Settling in Sopot

 By Dennis Barker

This is like all championship meets in that there is a lot of waiting for the few moments of excitement surrounding the event in which you're involved.  For a trip this far though it's a good idea to arrive a little earlier than later.  The first couple of days of jet lag and inconsistent sleep are significant.  But most of the athletes have raced in Europe before, though not at this time of year, so their anxiety level is low and adjustment seems smooth.   

My first two days had some added adventure.  My bag, as well as maybe a dozen others, were lost by the airline.  And I had to get a key to an apartment I am sharing in Sopot with Justin Grunewald for the week.

After the long day of travel, it was getting dark as we arrived at the hotel so Gabriele and Justin went for a run while I headed out, directions in hand, to get the apartment key.  The directions given me turned out to be wrong and after over an hour of walking, being befriended by a doorman of a building and a woman walking her dog, I found the place - closed and dark.

So I headed back to the hotel, on a more direct route, to strategize over dinner and beers.  The walk was actually very pleasant since the temperature was in the 40s and the part of town I walked through reminded me of Kenwood in Minneapolis, with many very large, beautiful old homes and lots of huge trees.  

Gabriele contacted her agent Paul Doyle, who had acquired the apartment for us, and he contacted the person with the key, who had "stepped out" for awhile.  Thus, after dinner I took a taxi, which are cheap and plentiful throughout the city, back to the place, got the key, returned to the hotel to pick up Justin, taxied to the apartment and collapsed into bed.

The agenda for day two was: coffee, get my bag, get a coaching credential.  This doesn't sound like much but it took nearly all day.  The day started late due to bad on-and-off sleep.  Our apartment is also a ways out with no shops or stores around it, and no readily available transportation.

So we began our quest for coffee on foot, eventually landing in a quaint restaurant where the coffee was small and the breakfast sandwiches large.  Further exploration, however, brought us to an actual coffee shop on a street that has been turned into a walking mall with a lot of shops and restaurants.  In one direction the street rises up a hill to a university.  In the other direction it ends at a long pier that extends out into the Baltic Sea over a quarter mile.

Fully caffeinated, I headed to the credentialing hotel.  I had been unable to get the credential the day before, but the wrinkle had been ironed out and it went smoothly this time.  The walk to the athlete's hotel was another half mile, pushing my total for the day to over two miles.  But it was worth it because shortly after I got there, both Heather and my bag arrived.  We had a nice dinner and all seemed well with the world.