Keeping Buff, Not.

October 1, 2008

In Austria, smoking is allowed in many public places; this fortunately is not the case in Italy. When we arrived at the airport in Vienna, as soon as we exited baggage claim, along with Jean we were met by a cloud of smoke. Doorways, the subway platform, restaurants all require Kim and me to try to set aside our strong anti-smoking biases and live (or choke) in the moment. One place, however, where I was totally caught offguard by cigarette smoke was at the swimming pool.

Jean is a neonatal nurse but also teaches beginning swimming to children on Tuesday and Thursday nights. I joined her on her journey across the city so that I could get in a few laps but also because I was curious about the pool. What does the locker room look like, what special procedures do they have? (This is the sort of stuff that makes Kim roll her eyes just a teeny bit.) The journey across the city was in and of itself worth it. From the subway vantage point we saw a larger Vienna accented by the presence of the United Nations. I had no idea that it was here but it has been since 1980.

A few metro stops further and we were in a residential district that has single family homes with yards. (This is in stark contrast to the historically older, dense, condo/apartment-filled area where Jean resides). We quickly walked another 10 minutes and arrived at the pool. I was feeling rather full of myself because earlier in the day we'd taken a long bicycle ride along the Danube to allow Shadow, Jean's dog, to dig and swim. We used Vienna's city bike program which allows commuters and tourists to use bikes, like the program in Alessandria but many notches better. Here they are well maintained, found throughout the city, can be returned to any kiosk and basically are theft proof. So with our inexpensive rental bikes we headed out along the Danube bike trail which is FLAT and takes you all the way to Germany. (Think the Burke Gilman Trail up to Canada). The weather here is turning crisp and Fall is in the air--it couldn't have been a more perfect day to ride and the views were wonderful- large river cruise boats, birds swooping, trees turning, huge ornate bridges, and did I mention that it was flat?

So from riding to swimming... I'm sure this will counter a few of the Viennse treats in which I have indulged. I am used to lap pools with a number of lanes set up to accomodate very slow, slow, medium, and fast swimmers. This pool had two lanes set up for private lessons with the rest of the pool open. What we had was a semi-chaotic orchestrated attempt to swim laps between swimmers going in various directions, whether dog paddling or zooming along. I quickly learned that one is to stop at the end each time, check out the placement of other swimmers and calculate a new course for the return trip. A few minutes into my strategically planned "lap", I turned my head to breath and was greeted with what felt like a lung full of cigarette smoke. Not trusting my perception I kept swimming, and again, the smell and taste of smoke. While I'm thinking to myself, "This cannot be right or ok" I decide to stop and look. Not too far away there was an open door with pool employees standing half in and half out smoking away, and instead of the smoke moving outside, it was moving inside wafting its way to me- and only me- because I am sure that I was the only one noticing or even bothered. Smoking is too institutionalized here; so much so that non-smokers like Jean say that they don't really notice. So, really nothing for me to do but to put it down as an experience and go sit in the whirlpool where my tightened muscles could be soothed.