Category: Walking

Split Pace

~ Veselin ~ 2 Comments

The hiking split pace announcement triggered Siri today 🙂

I couldn’t reach the bean soup today. This image with Split Pea is the best I could do. The temperature reached 35°C yesterday. I went to the mountain optimistically dressed in a t-shirt, and shorts, armed with a bottle of water, and no backpack, expecting hot weather. Found strong winds, the starting point temperature was 11°C and the destination was 0°C. Gave it a try but couldn’t make it. Stayed within the 10-12°C part of the mountain for about 10km. It was cold. One of the first things I did after coming back was to go to Decathlon and buy a small backpack, a very light wind-proof jacket, and a wool scarf.

Apple Watch is a marvelous device for beginner hikers but perhaps I need to turn off Siri.

PS. The raspberries today were wonderful and properly cooled.

I let my guard down during my vacation

~ Veselin ~ 13 Comments

I had an awesome 2 weeks off and it felt awesome, I wish my vacation was longer. However, watching the health app, it’s full of red flags everywhere.

🔴 Made on average about 3K steps per day during the 2 weeks 📉, with a decrease in all activity and calory metrics
🔴 Ate more meals, more each meal, and less healthy food each day, often with beer, ice cream, and fries 🍺
🔴 Gained 2-3kg 👻
🔴 I find it harder to make myself walk and climb stairs now that I’m back

Looking back, what did I do wrong?

The food in Greece, Spain, and generally all restaurant food in vacation destinations is tasty, the portions are big, and it’s full of fats, salts, and sugar. Unlike brunch places in Bulgaria that feed office workers, tourist trap areas feed tourists who only eat there for a short period. They are not incentivized to sell healthy food but rather to make guests pay more. Also, it’s hot, and hot encourages ice cream and beer. Hard to avoid that or is it?

My biggest wonder from this year is what happened with the steps. I went down from 10k to 3k. Why? Not sure. Living in a small village doesn’t leave that much room for walking but ours had a long beach alley. Walking was possible. I slipped somehow.

Beans

~ Veselin ~ 2 Comments

First hiking achievement post in 3 weeks. I reached Cherni Vrah and had beans there. The beans were nice.

I took a longer path to the top, which was obscured by endless blueberries 🫐 and occasional raspberries.

I’m surprised nobody ate them before me.

And this is Sofia. Or at least Sofia is visible.

Teatime

~ Veselin ~ 11 Comments

Best herb tea Bulgaria can offer. We call it “Mashterka”. Some rare herbs gained popularity but I always suspected it’s due to their rarity rather than taste. Mashterka isn’t rare and is delicious.

PS. Jonathan Teatime is a villain from Hogfather. Couldn’t resist the temptation to name a flower post after him 🙂