Thessaloniki Meet Session Three

This morning I swam the 50 back (31.54) and placed 3rd and then swam 200 breast (2:42.1) and came fifth but swam the race technically well. Then we attempted to walk up to the top of the ruins of the castle here in Thessaloniki. We took the advice of some kids who said up up up up and jumped a fence and climbed over the castle wall meant to keep people out. Then we ended up at the cafe we were trying to get to and I had the most amazing waffle I have ever eaten in my whole life.
Then we took taxis back to the pool and swam a 3km workout. Then ate some dinner and packed up. Tomorrow we are going to the beach about an hour outside of Thessaloniki. I am excited for the beach, because I have not been to one in Greece yet.

Thessaloniki Meet Session Two

Last night I only swam the 100 breast. I went a 1:15 which is two seconds faster than Athens, but came 5th. The session went until after 9pm last night so I was pretty tired and did not write a blog last night. This morning is the last session of the meet and then we have a practice and then tomorrow as of right now is a day off!

Thessaloniki Meet Session One

The second meet here in Greece is a three session timed final meet. This first session I swam 50 free (28.24) for 8th spot, 50 breast (35.24) for 3rd spot, 100 back (1:07.17) for 3rd spot and 200 IM (2:25) for gold.
For first place they give massive trophies, which is kind of cool. But the competition is not as deep as the meet in Athens was. This afternoon I just have 100 breast, which will be nice after swimming 4 races in 2.5 hours.
The pool we are racing at is across town and we need to take taxis to it, which is kind of annoying, but it is nice to drive past the ruins of an old castle that used to be in Thessaloniki which centred around the White Tower that was used similarly to the Tower of London.
Time for lunch and then a nap before heading back to the pool.

Thessaloniki

We woke up at 5am on Tuesday morning after a late night of packing up and telling each other about our day (because only two of us stayed in Greece and toured around, while the rest of the team went on a mini boat cruise of the Greek Islands).
We got on the train just before 8am and rode it all the way to Thessaloniki. I met an old Albanian man on the train who was travelling with his parents to visit his relatives throughout Greece. He only spoke Greek and it was hard to understand his accent, but his name was Ramos and he was a refugee from World War Two and it was cool to hear his story even though I only understood half of it. He gave me some Greek coffee and it was possibly the most disgusting thing I have ever tasted, but it was still cool, because it was something that locals would drink.
Then we took cabs from the train station to our new hotel: Hotel Metropolitan and our cab driver charged us 10 euros when everyone else's cab only cost 7.5 euros....what a rip off!
Then we wandered around by our hotel and got some spanikopita for lunch and then went to the new pool for a training session.
The pool would be nice but it has been run down quite a bit since the economy went down. There is an outdoor 50m pool and an indoor 50m pool. We swam outside and there were no backstroke flags, so we kind of counted our strokes and kind of just didn't do backstroke.
Then after training we had a quick abs session and dropped our stuff off at the hotel and went downtown to find a place for dinner.
The walk to downtown took over an hour and no one realized that it was almost 9pm by the time we got there. The local football team is down a place in the play offs, so there was a big pep rally kind of thing to get everyone's spirits up and that was taking over this square on the sea, and we were hard pressed to find a place to serve dinner. I ended up just coming back and grabbing some more spanikopita on the way home.

This morning we went to the pool and trained a 7km workout and then quickly visited the European Speedo store, which was pretty awesome and then rushed back for the hotel breakfast. Now time for a quick nap before heading back to afternoon training...hopefully in the outdoor pool...

Touring Athens

Today we did not have any training, so I went and did some sight-seeing around the Ancient Architectural areas in Athens. I saw the Temple of Zeus, which is basically just some stone pillars now, because a fire burnt the actual temple down. 

Then there was a statue of Lord Byron and Aphrodite (I think) that was very majestic!

Then I had a wonderful opportunity for a photo-op in the trees... 

Next I went to the theatre of Dionysus and got to sit on the actual seats of the theatre where many great plays were performed!

Then I quickly went back to a rock that overlooked the Acropolis to take this fantastic shot of me about to take over the world!

Then I decided I should run out of the door of the Roman Agora, just cuz it is epic!

All in all the day was pretty epic, but now I am a little sunburnt in the pattern of my backpack that I wore all day! Tomorrow morning at 6am we leave for Thessaloniki. We are taking the train and I hope I can take some more pictures while we travel.

Akropolis Grand Prix Day Three

Find prelim results here. I swam 100 back and went 1:06 and only slipped on the turn wall and then 5 mins later swam the 100 breast and went 1:17, just barely missing finals in the breast. Then we came back to the hotel had a 40min run and then lunch and then back to the pool for a 6km training session and then swam my final for the 100 back. The final results are here. I swam a 1:07 and came 8th again. But apparently that was good considering the amount of work we did today.
Then we went our for a team dinner and what looked like a nice restaurant called Poseidon. It was 14 euros for 5 pieces of shrimp....but the shrimp still had eyes on it....so I did not ear them. And then we went to the chocolate cafe and had the most amazing chocolate mousse I have ever eaten in my entire life! And now I am listening to the sounds of an awesome tailgate party on the beach and contemplating going down to it.
Tomorrow I am going to check out a bunch more cultural places and explore more of Greece!

Akropolis Grand Prix Day Two Finals

Results for tonight can be found here. I came out of tonight's finals still in 8th place, and only improved a little bit off my time. I still slipped off the block tonight and came up way behind my competitors. I also almost missed my race, because I zoned out for a second and didn't realize how many heats had gone by...and then I was racing in the next heat and ran as fast as I could to the marshalling area. I made it just on time when they were calling out okh-to (which is eight) for the final time.
There are a lot of spectators here in Greece and it is a very popular sport compared to Canada. It is really interesting to see how the meet is run. I also met a Romanian coach and he gave me a key chain from Romania.
Tomorrow I have 100 breast and 100 back.

Akropolis Grand Prix Day Two Prelims

Just a quick recap of prelims this morning. Full results can be found here. I only swam the 50 back and ended up 8th, with a spot in the finals tonight. The touch pads are really slippery and I slipped off them in warm up, so when it got to the race I was afraid I was going to slip, so I was very cautious off the start. I did not slip in the race, but I did push off really deep and spent the whole fifty trying to catch up. My time was not very good, but considering I basically had to race without a start I am happy with my swim. But more so happy that I get another shot at it tonight.
I spent the rest of prelims suntanning and watching other swimmers race. It is cool watching the stroke technique from other countries, when I am used to just watching Canada and USA techniques.
Now time for lunch (with some Greek yoghurt), a nap and then back to the pool for finals!

Day One of Akropolis Grand Prix

Yesterday, on our first full day in Greece we swam twice and in between we went to the Athens Flea Market. It took about an hour by tram to get to downtown and then we spent around three hours exploring. A massive thunderstorm suddenly occurred after about two hours and all of us were completely soaked through! But then the sun came out about 20mins later and we dried off nicely. By the time we trained that night most of the other international teams were also in the water and it was nice to see how they trained and prepared for a meet. Because at this meet people are trying to make their Fina A standard so they can make world championships. And after dinner a couple of us went to chocolate cafe and ordered things only speaking Greek...so we pointed and said thank you (ef-ka-re-sto) a lot!

Then this morning we went for a short 40min run instead of swimming and then went on an adventure to visit the Acropolis and it was spectacular. Other than being insanely full of tourists it was one of the coolest landmarks I have ever seen. And I found a nice little hole to hide myself in, just encase it rained again...

Tonight was the first session of the Akropolis Grand Prix and the results from today can be found here. I swam 400IM and it went alright. I finished in 5th spot with 5:13.02, and everything about it was good except my second 50 of butterfly and my first 50 of backstroke, but those will easily get better with some butterfly training. I also out-touched the girl beside my in the last ten meters of freestyle, so ending a race that way always feels good. There is no warm down pool though, so my 50 breaststroke did not go as well as I would have liked. I was 35.51 and ended up 10th, just out of a second swim position. And a second and a half over my best time.

Overall though, I am happy with tonight's swims, and getting a handle on the meet was helpful. Especially trying to fit in dives when they do not open dive lanes here and you just kind of dive in whenever and hopefully you don't hit someone in warm-up. 

Another interesting fact about Greece: you cannot flush toilet paper here, because the sewer system cannot handle it, so all washrooms have a little garbage can that you put your used toilet paper into...odd!

Arrival In Greece

After a nine hour flight from Calgary to Heathrow, an hour layover and then a four hour flight from Heathrow to Athens and I finally made it to the hotel in Athens, Greece. The accommodations are far from spectacular, but that is part of the adventure of international travelling, right?
We were only allowed to sleep for a total of five hours during our travel day and needless to say I am exhausted. We train a double tomorrow and need to be up by six to walk over to the pool and figure out how to get places....like a grocery store? Protein bars anyone?
I am excited to get this camp and its hard training started, but more importantly to explore the downtown Marketplace tomorrow!!!!!! SO excited!