I had a very uneventful trip to Europe. Once I got to Europe, though, the fun started. During my flight into Krakow, a young child ate too much yogurt and threw up in the isle right next to my seat. After some panicked yelling in Polish, the parents cleaned up the floor and I tried unsuccessfully to block that memory out of my mind. I arrived in Krakow to discover that rather than bring us up to Krynica-Zdroj in a bus, we were riding the "VIP Shuttle," a BMW driven by a rally car driver with a death wish. Because there are a lot of nice cars here.
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| The hotel we're staying in, taken from the gondola to the start |
We arrived to our hotel to discover that even though Poland is part of the EU, they aren't on the Euro, so all of my converted currency is worthless. But the hotel is really nice, and I don't have to pay for anything, so really all that does is keeps me from buying souvenirs and ice cream, so I'm not really complaining. A penny saved is a penny earned, and I'm a grad student so actually paying money for things I don't need is not something I am allowed to do. It's all summed up in the Grad Student Handbook. The one thing that makes me a bit sad is that apparently things are really cheap here. If I would have known that I would have brought an emptier suitcase and stocked up on non-perishables.
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| The troll cave |
We checked into our rooms and I discovered that my room has a troll cave in it. Because that makes sense. This seemed awesome until I realized that the ceiling in there varies in height and the bathroom is all the way at the other end, so I'm a bit nervous I'm going to concuss myself in the middle of the night on the way to the toilet. Last night I almost stepped on Max King, who doesn't realize how tiny the troll cave is. I'm not sure if I would have noticed until morning when we peeled a squished World Mountain Running Champion from the floor, but luckily I heard the pitter patter of little feet and turned a light on.
Staying true to the theme of World Mountain Running Championships, there is not much flat to run on here. Plenty of hills, lot of trees, and some very nice scenery. Our hotel is right next to the gondola to the start finish, which is great. Given that the race is at noon tomorrow, I can basically hang out all morning. Maybe physics will actually make sense then.
During breakfast this morning, I was informed that I had been randomly selected for antidoping control. We arrived in the hotel lobby to discover that the shuttle that was supposed to take us to antidoping control had left without actually picking anybody up, so we had to board a public bus. We traveled through town, picking up people on their morning commute. The ladies in charge of bringing us safely to antidoping control became very interested in talking to me once I mentioned quantum mechanics, so I spent much of the ride talking about physics and neutrons and fun stuff like that. After meandering through town for a bit to drop people off, we made our way towards the hotel that antidoping control was in, but got caught behind a horse drawn carriage.
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| Protip: Rose thorns make excellent toothpicks. |
We finally made our way into antidoping control and the Polish AntiDoping Agency (PANDA) took my blood. Insert a panda joke here. I successfully didn't pass out, and then we tried to leave. However, we were informed that there wasn't another bus to our hotel for an hour. I inquired about the VIP Shuttle that brought us from the airport and was told that was going somewhere else. One of the Polish quantum women tried to sweet talk us into an earlier bus, but couldn't. We were told we could go to the hotel restaurant and eat while we waited free of charge, so I made myself a sandwich. Then the waitress came and took it away because I wasn't staying there. So there I sat, sandwichless, waiting for the bus, until a Russian athlete gave me a rose. I was somewhat dumbfounded, and by the time I realized what had happened, she had scurried off into a sidehall. By that time it was time to get on our bus though, so I waited on the bus for the French team, who was 20 minutes late. During that 20 minutes, the Polish quantum women heard that my sandwich had been taken away and were in a superposition of outraged at the wait staff and seeking vengeance for me. For a moment I thought they would bring a sketch artist so that they would know which waitress to direct their ire toward. By the time I got back to our hotel, it was time to go for a short run and eat lunch.
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| Krynica-Zdroj from the start/finish |
Other than that, my time out here has been pretty low key. Running, napping, eating, doing physics, and making sure my electrical converter doesn't start a fire. I'll try to get a post up after the race to talk about how it goes, but no promises. The US Mountain Running team will have live updates I am told. www.usmrt.com
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