A Fat American in Europe – Part the Second
Like many unfortunate runners, I suffer from a phenomenon called a very weak stomach. Eat the wrong thing before a run? Drink too much water? Stars aligned incorrectly? and WHAM! a run starts more closely resembling a mad treasure hunt from public restroom to public restroom than ... well, training.
In the U.S. I consider myself an expert at ferretting out peeing spots. I've got every park and public restroom in and around my runs mapped out, I know every store where there isn't *technically* a public restroom but the employees don't care, and in times of dire straits, I can invent a tear jerking tale of epic woe to convince a random establishment along the way to conveniently convert itself into an emergency pit stop for me.
This doesn't really fly in Europe, apparently. They are much more protective of their restrooms. A lot of them require payment to even enter, and the ones belonging to restaurants and other workplaces are kept under a watchful eye of some old lady who can and will turn into a wailing banshee if a random person from off the street dare trundle inconspicuously in to use the facilities... Thankfully, though for the most part there is also an abundance of relatively quiet forest trails in which, if heaven forbid one would need to pee, the nearest tree is 2 feet away.
Sunday 10/14: off. Weather forces us to descend from the mountains :(. Wanted to run in the trails again, but felt that a day off was advisable, so drove back to the flatlands of Peschiera. Plan was to bike a little bit with Peter but this turned out rather poorly. Suffice it to say that it lasted only about an hour, and included 2 flat tires, 1 Power Bar from the year 1991 and some unfortunate medical problems.
In the evening drove to beautiful Verona to see the quirky Italian ex-triathlete and his non English speaking Cuban wife. Walked around the old city, ate pizza and embarked on the ultimate quest for an authentic Cannoli. Luckily for me, Marco was extremely knowledgeable about that subject area. Felt afraid for my life/the integrity of the paint job on our poor little rental vehicle in the narrow 0.5 lane cobble stone roads, but everything was worth it for the Cannoli.
Monday 10/15: 31:57 in the AM. Extremely grouchy due to morning and cold… Tried to find some trails to run on but was mostly unsuccessful. Ended up running up and down a short segment along the river bank feeling irritated. Unfortunately this morning excursion was necessary in order to catch the train to Venice!
Probably the most striking city we saw, for obvious reasons. Really liked all of the little canals and bridges and old buildings. Bought gifts, ate dinner by the water, and some delicious mystery pastries for dessert. Lots of walking, feet were not delighted by the end. Really liked the city except for the discovery of a rare species of Restaurant Nazi—the kind that don’t let you use the bathroom, and scream like a banshee if you try to sit down with your cup of coffee. Apparently sitting down makes your meal twice as expensive, leading to the curious phenomenon of neat little rows of empty tables and throngs of customers milling around the counters stuffing their edibles down in the upright position. Got back pretty late, then drove up to Salo on the west side of the Lake.
Tuesday 10/16: Hiking! Felt close to death in the morning after the coldest night of my life. Apparently heating is a luxury of expensive hotels here… what’s most outrageous is that there IS a heating unit IN the room… it just doesn’t WORK. Did not get any sleep at all due to it being cold.
Day turned out much better though, we departed the town of freezing cold, went to a neat Italian supermarket. Bought some delicious cheese, cookies and probably bought more fruit than we needed due to the novelty of the “print it yourself” weight and price sticker machine. Took the food with us on a hike in the Alps above Tremosine. Followed a mountain bike path for a bit, then veered off onto a smaller trail, which turned out to be a fantastic choice. Walked along a narrow 0.5 person wide trail carved into the side of the mountain, including rock face. I would have rejected the path as incredibly dangerous and impassable, but it didn’t seem to faze Peter. Was exhilarating in that “HOLY CRAP I’M GOING TO DIE” way sort of like a roller coaster. The best part was finding someone’s adorable little mountain hut at the top. Had a picnic lunch nearby and headed back down a safer larger trail. Really fun. Feet were not happy by the end though. Drove straight to Milan from trailhead, ate at a funny little restaurant called GROG.
Wednesday 10/17: Central heating at last! Really enjoyed a full night of sleep and the towel heater and mini fridge. Peter went to meet the professor at the university in the morning, then we went to explore the city in the afternoon. Emerged from the train station into the mother of all shopping districts. There were Prada stores and Gucci stores on every corner like Starbucks! Trying to imagine the amount of money that must change hands here every day to keep all of these shops in business was just mindbending. We found suits for 2000 Euros or like $3,000 and shoes for 950 Euros. Peter was instructed to buy business attire here, but somehow that didn’t end up happening… We did find some culinary treasures, such as the best Gelato I’ve ever had, and this funny little shop that sold inexpensive fried/baked calzone-like edibles.
Thursday 10/18: Left Milan in the morning in search of some more hiking prior to dinner with Peter’s professional triathlete friends. Wasn’t quite as successful finding good trails today, not to mention the intermittent drizzle… Aborted a few extremely steep rocky paths, then found a quaint little route that we didn’t have enough time to explore. Feet not feeling great.
Drove back up to the North side of the Lake to complete our circuit of the circumference, and had dinner with two professional triathletes who were married to each other. They were surprisingly down to earth and non-scary, but I was very thankful nonetheless that the topic of my athletic incompetence did not come up in conversation.
Friday 10/19: Drove back to Germany. Failed in the quest to find another SMA brand supermarket where I had hoped to buy a lifetime supply of pastry cookies, pasta, cheese and mini croissants… was very sad about that, but we managed to find a different supermarket the size of a shopping mall on our way back that had a large variety of pecorino cheeses, which I was persuaded to view as acceptable compensation for the lack of pastry cookies and mini-croissants that I had wanted. Had coffee and a fantastic apple strudel with another of Peter’s friends, then drove (through the snow!) to the Olympic stadium in Munich. Was sad that the track was closed, but we got to see the inside of the swimming complex.
Saturday 10/20: The last day :(. Bought last minute gifts, saw some more people, packed. Went to an authentic Bavarian restaurant to eat potato dumplings and cabbage for lunch. Peter does not understand my extreme fondness of sweet red cabbage, but I ordered a second helping anyways. We also had Meinhold Family Dinner with all of the brothers and sisters and their significant others, was impressed with delicious home made Indian food. Was exhausted afterwards, happy to let Peter hit the bars with the boys while I had a nice hot bath and read in bed.
I guess this doesn’t really qualify as a training week. I’m just hoping that all of the walking and hiking has at least kept me from becoming morbidly obese and out of shape. And that it hasn’t destroyed my feet… but we’ll see.
No comments:
Post a Comment