A Noël, je t'ai donné mon coeur

With all the radio stations playing Christmas songs on infinite repeat and the snow falling, I boarded a Canadair Regional Jet and flew away on my second international adventure in as many weeks. This time, I am enroute to the island of Cyprus, which just like Malta, is all new to me. Pending any last-minute cancellations, this means that I will soon have visited all the member states of the EU and now only have a handful of other European countries left on my list (Iceland, Belarus and Moldova, know that I am coming for you!).

On Sunday, I am running the Logicom Cyprus Marathon from Aphrodite's Rock to Paphos Castle along the Mediterranean. For the moment, the forecast looks a bit ominous with a possible thunderstorm but, in some ways, that may still be preferable to blinding sunshine, especially when jetting in from -20 degrees in Umeå. With Austria in full lockdown, I will jump in my rental car directly after the race and be back in Stockholm already on Sunday night. Instead of the Andaz Vienna Am Belvedere, I am now using my free night certificate at Hôtel Reisen which recently joined Hyatt’s “Unbound Collection”, so two extra Hamilton-points right there ;-)