From Dr. Alban in Kiev to Totte Wallin in Österbymo

(Pictures above: Kiev downtown, the team except Jon, 11th century monastery, long distance final finish area)

This will be the last report from, or about, Kiev. I'm back in Sweden now, and I must say it is nice to get a few more days here before returning to Canada. We watched the long distance final Thursday. Now back home looking at a map and a course I ran on back in 1989 in Kiev, I can see that one control on the course back then is identical to one of the controls the men had this year. Must mean something. I also remember that at the event eighteen years ago people tried to sell us westerners vodka and the famous Russian champagne. The cost was a dollar or so. The vodka bottles had that kind of lid that when you have opened a bottle, you couldn't re-seal it...
I did try it back then and this year Nick was carrying around something at the banquet that had a similar taste...Back to this year's final - it was incredibly hot and just watching was tough. As usual, the strongest man and women won. Thursday also meant banquet day and here I'm just quoting Terry from the US and her posting on Attackpoint (without permission, sorry.) "The WOC banquet was a disappointment -- the room had no ventilation and, with the outdoor high at about 100 F, the indoor temperature soared to intolerable levels very quickly. The food was fantastic, though, and the prize-giving ceremony for the middle and long was nice, too. They gave stuffed animals as prizes, and the gold medalists got animals that were nearly as big as they were, which provided some nice props for playing afterward.

The room cleared out quickly after the awards as everyone stood on the steps outdoors. The live band was good but virtually nobody stayed in the banquet room to hear it, much less dance to it."

So instead of a sauna like hall in east Kiev, a few of us went to Hidropark, after a waterstop and some escalator intervals in the downtown core, for some more drinks and some dancing. And this is where Dr. Alban comes in. I haven't heard him being played since Guadalajara, Mexico, nine years ago. (And it is probably that long ago since I was out dancing - not wedding related - yes, I'm getting old). The dentist seemed popular in Kiev though and I have confess with some embarrassment,that I could recall most of the lyrics. However, old or not, I had to get up very early the following day to catch my flight back to Sweden, and luckily, the "everywhere appearing Yuri" was waiting for me in the lobby at six o'clock in the morning. Yuri is a very nice guy and the head of the transportation at the WOC. He has had a busy week...

And what about Totte Wallin? Well, I doubt any non-Swede knows who he his, but he is a musician and a caller in Sweden's world famous radio show "call and we will play" asked for a Totte Wallin song. (We listened to this show on our way to a race in Österbymo). And that song became "the song of the day" to penetrate my brain when running. So if Dr. Alban was the song in my head the last day in Kiev, Totte's 'Enköpingståget' became the first in "the next chapter". The race? Not a Thierry race technically but a Thierry result...-;

WOC picture

For some reason you need to click on the "picture" to see it.

Kiev

There were no races yesterday so a few of us Canadians went in to town instead to check out some sights. Kiev has a beautiful downtown (much nicer than most North American cities); big wide boulevards, buildings, churches, squares, etc. and everything is very clean. On the other hand, the further away you get from downtown, the dirtier it gets and garbage everywhere. Definitely a city with two faces. The opening ceremony took place yesterday as well in a central park. The speeches were short and the entertaining was good. Of course, there was some cossack dancing of course. The food in Ukraine has also been better than what I expected (I was here back in 1989 and back then we only ate candy and drank Pepsi Cola - the only food that a bunch of high school kids trusted). Most restaurants have a self serving system where there is plenty to choose between and at the cashier they weigh all the food and you pay. A decent meal cost about $5-6. A beer cost about $1 I have heard. Another good thing with Kiev is the subway. Again, very clean and the trains come pretty much every minute or so. If you like Isak enjoy going upd and down escalators, Kiev is the place. So far, the longest escalator ride took almost three minutes.

Idag blev det en svang ut till medeldistansfinalen. Det var lika svart som kvalet (givetvis inte lika knepigt...;-)) men bade Thierry och Simone visade Hysenklass och utklassade faltet. Jag sprang det mesta av finalbanan efterat och kunde konstatera att det hjalpte lite att ha sprungit i den har typen av terrang en gang nu. Nagra bommar blev det men jag hade inte blivit sist i finalen i alla fall.

Spel Mot Ett Mal/Race Report

Hade det varit en fotbollsmatch sa skulle man kunna sammanfatta mitt lopp idag att det var spel mot ett mal. Och jag var inte det spelforande laget..

Det var svart idag, mycket svart bitvis och det var storre namn an jag som missade (jag hade val iofs missat finalen i vilket fall som helst men...) finalen, t ex min startkamrat Osterbo.

For ev entusiaster kommer en liten aterberattelse. Forsta strackan var lite langre och det var en del stiglopning, bland annat genom ett zigenarlager, eller romerlager om man ska vara politiskt korrekt, men som tur var alla hundar kopplade. Stigen slutade och da var det noggran kompass genom den oftast snariga (se kommentarer fran svenskarna pa orientering.se) skogen. Jag kom forst till ett annat heats kontroll som forvisso lag i min vag men jag laste in mig fel och det blev en liten snurr. Detta scenario skulle upprepa sig flera ganger...Till tvan till exempel. Den hittade jag dock relativt snabbt och det kandes genast battre. Trean dock! Ouch! En glanta mitt bland allt lovsly och till slut var jag tvungen att ga ut pa narmaste stig och lasa in mig. Min kilometertid pa den strackan var knappa 34 min/km...Nu var det lite jobbigt men jag bestamde mig givetvis for att satsa vidare och forsoka kora lite enklare vagval. Fyran blev stig runt, vilket var givet, men aterigen blev det en liten svang i ringkanten. Femman var val forsta kontrollen som jag fick direkt. Sexan var en langre stracka och jag bestamde mig for att kora stig runt ett tag. Jag gissar att jag nog ar ganska ensam om det vagvalet men nu var det sakerhet forst och framst. Dessvarre blev det inte battre an att jag gjorde ett parallellfel pa ett par mossar och tappade lite tid igen. Sjuan gick val okej. Det fanns ju ett stort hygge man kunde anvanda som bollplank. Attan skulle vara enkel men i snaret tappade jag riktningen och hamnade pa stigen vaster om kontrollen. Samma sak till nian och tian. Drev snett och fick studsa tillbaka efter ett snabbt besok pa stigen bakom resp oster om kontrollen. Elvan gick bra och nu kom en tysk som visade vagen till tolvan och som aven visade vagen till de aterstaende kontrollerna aven om jag av ren artighet slappte ivag honom lite fore mig. Jag var inte snabbast pa upploppet. Jag har inte kartan framfor mig nar jag skriver detta men jag tror att jag fick med det mesta.

Sa summa sumarum - ett daligt lopp. Forvisso var det platt vilket jag gillar men kombinationen dalig sikt och finlir och en konstant titt pa kompassen ar kanske inte riktigt min melodi. Garna lite rakare ror. Att anvanda nattorienteringsteknik var nog den basta strategin. Troligtvis ar det slutsprunget redan for min del. Stafetten aterstar men jag tvivlar att jag far fortroendet. Men det ar val inget fel pa Tranas eller Hultsfred...;-)

I don't have the energy at the moment to translate everything I wrote above but, in short: my race was a...not so good one. Some minor mistakes in the beginning was followed by a major one on the third control already. I did try to take more safe route choices after that but I never got any flow in my orienteering. The terrain was a bit like Hilton Falls in the summer time but remove all rocks and replace the ground with sand instead. Most of the area could be described as light green with saplings constantly in your face. In other words poor visibility. You had to keep an eye on your compass at all times and at the same time do fine navigation - not my favourite combination but it was definitely a worthy WOC qualifier course. The best orienteers made it to the final. And...Pam James is one of them. That's AWESOME!

Second Kiev report

Day number two in Kiev and not as hot and humid as expected which was a nice surprise. I didn't go and watch the long qualifier today, instead I went to an area that is similar to the terrain I'm going to race in tomorrow. The woods are very open in places but there are also some jungle like areas. I better avoid those...
The Swedish team was there as well and I talked to a few them. They are btw staying at the same hotel as us, and so are most teams. I was just taking it easy the rest of the day and I look forward to tomorrow. My start time is 9.39 local time. Stay tuned.

More Göteborg pixs

Finally,we got to have a quick visit with a long time friend of Hans', Petter and his wife, Nina and daugther, Stina. Isak loved playing with Stina and kept her very busy while we enjoyed some delicious sea food from the west coast.

As you know, Hans is now in Ukraine representing Canada in the World Orienteering Championships. If you are interested in seeing race results you can go to www.woc2007.org.ua and click on middle distance results. He races in the trials tomorrow, Monday August 20. Send him good luck vibes.

Road trip to Göteborg

1: A group pixture with the cousins. Sara (whom is celebrating her 13th birthday), Emma, Lia and Isak (whom is not interested in sitting for photos).
2: Enjoyed some yummy food with Kalle and Malin as well as lots of playing for Isak and Lia with Albin in Borås
3: Did some sight seeing in Göteborg of a few parks with zoos and rides for Isak as well as went on a tour of Ostindiefararen Götegorg which is a large ship built in 1738 . The ship sank shortly after being built with a load of merchandise from China. Here is Isak, Hans and Lia sitting on the ship. Isak loved all the steep stairs he got to climb up and down, and up and down.
4: Can barely see Matilda peeking behind her pappa, Thomas, as well as Johanna and Gustav (born June 21st). Looks like someone else, besides Isak, is not that interested in pictures being taken.
5: Richard, Julia, Axel and Alli- visiting with Hans' cousin, Richard and his family

First day in Kiev/Forsta dagen i Kiev

I (Hans) left Gothenburg and Sweden early this morning and after a stop over in Vienna I arrived in Kiev right after lunch. I was met at the airport by Yuri and his assistent. He had parked his car in a park next to airport and after some driving on grass and bike paths we hit the road to downtown. Instead of going to the hotel he took me to the area for the sprint qualification, a forest park centrally located in Kiev. The woods looked nice although the event centre more had the character of a B-meet to be honest. Unfortunately, no one of the Canadians qualified (17th - Pam James was the best result). The hotel we are staying at is not too bad and the local food we have tried has been ok too. Oh, the name of the hotel is by the way Hotel Adria...The weather is Hamilton like (or Selevik warm) - hot and humid and it is supposed to be like that the rest of the week. The organizers have had some problems with the transportations; some runners were even close to miss their start but hopefull will that improve. Tomorrow it is the long qualifier but I'll skip that and check out some relevant terrain for the middle instead.

Det blir nagra rader pa svenska ocksa for de som foredrar det. Jag traffade pa, inte ovantat kanske, PeO Derebrant idag och vi bade tyckte att sprintkvalet hade mer karaktaren av en Hoglands-OL fast med speaker. Men banorna var bra och terrangen var fin och det ar val det viktigaste. Vi fick en intressant bussfard tillbaka fran tavlingarna da var busschauffor, som saknade halften av sina tander och de som var kvar var utav guld, ignorerade enkelriktat, tutade pa allt som gick i kjol samtidigt som han sjong med i gamla Modern Talking hits. Sant som bara hander i Ukraina kanske...

Update

A quick update.
We have been in Landsbro the past week doing different things like running orienteering, celebrating birthdays, some more tree planting and actually some beach time too. The weather hasn't been too bad in August. We are going on a road trip this afternoon to visit some friends in Göteborg and then Hans is leaving for Ukraine early Saturday morning. The rest of the family will be in Landsbro while he is at the world champs.

More Croatia pixs

Here are a few more pictures from out trip. The first is a shot of Lia sitting very comfortable in the shade. The second picture is the day we spent on a boat trip cruising around some of the Croatian islands. It is the view from one of the islands of the Karnati National park. Finally, the third picture is from the top point of the island we were living on and you can see reminants of an old fort from the 13th century.

Croatia trip

We got back yesterday and we had a fantastic time. The first few days were spent sight seeing in Vienna, Austria. We managed to check out a few places, despite the heat wave that was all over Central Europe (38 C). Then we drove through the beautiful foothills of Slovania on route to Croatia. Slovenia was incredible with their lush forests, spectacular mountains and yummy gulasch. The first picture is the view from our balcony of our place that we rented on an island off the west coast of Croatia. We enjoyed going for daily swims in various places along the island and then in the late afternoon ....just steps from our apartment. Second picture is Isak and Adria goofing around in the warm waters of the Adriatic Sea. Sooooo nice!!!! The last picture is the view from the place we stayed at in Slovenia on our way back up to Austria. We did a few days of orienteering and hiking here. We literally had the mountains in our back yard and you can see Elsa and Agnes Asp (Hans' friend, Anders' girls) playing. Watch out for more pixs of our trip since I can only download 3 pictures easily .