Dragon Boat Paddling

Last night was a rather exciting night.
I had the chance to walk around a cool old area of town called the Schnoor district. It is full of little shops and restaurants, and as well an Irish pub that I will have to try (especially since a pint of Kilkenny is only 3.70 instead of the 5€ it was in Strasbourg). I will have to explore it a bit more one of these weekends.
Then I met up with my friend Bent who works for OHB and did ISU last year. He brought two ISU alumni friends along and I brought Cari. We then headed down to the river to try out Dragon Boat Paddling. Bent was the only one who had done it before, so we were a little nervous, but everyone was super nice and obviously spoke English, because they are German. They welcomed us and taught us a little bit of the technique, the calls (some of which were in German) and we warmed up.
By this time the weather was beautiful, the sun was out and the river was just gorgeous. It was hard work, but very enjoyable to be out on the water, exercising. It was great. There was even a festival going on on one side of the river, so we could hear all the music from it. I guess we spent about an hour out on the water, and by that time my back was pretty sore and I was just a little wet. We cleaned up the boat and then Cari and I headed over to the festival for some Danish hot dogs. Yes, I know we were in Denmark last weekend, but for some reason we only had Danishes there, not hot dogs. So we enjoyed our hot dog, bought some bulk candy, and walked around the festival until I was so cold we had to go home (my sweatshirt had gotten a little wet in the boat and was more cooling than warming).
We made it home, had some Bailey's and hot chocolate and crashed into bed, already feeling the pain in the muscles that I haven't maybe ever used. Ahh, such a good feeling.
Today, I'm not in too much pain, mostly my ass hurts from sitting on the little wooden benches. And I can feel my shoulder muscles a little - but pretty good considering. But I bet I will feel it tomorrow while I am walking around Prague!!!!
It was great fun, great exercise and I definitely will be going back next Tuesday and Thursday. I suggest it to all of you in Victoria and Vancouver.
Have a great weekend (long weekend for those of you in the US and Europe)everyone!!