Karpacz Winter Olympics; Aussies Clean Up! Sort Of.

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What was to be a quiet last day, turned out to be a day of discovery and Awards. I could never have imagined by the end of the day we would be back in Wroclaw, having looted the village of Karpacz of one of its finest trophys. With the guidance and encouragement from our coach/ mentor, Marek, Tim and I entered 2 events, acquitted ourselves well, and walked away with an equal fourth in the’Egg Breaking Endurance Event ‘ ( me) while Tim failed narrowly with an overpowered throw in the ‘Hit The Mayor In The Head With An Egg’ event.

Sue and I did manage to walk away with the ‘Competitor Who Travelled The Furthest Award’, a prize of a crystal egg from the Egg Appreciation Society and a certificate marking the occasion. Sue‘s was presented by the local scrambled egg chef with a bonus kiss on the hand; an award made all the more remarkable as she did not compete in anything. Who said an Australian passport can’t achieve great things? We didn’t fly the plane 16,000 kms but we sure did sit in Row 62 for 27 hours.

We were greeted with a fresh cover of snow this morning. Overnight, light but constant snow left a medium cover on cars, roofs, drunks, in fact anything horizontal that spent the night outside. After a light breakfast, Sue and I walked into the village for a hot Belgian chocolate, the ultimate in thick,warm, sweet, caramel flavoured drinks. The hot cheese vendors were just setting up and it was still too early for most people to be out. All except a couple of locals with a bag of beer, getting an early start for the day.

Sue and a few of the girls had an appointment in a nearby village to learn a few glass engraving skills, so Tim and I decided to walk up part of the mountain on a track that was originally used by gold and gemstone prospectors. The track was covered in snow and made a crisp crunchy sound as the ice gave way under our footsteps. You could feel the chill of the air as it entered your lungs but it was that clean invigorating air that seemed to help rather than hinder progress. If we had more time we could have completed the full circuit that passed through an abandoned village before re-entering the village at a higher location. Further up, this snow changed to solid ice, at times up to 70mm thick, making the path quite unsafe to negotiate. Tim was taking quite a few pictures of me walking but I think they were only for identification purposes in case I slipped over the edge.

We climbed for about an hour, only covering a little over 2 kilometres before having a rest in a hut before beginning our careful decent into the village. Walking is very popular and you see many small groups when you are out. We had to be back at the hotel by midday to prepare for the Winter Egg Olympics.

This was a lot of fun, and when the basis of the events is throwing or crushing eggs, there is no language barrier. I made it into the 3rd last round of an event when I encountered an elderly woman who must have been here before. Her cold stare and calculating sense of purpose took me by surprise and I was soon just another obstacle removed on her way to glory. It’s a bad admission, but I wanted her taken out. I had a feeling that she must have done a quiet swap with a hard boiled egg while the officials weren’t looking but there was no proof. Maybe I was simply a bit overconfident about winning the distance event and allowed my proven technique to desert me at the last minute.

The glass engravers returned with their efforts and, having had no previous experience, produced some pretty good designs. I was gifted one of the glasses that Alicia ( apologies for the spelling) engraved and will take it home as a valued reminder of my trip to Karpacz.

Late in the day, Andrzej, Tim, Natalia, Sue and I had to return to Wroclaw, and for Sue and I it would be the last time we saw any of them until we visited again, or they decided to visit somewhere where 10°c is considered a cold day. We had a lot of fun, bonded closely with new friends and I hope they all realise there is always a bed for them in Australia if they ever need to visit the Crystal Egg Of Karpacz.

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Photos

Thick Icy Tracks
Impossible to negotiate and you had to leave the tack or find snow to walk on.

Karpacz Egg Olympics
They don’t call it that, I do.

Let The Games Begin!
I think the snow was brought in. It was very deep and on one large isolated patch.

Scambled Eggs
Over the day, 2018 eggs are scrambled to mark the 18th year of this festival. They are served out for free in a large alpine hall.

Warm And Dry
This hall was full of warm willing egg eaters and the queue never ended.

Kirche Wang
This Norwegian Church was donated to Karpacz by the Norwegian government and was dismantled and floated down a river to get it there. It is completely timber, including only using timber pins and dowels, incorporated with special joinery, to hold it together.

Stone Tower
This was added to provide some wind protection from the prevailing elements.

The Church Interior
The church was built in the transition period from Viking paganism to Christian worship and the carvings display many mythical pagan elements and Viking images.

The Crystal Egg
It’s going straight to the poolroom.