In the spirit of full disclosure I wanted to tell you that I went jogging today. This may not seem monumental, except for the fact that this was my first workout-session since I moved to Korea 6 months ago. The result is a resolution to never workout ever again. Never ever. Like many New Year’s Resolutions I’m afraid I’ll have to break this one too, but the pain in my chest, the nausea and dizziness that lasted for a good 15 minutes after I collapsed on the living room floor will keep me away from any gym for as long as that memory stays fresh.
Talking about New Year’s Resolutions, the big trend on my Facebook-feed these past few weeks was telling the world how you don’t care for New Year’s resolutions. From being the era of “the perfect life on social media”, 2014 slowly turned into the era of “complaining about people who are perfect on social media”, and the “New Year’s resolution”-boycott was the latest addition to the list.
Personally I’ve never really cared much for New Year’s Eve – or any other holiday, save Christmas and possibly Halloween – so it goes without saying that most of my New Year’s resolutions from previous years have been forged under social pressure to assimilate and conform.
Luckily, I am slowly turning old and cranky, and one of the blessings of that state of mind is complete and unbiased carelessness for social conventions that I myself don’t subscribe to anymore. This also involves aversion to heavy drinking every weekend, unwillingness to staying in shape, going on dates, or feeling shame for binge-watching TV-series for 2 days straight. And a whole lot of other things.
To counterpoint this anti-resolution, anti-workout sentiment, especially for those of you who haven’t followed this blog for the eons that it’s been alive and breathing on the internet, I am very fond of staying active and being outdoors. I just don’t appreciate working-out just for the sake of working-out anymore. I love hiking, I love snowboarding, I used to be a dancer and I still love dancing when I get the chance, I am a fan of yoga and pilates under the right circumstances and I can be very fond of orienteering during those 2 weeks of the year where I participate in our “family sport”.
To highlight this I thought I would share some iPhone-photos I recently unearthed from our trip to Asiago and Bassano del Grappa this summer. I’ve already shared the photos I took in Venice at the end of our trip, but the majority of said trip was spent in the Italian mountainside north of Venice, hiking and running orienteering.
In Norway it’s the sheep who rule the mountainside, in Hawaii it’s the goats, and in Italy its the cows. They were everywhere, and very prone to stop traffic if they felt like it.
While the family travelled down a bit earlier, I had to stay behind to cover Palmesus (the beach party/festival that takes place every summer in Kristiansand) for work. Then on Monday I flew down to Venice, boarded a train north, and got off in Bassano del Grappa. I came across this piece of street art close to the train station and as I have been obsessing over street art for the better part of the last 10 years, it joined my iPhone collection of street art from around the world.
Old street art is as beautiful as the new one. In this case a mural over the entrance to the church in the middle of the city.
After a couple of hours of wandering around town, I got picked up by the family and we headed for the mountains and Asiago.
The drive from Bassano del Grappa to Asiago, through the foothills of the Alps is the stuff that postcards are made of.
We stayed at a golf course resort east of the city center, and the next morning I woke up to this view. It inspired me to think up a crime-novel, that I regrettably never put to paper.
The next day we returned to Bassano del Grappa to eat dinner and see if there was anything we could spend our money on. My dad was sporting his favorite pink shirt, proving that men can indeed use pink without looking feminine.
I was sporting my favorite leopard espadrilles. They gave up on life shortly after this trip.
La famiglia!
The famous bridge of Bassano del Grappa, crossing the river Brenta. The Ponte Vecchio (or Ponte degli Alpini) was designed by the architect Andrea Palladio in 1569. In addition to the picturesque bridge, the city is known for being the origin of Grappa, the grape-based pomace brandy. Ashamed to say I didn’t try any grappa while I was there.
The next day we got in the car and drove in the opposite direction, further into the mountains to go hiking through the old battlegrounds of the infamous Battle of Assiago.
The trails were marked with the Italian flag.
Exploring old battlements left from World War I.
These flowers marked a field that serve as a grave for countless of soldiers who died in this pass during World War I.
Benedicte didn’t feel like smiling on this selfie from the “Field of Death”, which is apparently one of the nicknames of this particular field.
We continued on and climbed the hills of Monte Ortigara.
At the top we were treated to this stunning view.
Jogging back to the car was a lot easier than the tiresome journey to the top.
Ice cream is a mandatory snack after any summer hike.
Consulting maps is also a mandatory activity, when you’re traveling with orienteerers.
While the photos might suggest otherwise, this is where we spent most of our time: running orienteering at the annual 5 days of Italy sports event that takes place every summer. This year it coincided with the 2014 Orienteering World Championships, so we got to run in the morning and then watch the greatest runners in the world compete in the afternoon.
Tired after having just crossed the finish line.
Here’s another photo of a cow. Beautiful creatures aren’t they, the alpine cows?
