Football Fever

No matter where on this planet you live, I am sure you are aware that it’s football/soccer season in Brazil. The biggest and most important tournament in this sport is happening now. And what is happening in my home? My tv-box from my provider crashed last night and I can’t watch anything on my tv. So what’s a girl to do?

Call first, complain later. That’s what I did. Urgh, they are not coming today and I am leaving for Italy tonight. Next possible appointment for me is July 1st. It doesn’t really matter so much because I won’t be home most of the time, but… and here it comes… I will be spending two evenings at home without tv. What a hardship! Can’t tell you how grateful I am for online streaming. Not the same but better than nothing.

Up until now I have tried to watch every game or at least part of it when I was unable to see all. Ok, the one game that was shown in Europe at 3am I didn’t watch. Couldn’t be bothered to get up. So sorry Ivory Coast and Japan, but you were just not important enough to get up in the middle of the night. I will try to do better for your second game.

I love the excitement surrounding the game, the good vibes in all the public viewing places. People are in a good mood, no matter who wins or loses. Excellent start for a great summer!

In other matters, I am leaving for Italy tonight. Yeah, vacation, vacation, vacation!!! It’s summer and it’s the season to go away. Tuscany is calling, beckoning with dreamy villages, excellent food and a bit of shopping. Can’t wait to have my first cappuccino along the way. I don’t understand why the coffee across the non-existing border tastes so much better, but it does. Actually quite a lot of stuff tastes a lot better across the border.

A couple of lazy days ahead of me, what more can I want? Quite a lot more lazy days right after this trip. But more on that later!
Yours, Pollybert

A long weekend of summer

I love it when it’s hot outside. Inside the old buildings here in Vienna it’s still cool and refreshing, but outside summer is starting with a vengeance. And that’s exactly what happened last week just in time for a long weekend. Friday evening started with drinks at Heuer, then on to the Brazil Festival right around the corner and then later on to the Wiener Kirtag at the Rathausplatz. Kirtag is a typical regional festival, not so easy to explain. You might be better off to read about it here.

From the amount of pictures posted from the Kirtag one might think that we spent the longest time there. Absolutely not true, we spent the longest time lining up for drinks at the Brazil festival. They were not ready for all these Mojito and Caipirinha drinkers. Sorry to say that the beer at the Kirtag tasted way better though. I like it that the beer company is almost patting us on the shoulder to let us Viennese know that we have good taste. We do, we like to drink our own local beer though.

Saturday morning dawned bright and clear and after my usual morning coffee with Vienna 1971 I got picked up for a day at the lake. Podersdorf might be a little more relaxed than the other places around the Neusiedlersee. Maybe it was just the long weekend that left the place empty. Whatever the reason, I loved it.

After dozing in the sun and finally a restorative nap, we needed some sustenance to keep us going for the rest of day. So what to do when you are at the lake? You stop for a Steckerlfisch and the best place to do that at the lake is here. So yummy and the best base for a long concert evening.
 
Because next up was another evening spent at the Wiener Kirtag. On Saturday night there was a free concert from Reinhard Fendrich. His best times might be behind him but he will always be the singer of the unofficial Austrian hymn ‘I am from Austria‘.

And then another bright and sunny day, hot again and no clouds in the sky. This Sunday was reserved for my great-uncle. It has been a while since I had time to see him, usually my Sundays are for him but not every Sunday is doable. So no matter the weather, when possible I am on my way to see him. We spent a couple of heavenly hours in the garden. So quiet and cool there, like a breath of fresh air in the city. After a lovely morning and noon spent in this oasis, the rest of the day went by in a flash with HIIT still looming at the end of the day. Furthermore we now train outside in a park and every once in a while someone passes by, sits down at one of the park benches around and just watches. It’s funny and awkward at the same time but better than getting licked by a dog while doing push ups.
The best part about training on a Sunday night is though when Monday is off and one still has time to do something. Which is exactly what we did. After training super hard we went for a pork knuckle at the Schweizerhaus (could be reason why my scale never shows any reduction even though I go to HIIT twice a week).

And then another beautiful and hot day dawned, really we cannot complain this year. After a delicious early morning breakfast at MQ Daily in great company, I rushed home for another pick-up. This time we went to Greifenstein which is my usual hang-out during summer time (thank you Julia!) where you can watch this castle from below while you are swimming in refreshingly cool water. We finished the day with fried chicken at the Heuriger Pospisil. Best chicken ever, plus huge portions which leaves enough for a great lunch the next day.

Weekends like these make me yearn for more; more summer, more vacation, more time spent with my friends. I have a feeling though, this is going to be one great summer!
Yours, Pollybert

Running in the rain

The weather is killing me. The last 24 hours the rain is coming down incessantly and I was in no mood at all to go for a run. Which would be super necessary since the Frauenlauf is next Sunday.

After the successful run on New Year’s Eve where I stayed time wise under 6min/km I was super motivated to get my time further down to around 5:30. So when I ran the Spring Run at the beginning of May I was super disappointed that I only finished with a time of 6:02/km.

It does look better though than what I timed on my phone.  So over the course of 7k, an increase of 2 k compared to the New Year’s run, I lost 5sec per km. That was not the plan at all! Basically what it comes back to is more training, more often interval runs to improve the time and more Training again. Which is what I wanted to do and now the rain is putting a damp stop to it. I hate running in this weather. It’s miserable and cold. So if there is a weather god somewhere, please make it stop! Need to get some training runs into my legs to have a powerful comeback next Sunday!

 

The Summerstage is open, so summer please come! Yours, Pollybert