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Ramblings of an almost middle-aged man

Blogs > opisska
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opisska
Profile Blog Joined February 2011
Poland8852 Posts
Last Edited: 2017-06-19 18:07:33
June 15 2017 17:59 GMT
#1
I was considering naming this blog "Still walking", but then I thought I should probably save the melodrama for the darker times that probably lie ahead. So I choose a title which makes it so that nobody can really complain that they weren't warned, right?

I am not a very musical person, I just listen to whatever my wife puts on for me (she's pretty good at that), as I find making my own taste too much work and I find looking for new music a terrible chore, however I was just browsing some stuff on reddit or whatever (I honestly usually don't know how I end up at some page when I start madly interneting) and somehow got to this track, which I liked to an unusual extent, so you might as well put it on to get into the right mood for this reading. Yep, it's the guy who made "Down under" with an acoustic guitar and the sound is marvelous. Why he wouldn't do stuff like this in the first place is beyond me.



It's almost a year since I "moved" to Warsaw. I am not a newcomer to traveling, but back then, it seemed like a pretty major journey when we packed everything into our car and went for it. Now I can't even count the number of times I went back and forth and I must say that I am beginning to enjoy it. I have mostly ditched the buses and try to take the train whenever possible. It takes eight hours, but it never really feels that long. If I can get a good seat (that is, in a large-space carriage, not these silly cramped compartments), I can turn the journey into the most productive time of my month (I have written an 8-page article like that once). Or I can just look outside, impress some tourists with my local knowledge or just browse nonsense online - since I got my new 4G phone, I actually have a better connection at most times on mobile than I have at home. And with today's end of the roaming in EU, I can finally use my polish data plan (which costs next to nothing) all the way to Prague. I really don't understand why I didn't buy a new phone years ago, because it's so much fun to have everything working again, but at least by waiting I probably made the phone that much better.

There is something inexplicably cool about traveling by train. I know that people find old trains romantic, but what I really like the most are these new, comfortable and fast trains that we are getting now. Moving relatively quietly (from the inside) in a nice environment at 160 km/h is just ... nice. There is still even this weird touch of romanticism in meeting all the other trains from faraway places. And sometimes interesting things happen, such as today when we stopped in a small station to pick up some passengers from an earlier train which we saw being disassembled on the other track (probably a carriage breakdown). It's now listed at 99 minutes of delay which may be just the maximum value of that counter The most amazing thing to me is however just the thought that this whole huge infrastructure is there every day, whether I am looking or not, hauling people around tirelessly.

[image loading]

Since I got diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, my life has been a weird roller-coaster of ups and downs. Learning that I have drawn the short straw was really the biggest disappointment of my life. However after getting through the beginning (which I still believe was made much worse by the useless steroid medication) it didn't seem that bad - after all, I had a good chance that nothing is gonna trouble me for years before new symptoms appear. So I went snowboarding to the Alps, got a throat infection on the way, and spent half of the trip laying in bed, but at least with a pretty good view - because I have to be reasonable now and try to deal with all infections properly so that my immune system doesn't act up too much.

Then I got the shiny modern medication, in the form of pre-filled syringes that I have to apply myself every other day. After learning (the hard way) how to do it properly, it's now not more than a nuisance. However some weird things started to with me - my face would be becoming stiff, my hands wouldn't open fully, my fingers would randomly feel like they were swollen. My doctor told me that it's probably not a direct manifestation of the MS, gave my some magnesium which seemed to really help ...

... and then, out of the blue, my leg went stiffer than I would be comfortable with. That was really the low point of it all, because not only I felt like things are getting bad much faster than it was promised, I had also big trouble actually reaching any doctor on phone. Apparently, having MS isn't that big of a deal ... I finally decided to go back to Prague to show myself to the doctor in person - and the other morning, as I went to the bus station, the leg went back to normal. After 6 weeks, I am still having weird and completely random pains in both legs and the funny episodes of "myokymia", when small parts of my muscles fire randomly, producing slight tingling and a very freaky-looking spectacle on my skin, but I am somehow back to walking normally, without any medical action.

[image loading]

But enough about the stupid disease. Spring is here! Since we moved in to Poland, I dreamed about enjoying the spring here, with the flooded meadows and new life. Not being able to walk properly for a couple of weeks didn't exactly help, but nevertheless we made some pretty fun jaunts into the wild, wading knee deep through clear sandy overflows amidst endless flocks of waterbirds with the occasional moose here and there. It turned out that the right time between late-winter rains and early-summer hordes of mosquitoes is pretty short, but we moreorless hit it perfectly.

The highlight of the season was definitely our Great Snipe project. We knew that those birds can be seen somewhere in NE Poland, but information on the internet is pretty scarce, for a good reason - to limit the number of people that disturb them during their spectacular lek. We managed to find out on some forum that there is a well-known site near the village of Narew, but that was a rather general description. However, digging deeper, we found a Polish article about an observation platform being built at the location and an English trip report, where the author claims that the place is impossible to find without a guide, as they had to go by car from the back of some local factory, through a lot of forest and through many left and right turns.

[image loading]

Guess what - this description is exactly enough to find the place after a couple of minutes with satellite maps and about half an hour driving around the forest! When I finally saw the platform, that victory feeling was just awesome. We didn't really see the Snipe very well, but we had a great evening in the marshes, surrounded by exciting sounds and enjoying a great sunset. Most importantly though, we found it on our own.

The NE Poland landscape might seem monotonous at first sight, just a huge swath of flat land with some rivers, marshes, mud and mosquito-infested forests. But the fact that the interesting things aren't usually visible at first sight is a big part of the mystique of the area. One day we pulled up in a random forest parking and met some Dutchies who told us they have just seen a wolf, another day we were able to catch a glimpse of a Barn Owl right in the Goniadz village and yet another day we spent on a boat navigating channels in reed wide just enough for us to get through.

[image loading]

Speaking of birds, we managed to make two short (Friday evening to Wednesday) birding trips to more distant lands. Ryanair's offer in Warsaw-Modlin is just irresistable and they even offer a car rental slightly cheaper than rentalcars.com, so for just a couple of hundred euro each, we did Madrid in April and Athens in June. The first trip had some really great spring atmosphere (spring in northern Andalusia is just out of this world, feels like another planet), the second was a tad too warm, but had a little more great birds, finding 12 out of 14 target species, and the warmth could be easily washed away in the sea which was never too far from us.

I also bought a bike, which was one of the greatest things I could do, as Warsaw really begs to be explored on a bike as it is completely flat. On first sight, there is not much to explore, but it's really the same story as with the NE Poland in general: if you look carefully, so many small interesting places pop up everywhere. I really can't wait for another random drive around.

During some time between enjoying the spring and lying hopelessly in bed hoping for my leg to get better while watching GoT analysis videos, I managed to "write my PhD thesis", which actually meant about a week of real work, mostly putting existing articles together and writing some small pieces to make it into a naturally flowing text. However, between all of the things happening and my natural laziness, I needed three months to get myself to finish it. If everything goes well, it will be doctor opisska in September.

In the meanwhile, though, big plans await. Korea in July, and the US in August. All with the "hopefully" asterisk added, from now that will be the case until I die I guess, because things can get very bad very fast. But for now, I am all about the hope.

*****
"Jeez, that's far from ideal." - Serral, the king of mild trashtalk
TL+ Member
SkrollK
Profile Joined January 2015
France580 Posts
June 15 2017 22:03 GMT
#2
That was a great read. First because you seem to do well even with MS, which is great. And second because you gave up on fucking nothing and continued to carry on like a boss despite your sometimes "uncomfortable" condition.

The read was good, and knowing you keep on going everyday means a lot. I had a really busy day, pressure at work as always, yet reading that was like a breeze of fresh air, washing every thoughts away from me like it was nothing Just so that i can enjoy your prose.

Thanks for the blog, 5 stars as always. And keep fighting with everything you got. It helps obviously you, but others as well

Doctor Opisska hwaiting !
AbouSV
Profile Joined October 2014
Germany1278 Posts
June 16 2017 09:55 GMT
#3
Good read, cool picture, as usual.

Please tell me you had at least all the data, and a detailed outline for your paper? I quite jealous!
I use to work and be productive during train travels also, but now I mainly just sleep, regardless of when and how long the trip is.

Finally, speaking of birds, I have a very important question: do you know the onomatopoeia for the bird's cry in Polish and Czech?

(btw, the embedded viewer is disable for this video so we can't watch it here, but there isn't much you can do anyway I think)
Korakys
Profile Blog Joined November 2014
New Zealand272 Posts
June 17 2017 00:28 GMT
#4
I love trains too, when I visited Europe I used them exclusively, except, ironically, when I was going to, from, or inside Czechia.
Swing away sOs, swing away.
Greg_J
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
China4409 Posts
June 17 2017 03:15 GMT
#5
Great to see you enjoying yourself and getting about. That's what life is about. I wish you continued good luck with everything.

Did you take that first picture? It's really great.

I like traveling by trains too. China’s new fast trains are excellent something for the country to be really proud of. I do not continue this sentiment to the Beijing Metro. Oh god. You're making me want to do some traveling around Europe. Germany and Poland sound like great countries to travel around.

I will be in Busan on the 13th if you are still around let's go for a pint. I can't really make it any sooner than that because even though I am only in Geoje the days before I have a lot of things to do and people to see there. I keep discovering more things I want to cram into my trip and it makes me feel a bit dumb I used to live there and never bothered to go to many of these wonderful places. Again another insight into how easy it is to just waste the life and opportunities we have when we have them.
opisska
Profile Blog Joined February 2011
Poland8852 Posts
June 17 2017 09:07 GMT
#6
AbouSV: I wrote the paper about things I have been doing for a while, based on a presentation I gave, so I have pictures and stuff partly ready. I quite like this, when I know what to write, that's a pleasure to work ... sadly I don't know too many things, so this can't happen very often to me. Which bird's cry do you mean in particular, I am a little lost here? In Czech, we have a lot of onomato...whatrever for different birds, but I don't know how it is in Polish. I even struggle with the Polish names, they are pretty absurd sometimes!

Greg_J: I'll be in Busan on 13th, so if you want we could meet, sounds fun. You can tell me about the interesting places to go, I'll be having some free time hopefully during the meeting All pictures I present are usually taken by me or my wife; this night stuff is pretty easy with a DSLR camera - I think it's a really easy way to do impressive-looking photos, because with a tiny tripod, I can just put the thing somewhere (this is from a window sill) and do a long exposure which often looks brilliant when some good light effects are present.
"Jeez, that's far from ideal." - Serral, the king of mild trashtalk
TL+ Member
Greg_J
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
China4409 Posts
June 18 2017 01:19 GMT
#7
Great, I'll PM you from now since people don't really need to hear all the details. Teamliquid PM or email might well be the best way of staying in touch anyway as I doubt my Korean phone still works and my Chinese phone will only work when I have wifi in which case I can just PM or email you anyway.
DarkNetHunter
Profile Joined October 2012
1224 Posts
June 19 2017 18:01 GMT
#8
Enjoyed the read, glad to see you're pushing past MS to enjoy discovering new places!

Congrats on finding the lookout platform, sounds like a fun adventure ha

Trains are pretty neat, I hope they'll become more economical and replace car/bus services again. Unfortunately where I'm staying now in Germany going by train is often more expensive than even flying is city to city.

Also 5/5 for song choice!
Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make them all yourself.
AbouSV
Profile Joined October 2014
Germany1278 Posts
June 20 2017 18:02 GMT
#9
Was talking about the generic onomnom, if any. The chip chip chip equivalent.
fluidrone
Profile Blog Joined January 2015
France1478 Posts
Last Edited: 2017-06-20 23:41:00
June 20 2017 23:32 GMT
#10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rj2CD5xgpNY

<3 men@work <3


"not enough rights"
catplanetcatplanet
Profile Blog Joined March 2012
3829 Posts
April 30 2018 02:00 GMT
#11
haven't been around for a while but recalled another birder being here and thought I'd check in to see what you were up to! congratulations on the fruitful expeditions and very nice photos—what's the photographed bird? looks like a scrub-robin perhaps and I have to agree with the above on the merits of men at work as well!
I think it's finally time to admit it might not be the year of Pet
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