Wiesen, Austria

I decided to work up to 108 sun salutations this week, having missed the Yoga Mala in Montreal once again. I keep hearing about how much people love doing this, so it’s become somewhat of a summit I want to climb- an event isolated from my regular practice. Fighting the coma of bus sleep this morning,  I found my way into the strangest and cutest backstage ever. The Wiesen festival sight has an old train as its backstage, each car having its function. One giant coffee later and I stuck myself in one of the train cars to attempt many, but not 108, sun salutations. I had less than an hour to do this as the promoter was coming to take a couple of us running in the mountains. I used the “model” of 9, 8 sun A’s and 1 sun B being one set. First round was about getting the breath together, it’s always like this. I can never breathe properly in the first 5 minutes of practice- downward dog nasal suffocation. The second round of 9 started to feel rhythmic, by the third I started to sweat for real and my whole body had this crazy vibrating jittery feeling, like coffee but all over. This could have actually been the coffee I suppose…. Then I was running out of time so I did one more set of nine. Probably a half hour passed, sweating profusely in my little wooden train car. 36 salutations later I felt similarly to when I swim laps or go for a fast run. Super energized, kind of shaky and feeling like I could go on forever. 

Primed with a layer of sweat, we left for the big Austrian run. It felt like the field trip at the end of the school year when it’s summer and everyone gets ice cream. FUN! Beats checking your email backstage another hundred times. We kidnapped John from the Weakerthans, who was lacing up and about to go it alone. A short drive through the village of Wiesen and we were in the hills. The promoter is an ex marathon runner and looks the part. Slim and decked out in colourful quick dry material. We talked about conservatism in Austria and made our way up one massive hill. On the way down I chatted with John about healthy tour habits- running, yoga, drinking less. So not rock and roll right?! I know there are and always will be bands out there that are truly rock and roll, but I’m definitely not in any of them. 

This was one of my favourite shows yet. A hot summer evening watching Jose Gonzalez and The Weakerthans play outside surrounded by mountains?! Dream. We had a super fun sweaty show too, and the crowd was amazing- extending out from the tent up the hill on the lawn, surrounding us like a whole town. 

Then it was bus time bound for Warsaw. Fifteen hours on the long and bumpy road through Slovakia and The Czech Republic, with the promise of day off pierogies at the other end.