11 XI - Tuesday (Monika's visit to my house)
About quarter to 8 p.m. she arrived at the Kaliski railway station and we picked her up. Then we had a nice talk, played pool (Monika was the winner!) and then went to sleep - but that's none of your business ;-)
12 XI - Wednesday (arrival in Lonigo)
We had to wake up very early, about 5 a.m., as our taxi driver to Katowice arranged the departure at 5.30! We reached our destination really fast, did some shopping, left the car on the nearby car park and went to the check-in desks at the Pyrzowice airport. Our flight to Bergamo lasted about one and a half hour. Afterwards we took a shuttle bus to the Italian railway station. Then it came time to use two trains to arrive finally in San Bonifacio, which is fairly close to Lonigo. Fortunately, two nice guys - Gabryś and Nico Manfredi - agreed to drive us to the gym we were supposed to sleep in. And this way we managed to reach our final destination in about 11 hours :)
13 XI - Thursday (long sleep & doing 'nothing' in Lonigo)
I think it is the right place to say something about the Italian mentality. One of the main organizers of PWT promised to come at about 4 p.m. and bring us some information on the competition, startlists etc. We had been waiting incredibly long and at last he came well past... 9 p.m. saying that's normal in Italy and bringing us several delicious croissants. The other thing that differs Italy from Poland are definitely the squatting toilets. In the evening we also experienced that the Italians make pizzas incredibly fast and they are really tasty.
Below I present the map we were offered to attend a training on, but we didn't actually want it. Aren't you surprised, are you?
14 XI - Friday (qualification race in Alonte, wine testing & trip to Vicenza)
Now the long-awaited day came - my first orienteering course in Italy. Although I didn't make it to the final in the elite class, I gained a lot of valuable experience, which is undoubtedly going to help me in the future sprint distance races. Nevertheless, Monika took the 13th place and qualified for the A final! Congratulations!
Just after our races we made our way to a lovely vineyard to taste some Italian white and red wines. We had the possibility to eat fabulous Parmesan cheese as well. What's more, we tried an red-orange fruit of Kaki. Then we had a very little break and headed for Vicenza. There we visited Teatro Olimpico, which was designed by a famous Italian architect Andrea Palladio.
15 XI - Saturday (Park World Tour 2008 final & O-party)
In my opinion, the course was much better and more interesting than yesterday. It was a bit tricky at some places and demanded really strong legs to run uphill, which was really essential for this particular race. However, I hadn't expected such a mistake during such an important competition. Actually it's no good crying over spilt milk. Just see the maps below and judge if you won't be 'a little bit' upset...
In the evening it was time to relax and we enjoyed a short party with our newly-made friends from Serbia (greetings!), Romania, Italy (Rome) and Slovakia. It was unbelievably kind of a 12th orienteer in the world (last year in Ukraine in long distance) to offer us a beer of Fanta. We just could not turn him down, you know...
To be continued...
2 comments:
these 'squating toilets' seem to be really tempting :-D
and i just can't believe how an open (on the map) gate could have been closed during such a competition as PWT...
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