"The traveler was active; he went strenuously in search of people, of adventure, of experience. The tourist is passive; he expects interesting things to happen to him. He goes ´sight-seeing.´" ~Daniel J. Boorstin
Well, today
I have had a special task in Orleans. I developed something like a knob in the
groin that hurt when I had all my limbs stretched. Firstly, I did not pay much
attention to it and thought that it would go away with the time, but after few
days it became worried sick that it could be something serious. For this reason
I did not want to take any second chances and went straight away to the
hospital. It was a funny journey until I reached the appropriate place. From one
hospital where I came, I was sent to another one after some explanations that
it was not actually a hospital, but more of a clinic or so and they could not
examine me there properly. The real hospital was situated outside the city and
I made my way easier by taking the tram. As you can imagine, explaining myself
in French was quite challenging (or funny, depends on your perspective). After
I managed to wade through the initial bureaucracy, I went to a doctor
responsible for emergency, a very young doctor who was not very sure either what
the hell the small knob was. He called another colleague of him, an internal
medicine specialist. This specialization should actually be called external
medicine because all he did was examining the knob by pushing at various places
which was causing immense pain. Afterwards they both called the head physician;
that one at least looked like he knew what it could be. They sent me out to
discuss the case and when they called me back, I was told that my ferocious
biking or maybe an accident, fall etc have caused a hernia. One thing that struck
me the most was the fact that they did not bother to send me to the radiologist
to determine my medical condition with certainty and jumped at this conclusion,
at least from my point of view. As I was to find out later, in no life-threatening
situations, one must enter his name on the list and wait maybe a week or so
until he or she can see the specialist. And I thought that the situation with
waiting in our Slovak healthcare system could be no worse… . I was strongly
advised that I should stop my journey, even though the situation was assessed
not critical for the time being and thus not requiring immediate
hospitalization. Hence, the operation could be done back in Slovakia after my
return. The only question lingering in the air was what to do – continue with
my trip or not? I was in the middle of my journey, still having had around 2000
km ahead of me. The hernia could get worse any time and by any cause, and could
develop into serious consequences. Moreover, my travel insurance was about to
run out in several days and paying for emergency hospitalization and operation
would cost me a fortune. This decision was damn not easy and I carefully
considered all my chances and risks. In the end (I guess that those who know me
already had guessed correctly to which decision I arrived at) I decided to take
the risk and to continue, however, very cautiously. The times of sport biking
and pushing myself to the limits must have been sacrificed for the better cause
of being able to continue. From now one, I will just bike easy teasy, no hard
biking like before, but with sufficient breaks and with as little effort as
possible. Please keep your fingers crossed that everything will be alright.
Still, I just do not get it – I could do 1000 sit ups,
I do sport on a regular basis, and that from light running up to hard and agile
Taekwondo. How come that this could happen to me?
This horrific experience held me up in Orleans, but I
said it was the high time I had a break from cycling, so I just hung around and
biked in the city. I was also on a hunt for a new bike pump, unfortunately, I
found none in huge supermarkets. What a happy coincidence that I bumped into a
small bike shop that was just before closing and managed to buy a new pump for
a reasonable price – that made my day!
Orleans is by the way a glamorous city, as you might
have expected. What a pity that the main square is being reconstructed, it
spoils the overall image to a vast extend. Nonetheless, the cathedral is stunning
and it makes quite fun to bike around, to take pictures, and to observe bursting
city life in the evening. To my utmost surprise, I found on Square de Gaulle
free electricity plugs so I immediately made use of them. I enjoyed my dinner
on the bench with the view of the river promenade drinking Panaché, a typical
French drink that I grew quite a taste for when I was at Hedwiga’s place. It is
like the German Radler, but even better, with the hint of lemon taste that
makes it not so sweet as other lemonade beer mixes tend to be. It looks like
Orleans is undergoing a huge construction and reconstruction work. Especially
the main square looks like after a bombardment. It is a pity because you cannot
enjoy the city to the fullest like this. I stayed in Orleans until 8 pm and
then set for a short evening trip to find a good spot for my tent.
The bike road from Orleans was in a great condition
and perfectly marked. I made about 20 km before I called it a day. I rode
around a resting place with a cross and benches, but decided to go a bit
further. I should have rather stayed there because afterwards I could not find
such a good place. In the end, I wanted to put my tent right next to the road,
but after opening a grape wine and having a small break, I got to know that it
was not the right idea: a car of young guys, obviously in a great party mood, stopped
by and after chatting about everything possible, I received a useful piece of
advice that it would certainly not be a good idea because this road is not for cyclist
only and cars speed here quite often. In the end, I put my tent in the field
somewhere outside the road.
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