My feet (heels specifically) are in pain after a mere 4.7 km run on flat land. This is bad news.

It all started when I befriended P, who's a passionate runner. After listening to her countless accounts of her running adventures for a few months, I began developing an interest in this sport. This is quite a departure from my old attitude that runners are hermits intent on damaging their knees before the onset of old age.

So it was with trepidation that I went on my first run up to Vysehrad in May. I was panting after a mere 3 minutes of jogging, feeling like my lungs were going to explode, and I wasn't even 500 m from my apartment. Not a promising start, I must admit. I have no recollection of how I eventually ran up to Vysehrad and made it back home, but let's just say I was glad that I made it back home in one piece.

I surprised myself by giving it another go. And another go, and another go. The result is, I've been running two to three times a week for the last 3 months. I've run up and down the Vltava river, inside Letna Park (which has the best view of Prague old town I swear), and up to Petrin Hill. And I've been panting less and less.

I surprise myself by saying that I'm actually having fun. I've enjoyed it so much that I've decided to invest into running, kitting myself out with a proper mileage counter that works with my brand new Ipod Nano, and a brand new pair of Asics running shoes.  All in the course of one week.

Just like everything else in my life, nothing goes as smoothly as I planned. After an over enthusiastic run up to and around Vysehrad last Monday, my heels started hurting. Initially I thought nothing of it, and ran up to Vysehard and Letna Park later on. Big mistake. My heels hurt so badly by last Saturday, that I had to abort my run around Letna Park. The pain was too much to bear.

I've since found out through my physio buddy (who was visiting me last weekend) that I have overstretched my heels by running uphill too much, and my feet are not made for running. The former I worked out beforehand by reading up on the topic. The latter gave me an impetus to prove that my buddy was wrong. I am now even more determined to keep running, after my heels heal of course. After a disastrous run south of Vltava river today that ended with me almost limping home, I think I need to give my feet more rest than I originally anticipated (read: 3 days of not running).  This just means I will swim more instead.

And if you were wondering, yes I have become quite the exercise freak lately. Like today, I could feel my whole body itching for a run or a swim, even though I knew it's best to have a rest day, after standing for over 2 hours at last night's Faith No More concert. But I gave in to my bodily urges, and now I'm paying the price.  But I don't regret going out for a jog today. It was refreshing, invigorating and distracting.  I need physical exhaustion more these days to take my mind off matters out of my control, such as my job search, and my boredom at work. And it's become a drug I need to partake of on a daily basis. Perhaps I should consider doing another sport, but for now, I am determined to master running. Or at least run 5 km without stopping for air.

What a busy month June's been!  So busy I haven't had a chance to update my xanga for almost the whole month. And if I haven't come down with a nasty infection, I wouldn't even have noticed.

Let's start where I left off the last time.

Nova Rock, Nickelsdorf

I've always wanted to go check out a music festival in Europe since I heard S talking about it last year. I haven't been to even one of the numerous festivals in Prague, and I was planning to go, when I discovered Nova Rock in Austria.  My friends and I were so impressed with the line-up that we decided to make the almost 5-hour journey to Nickelsdorf about 2 weeks ago for our first taste of an Austrian music festival.

It was hot and dusty on the first day of the festival when we arrived. We heard on the radio on the bus ride to the festival that there would be 150,000 people attending the festival.  The number of tents we saw pitched when we arrived at the festival site was testament to this.

It took us ages to find a suitable spot to pitch our tents, but we had an experienced festival goer in our midst, M, and we totally trusted his judgment in the choice of location ("don't pitch tents near the toilets, stage or footpaths if you wanna sleep at all at night"). 

When the rain started coming down on Saturday, I was relieved that we followed M's advice, as our tent was relatively untouched and far away from the mud pit.  I saw so many tents mangled, toppled and destroyed as people did their utmost to avoid walking in the deep slippery mud on Saturday. It was interesting watching people become creative with their rainwear (garbage bags, anyone?) during the festival. And no, our spirits were not dampened by the uncooperative weather.

Salzburg and Werfen

Ukranian Ice Queen and I decided to take a couple more days off before the festival to see Salzburg and its surrounds.

Festung Hohensalzburg

View of the Austrian Alps

View from Hotel Sacher, the creator of the original Sachertorte

A street entertainer holding Austrian schoolchildren in his thrall

We spent one day roaming around Salzburg city, checking out Festung Hohensalzburg and Altstadt, hiking around Kapuzinerberg, and ending the day gorging ourselves with fine Austrian cuisine. Salzburg is a small, pretty city surrounded by snowcapped alps, and obsessed with being the birthplace of Mozart (there's even chocolate balls covered in Mozart's face) and with being the filming location of the classic movie, The Sound of Music. Many a time when I was hiking up to the Festung and around Kapuzinerberg, I was so moved  by the beautiful scenery that I broke into song, singing my favourite tunes from The Sound of Music at the top of my lungs. It's a pity my travel companions don't know the movie or its soundtrack (the movie wasn't so popular in Europe apparently), so I didn't have a little choir like Maria had with the kids.  This was probably for the best as we'd attract some strange looks from other tourists if we all started singing "Doe a deer".

Festung Hohenwerfen

Scenery on the hike up to Eisriesenwelt

The view from the entrance to the ice caves

We spent day 2 travelling to Werfen en route to Eisriesenwelt (ice world). I first read about Eisriesenwelt, the largest ice caves accessible to man, in Lonely Planet's Austria guide and was immediately enticed to go check it out.

After arriving at Werfen, we took a shuttle bus to the ticket office of Eisriesenwelt. After getting our tickets, we began the 20-minute uphill hike to the cable car. After getting off the cable car, it was another 20-minute hike before we reached the entrance to the ice caves, which are 1641 metres above sea level. Even though the hike was uneventful, reading a warning sign about falling rocks and seeing the rocks accumulated on the shelter on parts of the path unnerved me slightly.  But once inside the ice caves, I forgot about the hike and was mesmerised by the ice formations inside.

Eisriesenwelt was first discovered by 1879 by Anton Posselt, a natural scientist form Salzburg, and was open to visitors in the 1920s. The ice formations in the caves change according to the season and how the stalactites and stalacmites develop over time. There's a formation that looks like an ice palace, one that looks like an elephant (sans head) and one that looks like a bear.  We all carried little oil lamps while inside the cave, which can sometimes be a pain to hold since the temperature inside hovered consistently around the 0 degree Celsius mark.  The guide burnt strings of magnesium to light up the formations for us to see, and explained each formation in both German and English.  As this was my first experience of being inside an ice cave, it was naturally memorable, and is now listed as one of my top 5 experiences of my life. What baffles me is how so few people I've spoken to even knew Eisriesenwelt exists, considering that Lonely Planet has included it in its latest Austrian guide.

Having had no expectations of Austria, I've been pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed my first trip there.  It's amazing how much natural beauty is packed into such a small country.  I'm already looking forward to my next trip there, hopefully to conquer the alps.

It feels like it's been ages since I last updated my xanga.  It doesn't help that the new office server has blocked access to xanga. But I really shouldn't be blogging while at work, so fair enough...

I was hoping to upload pictures and write witty captions for some pictures I took last night at a birthday and farewell party, but Facebook hasn't been cooperating all day. So I guess that's a sign that a xanga update is (over)due. Besides, I'm waiting for my laundry to be done.

The weather in Prague has taken a drastic turn for the worse about 2 weeks ago.  It went from warm, sunny days with temperatures in the mid-twenty degrees, to cold, wet days with temperatures doing a double digit plunge.  This is a real pain especially after one's packed away all one's warm clothing in anticipation of spring/summer-like weather.  This weekend's weather was the most schizophranic, with bright sunshine in the mornings, and rain and grey clouds arriving early afternoon and staying for the rest of the day.  My visitors in Prague were duly confused about the choice of outerwear, and one of them had to borrow my fleece jumper for a day when she realised her denim coat wasn't sufficient for the cold winds.

Sightseeing this weekend was a challenge somewhat, but thank God my visitors were not keen on combing every touristy spot in Prague.  Many a time, we would be found sitting in some restaurant or cafe, so J could satisfy her newfound craving for goulash, while V gushed about the Astronomical Clock.  After months of hanging out with my young friends in Prague (with whom I discuss trips, hiking, partying and alcoholic adventures), it was a refreshing change to be with women closer to my age, discussing girly topics (yes, men was one of them) for a change.

The last leg of my busy weekend was spent meeting a group of amateur photographers over beer, and basically being a photography nerd for a couple of hours or so.  I've become increasingly unhappy about the quality of the pictures I've been taking lately, but feel lost about how to improve my skills.  So it's a real blessing to have met this group of amateur photographers, who gave me many precious tips on equipment, photo editing software, and photography techniques. Now I just need an opportunity to put all the advice to practice.

But first I'll need to take out the laundry and catch up on my beauty sleep.  Let's see if inspiration comes in my dreams...