Yoga at the West End Markets

Grassroots Yoga @ West End Markets

7.30am - Yoga with Anita

What a lovely concept.  Created by local Brisbane teacher and teacher trainer, Celia Roberts, this is a yoga initiative aimed to bring yoga to the people.  Speaking of which, when I was in New York, gosh, I love that I can drop "when I was in New York" into sentences. Ahem. Anyway, when I was in New York, I really wanted to go to a yoga called: Yoga to the people which was a donation run class at all times of the day run by very interesting characters like ex-convicts and stuff. I never got the chance to do so, but it's nice to see that this donation/karma type yoga is taking off in little old Brisbane.

That's my sister on the left!

Grassroots Yoga has been happening for a few months now in 2013 and it was on my yoga "to do" list when I returned from overseas. Once I was over my jetlag, which actually took about 2 weeks, I then got very sick with some virus that was going around this winter so I couldn't do much. Anyway, once I overcame these anomalies, I was ready to get back into yoga and try and lose my "travel weight". 

My sister, Sarah, was visiting and I dragged her along to try this class out.  Oh, on a sidenote, Sarah, who has always been fit and healthy etc, once tried a yoga class several years ago and she really didn't enjoy it for whatever reason. I think she mentioned that the teacher had one of those floaty voices and spoke too slowly in a calming way which in fact had the opposite effect.  I wanted to make her experience better so have been teaching her yoga in the backyard whenever she visits, assisted by my other niece, 2 year old Jessica. So now, she was ready to "go public" with the yoga basics she'd learnt from me (hopefully).

Jess, my other niece, doing some backyard yoga with me.
(That's her on the left)

So, off we went to the West End markets. It was a beautiful sunny, winter morning in Brisbane, probably around 23 degrees and there were about 7 students.  After we sort of loitered around the soccer field, we saw a yoga looking lady making a beeline for the soccer goal with mat and sign in hand.   We positioned ourselves facing her with the sun on our backs which was just lovely. The teacher Anita was just beautiful and really sequenced the class to suit the differing abilities.  It must be difficult to teach this type of class when it's just one hour and you don't really know the students, but Anita did very well.   Especially as just nearby there was a crowd of people busily drinking coffee, eating breakfast and noisily playing chasey with their kids.  Again, the external distractions made it all the more challenging, just like my yoga in the park in Vienna!

Sequence:
It was a lovely Hatha class with some nice slow-flowing Sun Salutations and a couple of challenging poses at the end including a couple of my favourites.  We did Revolved Head-to-knee Pose (Parivrtta Janu Sirsana) which I couldn't actually do because I was babysitting...more on that in a minute...and also Crow or Crane Pose (Bakasana) which my sister did perfectly first time of course. Gah!

Yeah, so we brought Harriet, my 6 month old niece along who just sat in her pram and watched. It was just beautiful.  It really is lovely how yoga has that calming effect on babies...and also dogs...and sometimes horses...but I'm not sure about cats... So, back to the baby, yes, Harriet cracked at about the 45 minute mark, so wanting my sister to really benefit from the class, I grabbed Harriet as she started sort of crying and went for a bit of a walk.  This enabled me to really observe the class from a distance and really fall in love with yoga all over again!

NOt that I'd ever fallen OUT of love.  It's just that after my epic yoga journey, I sort of just stopped and really wasn't interested in even updating my blog...evidently. I think I just needed a break to find the passion again. THIS is one of the key reasons I've decided not to be a full-time yoga teacher. In addition to the associated financial stresses, I think that when people try to make their passion, their job, they really lose that drive and consequently, the passion. After reading the biographies of all the teachers involved in Grassroots Yoga, the majority are either yoga studio owners or a practised profession in some other field which complements yoga, like Psychology or Physiotherapy.  Thus, I think I would like to teach yoga as more of a hobby.

Anyway, at the end of the class, we were able to make a donation and chat to the teacher who was lovely. I highly recommend this to ANYONE and EVERYONE, in particular those who've never tried yoga, living in Brisbane. You can then just pop to the markets straight after to purchase all of your fruit, veges and flowers for the week!  Yoga outdoors is the best. Yoga for the people is the best.

Coffee: Kombi Koffein, West End Markets, usually by the rowing sheds near the Northern entrance. Best coffee at the markets!

Yoga Retreat in Croatia

Suncokret Body & Soul Retreat

on Hvar Island, Croatia.

Nearing the end of my trip through Eastern Europe and intending to explore Croatia, I decided to randomly book myself into a yoga retreat somewhere near the ocean.  Found a 5 day "Summer Breeze" Yoga Retreat on Hvar Island.  This was basically relaxation and beach time with one yoga session each morning. 

"Suncroket" means Sunflower. Here was one of the many!

WHERE?

Hvar is an island about 2 hours by ferry from Split, Croatia. This was the last week of many weeks of travelling for me and the first time I've stayed in one place for more than 4 nights!  What a luxury.

Handmade Lavender Jams?

The accommodation was a lovely collection of old homes, with nice simple rooms and beautiful views of the hills in Dol, a tiny town with one breathtaking church on a hilltop.

View from my room!

There was a nice mix of 8 people on the retreat from all over the world, including Australia, the United States, Slovenia, Sweden and England. I also concluded that there are many, MANY, yoginis (female version of "yogis") who fall into the same category as me. You know, that 30 something, single gal looking for more meaning in life other than the daily grind? Yeah, more on that later.

The yoga terrace wrapped in nice flowy orange silk things.
We did a moonlight meditation here on the first night. 

Nice little chill-out area with lots of good books!

WHO?

The retreat is run by Evening (yes, that is actually her real name since birth, how apt that she became a yoga teacher?!) who is originally from the States and her husband, Stipe, who is a local Croatian dude.   Oh and their dog Maza of course! She was AWESOME!  Evening's husband Stipe who is a trained Chef, would prepare our breakfast and cook our vegetarian dinner each night.  The food was simply amazing and exactly what I needed after 2 months to eating on the road mainly "white" food like bread, biscuits, nuts and also meat! Blurgh. So it was a lovely detox to have fresh homegrown veges from the garden!


The yoga that Evening taught was mostly Kundalini and began with a few different types of breathing, sometimes a chant and often Evening would kind of reverse the class and begin with more restorative, twisty floor stuff, before moving on to balances and sun salutations. I don't' think I've ever done a class like that in my LIFE, so it was interesting to experience. Tough due to very little sleep and the fact my body and semi-shutdown for the first few days because I'd actually STOPPED MOVING AND TRAVELLING! But, by the last day I was efficiently limber and ready to go. 

WHAT?

Typical beach.

The week involved yoga every day at 6.45am where we were driven to a "secret location" usually at the "beach" (and yes, I use that term lightly and put it in inverted commas due to the fact that they aren't really beaches! Well, not by the Australian definition anyway). As it is surrounded by the Adriatic Sea, none of the beaches are actually sandy. They are mostly rocks and cliffs, but it's all compensated by the beautiful views and aqua blue water.  

After yoga, we would have a picnic breakfast which was muesli, fresh fruit, bread/rice cakes and just about the BEST peanut butter I've ever tasted in my LIFE! Amazing. Oops, forgot to get the brand. After that we would have the day to ourselves and mostly go firstly in search of coffee and then just lie on the "beach" ie. rocks and try to avoid the nudists. Well, I would anyway. I really do admire the EUropean people and how accepting they are of nudity. It's just so refreshing.  Then in the afternoon, Evening would meet us in town and take us on a fascinating tour regaling us with the history of this amazing place!

View from the mat on Day 1. Doing it tough.

Another afternoon walking tour. Perfect.

Another sleepy little fishing village to spend the day in.

Everyone in Croatia speaks English which makes it easy!

We did a Moonlight Meditation on the first evening. Incredible.

NEW FRIENDS:

Coffee success! Me, Jen, Nikki, Maja.
Also, Croatia serves coffee in the smallest cups EVER!

There was Jen, who was a 30-something single girl who had just quit her high-powered Advertising job in New York to see the world/find herself. Very "Eat. Pray Love."  Yoga was something that made sense to her and really brought her back to her roots. I felt exactly the same and was pretty much on the same journey.  Why are there so many single gals in their 30s who suddenly realise that there's more to life than work/play/daily grind and discover themselves through yoga? It really is remarkable. There was another lady, Maja, from Slovenia, just over the border, who was similar. She was a gorgeous single lady who is an Economist with the Government, obviously a very important, high-powered job.  She was also a talented photographer and yoga devotee too! Again, yoga was something that brought us all together and made sense. Oh and then of course, Nikki, a lovely English lass who was about to embark upon a one year tour of the UK in Wicked - The Musical as, wait for it, "Elphaba"!  I couldn't believe my luck! Being a musical theatre nerd since childhood, I was definitely a little in awe of this woman.  Go Nikki!  Nevertheless, yoga was something that brought the 4 of us, whose paths would never have crossed otherwise, together.

GETTING THE GIGGLES:

Day 2 - The nude with a view morning yoga. 

This was Evening's favourite spot to do yoga and it really was lovely (see pic on the right). I mean, check out the colour of the water! This class was sort of in the reverse of a traditional sequence in that we began in about 5 minutes of Savasana, then did a heap of floor work like twists and stuff and then finished off with Sun Salutes and balances. It really was quite diffifult I found. I guess it's because you're used to a certain order of things and siddenly your muscles and your brain is shocked into doing something new. Keeps you on your toes at least. 

Anyway, another significant outcome of today's class was that I decided I'm waaaaay too immature to be a yoga teacher, or in fact, even a grown up. So we were all immersed in this lovely early morning yoga session, positioned in a semi-circle on another "beach" which was essentially a cliff overlooking this gorgeous little bay tucked away from the main "beach" and full of yachts moored. We could hear the sounds of the waves lapping at the boats, the birds and wind in the trees and wait, what's that, the groan of a naked guy emerging from the bottom deck of one of the yachts and having his morning stretch, in ALL his glory. Yep, right in the middle of a Virabadrasana 2, some guy managed to regale us with his entire morning ritual. While is was entertaining, it really didn't make it easy to concentrate on relaxing and as a result, I had to stifle my giggles.  

The bay around the corner with non-nudists.

After the shock of me seeing "naked yacht guy" waking up and stretching, ahem, facing us nonetheless, he then proceeded to bend down, wait, that's not even the worst part, and search for something on the deck. As he stood up, I realised it was a fishing line and off he went, threw the line in and went for a bit of a naked fish!  By this time, some of the other yogis and yoginis has spotted me trying not to smile and also saw "naked yacht guy" now morphing in to "naked yacht fishing guy".  We all shared looks and simultaneously tried to stifle our giggles.  Why is giggling so contagious? Even as an adult? 

After only about 5 minutes of unsuccessful fishing, he then grabbed some sort of hose, gosh, NOW what are you thinking…and then proceeded to give himself a lovely shower.  I am actually not kidding.  He had soap and everything. So as he was showering and making sure he cleaned EVERYWHERE, ugh, his partner, I assume, a naked lady also emerged from the deck and then SHE proceeded to shower!  By this time, almost all of us had noticed this naked couple going through their morning ritual and were sort of all laughing or smiling and poor Evening, with her back to the whole show, was none the wiser.  Sorry Evening!  It really was difficult to concentrate on the yoga with all of this going on. But, I guess that's the whole challenge. To block out the external distractions and focus inwards. So, the moral of this story is, always position your yoga students so their main focus is you and ONLY you, otherwise they may not have the self-control/maturity to block out all those other more entertaining events, particularly in the form of "naked yacht fishing stretching showering guy."  

Stari Grad.

Day 3 - The "city beach" in Stari Grad with creepy
man in the background who stared at us the whole time!

Such a cool little town.

LAST DAY:

Day 4 - The "mystery spot"

This was an amazing abandoned village between two big rocky mountains that had such an eerie feel to it. The history of this island was just astounding.  We did yoga right in front of an old church with a view overlooking the ruins of the old village. It was just incredible. The yoga was a pretty tough class which was difficult for me personally, because the afternoon before, I actually did some Ashtanga Yoga with Tony, who is an Ashtanga teacher from Melbourne and had just been to Thailand with his partner both doing a Rocket Yoga Teacher training course thingy. So yeah, we did almost a full primary series of Ashtanga the afternoon before which I absolutely LOVED (thanks Tony!) and as a result, I intend to pursue more Ashtanga when I get home, so was pretty sore this morning.

Nevertheless, I pressed on and practised "ahimsa" ensuring that I took the gentler options when needed. It really was nice to finish off with a more restorative practise to put me in good stead for the long journey home. Oh, with a one week "shopping stop" in London, it then took me 31 hours to fly home. Joy.

Where's Maza?!

View over the old abandoned town. AMazing!

SEQUENCE:
One of the coolest things I learnt was a nifty method to find the perfect anatomical Cat/Cow (Balasana) position. So you start by kneeling back onto your heels with your knees as wide as the mat. Then you take your forearm, between the wrist and the elbow…you know that same distance that is supposed to be the size of your feet? And then you cock the wrist up and put the forearm between the two knees. Make sense so far? Then straighten the forearm so it faces the front of the mat and put the other arm down facing the same way. Still with me? So now, you should kinda almost look like the Sphinx, but kneeling…and not made of stone…and not in Egypt…THEN, you roll over both knuckles and then take one more handspan in front and then come up onto your knees! That's it! It's not just "wrists under shoulders, knees under hips" or whatever, it's very technical.  Phew! If none of that made sense, just ring me and I'll explain it! I'm not sure if I will utilise this method in a class if I ever teach, but it's really handy to pull out should you want to get technical. Thanks Evening!

Last day. Hung out in Hvar. Very French Riviera feel. 

QUOTE: 
Evening would often say "smiling energy" which was nice. It's from the smiling dosha? Or some sort of chakra? I'm not really sure. But it was nice and it certainly makes you smile and thus go into the pose more. She would also say "breathe into your arms". Ooh ooh and one of my favourite things was the "Breath of Joy". We did that at the end of each day and it invokes 3 big inhales whilst waving your arms around a bit, followed by one big loud, sighing exhale. It felt soooooo good afterwards. 

Sunset on the last night. Amazing.

My room was the top left.

Me waking up to the sunrise on the last morning. I felt good.
I felt back on track. I felt lighter, fresher and rejuvenated.
Also, I knew I was ready to go home.
Yay for yoga!

Yoga in Budapest

Ashtanga Yoga @ Yogasanas

Street entrance. Budapest is a tough town.

11.00 - Vinyasa/Ashtanga Yoga with Tom

A puppyyyyyyy!
The first time I did a pose EVER!
I fell asleep in Savasana!

SO MUCH TO WRITE ABOUT!

I couldn't have picked a better yoga class to go to on a day like today! In addition to yoga; coffee, food, sleep and dogs are amongst my other most favourite things EVER! SO, after a coffee and run that morning, I made my way to the yoga studio that seemed to be the most convenient time/location-wise.  When I finally figured out how to get into the building, once again, it was a buzz yourself up type of gig.  I made my way up the stairs and found the lovely entrance to what looked like someone's apartment. Lo and behold, it was! This guy had converted his home into a yoga studio. DREAM!

So, I walked through the door, only to be greeted by two beautiful, big, blue eyes.
"A Weimeraner!" I said, barely able to contain my excitement. "Yes", the guy behind the Reception desk said. "Her name is Gerda and she's 4 months old."
"OMG, I LOVE Weimeraners" I blurted out.

Gorgeous balcony leading to his front door. 

I launched into a spiel about my love of dogs and how I like them better than humans and how I always planned to get a Weimeraner but was now considering a Hungarian Vizsla because I'd seen so many etc etc.  Anyway, the teacher's name was Tom Hoppel and he has a very interesting history according to his biography. He’s from the States originally, so I was lucky to have an English speaking class yet again! I also proceeded to tell him a bit about my trip and that I was heading south to Croatia to do a Yoga retreat and he instantly said, “Oh, in Hvar? With the lovely Evening?” and I’m all like “Yes!” So, turns out the yoga community is quite small in Europe, as it appears to be everywhere else in the world!  Evening is also an American and Tom said he has been down to her retreat for various workshops etc. Crazy amazing!

Hi Gerda!

So, as I said, the studio was his home which I thought was cool.  He had a lovely big airy room with high ceilings, once again, and floorboards. Tom and I proceeded to play with  Gerda for a bit (see pics) whilst waiting for the other students...turned out, there was only one other student! A local girl who was in the middle of her teacher training.  This class was just incredible and ended up resparking my interest in Ashtanga Yoga and well, yoga all over again.  I've had a bit of a lapse in er judgement, down time, homesickness, my third mid-life crisis, depression, whatever you want to call it, so I needed this yoga class more than anything.  It is amazing how the simplicity of yoga can help you see through the haze and instill clarity in your life, despite all the chaos going on around you.  

Ardha Matsyendrasana 3.

This class felt like I was getting a private lesson with the way Tom really explained poses in detail in relation to my body and how I was attempting stuff.   Man, Ashtanga really tests your strength and I realised just how weak I was!  Not only because I've been travelling, so haven't been to the gym much or had a regular routine, but also how I am naturally flexible no worries, but when it comes to strength, I got nothing!  ANyway, it was an amazing class with the set Ashtanga Primary series including a couple of poses that I've litereally NEVER done before in my LIFE! I think it was Matsyendrasana 3 or maybe D or, well, like the hardest one? I have a picture of B.K.S Iyengar in it anyway.  In addition to its difficulty, it was also possibly the most nourishing pose I’ve ever done.  I really felt all of my internal organs being massaged and toxins released and all that jazz. Particularly because I’d had a few Hungarian beers the night before! Anyway, amazing man and amazing teacher.  I am definitely going to explore the Ashtanga world when I get home. I felt so strong after this class!

Scene of the crime.

Another one of my great loves,  as previously mentioned, is sleep. Ah sleep. That elusive, precious few hours that I've been constantly deprived of over the past 7 weeks.  I felt so relaxed in Savasana (Corpse Pose) at the end of this rather intense 90 minute session and I was just so tired that I actually fell asleep. I'm not talking just a light sleep where you are semi-aware of the noises going on around you and you know it's really just a moment of relaxation before you continue your day.  I'm talking like a full on, arms sprawled, drool running down the corners of your mouth, slow, loud breathing SLEEP! I remember learning at Yoga Camp that the aim of Savasana isn't to sleep, but to relax, restore and renew. We should be in that state of total relaxation whilst still remaining conscious.   Amongst the stuff I've read and learnt, there are apparently a couple of trains of thought about Savasana from the teacher's perspective.  It could be the ultimate compliment to fall asleep indicating that the yoga practise was incredibly soothing and relaxing so as to induce a deep sleep.  On the other hand, it could be the ultimate insult because it means you aren't fully relaxed and are just, well, lazy.   

Well, in today's Savasana, I very clearly remember almost going to the point of no return when you feel that massive wave of relaxation that washes over you right before you sort of go into a deep meditation and then, bam, sleep, no memory.  After what I thought was about 5 minutes, you know, the normal, socially acceptable Savasana time, I then heard a few voices, one of them being Tom's, from a bit of a distance.  As I became more aware of the noises around me, I thought Tom and the other student were just chatting in the room. Turns out Tom was actually chatting to the other lady in the Reception areadown the hall and he about halfway through his cup of tea. WHAT JUST HAPPENED?! Even Gerda, the Weimeraner, was already curled up under the Reception desk completely disinterested in this stranger sleeping on the floor of her house!  I quickly snapped awake, wiped the drool that had dried on my cheek off my face and the subsequent pool of drool on my yoga mat and hurriedly packed up.  I walked out the front and apologised profusely. It was now 1.00pm; class finished at 12.30! I SLEPT FOR HALF AN HOUR! OMG! How embarrassing?!  I was mortified! I then quickly packed up, walked out to the Reception area, very embarrassed and red-faced and thanked him for a lovely class. As I left, I really did feel like I was floating. Another factor of why yoga is so addictive. Today was definitely a turning point, for the better.  Little did I know things needed to get a whole lot worse in order to get better...

Bye Gerda!

Hungarian baths!

Part of the Liberty Statue, Gellert Hill. 

Yoga in Bratislava

@Darshana Yoga

Yikes! Pretty scary entrance.

19.15 - Power Yoga with Carlo

Great class even though I could understand NOTHING, except figured out that "nardi" means inhale and "vyvych" means exhale in Slovak. So there you go.  My gorgeous friend Zuzana organised the class which was good because the website was in Slovak so I don't think I would've figured anything out otherwise! She also dropped me off, just like a Mum drops their kids off at afternoon activities and spoke to the teacher for me in Slovak.   He was so cute and seemed nervous because I didn't speak Slovak and he spoke very little English and seemed intimidated because I did. Again, I will reiterate how inferior I've felt in all of these European countries where they all speak at least 2 languages. This dude had nothing to worry about.  I just reassured him that I would copy other people so no worries. Anyway, class began in the teeny tiny mini studio in the basement below street level of which we had to walk through a bigger studio (with a Yoga Therapy class still going!) as quietly as possible. The mini room was cool though because I was near the window and could see people's feet walking past. Okay, people, not just their feet. Also, the class had mirrors at the front which forced me to look at myself, s scary sight!  The back wall had this creepy swami yoga man which I also had to look at. I'm not sure which was worse.

Mirrors! Eek!

Some sort of swami yoga man. 

It was definitely a strength-based class which was perfect because I really felt like I needed to wake up my relatively dormant, carb-filled muscles! Carlo was one of those teachers who was clearly passionate about yoga and teaching.  Even though I couldn't understand anything, you could just tell through his body language and facial expression that he was just really into what he was saying. He was super nice and would always do the actions for me when he caught my eye.

Carlo, me and some Panda eyes.

This class alone was worth a hundred because of one particular adjustment. In the middle of the vinyasa flows we held Plank position, which, on a side note, apparently has no actual Sanskrit name am I correct? Anyway, we held our planks for a while and as I have a terrible habit of collapsing into my shoulders and arching my back to create "duck butt, he came over to correct me. All he did was point in between my shoulders which made me round my back, touch either side of my shoulders which  immediately made me come out of my shoulders and enable me to tuck my pelvis under. We actually held this plank for quite a while and really gave me the opportunity to correct this position. Brilliant!  I now know the correct alignment to do forever! Yay!

The rest of the class was a flowing Vinyasa style with lots of leg work through Utkatasana and the Viras. He really sequenced the poses well and really worked one side for a long time before changing. It just felt like such a good workout. I really enjoy this style. If I ever teach, I think this is something I could get into. ALthough, this yoga journey is making me doubt that as a prospect. That's a whole other issue though. Nevertheless, I could hardly walk the next day so that was great! Overall, a lovely little class which really made me work up a sweat.  I also spoke to lovely French girl afterwards in the change room and she said that this guy is one of the best in town.  I agreed with her wholeheartedly. He was excellent!

My Mum, I mean, my friend Zuzana and her boyfriend, Misko, then picked me up and we walked around the beautiful capital of Bratislava after that.  One of my favourite places yet! Bliss.

Zuzana and Misko.

Beautiful Bratislava.

Yoga in a park in Vienna

@Kula Yoga at Stadtpark, Wien

9.00am - Vinyasa flow with Carola Fassl

Is there such thing as Duck pose?

I have learnt so many things from this ONE class alone! This yoga trip just paid for itself! Well, not really. Especially seeing as I have officially run out of money and need to try and stretch it all the way to Croatia over the next couple of weeks.  Anyhoo, for anyone who sturggles with nerves/anxiety about teaching, of which I have for many years, take note of someone who is bilingual.  This lovely yoga teacher woke up this morning, ready to teach her lovely park yoga in her native tongue, German, well, technically Austrian, but apparently it's a sort of dialect of German. Turned out that there were 9 students. Myself and one other girl were the only English speakers.  I insisted that she teach in German because I understand bits and pieces. She then systematically asked every single student if they spoke English and decided on the spot to teach the class in English instead!  I was floored. I apologised to everyone, but profusely thanked them too.  I couldn't believe it. To be able to slip so easily into a second language is just incredible. I am definitely taking language classes when I get home!

The class was in the Johann Strauss Meadow. Delightful!

We began with a type of breathing that I've never done in my life. It starts with 'b'. Hang on, I'll just Google it...yeah, no idea. I totally forgot to ask her, but basically we sat cross-legged, put our hands in fists with thumbs tucked in and on the inhale, our arms would stay bent but swing up and over our head and on the exhale they would swing back and this would continue like a pendulum. It was cool. (If anyone still reads my blog and if those people know what this breathing is called, please email me. I've discovered that my comments don't work for some reason. Any suggestions about that too?!)

We then started off with a kind of warm up that I've never done before in a yoga class. Imagine one of those old school warm-ups you did for sport at school.  Like remmeber when the teacher picked someone for warm up and you did like the standard arm circles, lunges, star jumps, stuff like that? Well, we didn't do any star jumps, but we did do arm circles. So like circle your arms backwards and then forwards. Put your hands on your hips and circle them one way and then the other.  Stretch your neck either side, look up, down, links, recht etc etc (Look at me speaking German!) So yeah, it was actually really cool. Kinda got us all warmed up. Then we went into Cat/Cow and did the following series which I think I am actually going to use!

Kind of like this red cat. Thank you Asian man.

Bidalasana with leg variations:

• Inhale, leg outstretched to the back,
• Exhale, curl knee towards chest
• Inhale, leg outstretched
• Exhale, curl knee towards inside of opposite elbow
• Inhale, leg outstretched
• Exhale take knee to outside of same elbow
• Inhale, leg oustretched
• Exhale, leg straight out to side, leg perpedicular to the body, foot flexed.

She then repeated this sequence on the left hand side. Then we did some other stuff in between which I can't remember. Then we repeated this sequence once we were  in Down Dog (Adho Muka Svanasana) and modified it by coming into plank on all of the exhales. It was just brilliant. It reminded me of my Guerilla Yoga in Paris class where we built on each pose to lead to a culminating pose at the end. I find this technique really effective. I believe the style is Anusara from memory?  Really useful, especially for beginners. It's just like dance choreography really.

Sneaky pic I took during Paschimottanasana. 

One of the most difficult things, particularly at the beginning of the class, was to block out all of the noises. Carola explained that that's why we do yoga outside, because it's more realistic. We are constantly surrounded by noise, sounds, smells, so it's important to learn to deal with these whilst practising.  At first, the silence, or lack thereof was deafening. It was just so interesting to listen to every single sound.  Children playing in the trees, a big tractor thing cutting the grass, sirens from a fire engine, the bells of St Charles Church which I took a photo of yesterday, clicking from the cameras of Japanese tourists, drunk people walking home through the park from a big night out, the pitter patter of a jogger running past, a lady on her mobile phone, the wind in the leaves and even the creaking of the trunk of the big tree near me. It was just incredible.  I don't think I've ever in my life, just sat in a park and listened to the sounds around me. As a result of the yoga class this morning, I decided to go for a walk, JUST a walk around the park this afternoon. Again, something I've never done. I didn't even put on my sneakers so I'd be tempted to run. I just walked. I walked slowly and listened. Really made me appreciate life. Wah! Don't wanna get too deep! But this trip really has opened my eyes and made me appreciate the smaller things in life...then I went back to my 5 star hotel and ordered room service...

Tree pose of course!

We finished with Nardi Shodhana (alternate nostril) breathing and about 5 minutes of Savasana, in which I actually let go of all the distractions and relaxed. Weeeeeeeeeeeeee! Cue photo shoot. What a great class. I felt invigorated and calm at the same time.  Best combo EVER!

Then we all did a photo shoot. Yay for photo shoots! Thanks Carola. One of the most memorable classes of my whole trip!

We could hear the bells from this, St Charles Church. So pretty!