London Day I

So what if I have the need to be everywhere 10-15 minutes earlier than the time the respective places open? So what if every morning (or night for that matter) i need to have a plan about today's (or tomorrow's) activities? So what if we got to the Tower of London at 8:30 am when it opens at 9? This only was a good opportunity for photo sessions sans crowds! Good, soft, morning light is also a plus.
The schedule for our London tour (first day) was as follows:
Day one:
- Tower of London (get there early 9am and before the crowds) - good photo opportunity plus the ravens will be roaming around and more picture friendly. Also, we followed a free tour by one of the Yeoman Guards and got to know a lot of stuff about the tower. We saw the crown jewels!!
- Tower Bridge
- St Paul's Cathedral
- Temple Church

We only took the tube going to the tower of london and afterwards walked the whole day. Our hotel was near Victoria Station so the central part of london was very walkable. And without further ado, the pics:



Entrance to the tower of london and behind it (and on the other side of the Thames), the new City Hall:


The other side of the Thames:


Bad hair day starts:


Tower Bridge and an amazing sky (it didn't rain AT ALL while we were there):


Windows:


View from inside of one of those windows:


Stained glass in one of the prayer chapels in one of the towers:


The white tower:


View from the Tower Bridge (that building on the left is the Swiss Re Building, also called the gherkin)


That way for us:


St. Pauls' Cathedral (this place was amazing):



Queen Anne's statue (during her reign the cathedral was completed). The 4 ladies around the base of the statue represent England, France, Ireland and North America, as at that time Anne considered herself to be queen of them all.


One of those ladies:


View from the Stone Gallery (see london eye - i am so glad we didn't go there, such a silly thing to visit) (The highest gallery was closed when we were visiting - if not, we definitely would have climbed up the narrow steps, the views are breathtaking!)




Tate modern museum and to its left Shakespeare's The Globe (white round building):




Paternoster Square and St Paul's Dome in great light:


Temple Gate (behind the jumping monkey):


A good place for our climbers to talk cock:


Goodness gracious, I have found the mothership!


The royal courts of justice (they look like a fairy tale palace, don't they?):


Temple Church:


And a beautiful garden for the lawyers and clerks for Middle Temple:


The rest of the pics are here.

Stupid, argh!!

I am not running Adidas Sundown Marathon again even if somebody pays me, or even if the bloody thing is FREE. Fuck it.

First of all, the bloody thing starts a midnight. Which means that yeah, you have to run at midnight. Which is generally a time at which yours truly is deep in ZZZ - this is because i usually go to bed early (around 10-11) and as a consequence I am up early too.

Next, what better way to run than with super tight hamstrings from yoga. But I guess you forget about the super tight hamstrings when your previously sprained-but-never-healed ankle starts acting up around km 3. It acts up so much, that because of your funny running, your right knee gives in around km 10. And thus, the last 39 km were an exercise in whining and coaxing, with stops and stumbles at every water stop and then in between when i felt that my knee or my ankle just couldn't take it and i will have to walk the rest of the way. Luckily, they just needed a wee bit of rest and I could be on my plodding way again. The last 6 km, mostly uphill, found me repeatedly telling myself, "yeah, I can do 6/5/4/3/2 km ... COME ON!!, I can do this, only 6/5/4/3/2 left ..." Something that never happened before - i breezed through the last 10 km in my previous two marathons.

To whomever set the route for Adidas Sundown: you my friend should be cursed to run it at night as well. We had to cross zillions and zillions of expressways, which meant that we had to go on steep uphills followed by steep downhills on all crossovers. Furthermore, the crossover at km 26 HAD STAIRS. It's seriously dangerous to put stairs for runners especially so late in the bloody race, me thinks.

To the organizers of the last 2 km stretch of the marathon, you should be doomed to run it as well. Not only did this come after a uphill portion but after km 40 there were no markings at all. None. Zip. Zilch. Nothing and nobody to tell you which way to go, no bright light to see, nothing ... Top this with the fact that we had to run through a parking lot to get to the bridge that was about 100m before the end line and you have yourself a bunch of very confused runners. I cried real tears of frustration because i couldn't tell which way to go and I met up with a car and thus had to wobble out of its way.

To say nothing of the fact that for the first 5 km the singaporean air (about which i had forgotten while running in the dry air of Romania) hit me with all its might. To say nothing that this was a race for which I should've trained better.

All in all, I am NEVER running a midnight race again. Not even if it's free. And I am NEVER running a marathon without me being in tip top shape and feeling that I am ready for it. What I did was stupid. I should have just given up and probably I would have, had I had any opportunities. But it was 1am, then 2am, then 3am and I didn't see any emergency stations, nor any cabs on the streets. And had this race been something that I knew I could do (had it been standard chartered for example), I guess it would have been easier to quit. For all marathons from now on my cut-off time will be 4:30. I will not run a second above this cut-off time (unless I am 2kms or so from the finish). This one was 5:00 in which i felt every second.

Lo and behold! My ankle! It's looking forward to long physio sessions!!!

The climbs

Well, the climbs were done in THE place that is closest to my heart so far and which leaves me in tears whenever I leave for long periods of time. Below are a few pictures, but they do not do this place justice. It's called Lacu Rosu (Red Lake) (for climbers, over 300+ routes on exceptional limestone!!!)


My father, his gf and their kid. The background massif has one of the multipitch routes i LED!


Bicaz Lake, the biggest artificial lake in the country (I think).


Cow doing yoga in the middle of the road.


There be mountains in the background.


The canine population of Lacu Rosu has to thank three wonderful dogs, two of which I've chosen when they were wittle puppies . Pictured is me with one of them (Bush) (I know Sandra will cringe when she will see this). They have grown immensely but I still see them as my little babies to the dismay of people passing the house. Below is Marian with Dark, and me at one of the climbing crags with Dark stealing the show.





And now, the climbing... Not that many days (still have to spend a lot of time with my family - haven't seen them in two years) but the climbs were amazing. I LED multipitch routes!!!! It was a super frightening feeling to be scared shit and still acutely aware that you are responsible for somebody else's life and thus you must get over the stupid fear or else you are never going to get out of there. I guess that sums it up. First up, a 40m 6a+ route with Edelweiss growing on a lot of its ledges! We were a bit early and most of them were still dried up, but still they were very beautiful.
Yours truly was frozen shit because the sun hadn't arrived to our neck of the woods.



Edelweiss, for sure my favorite flower. Here is how they look like when they are in bloom.

Another one (dried up)

The view (that lake is the red lake)


Frozen but happy Marian.


Me with ill fitting helmet.


Now, if this isn't the picture of happiness I don't know what is.


6b+? that I couldn't finish and had to downclimb


Proof of shame:


6a to wipe the shame:




Another multi-pitch route ... Involving two chimneys and a small roof



And this spectacular edge (have to go on top of it with super rope drag - I kept thinking: omg omg omg please don't have marian tight now :)) )

A happy Marian:

And finally on top:


The rest of the pics can be found here.