Merry Christmas!

So the big day is almost here! I hope you have all at least started your Christmas shopping by now! I love Christmas time—not because of all the shopping and buying of all these things we don’t need, but because of the fact that it is one of the few times of the year where families make that extra effort to be together. It is sad that we need an event like Christmas to do that, but if that’s the way it is, I am glad Christmas comes every year.

Well, not much has happened since my last blog post. I have managed to get out on a few snowshoe hikes and still have my feet intact, so I am pretty happy about that. It has been well below freezing here for the past week or so, and it has been pretty cold up on tops of the mountains where I have been hiking. At least that means that I have had the mountains all to myself lately. It has been incredibly peaceful hiking and snowshoeing these past few days. It has snowed almost nonstop for the past 5 days or so, with just periods of a few hours here and there when it let up. The mountains have been hit really hard, and therefore, I haven’t had much luck tracking lately. When I went hiking today, even my snowshoe tracks from yesterday could not be seen, and yesterday I was sinking into the snow a good 6 inches or more! It seems that all the tracks are being covered in a few hours after they are left, making my job difficult. However, it has been great getting up in the mountains and breathing the fresh air. The valleys are full of smoke from all the furnaces and heaters running in the houses down there, so up high is an escape from all that junk. It has been so silent hiking lately. It seems that the only sound I can hear is the snow crunching under the weight of my boots or snowshoes, and the occasional tree unloading the snow off its branches. It has been great and I have enjoyed every minute of these last few hikes, and even the moments when I was totally lost because of the poor visibility, or because of my decision to take some random path through the mountains that I had never taken before, but felt like exploring:) I have been trying to do this much more lately, since I see my time in Poland soon coming to an end. I have been choosing ways up the mountains that I have never taken before, just to see what’s there. It has been kind of fun and has added a little more adventure to each day.

I have also been running each morning in the dark and snow. It has been incredible too and a great way to get the day started. The first few minutes are very cold, but then it becomes tolerable after that and actually rather enjoyable toward the end. The other day, as I was waiting for a car to go by before crossing the street, a perfectly-shaped snowflake fell on my shirt! It was the first “perfect” snowflake I have ever seen, just like all the ornaments and decorations. It only lasted about ten seconds before it started to melt. I guess that means that perfection never lasts, but we all have our moments of perfection. It is funny how sometimes we are more aware of small things like this than at other times.

As for my Christmas, it will be spent in Torino, Italy. I am flying to Milan in a few days and will then travel to Torino by train for Christmas, and then over to a region called Aosta, which borders France and Switzerland, in the Alps. It should be fun and I am looking forward to seeing some parts of Italy that I have never seen.

So here is what I want to say about Christmas. Let us remember two important things this holiday season: (1) Remember the less fortunate and the people that need a little love and friendship this holiday season, and (2) let's be extremely grateful for having each other and let's realize how truly lucky we are. We should really treasure the moments we have together and not take them for granted.

Now, if you will excuse me, I need to attend to another Christmas tradition, courtesy of Clark W. Griswold. Merry Christmas everyone!

Taking in a few more sights

Hello everyone! I have been trying to work hard lately, but it seems to be a little difficult for me at the moment. I managed to fit in a few weekend trips to two cities that I have wanted to visit for a long time—Prague and Vienna. I traveled by train to Prague, where I stayed for three days. I met up with an American kid I actually met in Norway and we met a few other people there too, so it was a lot of fun to have a group of us there to hang out and see some sights. It was a little cold and we did see some snow, but we managed to get out and see the sights anyway. Among the sites we saw were Prague Castle, which is the largest castle in the world and took over 600 years to complete, as well as the oldest synagogue in the world. Prague is a really cool city and reminded me a lot of Krakow, particularly Old Town Square. There was a huge church called Tyn Church that served as the landmark for the Old Town, just as Mariacki Church serves as the landmark in Market Square in Krakow. The castle was incredible and the cathedral built within the castle complex, called St. Vitus Cathedral, is one of the most amazing cathedrals I have seen anywhere. I took some pictures inside, hoping to be able to give you an idea of how spectacular it was, but I know that my pictures will not do the beauty of the cathedral justice. We also walked across the famous Charles Bridge at night. It is pretty cool, walking along the bridge and being surrounded by two rows of saints hovering above you, almost like they are leading you on to something better. Another unique thing that we were able to see was the largest book in the world, called the “Devil’s Bible.” When they say that it is large, they are definitely not kidding. The book weighs 165 pounds and is approximately 1 meter long. The book includes writings on everything you could possibly imagine, such as philosophy, religion, morality, law, medicine, nature, physics, etc. Legend has it that it was written by a Benedictine monk in the early 13^th century who had agreed to write the world’s largest book glorifying the Benedictine monastery, as a way of avoiding being imprisoned for life for breaking his monastic duties. However, around midnight, he realized that he was not going to be able to accomplish this feat, and sold his soul to the Devil, who helped him finish the book in one night. The book was opened up to its two most well-known pages, one page showing the City of God, while the facing page is a drawing of the Devil. The fact that these two pages were facing one another is supposedly to represent the duality and constant battles between good and evil, between God and the Devil. The “Devil’s Bible” is normally only displayed in Sweden, since the Swedish army stole the book from Prague Castle just before the treaty ending the Thirty Years’ War was signed. It was pretty amazing to see and I can’t believe that one person wrote that entire thing! He must have had a seriously sore hand after all that!

Prague was great and I made some new friends there that I hope to see again during my travels. Once I got back to Poland, I only had a few days there before leaving for a few days to Vienna. Unfortunately, I came down with a pretty nasty cold just after arriving back in Poland. Just my luck! I took it easy and basically didn’t do anything except relax for the few days I had there, hoping to recover enough to be able to enjoy Vienna.

I did end up going to Vienna and stayed with this sweet girl that lives in the outskirts of the city. The airlines actually did not lose my checked bag this time, which was kind of a pleasant surprise for me, since that now makes 7 out of the last 10 times I have flown that my bags have been lost. I guess the ratio is starting to even out a bit. Vienna was great and since it was the beginning of December, all of the Christmas markets were going. They are pretty awesome and I wish we had something similar to these back in the States. Maybe we do, but I don’t know of any and definitely not to the scale over in Europe. In Vienna, Lija (the girl I stayed with) took me to at least three different Christmas markets, each with its own little character. They were beautiful and definitely helped remind me that Christmas is around the corner. We sampled all kinds of punch and other drinks, and I ate some Austrian-famous weiner schnitzel. It was a great time.

Vienna itself is also a beautiful city. Sights are a little bit more spread out than in cities like Prague or Krakow, but they have a metro system that is really efficient and makes getting around pretty easy. I did manage to get lost a few times, but that was just part of the fun. I did see the graves of Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert, and Strauss, which were all really cool. It was even raining when I saw them, so I was the only person there. There seemed to be a beautiful, soft melody playing in the background, or maybe it was just inside my head, as I sat there and paid my respects. Other sights I saw in Vienna included St. Stephen’s Cathedral, which was pretty magnificent also, the Hofsburg (Imperial Palace), and the Schonnbrunn (summer palace of the Habsburgs). The state opera house is an amazing building, displaying the elaborate architecture that makes Vienna famous. The Rathaus, or City Hall building, is also incredible, particularly at night when it is lit up, towering over the Christmas market in the square below, the purple and gold lights radiating through the crowds and casting a magical glow over the market. Vienna definitely has many sights that should be seen, and I only managed to see a few of them. I had hoped to make it to a performance of a Beethoven symphony, but ran out of time and figured my time would be better spent getting to know Lija (this was a good decision, because she is awesome), just relaxing and soaking up the atmosphere, and wondering around aimlessly (which I now consider myself an expert at!). There is a pretty good possibility that I may return to Vienna for New Year’s. There are some concerts of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, as well as a Viennese tradition of dancing the waltz! I have never actually danced the waltz, but have always wanted to try, and I think that it would be incredible to try it in Vienna, after seeing a heart-pumping performance of “Ode to Joy” in Beethoven’s own hometown (well, kind of his hometown). I’ll see what I can do, but it sounds exciting to me!

I must say that although seeing these new places is absolutely incredible, even more incredible are the people that I have met along the way. From Magnus in Oslo, to Andrew on the train from Bergen to Oslo, to Slaven in Prague, and then Lija in Vienna, I have definitely been lucky to find new friends everywhere I have traveled. I thank all of you guys for enriching my experiences and giving me memories that I will never forget. As far as I am concerned, just meeting you has made these trips worthwhile, and I thank you for being the people and the friends that you are.

So now I am back in Poland, trying to fit in some hard work before leaving for Italy for Christmas. I still have this damn cold that won’t seem to go away. It is more annoying than anything, but I do hope I can finally shake it in the next few days. I am really in the Christmas mood after wondering through all those Christmas markets, and my thoughts always turn to family and friends when I think about the holidays. I don’t want to write so much about that now because I want to write another blog post before Christmas, but I am so thankful for all of you and I just want you to know that. Okay, work is calling, so I best answer, at least for a little while. I hope this finds you all well, and I look forward to talking to you as the holidays draw nearer. Oh, before I end this, I want to send out a quick congratulations to my buddies Stephen and Kylie, who both passed their master’s defenses these last few weeks—way to go! I am jealous of both of you. Also, I want to point out that my brother, Dan, passed a major physical exam in the San Francisco Police Academy that would have left most of us crying out for mercy. He is one bad dude and it is always nice to have someone like him in the family! Good job bro! Okay, I do need to get to work now. I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving and wish you all an even better few weeks leading up to Christmas. This is Nate the Skate signing off for now. Ciao!

Pictures from Prague and Vienna can be seen at: http://www.photoworks.com/members/Nathan_Owens

That sounds like a commercial, doesn't it?

Back to Work, snowshoes included

Hello everyone. It is time for a few updates from Poland. Well, I am back in the work mode (well, sort ofJ Unfortunately, it has snowed like crazy here for the past 5 or 6 days, so there is a ton of powder out there. That means one thing—snowshoes. Normally I really like to snowshoe, but only for a few hours at a time, since they tend to really rip my feet up, no matter what I do. I had my first snowshoe outing a few days ago, after a night of crazy snow. I picked a loop that would be about 18 kilometers to survey, since I had to cover a lot of ground and I only have a week to do it in this area. I thought it would be manageable, especially since I had been regularly hiking 25km a day for the last few months. Yeah, well it was snowing out when I started and only let up for a few hours in the middle of my trek. There was much more snow than I expected, all of it was powder, and I had to break trail for the whole 18 kilometers. I had to go over one mountain, and then descended all the way into a valley, and had to climb out of the valley back up and over the mountain on the other side. My snowshoes absolutely killed my feet, and now I barely have any skin left on my heels. The combination of having to break trail in powder mostly 2-3 feet deep, the long, steep ascents, and the horrible pain my feet were undergoing all made the trek much tougher and longer than I had expected. I ran out of food with about 2 hours to go, on a long ascent up to a peak. I tried to take my snowshoes off numerous times, just to relieve my feet for a while, and also because it was pretty cold and the snow was forming ice on the bottoms of the snowshoes, essentially turning my snowshoes into 3-4 pound weights that I had to drag uphill. Unfortunately for me, the cold had also frozen the bindings shut on my snowshoes, so it was impossible to get them off without cutting the straps. Since they aren’t my snowshoes, that wasn’t really an option. About 1.5 kilometers from the top of the peak, I felt myself getting very, very tired and my body starting to go to sleep. Probably most of you have experienced this feeling before, when your body starts to shut down and go to sleep as a protective mechanism when you are really pushing hard. In some cases, it is good, but in a case like mine, going to sleep is the last thing that I wanted to do. I knew that if I went to sleep, there was a slight chance that I would never wake up again because of the snow and the cold. I really had to dig deep and force myself to just take one step at a time, no matter how slow it was. I knew it would be getting dark in about an hour and a half, and that there was a good chance I would have to finish in the dark. I was honestly starting to wonder if maybe I had made a serious mistake that could cost me my life. While I was trying to dig myself out of a hole in the snow I had fallen through, I started thinking about my options and about what I would do if I could not muster any more strength to continue. I scanned for possible shelters I could make, about anything I could eat, and entertained all those survival instincts. Finally I decided to try to keep going. So for the last hour or so of snowshoeing up to the peak, I basically had to yell at myself in between every step not to go to sleep and to push forward. It was so crazy! I literally had to fight from not falling asleep between steps! I have never experienced anything like that before, and I hope I never will again, because it is a seriously scary feeling. Just letting your body go to sleep would be the easiest thing to do, and your mind knows that and tries to convince you to let it happen. However, I was still able to think rationally for a few moments at a time and told myself that going to sleep was not an option. I finally spotted a mountain shelter on top of the peak and knew that there was a good chance at least one person would be there and I could buy a candy bar or something to give me enough energy to get off the mountain. At first, I looked up every few steps to hopefully see the shelter getting closer, only to be disappointed that it actually seemed to be getting further and further away. Then I remembered what I had first experienced in triathlon during the swim leg, especially when you are doing a long swim to a place way off in the distance: don’t continually look up, expecting to see it coming closer. Just keep your rhythm and trust that it will be closer with every stroke, even if you can’t tell by just looking. So that is what I did, I just put my head down and focused on putting one foot in front of the other, not thinking about the shelter or how close or far away it was. I knew that if I kept putting one foot in front of the other, it was a physical certainty that I would arrive at that shelter. Oh, it was so incredibly hard. In all honesty, I think I probably would have stopped if I hadn’t learned to be extremely patient and to deal with discomfort and both physical and mental fatigue through my triathlon training. It is kind of weird to say this, but I actually think that training for races might have saved my life.

Well, to end the story, I made it to the shelter and there was one lady there. I bought three Snickers bars and a large Coke and finished it all in probably under 2 minutes. I continued in the dark down the other side of the mountain to the place where I was staying. After getting safely into my room, I took my shoes off, only to find that the place on my leftt heel where I was sure to find a blister, did not have a blister. Instead, there was just this gaping hole in my heel, probably ¼ inch deep and the size of a quarter, where my boots had completely worn away all the skin. No wonder it hurt so badly! Needless to say, I took the next day off to recover and let my feet heal a little. Unfortunately, they didn’t get much of a chance to heal, because the day after that I had to go out again and I ended up doing a 21-mile hike/snowshoe until dark again. My feet are starting to rebel against me and I can’t say that I blame them. I am looking forward to this weekend, so they will get more than a few days off.

Well, that’s enough about that stuff. On a lighter note, I have been staying in a town called Szczyrk, which is one of the most popular ski destinations in Poland, and where the Polish Olympic training facilities are. Luckily for me, I was able to go exercise in the Olympic training facility. Now, when I say the “Olympic Training Facility,” it probably isn’t what you are thinking. It is the equivalent of a small Gold’s Gym or something back in the U.S. Anyway, I got some good treadmill runs in (despite the feet killing me, I had to take advantage of having a place to workout) and some good weight workouts. One funny thing is that I tried to go into the swimming pool and the Jacuzzi to just relax, and I was wearing my tight-fitting swim shorts, like the ones most of the Olympic swimmers now wear. Well, the people at the entrance told me that I wasn’t allowed in the pool or Jacuzzi. When I asked why, they replied that I had to be wearing a speedo! Now, I have never worn a speedo in my life and don’t intend on ever wearing one. Some people have the speedo look and can pull that look off. I don’t believe that I am one of them and really don’t care to find out either. So, reluctantly, I obeyed and stayed out of the pool and Jacuzzi. Speedo? Are you kidding me?

Okay, I don’t want to take up everybody’ day, so I think I will stop here. Anyway, it has been an interesting week or so. I have enjoyed staying at the place I am now, and have been staying with a very nice family. The mother has actually cooked me dinner every night, which has been amazing, and far better than the pasta, rice, hot cereal, or whatever I would have thrown together after a day of hiking. One more day of hiking to go before a nice little break is upon me. I hope everyone is doing well and I wish you all a happy Thanksgiving. Eat some turkey for me!

Scandinavia Travels

Hi everyone. So it has been a pretty crazy few weeks since my last blog entry, so I will try to fill you all in on what’s been happening. Work is going pretty well, although I have been very busy and traveling a lot. It is starting to wear me down a little and I wish I could stay in one place for longer than 4 or 5 days at a time. It seems that the only time I finally have time to relax is spent moving from one place to another. Hopefully that will change when winter comes.

Well, speaking of traveling, I have been doing a bit of that lately. First, I went up to Krakow and spent a few days there. It was a little weird and a little difficult, with it being the first time I have been up there since my goodbye with Ania. There was quite a bit of emotion going through me, but I am glad to say that it wasn’t all negative, and there were times when I felt good about things. I knew that I would have to face those demons sooner or later, and everyone knows that I am not one to put things off until later if I can do them today. So, hopefully any future visits to Krakow will be easier now.

I am writing this post from Switzerland, where I am visiting some of my family. It is always incredible to see familiar, friendly faces, and this time is no different. I am loving every minute of it and know it will be tough to go back to Poland after all this. Before Switzerland, I visited Stockholm, Olso, and Bergen (west coast of Norway). Scandinavia is pretty incredible, I must admit, although it is very, very expensive (especially Norway). In Oslo, a hamburger costs the equivalent of $15 and the cheapest beer will set you back about $12. A 6-inch sub from Subway is a steep $11. Oh yeah, and a chicken quesadilla at TGIFriday’s will cost you 40 bones! I wonder what the heck those crazy Scandinavians eat and drink when they go to a soccer match?

Stockholm is absolutely amazing and one of (if not the) the coolest cities I have been to. It is just a very classy city with some amazing sights. It is incredible because it is basically several islands within a giant archipelago, each island having its own little character. It is a clean city and has a really nice old town area, with narrow, cobbled streets and small shops lining the sides. The buildings are all very colorful, with bright yellows and oranges. It really is beautiful when the sun is out. Among the sights I saw were a 17^th-century warship that sunk in the archipelago and was raised a few decades ago, as well as an amazing art exhibit with the works of Alexander Roslin. I was also able to go to an incredible concert in this 12^th-century church, hearing a symphony and choir perform Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. I have always wanted to hear that symphony performed live, and this did not disappoint. I think that the hair on my arms is still standing straight up from the power of the performance! I will miss Stockholm and hope that I can get back there someday.

Oslo was also very cool, although nothing like Stockholm. I did rent a bike for a day and just cruised around the city taking pictures, which was a lot of fun, especially after running around to all those museums and sights in Stockholm. I did manage to get to a Viking ship museum, which was awesome and definitely something that I will never see anywhere else. They actually had 3 original Viking ships on display. Man, those Vikings knew what they were doing when they were building ships. I also went to a museum displaying the ship used by Fridtjof Nansen to help him become the first person to reach the North Pole. It was cool because I even got to go on board and check out the living quarters. I like adventures and all, but being on a ship like that with thirty or so other guys (not to mention, very smelly guys), for a period of two or three straight years, might just cause me to go insane and jump into those icy waters. Those guys were real explorers.

Bergen is a really nice place because it is the gateway to the fjord region of Norway. However, it is a lot like Seattle in that it rains there like crazy, damn near every day of the year. Unfortunately it rained the whole time I was there, and not just a drizzle, but an absolute downpour with wind too. It sucked because I really didn’t even get to walk around that much, it was so miserable being outside. I did find an old cathedral school, from the 1100s, where I listened to a trio of performers play some medieval music from the 1300s, with a wooden violin and two wooden flutes. It was pretty awesome. As for the scenery, from what I saw, when the sun does show up, Bergen must be an incredibly beautiful city, right on the coast with a big mountain right behind it.

The train ride from Bergen back to Oslo is dubbed the “most scenic train ride in the world” by several different travel magazines. It really was incredible, passing through glacier terrain and fjords almost the entire time. It was similar to the train ride from Luzerne to Interlaken in Switzerland. The mountains were amazing and it was awesome passing through a bunch of little towns along the fjords. I really wish I had the time to get off and explore some of those little settlements and meet the people that live in those little cabins in the middle of the mountains. Life there must be very simple, but hard too. It would be incredible to listen to some of the stories they have to tell.

I met and stayed with some cool people along the way, including a Finnish kid living in Stockholm, a native Norwegian in Oslo, and an American in Bergen. I also met an Italian kid living in Bergen right now and a law student from Texas on the train ride back to Oslo. They were all great and we had some good times. It is great to meet new people and make some new friends while you are traveling, because in my opinion, that is really what traveling is all about. The places you go are awesome, but the people you meet are even better. I have been incredibly lucky in both the places I have been able to go and the people I have been privileged to meet.

Well, that just about sums it up for the last few weeks. Of course I could write a lot more, but I don’t want to take up everybody’s day. Besides, I will see all of you soon, so I can tell you more then. I will post some pictures in a few days when I get a faster internet connection, so look for another email soon. Take care back home and let me know how you guys are doing. This is Nate the Skate signing off.

Working Hard

So this last week and a half or so has just been getting back into work mode for me. It was tough hiking around the mountains around here after visiting the Tatras and doing some serious mountaineering, but I guess this is the way it has to be so that I don’t get too spoiled? Whatever.

Things have been going well here though. I did get to visit a new hiking area to look for some signs of wolf presence. It was exciting to go exploring and see how lost I could get myself. Instead of this area bordering Slovakia, like so many of the other areas I have hiked in, this one borders the Czech Republic. I got to spend two days hiking through some parts of the Czech Republic and found some pretty cool places. Unfortunately I didn’t find any wolf scats, but this area hadn’t been surveyed in over five years, so that is not a complete surprise. I stayed in a room in a house up in the mountains near Wisła, which is famous in Poland because of a big ski jump there where Adam Małisz (2002 Olympic Gold Medalist in Ski Jumping) lived and trained. The house I stayed in was an old, traditional mountain home, with all the goods—creaking floorboards, wood stoves in almost every room, and of course, all the creepy crawlers. I had to make a quick inspection of the shower every time before getting in. It was a cool place though and the couple who owned the home was very nice. The woman even made me a homemade dinner every night! It was great.

I have decided to get serious about getting in shape again. This hiking 15 miles a day is okay, but it doesn’t really get the adrenaline going or the heart pumping like I want. I added some more running to the mix this week. One run definitely stands out: I went running down this old road in the mountains during a thunderstorm and I couldn’t get myself to turn around. I wanted to find out where this mysterious road led. Well, after slogging uphill for about 25 minutes and having my shoes fill with water, I found out. Guess what it led to? Absolutely nothing-- it dead-ended. I was a little disappointed at first, but then I realized that that wasn’t the point. It wasn’t what was at the end of the road that was important, but the journey itself. That run was the coolest run I have done in a long time. I didn’t mind being cold and absolutely drenched, but just enjoyed being able to run, especially up in the mountains where I can enjoy nature. Some day I will be willing to give anything to be able to run up in the mountains. I am just thankful that that day is not today. Today I could run up in the mountains, so I did.

That about wraps it up for this last week or so. Oh, I did have a close encounter with a huge bull elk. I startled him while hiking through an area I have dubbed “Wolf Alley.” He ran down the hill a little ways and then turned and stared me down. I must admit, he was definitely the more impressive of the two of us. I’m sure he knew that too. He just stood there and watched me while I hiked off. I hope he escapes the hunters in the coming weeks, because he is quite an animal.

I miss the Salt Lake autumn, with the beautiful Cottonwood Canyons showing off their colors. I am not sure what next week holds for me yet, but there’s also beauty in that too. I’ll catch all of you down the road, wherever it leads.

Tatra Hiking Trip

Hello everyone. I just got back from an awesome hiking trip in the Tatra Mountains. For those of you unfamiliar with the Tatras, they are the highest section of mountains in the Carpathian Mountains, and are located along the border between Poland and Slovakia. They reminded me a lot of the Canadian Rockies and the Tetons, with huge rocky peaks and steep, snow-covered cliffs. It was awesome to get to see these and it made me feel a little like I was back home.
I went with another volunteer that has been helping out with wolf tracking lately. He is a German biologist and scientific journalist. He was a great hiking partner and kept up a good pace, although he tends to be overly cautious sometimes and that is one thing I tend not to be. We made a good team and covered quite a bit of ground over the 2.5 days we were out hiking. Our first day was incredible. We had planned to hike up a steep section to one of the highest peaks in the area. Unfortunately, with it being late September, the chute that we had to climb up was covered with snow and ice and looked pretty dangerous. As night was going to be approaching, we decided not to risk it, so we ended up cutting our first day’s hike a little short. It turned out to be a very good decision though, as a day later a few hikers that had tried to ascend that route got into a bit of trouble and had to be rescued.
On the hike back to the mountain hostel that we stayed at our first night (think of a big, wooden lodge full of hikers, mostly German and Polish, getting drunk and singing like maniacs!), we saw a brown bear! It was incredibly lucky, but we just happened to look up to a meadow up on the slopes as the sun was setting and saw this bear eating some berries. I got some good pictures of it, and will include one here. Apparently there are only around 20 brown bears that inhabit the Tatras, so we were definitely fortunate. I guess things do happen for a reason—if we had ascended that dangerous route, we never would have seen that big fella. It’s funny how things work out. That same night, as I was sleeping, I heard a bear outside the hostel trying to get into the grounds, but running into the electric fence surrounding the place. It kept growling and moaning. I felt bad because obviously this bear has been habituated to humans and is likely to be killed in the future due to a conflict with people. I hope not, because if there are only 20 of them, that population can’t afford to lose many individuals.
Our second day had some incredible hiking, with some extremely dangerous sections. I won’t go into great detail (mostly to spare you, Mom, from having to read about it), but there were some extremely steep, icy sections that we had to use chains and ladders and such on. I felt like a true mountaineer. There were times when I honestly thought that maybe I had gotten in a little too deep, but just focused and thought my way through it. It was definitely the most adrenaline I have felt in a long time, and it was a lot of fun, yet pretty nerve-racking at the same time. I think you guys know what I mean. It is really cool to look back on those moments now though.
We spent the night at another mountain hostel, which I really didn’t care too much for. I woke up with a cold the third morning (which I still have), but we hiked to a really beautiful lake called Morskie Oko. We arrived very early in the morning and missed all the crowds. It was extremely nice to have the place almost to ourselves. The lake reminded me a lot of Lake Louise in Banff, if any of you have been there. From the lake, we hiked down to a town and caught a bus back, ending our amazing Tatra Mountains experience.
One thing that really surprised me was the amount of people that visit the Tatras. I think I heard that over 1 million people visit them annually, and they really aren’t that big. They are only about 30 miles long and there is a good network of hiking trails throughout the region. I was blown away by the number of people we saw while hiking. Compared to the Tetons or the Rockies, when you maybe can come across a few groups of hikers in a day on some of the more popular backcountry routes, we probably never went more than five minutes at a time during our while hiking trip without coming across another hiking group. There really isn’t a “backcountry,” so to speak, in Poland or Slovakia. There is a well-developed trail network and hikers nearly always stick to these trails. I know that it is awesome for people to get out into the wild and experience nature, but it is not so enjoyable when you have to share it with hundreds of other people and cannot even view a scenic landscape without having people “degrade” the view. There were sections of trail where we actually saw couples pushing babies in strollers! It was quite different from the U.S. national parks and hiking areas I am accustomed to. This was the end of September too, which is supposed to be the off-season. I would definitely not even bother going to the Tatras during the summer. It would be a big circus. However, the Tatra Mountains are incredible and I am very grateful that I received the chance to experience them for myself. I will always have some great memories (not to mention, some awesome pictures too) of my Tatra Mountains hiking trip. Afterall, that is what it’s all about.

Link to pictures:

http://www.photoworks.com/photo-sharing/shareSignin.jsp?shareCode=A966B43C46A&cp=ems_shr_alb_pml&cb=PW

Moving Ahead

So it has been over a week now since my last blog entry. Here’s what has happened: I went to stay at a home in the territory of another less-studied wolf pack here in southern Poland. It was nice to stay somewhere new and explore some different mountain areas. Unfortunately I didn’t have any access to the internet or even to a payphone, so I had to entertain myself for the whole 9 days. Hiking occupied a lot of my time. I did a few big hikes, mostly along the Slovakian border. However, I didn’t find nearly as many scats as I was hoping for, so I wasn’t too pleased about that, since there are supposed to be 6 wolves in this pack. Oh, I did find a brown bear track though! A picture should be around here somewhere. It is a big deal since there are only 6 of them in this area. It was only about a day ahead of me on this trail.

Once cool thing that I found out is that I am the first American to stay in this village, at least for the last 20 years. A lady had to come and document my staying here, and she explained this all to me (through an interpreter, of course). That is pretty cool in my opinion. Maybe I made a name for myself. Speaking of which, the weather was really nice for a few days and I decided to do some running. During my first run I received a lot of strange looks, like maybe these people had never seen someone who actually likes to run for fun. It was a little weird. Well, the second run I went on couldn’t have helped. The weather was so nice and the sun was out, so I decided to go for a run shirtless! Needless to say (and I am not bragging here), the number of strange stares I received multiplied drastically. I couldn’t help but to laugh. The funniest look I received was from a construction worker who saw me hike by at 8 in the morning wearing all my hiking gear and my backpack. He then saw me 10 hours later, running by in just some shorts and a hat! I wonder what he thought. Running is definitely a nice form of therapy for me. After endless miles of slogging up and down mountains with a heavy pack on, it feels awesome to just get out and get the legs moving again and get the adrenaline pumping.

Now it is my turn to play the part of, in the words of the wise Derek Zoolander, the “philosophizer.” Today’s subject is about hope. Isn’t it ironic how hope can keep a person alive and make it much easier to go on when life is down and times are hard, yet it can also prevent a person from moving on with his or her life by holding on rather than letting go? What a fine line that is!

Okay, I think that is enough for today. My brain hurts from all this philosophizing and such! A hiking trip to the Tatra Mts. awaits, so I will post another entry after returning. Take care everyone!

New Road Ahead

Let me first say that I really appreciate all the love and support everyone has shown me. During the hard times, you find out who your true friends really are. I am extremely lucky because I happen to have a lot of them. Thank you.
Okay, now to get this out of the way. I am feeling better about things now, and each day brings a little more hope and solace with it. In fact, (Dan, you’re going to like this), I’ve had what I like to call “an epiphanous experience of pure religiosity (it sounds better if you say it out loudJ.” In other words, while cooking dinner the other night (okay, “cooking” is a little bit of a stretch), I had a switch flip on in my head that made me realize that this is not who I am. I am a person who enjoys a lot of the small things, who always thinks that tomorrow is going to be better than today, and who finds humor, fun, and beauty in random things. I can thankfully say that I am back to my old self. I will no longer mention Ania, no more talk about Ania, and no more thoughts about Ania (okay, maybe an occasional thought here or there). I feel a lot better and am beginning to enjoy Poland again, despite being alone. Life doesn’t have to suck. We have the power to make it what we wish. I believe all the strength everyone has given me is finally manifesting itself.
Rain is still in no short supply here. I would much rather have snow, although I am not too keen on putting on the snowshoes for 8-10 hours a day again. I am still hoping for a few weeks of sun before winter starts showing itself. The sun actually peeked through the clouds the other day. It only lasted for about 10 minutes, but those minutes were what I had been waiting for and absolutely needed. Hopefully there is plenty more where that came from.
In other news, I found a fresh wolf scat today and a fresh wolf track next to it. That made me feel better (but not really that much). I am planning to go on a hiking trip to the Tatra Mountains (highest part of the Carpathian Mountains, on the Polish-Slovakian border) next week, so I am really praying for good weather then. I should hopefully have some good pictures to show everyone too, so keep your fingers crossed. Time to get back to my Italian lessons. I know, studying Italian while living in Poland doesn’t make much sense, but nothing seems to these days. Arrivederci.

Tough Times

So these last few days have been very hard for me. Ania and I officially said goodbye to each other. I wish it was a simple situation, but it obviously hasn’t been what I had hoped. Anyway, I have seen and talked to her for the last time and now am trying to forget about the past as much as possible and move on with my life. The next week or so will be a battle to get through as memories will haunt me, but thanks to a lot of your support and advice, I now feel that this is the best thing and that something better is out there for me. I have to believe that to keep my spirits up.

The stupid rain here hasn’t helped much with my spirits. Since I arrived a week and a half ago, there has only been one day without rain. In Krakow, the Wisla River has flooded all the walking paths along the river and all of the restaurant boats that are located on the river. It was actually pretty cool to see. I did get to go for a nice hike yesterday in a new area. I got to walk along the Polish-Slovakian border for the whole hike, and actually hiked into Slovakia a ways (illegally, of course) to check a few important areas for wolves. Unfortunately, after a thorough sweep of the area, my colleagues and I found no evidence of wolf presence. This is a little discouraging because we tracked two wolves near here in the winter. Sadly, there is a decent probability that they were shot illegally by Slovakian hunters. Hopefully, they are still out there and just occupying an area deeper into Slovakia than we dared to venture. We’ll see in a few months.

That is mostly it for the past few days-- a lot of Ania, and not much of anything else. Thanks again to everybody who has helped me out through these difficult times. I really owe you guys. Time to let the healing process begin.

Getting settled in Poland

Well, this last week was just easing back into hiking each day. My brand new boots got a nice break-in period, with a cool 18 miles of hiking on Monday, followed by 20 on Tuesday (9 hours in the rain)! I guess I didn’t waste any time getting back into the groove. Now that I don’t have to worry about getting back to my place each night in time to check and send some emails (no internet or phone where I have been staying), I figured I might as well cover as much distance as possible each day in the outdoors. It was great being out in the mountains here again and I forgot how beautiful they are. Walking through the forest alone and then stopping to look and listen to everything, it all seems surreal. There are moments of dead silence, when I could hear a leaf hit the forest floor about 20 meters away. I am the only one disturbing the perfect silence. What would this forest look like without humans around? It’s just a thought.
It is awesome hiking alone, thinking about all possible things while hiking hours through colorful forests. One definitely gets to know one’s self much better doing this day after day. However, too much alone time is also bad and some thoughts are better left alone. I guess this is a balance, just like everything else. I do wish I had someone to talk to though. I went almost a week without saying a word to anyone (except “Dzien dobry” (hello) to passing hikers). I have had to rely on Dave Matthews Band, Charles Dickens, and a few others for company.
Everything else seems to be going smoothly, and I even found a really fresh wolf scat my first hike. I am talking hours old! The weather has been a little crazy. My colleague here said that it hadn’t rained for some time. I must bring rain, because my second day here it started raining very hard in the morning and didn’t let up until 96 hours later. Rain is nice and brings a peaceful, refreshing feeling with it, but honestly, I could use some sun right now.
This next week I will be staying in a different mountain shelter within the same wolf pack territory, so I can hike into some new areas. I hope that shelter is similar to this one I have been staying in, because this one is sweet. Living out of my backpack isn’t much fun. It really feels like I am traveling, rather than actually living here. I guess I shouldn’t complain though. I do get to see a lot of cool areas that most people don’t. Now all I need is to see one of these wolves I am trying to help protect!
Signing out for another week.

Finally in Poland

All right. I am in Poland and ready to start working. Another hectic time at an airport, some more baggage confusion, and other "normal" things for me were not enough to keep me away. I arrived, albeit a day later than planned, but I am here and safe. The weather is a little cooler than I expected, which I will never complain about. It is great to be back up in the mountains and tomorrow I start the search for the elusive wolves in the Halny pack.
I saw Ania briefly today at work, just enough time to grab my stuff that I had left with her over the summer. Our meeting was definitely a little awkward, as I expected, but I guess it went okay. I don't think I will see her very often now, which will be quite different from last time. In fact, I think I will try to stay away from Krakow because there are too many memories here for me. I will stick to the mountains and then seeing other parts of Poland and Europe. Time to go grocery shopping for the week. I will be staying up at a mountain shelter for the next week and won't have internet access. I guess that means this is ciao for a week. Adios from Twardorzeczka.

New to blogging and I'll see if this thing works

Let's see what this whole blogging thing is all about. Thanks for the tips Kelsey, Jessie, and Sally. Hopefully this will make it a little easier to keep everyone updated on my experiences afar.