For the second time this year, I set off for a yoga course (my first yoga trip took place at the end of December last year). The course started on August 10th, but I headed out on the 8th, which unfortunately meant I couldn’t attend Kasia and Krzysiek’s wedding (who, by the way, became the “new bride and groom” at Marta and Paweł’s wedding—a twist of fate :P).
This time I went all out and bravely practiced yoga for two back-to-back courses (meaning, as some people calculate it, I made up for a whole year). During the first course, everything hurt (which is normal), everything was stretching (i.e., everything you’re supposed to exercise in yoga :P), and the practice didn’t bring me as much joy as it did during the second course. By then, all the aches were gone, and I felt so fantastic exercising that I dared to say I’d be one of the best if I stayed for a third session.
My sister Renatka arrived for the second course, which gave me extra motivation, though I’ll never match her flexibility.
Meeting the Paranienormalni comedy group
After arriving in Charbrowo and getting settled in our rooms, we immediately headed to Łeba to say hello to the sea. But I didn’t just say hello to the sea. While walking on the beach, I ran into the comedy group Paranienormalni, and since I’m a fan, I wanted to take a picture with them. They agreed, of course, and Małgosia (who gave me a ride there) took the photos. A moment after the picture was taken, Ania (our sensei) came back, noticed we were lagging behind, and “discreetly” asked, “Who are these people?” Before I could even answer, Igor (who plays the character Mariolka) said, “We just wanted to get a picture with Waldek.” When she asked, “Wait, you guys know Waldek?”, Robert replied, “Everybody knows Waldek!” Ania stayed on the ground only because gravity is a bit stronger by the sea. Anywhere else, she would have floated away with pride (and we’d have a problem figuring out who would lead the course :P).
Sunscreen, walks, and a shoulder stand with a chair
Being by the sea, you have to take advantage of it and get a tan 🙂 Unfortunately, to avoid sunburns, I slathered myself in SPF 30, and despite lying flat like a pancake on the beach for 5 hours, I didn’t tan at all (okay fine, I got a tan behind my knees, where I didn’t quite reach with the sunscreen). Naturally, the next day (and for the rest of the week), the weather wasn’t exactly tanning-friendly. However, when it finally improved, I invested in some SPF 5 and left Łeba with a nice tan :-).
Almost every evening during those two weeks, I took walks along the beach, covering shorter or longer distances. This meant that when my sister arrived, I was ready to hike all the way from Łeba to the dunes and back on foot—about 20 km altogether. On the way back, my feet had gotten such a thorough peeling that walking on the sand started to hurt, and I had to put my sandals on. That wasn’t the only “injury” I got. Unfortunately, my shoulder acted up again, and once more, I couldn’t manage the forearm stand 🙁 On the bright side, I can now do Salamba Sarvangasana, also known as the shoulder stand (with the help of a chair, of course). I don’t have any new photos of me exercising because I was mostly taking pictures of my sister. Plus, the fact that I do yoga doesn’t surprise anyone anymore, so I have nothing to prove :-).
A vegetarian feast and the Charbrowo yoga course
Besides yoga and walking, our third main source of entertainment was hunting for a sunset. We only succeeded twice, towards the end of the second week :-).
What else about the course? I won’t write about the exercises, because I don’t know much about them (even though I’m a certified Savasana instructor). Food, on the other hand, is something I do know about, and it was delicious. It was missing only one thing, but it was mostly just me missing it. Other than the lack of meat, it was absolutely flawless. I didn’t have to suck up to the dog to steal food from his bowl, because usually, after lunch and dinner, I was so stuffed I didn’t have room for anything else 🙂 (Narine’s recipes will be posted here). To prove it wasn’t just my opinion, during the bonfire at the second course, the ladies from room #7 sang a song praising Narine and her family’s cooking to the tune of the traditional Polish folk song “Hej Sokoły.”
The drive back from Charbrowo went smoothly, without any major arguments with Krzysztof Hołowczyc trapped inside my phone’s GPS navigation.