21k - check!

It's been raining today. Not all the time, not heavily, but the sky has been grey and uncolorful for the most part of the day. I looked at my running shoes and thought - this kind of weather doesn't add add motivation to run, but you know that you have - a pity rain and clouds are not the reasons to skip the training. And I skipped a lot this spring, always found other activities or excuses. 11 kilometers have crossed my mind - no, it was not scary, I could run 10 easily(not very fast), but it wasn't the most attractive activity either. But you know - sometimes you have to do the things you don't really want or do not enjoy, later to do the things you like more.
I got my feet wet in the first few hundred meters, but with the weather like that it's unavoidable. Running more than 10 kilometers meant that my route can go through old town and even further - at least some sightseeing involved. But the first kilometers are not eye-catching at all - it's not green yet, just the tiny leaves on the trees and bushes. And the leaves were engulfed with water drops. I didn't choose the monster pace, so I could observe everything around me and not break my leg. Yes, the nature was waking up, but very slowly - it's May in two days, and it still sometimes seems like a winter without snow.
At my fifth kilometers I thought, this might be hard, but maybe I can do fifteen today - if I want to run half-marathon this year, I have to start running longer distances. I knew I could stop anytime(but doing that meant walking back home), so, I let this thought into my mind - I recalculated my turning point so it would be 15 kilometers not far from my home. Well, body probably wasn't very happy with my decision, but it hadn't shown any signs of objection either.
At my twelfth kilometer I was thinking- this goal of half-marathon has been intimidating me for a while, if I do fifteen today, I might  do twenty one too - the difference is not that big and if I don't like it I can quit running after that or I can satisfy myself with running just 10k. I recalculated my route in my mind and started following it. I knew I could quit it any time. I didn't stop, but I wasn't fast either - there was a long uphill at the eighteenth kilometer - I thought, it's not easier to climb that mountain with a bicycle either.
I survived and didn't feel any strange or frightening feelings in my body. I couldn't sprint the last half of kilometer - there was nobody to compete with - only myself. I was only thinking whether later I will feel sorry for my decision to do the whole half-marathon thing today without running fifteen first. I didn't have any water with me, but there was plenty of water around me - in the air, on the ground, the only downside - that it was undrinkable.
Not every story has to have a moral, but this one has. If you have a goal - set a timeline to it or give up on it. Don't stretch it over the time for too long. If you have a goal and you are 75% through it, don't stop, at the next attempt you'll have to overcome those 75% again. And it feels damn good to complete it, even if you feel like sh*t at that moment. But if you have a goal - be wise and take care of your health.

Hitchhiking for the first time

As for first hitchhiking experience, we didn't struggle a lot - about half an hour and we were picked up by a chezch bass player(as his hobby) who happens to have a korean driving license. He filled our time in a car with amazing and unvelievable stories. Could you believe that Mayonaise is a bass guitar brand - the top one in Europe? Or how he got a hold of one.
He told us that he picked us up only because nobody picked him up a year ago.

A picknick in Tvedestrand and Borøya island

It's the second day of Christmas and the streets of Åmli are pretty empty. It was colder than usual at night - the grass and moss around the house were covered in silverfish frost. No sitting at home for us! Exploring ghostish towns is quite fun. Today's destination - Tvedestrand - an almost two hundred year old small town with white wooden houses climbing the shores the fjord of Oksefjorden. It is called a town of books and indeed we could see new and old books shops on every corner. Technically, all of the were closed, but one of them had an outdoors book shelf - there you could leave a certain amount of money in the hole and take the book you like.
There is a tern( a seagull) in the coats of arm of Tvedestrand, but we did see very little of those. But there were plenty of ducks in the harbor - they weren't afraid of us at all, and even started following us when we walked on the pier. I guess they are used to tourists feeding them, and we were almost the only ones at that time.
Cats there are very friendly too. One, the ginger one, was making sure that there aren't too many ducks on the pier. The grey one just came to us and started snuggling to our legs as if we were his owners. It was a pretty nice cat and didn't look homeless at all.
After having a small picknick at the harbor it was time to move forward. Me and my friend's boyfriend were secretely hoping to see a sea. Not a  fjord, but a real open sea. That could happen if we would go to one of the many islands there. But the drive to any of them is really crazy. Well, the views through the car window is amazing, but the drivers have to be really careful. Some roads were fit only for one car in any direction. On one side there would be a steep rock, on the other - either lake or river and that's only few meters away. Anyway, we talked her into driving us to Borøya island without telling all the difficulties that will be waiting for us ahead. And although the trip was stressful, the view from the beach into the sea paid off. There were some people already there, but not too much. The shore was covered with tiny brownish summer houses - so typical to Norway. Almost all of them were empty now. One can really run away from people in Norway.
Having seen the see we called it a day and we were back home before sunset. According to weather forecast, it should be snowing tonight in Åmli. Finally!

From Oslo by train

It turns out that even if you can't get a reservation for a train on specific time, there still might be a place for you on that train. And you won't need to sit on your luggage after all. I talked to three nsb (Norwegian rail) officers hoping at least one of them was a conductor of my train. None of them was. But one of them told me to go to wagon, choose a place from 13 to 20 and just wait for conductor. And so I did. The conductor didn't show until the train started moving. Technically they can ask you out, but humanly they won't. And if you have a rail pass(which means it's a ticket valid for specific dates), then in worst case there is some space in restaurant wagon. Standing there for three and a half hours would have been quite difficult, I think.
Once I got on a train and it left Oslo, I couldn't take my eyes off the window. And the weather was quite nice. Medium height mountains, bays, fjords, valleys painted with the warm shades of sun. White or brown wooden houses, following same design principles - similar and different at the same time. The railway was dangerously going across the lakes, rivers, tunnels. Sometimes it seemed like there was only a half meter between a rock wall and a train window. Good weather ended soon. The mountains hid their peeks in the pillows of clouds and cloaks of fog - but it still looked magical to me. Though there was no snow to be seen, the small lakes were frozen and looked like mirrors on the surface of earth. Only the reflection wasn't quite clear - as if it has been covered with hot water steam. The spring water on the rocks - tiny waterfalls - that was frozen too!
As the train moved towards my destination - Nelaug - everything became engulfed with a light rain, the sky was just gray and everything else was of that colour as well. The two-coloured houses of white and brown fitted into that landscape very well.
Nelaug was just the train station where we had to get off - we were going to far more disconnected place - Åmli - no trains, just local buses going there. Therefore, a friend had to pick me and her boyfriend from train station. As we got off, she was already waiting for us.

Celebrating programmer's day!

Today is the 256th day of the year and in the world of programmers, it's their day of the year. What makes me worry is that in google's home page there is a baguette picture and clicking on it points to the history of it. What the ... ? I have nothing against it, but as an IT giant, shouldn't google be celebrating programmer's day instead of baguette's 22nd anniversary of official recognition?
I must admit, I haven't written a single line of code today and there are two reasons for this. First - it's Sunday. Second - it's a Vilnius marathon day and I was running my modest 10K run. I haven't been doing proper training (except insanity workouts) and it reflects on my results (which even in my best condition is something so unimpressive, that I won't share it with you). Few years ago, even 5K run was a big challenge for me, but now 10K doesn't frighten me anymore. Sure, I want to up the ladder of the distance a little bit more and run a half-marathon. It's doable in my current condition, I think, but it's a huge physical impact on a body - so, I won't do it unless I feel totally prepared for it.
The main reason for this is not the fact that one of today's runners, being in healthy condition, has lost consciousness and died in the hospital. Although that kind of perspective doesn't fascinate me, ending up with less serious traumas and injuries will still affect how I move after that half-marathon. I think being prepared mentally isn't enough. Simple as that.
And finally... This picture below isn't a photoshop (you can tell that from the bad quality)! This was a real sight I was awarded after running 10K, walking 6K more and meeting with my friends at Vilnius old town after that. (And now I know a place where I can stuff myself with delicious doughnuts with cheese filling in Vilnius!)

Hot air balloons in Vilnius Old Town, no, Vilnius Old Town on hot air balloons!

Dark cabaret, Canadian coffee and 5K

Today while looking for music for milonga's cortina I stumbled upon an interesting genre - dark cabaret. And while the music itself sounds not very dark (rather cheerful), the lyrics are somewhat disturbing. For example: "... sitting in a stack of skulls" (from the song "Rattlesnake" of Caravan of Thieves). Combined such lyrics and rather ungloomy music - I can't picture a statistical person listening to this music... Who would it be? Goths, emos, morticians or funeral service owners... Someone who doesn't understand lyrics, but enjoys that style of music.

It's been talks and promises for years for Starbucks coming to Lithuania, but no, they aren't there yet. And I doubt they'll ever be, because local coffees would be a tough competition. So, no! No Starbucks! But today I found out, that there is Canadian coffee place opened in Kaunas - Second cup. I'm not sure about their coffee, because I quit on that habit - year and eight months ago, but the chai latte is as good as in Lithuanian coffee chains and they do have very nice paper cups.
I did want to try out the London mist flavored chai latte, but they didn't have one. When I asked what is the taste like, I learned they never received one yet! Ok, it takes a while to ship a London mist from Canada... I hope that they won't hurry - I don't want to see any London fog on the streets of Kaunas, it's sad enough that the autumn is already here. But on the other hand I still want to try out that taste...

Today I took part in a local running event for a short 5K run. Now that I look at my current result, I remember that my first attempts at this distance took me 8 minutes longer to complete! And I was afraid I'm not gonna make it to the finish line then:)

Couchsurfing, 10k and Gregory Porter

Last weekend i had my first couchsurfing hosting experience, I took a hitchhiker first time in my life and I fell on the ground while running my 10k. First two experiences where rather fun, and the last one - quite painful and it's still lasting. But i learned a few lessons. First, if everyone is taking the left side of the road - follow  them. Right is not always better than left. Second - if you fall down, just get up and run. Momentary pain is sharp, but walking back(or giving up)- is shameful. Of course, if you have a broken bone, don't follow my last advice. But if it's just bruised palms or bloody knees - you can run 8K more. This might sound a bit extreme, but in life we rarely fall literally - but we might get our ego bruised. If the goal is worth it - everyone can handle a little bit suffering.
This flight resulted in me not going to tango lessons. Having a free Sunday evening, I ended up going to the best concert I've been in my life - Gregory Porter. And in live he sounds way better than on records. But anyway, just listen to his "liquid spirit" or "musical genocide". And this concludes to the third lesson - bad experiences can lead to good ones.