After Easterns my flight itinerary went as follows, Ottawa-Toronto-Munich-Istanbul-Erzurum-Istanbul-Geneva-Montreal-Quebec. My overnight flight to Munich went quite smoothly. It was an empty plane so it was comfortable to sleep and watch movies. From Munich we drove to Livigno, Italy, often getting lost on windy mountain roads looking for our hotel. We were looking in the city when actually our hotel was at 2200 meters on top of a mountain pass.
Livigno was beautiful. As you would most places in Italy, we dined on fine Italian pasta, veal, and croissants. I took it easy for most of the training as I picked up a cold on the way over seas. The hotel’s scented steam room helped clear my sinuses and by the time we were leaving to Turkey I was confident I was on the mend. After some intervals in the neighboring city Bormio, we headed back to Munich. I guess we were wrong to think we would be better off on our way back. The road out of livigno through Switzerland was closed. The would-be 4 hour drive just turned into an 8 hour detour. Here we are in our steam room.
In the van
After 8 hours crammed into a van with 40 plus pairs of skis we finally found the Movenpick hotel. After sleeping at altitude for the past week I slept like a baby. The next morning I woke to this amazing breakfast, which I later discovered, gave me food poisoning.
We waited 5 hours in the sweltering Istanbul airport before we made it to Erzurum. Our hotel there was even at higher altitude; 2400 meters. Just as I was recovering from my cold, I woke up with a stomachache. I choose wisely to not ski that day as later on I started puking all day… and four the next four days until finally I went to the hospital. I spent the night there sucking up IV fluid. After almost having my appendix removed for no reason I was finally diagnosed with Gastroenteritis. If spending a night in a sketchy Turkish hospital wasn’t enough, my taxi broke down on the way home and I walked home from the hospital (and the hotel is on top of a mountain). Here is the view, looking down at smoggy Erzurum from our hotel.
I was finally getting better but there was only a couple days left until the racing started and I hadn’t skied for 6 days. Anyone would know it is less than ideal to be sick leading up to a race but I still came into the races with high expectations. Those expectations were shattered in the sprint qualifier were I was an entire 17 seconds off the lead. There was bad luck with the rest of the team too. Alexis and Graeme were just outside of qualifying in 33 and 31 position and Heidi, one of only 2 Canadians to qualify, had her ski pop off in the quarterfinal.
Just when I thought my racing couldn’t get any worse I got completely annihilated in the 10km classic. My skis were great, I did a good warm up, but my body was just not recovered after being sick.
The pursuit went better but I still felt helpless after about 10km. I finished the race in 49th position. Geoffrey had a great race finishing 20th and the junior girls did well too.
I had a much better race in the relay having the 7th fastest time on my leg. It seems I am getting my strength back now so I think with another 2 weeks I will be set for nationals.
After a disappointing week of races we had a day in Istanbul to snoop around. We visited such significant religious buildings as the Blue Mosque and Topkapi Palace. It looked just like the movie Aladin. We saw priceless jewels: more gold, diamonds, rubys, and emeralds than I’ve ever seen in one place. They were so significant you were not even allowed to photograph them. We also visited the Grand Bazaar and Spice Market: an enormous and almost overwhelming market full of crazy salesman who will do anything to lure you into their shop. We had a great meal at a Kebab restaurant and that was the last of Turkey. Here is the Blue Mosque.
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