a communal lunch and showed off our goods:



Bellies and bikes loaded, we continued our tour of the surrounding region, all doing our best to avoid the busier roads... and also avoiding central Poland's dreaded sand paths. The retreating glaciers during the last ice age made a mess of this country, pulverizing and removing its top layers of solid soil. I'm glad this isn't serious earthquake country. Rolf has a knack for finding the sandiest (hardest to ride) paths, so at one point the group split, one taking asphalt, the other gravel and dirt, not knowing the type of terrain ahead.



We lucked out this time and had a gorgeous route along an old road and pedaled not to far from the large Warka brewery, a place we'll need to try to arrange a tour of next time out here. After regrouping in town, hunting for food and settling on soft serve and frytki (french fries) we rambled back to the train station and lugged our now heavily laden machines back onto the train. One last jaunt through Warsaw to home and then Jill and I could unload and count our catch: 82 apples survived the bumpy trip and 4 didn't! This was easily the heaviest my panniers have weighed in a very long time, but it was totally worth the weight-we've been eating 2 apples a day, making apple deserts and also got to practice some still lifes with my camera. Smacznego!

Summer Recap!

Czesc/Greetings to one and all! Long time no see/read!

Forgive the long hiatus, as it's been a wonderful, crazy summer!

We had a wonderful wedding in Mazama, Washington on the Summer Solstice, June 21. It was all outdoors, the weather was perfect and nearly all of our friends and family were able to make it out to this far away, hard to reach place in the middle of the week, more or less in the middle of nowhere. Bardzo dziekuje to all those whom travelled such great distances to make it and helping make the whole week such a great experience!




Mountainhigh Honeymoon

After the straggling relatives and friends headed on to greener pastures, Jill and I sucked it up and rented a smooth driving machine, a 2006 Subie Legacy Outback for an entire week, just so we could go hiking and climbing in the Enchantments, a region of spectacular high mountain scenery east of Seattle, and west of Leavenworth. For a total of 5 hours of use of the fancy rental, we got to experience our favorite spot in the Cascades for 5 days of mountain solitude. The Enchantments are under a strict permit system and people order them months in advance. But a select few are held for a daily morning lottery... and it was meant to be... we were the only ones to show up... securing our honeymoon in the wild!

We parked at the Snowcreek trailhead, hid our crag rack in the car (in case we hadn't gotten the permit-we'd climb in Icicle Canyon and Castle Rock for a few days) and headed up the long, gradual climb to Snow Lakes, battled the horrendous mosquitoes and settled in amongst the granite, the goats and some gorgeous weather.



After a two day approach, we were poised to climb one of North America's most beautiful peaks, Prussik Peak. Named by the first men to reach its summit... by lassoing the top and prussiking up the rope because they couldn't climb the steep granite!



Day three we woke up early, after a nice night's sleep and hangin' with the papa, mama and baby goats on a high perch looking out over the upper Enchantment peaks and lakes. We set out for the highly enjoyable West Ridge of Prussik, a classic 5.7 alpine climb of about 4 or 5 pitches. Only one party was on the route, but they were far enough ahead that we never saw them when we were on the peak. I'd done the route once before, and this was Jill's first. Since I knew the way, I led the climb bottom to top... and Jill got to climb, climb, climb without having to think of routefinding and placing protection. The weather was a bit iffy in the early a.m... but turned out fantastic!



We were up to the summit relatively quickly and had a good view of several peaks, including Mount Daniel, and Glacier Peak, a well-timed view of a climber falling from the second to last pitch of the awesome south face route (his belayer wasn't paying attention and he fell a good 30 feet (9 meters), but he was ok!), and namely, our next objective for the day, Little Annapurna, the smooth, sloping peak in the background:



We rapped down the north face and headed up the broad, rounded-rocky valley, still inundated with snow from the previous winter's dumping. In fact, earlier in the 20th century, there was even a series of glaciers here... but they melted back to nothing but snowfields, tarns and lakes.

"Off the couch", is how I like to describe these kinds of trips. Jill and I weren't in climbing shape or hiking shape... maybe just a hint of bicycling shape, as finishing up things in Warsaw, riding in the parade, um, and, oh yeah, getting married took up just a bit of our time and energy. So taking on this 'romantic getaway' in our 'condition' was a bit of an undertaking, to say the least. Carrying 5 + days food, full technical climbing gear and gaining more than a vertical mile in elevation, just for the approach alone... and not being fit for it, except for having our mental and muscle memory help us through from first step, to summit, and back to the car... hopefully all in one, happy piece!

Little Annie was a great hike. Early season, it's a cruise up snow and a few boulder hops and step by step you get above 8,000' and oddly the snow and rock turns to grass and flowers!?! Possibly the strangest summit I've ever seen, we stepped from the snow to a dirt trail, winding its way through scrub grass, wild flowers and then came upon a series of 3 large groups of rocks, in some ways reminiscent of Stone Henge. Naturally formed, for sure, but the regularity of the shape and location of each was just a bit strange. Regardless, the skies were clear enough to offer us a great view of one of my favorite volcanic peaks in the world, Mt. Rainier (14,411') to the south, and even Mt. Adams, another volcano, was peeking it's top four or five thousand feet out above the horizon, closer to Oregon and the mighty Columbia River.



But as with all things, we'd reached the 'midpoint' of our honeymoon and had to start thinking of getting down, packing up and heading out. After glissading (sliding down the steep snow slope on our butts or feet) down Little Annie's north slope and ambled back to camp, we took advantage of the rest of the pleasant day lazing around our camp, reading, and attempting to plan the rest of our summer in Seattle before our return to Warsaw in mid-August. This was our first chance to really relax ever since I popped the question to Jill high on a sea side cliff in Spain just over 6 months ago. At our high camp, situated in a nook of an oblong rock ridge that had a calendar spread panorama, we had a family of mountain goats with some young kids to entertain us this day and the next:



Over the next two days we slowly walked down hill, soaking up the mountain air and views, happy to be home, but sad to be leaving such a special spot, yet we were also excited, as we were talking all the time about us, who we've become as adults, who we've become as partners and where we'd like to go in the future-physically, professionally, spiritually and emotionally. All was good.
Except for the fucking mosquitoes.

Race back to the rat race in Seattle and on with the summer!


Next stop:

Tamara's Farewell Hike

One of Jill's best friends, Tamara, (see last Fall's posts for her visit to Polska!) was leaving soon for Africa for at least a one year stint with Right to Play, an NGO in Tanzania, and she wanted to get out in one of her favorite spots before she left. So a group of ladies... and me, all went out hiking on the north side of Rainier for two days, just before the 4th of July.



More 'off the couchers' suffered on this trip, but the company and weather was fine, as was the wine that Dawn carried up in her monster pack! It was a bit of an international in/out reunion, as Jill, Dawn Skarset and I had just returned from overseas (Dawn's in Seoul) and Tam was on her way out. One of us, likely me, had the bright idea of extending our hike into a big loop. The smarts ones (Tam and Dawn S) chose to pass and sleep in and the not-so-smart ones ended doing a viewrific jaunt but at the cost of more elevation gain and loss, and namely more miles than we'd thought we're read on the map the night before. Ho hum for our excellent map reading skills! But, the view was fantastic, and this ended up being the closest I got to Rainier's summit this summer. I'll definitely be tackling one of the routes behind me next summer.



Oh, I misplaced my pics, so big thanks to Maureen for these last two shots! Thanks, Mo! If you're reading this and know Tamara, write her! She, like us, likes news from home! ;-)


4th of July

Mark Gleave, one of Pierce's buddies, who's finally completed his saga of visiting every state in the union, hosted a fireworks viewing party from his porch. A good time was had by all, and if you're in his Cap Hill neighborhood, stop by to see the crucifixion of Barbie in his bathroom (another lost pic :(
It was a glorious evening of time spent with several Mangos ona gorgeous night, and by the way, Gasworks' fireworks blew away Elliot Bay's, so you know which to set up and watch next year if you're stuck in the city that night.




Hitch #2

We weren't the only ones tying the knot this summer... Sue and Brian also made the giant leap, except they did it Canadian style, up in their favorite playground, Whistler, British Columbia.



CONGRATS SUE AND BRIAN!
May you have a long, healthy wonderful life together!

:-)

They loaned us Brian's car, as long as we'd haul some stuff up for them. How could we not, especially since Brian was our top, completely underpaid, photographer of our wedding a few weeks earlier! ;-) Huge thanks, again, Brian... we're hopefully getting some prints made tomorrow... hopefully!

So Jill and I got to spend a few days rock climbing in Squamish, on and around the massive Squamish Chief, the largest granite 'monolith' in North America. I'm not sure what that means, as there are some taller walls in Yosemite, and thicker, wider ones in Alaska's Ruth Gorge... but regardless, it's impressive and we had fun.





Their wedding was also a reunion of Jill's old gang, so we all had some grand fun over the days around the wedding, in one of the most picturesque environments accessible by car (or skis!). Whistler will be home to the 2010 Winter Olympics. Check it out, and soon before it's even more overwhelmed by people and development. (The Sea to Sky highway on the coast from Vancouver to Whistler is being completely revamped and widened with the Olympics as its best excuse ever to remove some of the most stunning coastal sea cliffs, trees and earth, just for the sake of some flat asphalt)


Time's Up, Part I

Jill and I did a 6 week house swap with a couple on Capitol Hill. They lived in our house in Warsaw, we lived in theirs. Easy, free and, um, interesting. All thanks to a simple little website: www.craigslist.org Check it out, there should be one near you. Amazing. Anyway, they had a well-lived in house, covered with fun and creative art, much of it homemade, including many dioramas and Jesus and the BVM (Blessed Virgin Mary) motifs were also popular, but we're pretty sure they're not religious. To give you a small taste of their fun stuff, here's their fridge:



and here's their cat Filthy, whom's full name is Filthy Cloud of Fur:



Nice cat, sheds a ton. I thought the summer heat wave was going to kill him. He just lied there on the floor, looking up to the heavens, meowing, "Oh, God, take me now, or at least take all this hair from my body!"

Thankfully it cooled down and we didn't have to explain a stiff cat to its owners upon their return.


Home sweet home #2

Jill's old teaching buddy at Madrona, Kim, was heading to Guatemala for a month, so our next crash pad was then in Ballard, Washington, home of America's Scandinavian army of ship builders, who still help create some of the finest vessels that sail the seven seas. From big house to small condo was quite the adjustment, but it was fun to be in a new 'hood, and once again we could walk to all sorts of things, a privelege we don't quite have in our neighborhood in Warsaw. Muchos gracias, senorita Kim!


Mango-mini-reunion

Pulling hairs and teeth and cross-world flights almost pulled all of Team Mango together for one final beer and chat at one of our favorite Seattle bars, the Virginia Inn (the VI). Unfortunately, or rather, fortunately for them, Scott and Susana were still in the middle of their 'Pedal to Portugal' ride, following Mediterranean coastal countries on their new bikes, and loving nearly every minute of it. Hats off to you two for completing such a fantastic adventure! Moss Lightfoot was taking care of little Samango, a shared duty we'll be learning about soon ;-)

The rest of us ate tapenade, drank Cream Ales and Sierras and talked and talked. I miss you guys so much. I just love how when we're together it's as if Jill and I had never left. Thanks for a great night!




A final romp

Before truly focusing on our return to Warsaw, we had the opportunity for one last outing to the north Cascades, with much thanks to Eric W. and Orianda, his fiancee, for letting us shuttle some stuff to their new Winthrop home in exchange for letting us use their truck! Thanks!

We got to climb 2 classic routes at Washington Pass: South Early Winters Spire's South Arete, an easy peasy fun romp, and the super fun and full of some newfound variations, Beckey Route on Liberty Bell. (Far left and big one on the right in the pic). Great weather, eh?!:



But between those climbs, our most excellent friends, Tim and Aurelia came out from Seattle to join us for a night of camping and a gorgeous hike along the PCT (Pacific Crest Trail). It was a bit of a stroll down memory lane for me, as I'd walked the same steps almost 9 years ago exactly. We had amazing weather, heading north from the semi-drivable Hart's Pass and seeing familiar peaks and I even found the heli-ski yurt we'd spent our last, cold night inside back on September 29, 1997. So glad you two could join us!



However, in the region was 2 or 3 major forest fires going on. This one was pretty close to Winthrop and keeping the locals on edge, but the smoke jumpers had it pretty under control... despite how big it was!



And here's our gracious car loaners... being even more gracious by hosting a dinner at their new, beautiful mountain home! And... by coincidence?!, they, too, were getting married this summer, in September, though, so we missed it. Congrats to you two!!!




The home stretch and home #3

Amazing how things fall into place... but coincidentally, around the time that Kim was getting back from Guatemala, Super Mangos Kim and Erik and little baby Sam were heading out on a trip to the east side of the Cascades for a week, and they happily offered us their phenomenal condo back up on Cap Hill, this time on the northern end in the more peaceful Harvard-Belmont Historic District. As a final base of operations, their location worked to our advantage as we finally got around to getting our stuff that was stored in 3 different houses (THANK YOU SUE, TINA, AND TIM (AND AURELIA)) and either sold it, gave it away and eventually crammed into a small storage spot on the hill. Phew.

A final, entertaining evening was had at Kim and Erik's, sadly without them as they were still away, with some of our closest, and definitely most helpful Seattle friends. Huge thanks to you all, you helped so many things happen for us this summer!




Do zobaczenia!

Patty and Jim helped us with the final haul to SEATAC International airport, just one day after the UK 'foiled a terrorist plot' to blow up planes with different liquid or gel ingredients put inside normal, everyday toiletry containers. Lines, or um, queues were long, as no one could have any toiletry type stuff in their carry on bags. But the curbside check in guy was in a good mood and joked well with us and our 4 nearly over limit North Face Frickin' Huge Duffels, so much so that he let us add Jill's road bike in a bike box go to Warsaw for free... even though KLM usually charges a minimum of $125 to get to Amsterdam! He got a nice tip!


Nasz Domu
Our Home

Alas, we're 'back home' now. Back in the row house that we hurriedly moved into the few days before we left for Seattle, and where our house swappers lived for 6 weeks. Where we had to ask them about what our house is like, what are its quirks and niceties, etc. A bit strange, but, especially after living in other people's places all summer, it feels really good to be amongst our own stuff.

Here's Jill trying to refocus on herself and reduce the chaos and stress in her life inside our new dom, er um, house.




Enjoy the rest of summer to the fullest and talk to you all soon!

Jeremy 'n Jill

:-)


Oh, and did you hear?

We're pregnant!!!

WE DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yep, on the longest, sunniest day of the year, up near the beautiful North Cascade mountains, with many of our closest friends and family, Jill and I tied the knot!

Twice!

Yep, we extended our wedding joy in to two major events... this one being the Fremont Summer Solstice Parade, where over 150 painted cyclists took part. Big thanks to Jeff and Rhett for the tandem, and Tim Sanders for another fantastic paint job! We even got our photo in the Sunday edition of the Seattle Post Intelligencer!!!

More human-powered adventurers

Happiness is getting somewhere under your own energy expenditure.

Erden Eruc has returned safe and sound from his U.S. bound cross-Atlantic solo row and is slowly easing into hectic city life, getting thinner arms and a bigger belly. :)
Welcome home, Erden!

www.around-n-over.org


Next up, 2 Seattlite lovebird Mangos, Scott and Susana, put their jobs on hold for the entire summer and hopped on their over-loaded bikes to tour southern Europe.

Well-versed in 5 languages, they'll be taking the Mediterranean seas by storm and you can follow them along at:

http://pedaltoportugal.com/


Lastly, back to the watersports, a 4 man Seattle team is embarking this Saturday on a high-speed row eastbound across the Atlantic. Called OARNorthwest, they're the only American team in the event, rowing from New York to the UK:










http://www.oarnorthwest.com/

Good luck to y'all!

The Countdown to...

Oh, Lordy.

My oh my, it's been a crazy (insert any time amount here)!

Jill and I are mostly moved.
We are wrapping up our classes.
We are buying gifts
We got our rings
I finally got some wedding clothes ;-)
We fly in one week
We marry in less than 2
We have several parties to attend
We also have an important event happening in Warsaw this weekend:
The Equality Parade

Warsaw, Poland's major political parties, Radio Marija and a unique version of the 'young Democrats society' are speaking quite loudly about their disapproval of gays, lesbians, bi and transexuals. High ranking politicians have said publicly that all gay men are pedophiles, are mentally deranged and should be gassed. Oh, but women aren't gay. Hmm. Poland is very homogenous in it's looks, style and political and ethical views. As a fairly new addition to the European Union, equality for all peoples within its borders is still a foreign concept.

The march is on at 1 P.M. this Saturday. The vehemently anti-gay All Polish Youth will also be marching, on a Warsaw city-approved route, which happens to be nearly the reverse of the Equality march, so a potentially violent rendezvous may occur in the middle.

For an English, soon to be firsthand account of how these events unfold, follow us along at our P3 site, which recently moved away from Google's Blogger to:

http://polishstyle.net/

Nearly every contributing member will be attending the parade.

Cross your fingers and hold your thumbs.

See you all soon.

Jeronimo

photo compliments of :http://gallery.hd.org/_exhibits/natural-science/_more1999/_more05/splash-of-stream-of-water-drops-multihue-rainbow-backdrop-and-ripples-1-AJHD.jpg

GRATULACJE, Erden!

Turkish Adventurer Rows Across Atlantic

By AA, Madrid
Published: Tuesday, May 02, 2006 zaman.com

Erden Eruc, a 45-year-old Turkish adventurer, started his around the world adventure by successfully rowing a 7.9- meter long boat across the Atlantic.
Setting off from Lisbon in Portugal on 19 October 2005, Eruc successfully crossed the Atlantic rowing to the Caribbean Barbados Island arriving on April 30.
He is the first Turkish man to cross the Atlantic Ocean powered only by his own muscle. Still rowing on the ocean, Eruc hopes to reach the Costa Rican city of Limon on June 5 or 10.
Dreaming of rowing around the world since 1997, Eruc first rowed from North America to Alaska in 2003.
Also planning to climb the world’s highest summits on six separate contents, not including the South Pole, the Turkish adventurer hopes to realize his dreams by 2011, if everything proceeds as planned.


Way to go, Erden!

Additionally, he already 'began' his round the world adventure by riding his bike from Seattle (his current home, where he lives with his wife, Nancy) to Alaska, then climbed Denali (Mt. McKinley), the highest peak in North America, and then rode back to Seattle...and has also completed the cross-North America-leg on bike, too. However, weather systems and water currents defeated the option of rowing from Flordia to Europe, hence his row east to west. Regardless, he's done a magnificent job and also did 98% of it solo, which was unplanned, too. Kudos to you, Erden, we're glad to hear you're safe and sound!

For more info, check out his website and boat/satellite tracker at:

www.around-n-over.org

Cheers!

Happy Easter!

Bowling for Seattle

Last weekend, while perusing the DVDs at our local Beverly Hills Video store near the Best Mall Ever in Sadyba, I found a few nice scores to add to our puny collection: Raging Bull, Das Boot, Memento and the best deal was Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine (Zabawy z Bronią) for less than $3.

Little did I know that the timing of our purchase came just a few hours after one of Seattle's worst shooting rampages. Kyle Huff, a nice, quiet, large man from Montana, while visiting an after-rave party in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood, shot and killed Jeremy Martin, Melissa Moore, Suzanne Thorne, Chris Williamson, Justin Schwartz, Jason Travers and then turned one of his guns on himself when confronted by a lone police officer. Two others were injured and fortunately several escaped. It was a story that made little news here in Poland, but it did make it to the top spot on Google's international news page by the end of Saturday and remained there for around 72 hours and is, obviously, still front page news for all of Seattle's papers.

We watched Moore's Bowling for Columbine documentary last night. It wasn't the first time we'd seen it, but the first in a very long time. We're very familiar with his work, as we spent our second-to-last birthday (yes, they're the same) watching Fahrenheit 9/11 in the theater before going for an overnight hike to Mt. Pilchuck in a numb state, hoping that this film would be enough of a catalyst to oust Bush from office.

Oh, well.

How Moore mixes comedy with 'the awful truth', and yes, some manipulative images and quotes from a wide variety of politicians, media moguls and everyday people, it is still a stirring film that is both entertaining and educational and still has a strong punch four years after its release. But most importantly, this week's event goes to show that America's form of gun control is still way out of line. Yes, many people in America own guns, but so do Canadians, and our death by shooting rate is more than 1,000:1, respectively.

Kyle Huff already had a record of gun abuse back in Whitefish, Montana. The authorities there reduced the felony offense of "shooting up an 'artsy' moose" in court and he was allowed to keep his firearms which he later brought with him to Seattle and used in this killing spree. By law, the city and state had the power to revoke his weaponry...but everyone plays with guns in the Wild West...it's our right to bear arms, dammit, so we can't deprive this youth of his guns.

Some people and the police do have guns here in Poland, but they don't tend to use them on eachother like Americans are willing to do. Most deaths here seem to either be alcohol or driving-related, and not always when the two are mixed. It's economy, health care and infrastructure-related problems here, as unemployment and alcoholism is high, and the old communist-era roads are in horrible shape, where even the fanciest SUVs can take a tumble when hitting the massive potholes at high speed.

Has America's news media reduced its infatuation with presenting violent crimes since Bowling for Columbine was released? Unfortunately, I don't think so. More unfortunately, it's a form of marketing that is spreading around the world, marketing fear across the globe, with potential terrorists in London, Madrid, Morocco, Indonesia and even here in Warsaw.

Do we really have that much to be afraid of?

PolPics.com and other news

Hi!
Long time no read, eh?

First off, check out this nice link, in English, called PolPics:
http://polpics.com/

It's a massive collection of intriguing photography from all around Poland, and since I've been so lame about putting up my own semi-decent shots, you might as well check out the pros' work.

We have our first American visitors in a long while coming soon, and they're both named Kris!?!

This Wednesday, our first contestant on the Polish Zloty Price is Right is Kris Cummings, from Seattle/Phoenix. We met through the Seattle Mountaineers on a lovely epic climb of Guye Peak's West Face several years ago. She has a great dog named Lucy (and another new one now), but the pets aren't coming to torture Dudek this time around. I think we'll do the Warsaw/Krakow thing, then she's off to Copenhagen to visit other US expats, then to Budapest...then back here again for more churches and WWII memoriabilia.

Next up is KJ, Krash, Kris-Cross, island boy, the man, the myth, the legend, my best friend from oh so many years, Kris Morrison. He somehow not only fenagled a 3 week trip to Europe this spring, but got almost another week off for mine and Jill's mid-week wedding in June. That's pretty sweet! I'd love to quit work for the full time he's here and join him. He's doing the War-Krak-Praha-Wien-Budapest loop. I haven't seen him in over 2 years...this will be fun!

We're super psyched both Krises are coming and they're also bringing some tasty treats from home! Yummy!

OK, what else is shakin'?
Spring came, happy equinox! The temps have been above freezing every day for over a week now! Rain came and the snow is starting to vanish! I've been running, cycling, swimming, climbing, lifting and doing some yoga...more sun means happier Jill and Jeremy :)
We like Poland, and we're here another year, but we've decided to try sunnier climes next time around...but where will that be?

Dudek is doing well, but he's feeling super cramped up in our flat. He got his rabies shot this week and he'll be venturing out soon. By the way, we're still looking for cat caretakers for the summer if you're interested!

Jill's spring break is coming, so as Kris #2 arrives, she'll already be in the middle of her Italian/Tuscan bike tour with Lisa. Yesterday we rode 50 km and her bum was hurtin'... and the two of them are riding today-nothing like crash course training for a week long bike tour. I wish the newbies the best of luck! But how bad could it be, bike touring through one of the most beautiful parts of Europe, where the temps are already nearing 70 F every day and the flowers starting to bloom.

Yes I'm jealous. We'll be fighting over the camera for that week, I'm sure.

So 2 and 3/4 months to go until our big day! :)
If anyone sees any cheap flights that'll get me back in time for my wedding, I'd greatly appreciate it!

;-)

cu!

jr

Endless Winter

Yesterday we were tricked

All of us.

The temps rose to a record 39 F and the sun was shining and all were happy, smiling and yapping about.
But with the sun came an occasional stiff wind, which brought not only the cold back today, but even more snow.

5 days until the first day of Spring, the Vernal Equinox, and still no real sign of it actually happening. Perhaps when the Poles get all dressed up in their wild costumes on this day they'll be able to frighten Old Man Winter away for good. Then Jill and I have exactly 3 months to scramble for our big day in June!

:)

There's a cat out of the bag! Quick, get it!

Greetings one and all, for those online enough, regardless how far away, or those fortunate to be in the same city as us, I've let you in on a little secret about a nice little event that occurred in recent months, in fact 2 months and 14 days ago, high on a sun-soaked cliff, above the Mediterranean Sea.




I proposed...

















and Jill said "YES!"


Proposal: December 21st, the Winter Solstice
Wedding: June 21st, the Summer Solstice

:)

raining and pouring

Wow, the deep freeze finally ended.

Temps rose above 0 C for the first time since before Xmas, I think, and it's made Warsaw a big, slippery, slushy mess. Riding was easier in pure snow than this stuff. Yuck.

On the positive side, an old student, Renata, returned for a reliable 2 classes per week at school, and I picked up another young, recently engaged couple who ventured to Venezuela this fall and had a heck of a trip. They're getting married in one of Warsaw's oldest churches in May, the one famous for the statue of Christ carrying the cross, along Nowy Swiat and featured in Roman Polanski's excellent film, The Pianist. The church is also famous for being home to Frederic Chopin's heart, literally, as it was his wish, and the rest of him is in France. I wonder who delivered it and how smoothly that trip went! They're nice people, Ula and Slawek, and perhaps we'll get invited to our second Polish wedding (first was Pawel and Magda's on New Year's Day, 2005, in the oldest, surviving church in Warsaw. That was nice!)

Starting the 18th, Jill and ASW have their winter break. We're likely off to Slovakia to Jasne, Mala Fatra and hopefully to do some ice climbing in Slovensky Raj (Slovakian Paradise)... but Jill's chompin' at the bit to board some huge, Alpy slopes in Austria, so who knows where we'll end up.

Hope everyone's well!
Ciao!

Jestmi zimno!

I think I had the coldest bicycle commute in my life this morning. It was negative 30 degrees Celsius, which turns out to be minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit. As my bike's wheels crunched along the frozen, packed snow along the various roads to school, my moustache and the hair that was sticking out of my hat and scarf began to turn white and freeze solid, and then my right ear froze and felt like a rock. I'm glad I was wearing sun glasses, I'd hate to think what the water in my eyes would've done.

But, hey, it's a dry cold!

The last time I experienced temps like these was when I was over 16,000' on Denali (Mt. McKinley) in May of 2003. Then I was fighting with thinner air acclimatization and frostbite, and now I'm fighting with the latter here at nearly sea level. The sharp cold has surely reminded me that a few of my fingers, the end of my nose and I guess my ear did not escape Alaska without a longterm reminder of how brutal these conditions can be for the human body.

I hear that this is the coldest Warsaw's been in one hundred years...but I also here it's warming up a few degrees tomorrow.

So maybe my next ride won't be so frosty!

:)

Oh, and if you'd rather think about sunnier climes, Erden Eruc is about to set off to complete his main crossing solo of the Atlantic from the Canary Islands. Follow him or check out his previous adventures as he tries to circumnavigate the world all under human power...and climb 6 of the 7 continents' highest peaks in the world, too, at:
www.around-n-over.org

As they say in Poland, I'm holding my thumbs for you, Erden! Paddle hard, sleep hard and eat well!

Czesc!

Wow! I suck!

Greetings, Earthlings!

I feel I've returned from a galaxy far, far away. I'm ashamed at how long it's been since my last post...but I've had my reasons. I'm not allowed to disclose them all, but here's a bit of what we've been up to...

1) Got my tooth fixed, and then while climbing in (see #2 below), the clinic called to tell me that my dentists is sick and will have to cancel his appointment with me 8 days from now. "Wow, the dentist knows he's going to be sick that long? Or is it just a coincidence that the appointment was at a ridiculously early hour, and right between Xmas and New Year's?!" (Jan. 8 and still no crown on my tooth!)

2) Jill and I went to Spain! KLM was delayed twice out of Warsaw and Amsterdam, so we (I) desired an extra day in Barcelona (say the 'c' like an 's' or better a 'th' with a serious lisp to match the Catalan pronunciation!) so we could get in enough Gaudi and other interesting sight seeing before we hopped in our little rental Citroen and spent nearly 40 frickin' Euro to drive the toll way to the death of all tourist beaches in the Mediteranean, Benidorm-a sin of a place that is so overbuilt with a wide variety of crappy and somewhat nice skyscrapers, not high rises, but buildings that must rival Chicago's skyline in scale and height and...anyway, it's mostly built by British investors, so Jill and I don't want to hear about how Americans overbuild and destroy beautiful places from you Brits anymore...at least we do it on our own land and live with it ourselves! Grr.
Anyway, we actually avoided Benidorm pretty well, and stayed in the interior of Costa Blanca in Finestrat at a pseudo climbers' hostel called the Orange House. Much fun was had freezing to death the first few nights in our tiny room with no heat (I later stole a space heater from one of the nice rooms) and then we felt we deserved better and moved into a fancy room with its own bathroom! Plush! Well the climbing was great, better than what we experienced in Italy last year, when we climbed in and around Arco/Trento...but Italy still wins with scenery...but Costa Blanca did win big with having 2 good Indian restaurants!!! :)
OK, so the climbing was good. It was almost entirely sport, which was good for us mentally so we could push it a bit, but not so good for my tendons...I think I squeezed in the one rest day (Xmas eve) at the right moment to avoid serious injury. Hooray! The one day we did do real trad it wasn't so hot, and the guidebook is really subjective on the ratings.
But, in a nut shell, we'd return definitely to Barcelona and very likely to Costa Blanca for more winter or spring rock climbing.
3) New Year's Eve/Sylwester in Warsaw. Pawel, one of Jill's coworkers invited us to a real, genuine Polish Sylwester party (Sylwester happens to be the 'names day' of Dec. 31 po polsku (they celebrate birth names and birthdays in this country. Polish calendars list every friggin' birth name throughout the entire year. God help Poland on the days of Magda, Piotr, Agnieszka, Marcin, etc....the country must be hopelessly overwhelmed with vodka purchases on these special days...)). Anyhoo, it was also nice because it was a Polish 70s/80s theme/costume party. Jill and I weren't sure if there dress was any different than the states, but we took our chances and all went well. Pawel (Cobra) and his wife Magda looked stunning. Hopefully a pic will pop in here soon. Night was fun filled with lots of talk in another Magda's flat, with some dancing and vodka shots with all the men. Jill was scared for me, but she was rather impressed with my ability to keep up with the Pollocks...my new record was reached in the wee hours of the night...13 shots and still standing...and the slurring began after #12, I think!?! (and had 2 beers, too!). Midnight came and we all ran out into the deep snow and watched the gazillion illegal in the states but plenty legal here fireworks of large size go off all over the place and fortunately didn't see anyone get injured. Fun snowball fight was had, too!
Next day was rough, that I remember.
4) Finally watched Star Wars, Episode III. Nice to see Obi-Won looking more like Alec Guiness with the beard and all, but AG was really unmatchable in acting and charm. I'm sorry he's gone.
And was that really Frank Oz's voice digitized for Yoda? It didn't sound right, so now watch Empire Strikes Back, I must, to learn the ways of the dark side.
5) Jill had 3 weeks off for xmas. I didn't. For once, I worked a lot more in one week than she did. Jill slept alot, in fact she probably had more time to relax than either ever, or in over 10 years or so... long before her teaching days....!
6) We finally made it to Zakopane and the beautiful Polish Tatry mountains!
We trained it to Krakow, then bussed it to Zako. Seriously nice bus facility in Krak, seriously flawed clerks and any sense of order when boarding/paying. They have much to learn, they must, to meet other standards of other EU countries!
Weather was foggy and cold day 1, didn't see much but the famed Krupowki street and all its tacky karczmas, swarmas and more karczmas (these are forms of Polish eateries/restaurants). Day 2, cold, cold, cold foggy start. Got up to Kuznice and took the 7 km long gondola ride into Tatry National Park and into the SUNSHINE!!! We skied at a place I can't pronounce or remember how to spell, all day long in gorgeous sunshine with wonderful views of surround high peaks and may have even stepped into Slowakia. BUT, the ski area has one 2 lifts. and basically 2 slopes to ski. Compared to Austria, where last winter we visited Ischgl in western Tirol, where they literally built a lift or a ski run on every piece of skiable terrain possible, and were in the midst of building more (?!?!?!), here the Poles have thankfully been very rigid in protecting their wilderness and reducing the impact on their precious piece of the Carpathian mountains. So an interesting trade off. We know we sure as hell won't go there for a week long downhill ski trip... but we'll surely return for the climbing, scrambling, XC-skiing and another day or two skiing on another clear day.
Oh, and I found I still really suck at skiing, and that Jill is still really awesome at snowboarding.
7) ? Well, that's a secret for now...until then, Happy belated New Year (Dosiego Roku) to everyone!

Cheers!

JnJ