Making history in Albania . . .

Last year around this time, the Chronicle reported from frigid Ukraine after taking the ASW middle school cross country team to the capital, Kiev. As we strive to push the touristic envelope by squiring you, the reader, to the deepest, darkest, least visited corners of Europe as well as the more popular destinations, the Kielbasa sports editor was sent to Tirana, Albania a couple weeks ago.

"Why Tirana?" you may be asking, as well as a few parents concerned about their child's safety. Well, think of CEESA (the Central Eastern European Schools Association) as a sports league, in the same vein as major league baseball except without the steroids and exorbitant payrolls. Schools in Warsaw, Moscow, Prague, Budapest, Istanbul and Bucharest have outstanding facilities for hosting the team sports, i.e. soccer, basketball, volleyball, and softball. These are the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox of international schools, which operate on healthy budgets but charge twelve dollars for a beer and a hot dog. Oh wait, that's still baseball.

International schools in cities such as Vilnius, Tallin, Riga, Zagreb, and Belgrade are the small market teams, the Minnesota Twins, Milwaukee Brewers, and Kansas City Royals if you will. They lack the facilities to host the major tournaments so they take turns hosting smaller events such as tennis, Math Counts, Knowledge Bowl and Speech and Debate. Oh yeah, and cross country too. It doesn't take much to host a cross country meet except a big park, some road construction cones, and a few volunteers.

So consider a school like Tirana International to be the Nashville Sounds, a AAA affiliate of MLB. They want to be invited to the major leagues but have to prove themselves worthy by hosting an event. Which is why the Chronicle sports department was witness to the first ever cross country race in Albania's history:





One of the more fascinating, albeit tragic, reminders of Albania's isolationist past are the bunkers that dot the landscape from the coastal beaches to the rugged mountain terrain. Everywhere you look, there are small, cylindrical concrete shelters large enough for only one man. Albania's Stalinist dictator, Enver Hoxha, commissioned the construction of 600,000 refuges, enough for 25% of the country's population. He feared invasion not only from the West, but from his ally, the Soviet Union as well. Check out some of the beachside huts of Albania:

Frogs pick up the Czech and another Capital's Cup

Some of you may or may not know that one of my hobbies is playing old man rugby with the Warsaw Frogs. I really shouldn't characterize this brand of the English sport with such a condescending denomination since being 34 makes me one of the club's elder statesmen. Truth be told, there are a large number of quality players from around the world making up the squad. They just happen to have landed in Poland's capital for a variety of reasons, be it love of country, a good woman, or money.

One could go as far as saying that the Frogs are a mainstay of the social scene for ex-pats in Warsaw. There are around sixty guys involved in various team functions, be it actual matches or just hoisting the occasional pint while wearing team gear. The annual Warsaw Tens tournament in May is attended by more than a dozen teams from around Europe and as far away as Tahiti and the United States. But our season culminates in the fall at the Capital's Cup, hosted by either Moscow, Vienna, Warsaw, Budapest, or this year's team, the Prague Barbarians.

Since all touring sides live by the credo: "What goes on tour, stays on tour.", I will provide only a partial glimpse into the weekend. Defending the title with ease (bulletin board material for the archrival Moscow Dragons)after only allowing one try to be scored against us in five matches, the Frogs hoisted their third consecutive cup. Amazingly enough, this ugly mug remained unscathed by the usual contusions beneath my eyes. My only badge of honor this year was a nasty spike-shaped bruise upon my derriere.

The real fun began after the actual playing of the matches. Every year the team braintrust chooses a different theme for the trip. This year's was a parody of the world famous French bicycle race. But instead of conquering the Alps and Pyrenees, the "riders" in the 2008 Le Tour De Frogs spilled into the streets of Prague clad in various shades of spandex and brandishing a thirst for adventure rather than pain and agony.

For those unfamiliar with the sport, the physiques required to play rugby vary from the dainty, waif-like backs to the robust members of the scrum who never miss a meal. Hilarity ensued when the whole traveling party of twenty four guys were squeezing into outfits which left little to the imagination.

The rest of the weekend is contained within the classified files at the Chronicle, only to be revealed upon court order.

What the hell is going on over there?

It's clips like this of angry mobs that make me very scared! Are there really that many angry mobs back in the U.S.? Alright, I realize that he's not exactly speaking to a gathering of MENSA but it really makes me feel warm and cozy to be far far away from people like this:



My apologies for not posting in a couple weeks, but with the three day weekend in Prague, defending the Warsaw Frogs' title as the best ex-pat rugby team in Central / Eastern Europe and then the four day junket to bizarrely picturesque Tirana, Albania for the CEESA cross country meet, I have been kind of spent.
You can look for a more extensive update in the next few days as things return to normal around here. For now, I will just give you a couple teaser pics from Prague and Albania. See you in a little bit . . . oh, and head on over to Danielle's Living the Good Life blog for some great pics of mountain biking in the Andes. Pretty damn cool stuff.













ALBANIA! The country's motto: It's really not as bad as you'd think!

Weekend in the mountains . . .

Last weekend, the Chronicle staff decided to get out of town and head for the hills, errr, I mean mountains. "Poland has mountains? I did not know that." Yes, dear readers, this country does contain some topographical features but unfortunately it is necessary to take a six hour train ride to see them. So charge up your iPod, buy the latest issue of the Economist, and take along a beautiful blonde traveling companion. We are headed to Zakopane (zah-ko-PAH-nee).

When you talk about this famous mountain resort town, the first thing that comes to mind for me is the legendary Oscypek. This is a cheese made out of salted sheep's milk and sold only in the Tatra Mountains of Poland. The process in making this highly-addictive dairy product sounds relatively simple. You grab the nearest sheep,whisper sweet nothings in its ear, milk it, make some cottage cheese, throw it in a fancy little wooden form for a night or two, and finally smoke it in a hut for a couple weeks. Okay, maybe it's not so simple but the result is absolutely mouth-watering and worth all the effort.

As you walk through the city, there are carts everywhere selling Oscypek. It costs about forty cents for a golf ball sized chunk. Double that price if you want it cooked over an open flame and served just above the melting point. Excuse me, I need to wipe the drool off my keyboard.

After devouring about twenty pieces of smoked cheese, it was out to dinner for some lamb smothered in more cheese. It felt like Thanksgiving in September as we waddled back up the street to our hotel. Fate had also smiled on us upon checking in. We were informed that a tour group had take over the whole 2nd floor so we were upgraded to a suite.

I had to chuckle upon learning that our fellow guests were all retirees from upstate New York. One couple was even decked out head to toe in Buffalo Bills gear on Sunday morning. Hey, whatever works for ya I guess, since the Bills are 4-0 so far this season.

The next morning we spent a couple hours waiting in line for the gondola to take us up to the top of the 6,500 ft Kasprowy Wierch. I think we could've climbed to the top in that amount of time, but there was so much snow near the summit, some skiers were getting lots of early season turns.

After coming down from the peak, we had just enough time to quaff a couple pints, and of course more cheese, before jumping back on the rails. It had been a beautiful but quick weekend getaway . . . Next week, we will report from Prague, site of this weekend's Capital's Cup Rugby tournament. Do widzenia!