"To awaken alone in a strange town is one of the
pleasantest sensations in the world." —Freya Stark
Arriving late at night in a strange city, I felt quite
bewildered. I knew that it would be tough to find a good spot for building my
tent as I was too tired to bike outside the city for a safe place. Luckily
enough, I located an abandoned playground where I stashed myself in a narrow
lane in which the view from outside was blocked by trees. I did not feel very
safe, but was too tired to give it too much thought. In the morning I realized that
it was quite funny place for sleeping. I built my tent in an archery range. How
awesome that nobody came to practice so early in the morning - I would be a
good moving target :)
In the morning my batteries did not last much and I
was forced to another McDonald' visit. It was quite hot so I decided to go for ice-cream
and ordered a McSundae. I could not believe my eyes (or ears) when the cashier
ask 2 € for the same product that in Austria costs only 1 €. What a rip-off! I
am starting to hate being and electricity junkie. I guess I would better get by
with a more expensive and better external battery than with my cheaper version
that can recharge my cell phone only once. These McDonald's visits are making
my Tour de Europe pretty expensive.
I must say that I am deeply disappointed with Couchsurfing.
It seems to have been a beginner's luck that I managed to find accommodation on
the first try in Ulm. It has actually never run so smoothly since then. I admit
that in Dijon I was very lucky, but still, one thing comes to my mind which I
do not fully comprehend. Having thought that girls would not be likely to host
a lonely guy, I tended to send my invitation mostly to guys. However, not a single
one was ever able to host me. I reckon that having another guy in the room
would not be so interesting as having a girl couchsurfer. I really do not know
what all those fabulously looking couchsurfers profiles are for if almost no-one
of those was able to host me. I was sick and tired of feeble excuses or even no
replies at all. I do not get it why anybody would take so much effort to make a
fabulous profile and then would not bother to host anyone. Unless, I was not
the right bee he was after. I bet that many guys use couchsurfing only as a
prospect of having a cool experience with foreign girls with a flicker of hope
for a one-night stand. Even though it most probably does not usually follow
this scenario, I bet that they fire up their imagination among their friends
and start boasting with their wildest dreams supported by some random FB
pictures. And even if not, it still looks cool to have a girl surfer staying
overnight. Nobody will ever prove them wrong. This is really sickening! Suck
Couchsurfing, I am going to do churchsurfing! In the next proper (or better
said needed) moment, I will simply walk straight into a church, say: “Hey, I am
a pilgrim going to Compostela and need to recharge my batteries” and wait what
the hospitality customs of the locals make of the situation. It is quite
possible that my first great experiences with couchsurfing will be my last ones
because I am not planning to bother with looking for a host unless it is
vitally important - it is all for nothing.
....
Angers is also a stunningly beautiful city. It
deserves its place in the trio de la Loire among Orleans and Nantes. The
castle, as usually, is quite big, but this time pretty ugly. It could be a good
fortress though and I would surely not like to be a soldier commanded to take
part in the siege. The city itself has also much to offer. Beautiful gourmet
bakeries and chocolate factories, small cute shops, restaurants with pleasant
atmosphere to wine and dine etc. The city centre has plenty of narrow streets where
you can disappear which might me very romantic in the evening. On the other
hand, as every major city, Angers also has a huge commercial street with many
an expensive shop of the same brands you can find practically anywhere else on
the globe. I do not really see the point in buying any souvenirs in these shops because you can get such "generic"
products everywhere, supposing that your wallet can stretch to that. I observed
very disapprovingly Asian tourists going in and out of these shops with full
bags as if they were buying some European relics. The prices in these shops dumbfounded
me as well - I would not like to cough up 70€ for a stupid T-Shirt, even if
Brad Pitt or Johny Depp wore that brand.
Now I am doing quite fine with my money. I might not be
able to indulge myself a little in restaurants and cafés, but I am sure that
there will come some time in the future when I will. This time; I am still
doing better than in the past because I can fully enjoy anything that
supermarkets have to offer as I do not have to watch every penny and buy only
the cheapest products. That has also its charm on its own; you just must know how
to appreciate it. I dreamed of this few years ago and thought how great it
would be to travel and not count every penny in supermarkets. I fulfilled this
dream with this trip and I am really glad for that. However, I must point out
that I would never like to be stinky rich to such an extent that I could go to
any restaurant in a city, spending a fortune there, and still have the feeling
that it would do no harm to my budget. Without a little pain (in the wallet)
there is obviously no joy – how can you appreciate something that has no value
to you and you can simply afford it just like that, lavishly without any
consideration at all? These experiences, however opulent they might be, would
just vanish as if they were pure air. No wonder that rich people look for
sensation in utterly expensive things supposing that everything “mundane”
leaves them underwhelmed. Firstly, one wants a good car, than a sport car,
later a yacht, thereafter a plane and who knows how far it gets, maybe even a
flight in space would not satisfy his need for sensation if there were
something else he could afford. Yet, I think that there is something wrong in
that. Rich people should have some prudence, but unfortunately, they lose it
gradually as they become rich and can afford more and more. Human mind is
greedy from its nature and has no limits. That is a treat uncommon to all other
creatures but humans and makes people always move forward and achieve progress.
But it has also its dark side that can bring destruction on individuals. The
only panacea is self-constraint. If one can afford almost anything with an
ease, he or she should put some money aside for meaningful projects or charity
and use the rest for a maybe a little better, but surely not excessive
lifestyle. That should bring him appreciation of normal things and the life in
general. Otherwise, he or she will just get trapped in his or her own riches
that will soon or later consume the person from inside and turn him or her into
an indifferent, pitiless stinking rich zombie greedy for something that
actually can bring no joy to its owner anymore.
I was leaving Angers also with a clear intention to
find a bike shop. The reason for this urge is that one of the screws on my
biking shoes got lost and I could not use my shoe properly. That put enormous strain on the one foot which shoe was alright
and I urgently needed to have this covered. This eventually proved to have been
much more complicated as my uncle assured me on the phone. In two shops they
did not have that kind of screws and in the third one, a retailer wanted to rip
me off by selling the whole set of 4 screws for 15 €. Supposing that I bought
the whole set for 25, I refused out of
hand and took my customs nowhere because there was no other shop left. Well, I
said, no problem, I will somehow manage my ride to Nantes and deal with it
later. At that time I did not know that another nasty surprise was awaiting me. On the road from Angers, which was by the way absolutely glamorous in
comparison with the ones I experienced beforehand, I heard some clattering. It
was my luggage and as I found out, one screw on the side kicked the bucket. I
tried to screw it back, but the threads were worn out. This all sounds as a
petty problem, but let me firstly explain to you how I put the luggage holder
from my uncle on my bike. As I realized the day before departure, it was not
compatible at all. I was too lazy to look for another one and squander the
whole afternoon in the city because of that so I asked my ingenious brother to
find a solution for that. My uncle would probably get a stroke when he saw what
he did with his precious bicycle holder. As a younger version of McGyver, he
came up with a temporal remedy and mounted a special extension that enabled
fixing the holder on the bike. This extension, however, was fixed with very
funny screws and originally came from some cheap Chinese electronics. I was
advised that it would not last long, but I sincerely hoped that it would be
just OK. Now, thinking back I must say that it was a pure miracle that it last
all the way there. It was all my stupid
laziness and carelessness that caused me this problematic situation. This
happened on Friday in the afternoon and it was almost unreal to arrive in
Nantes in the Saturday morning, with enough time to visit a local bike shop.
There was a very probable peril that my holder would fall apart any moment and
I would have to carry everything on foot. I tried to quell my deepest unrest
with taking a break and having my lunch. Demonstratively, I made a small picnic
right in the front of a local restaurant and cut my fish can on a nearby trash
holder, leaning on a pillar. Later I
moved to a place with benches where I wanted to finally sit down. My quick glue
fix fell apart the very same moment when I heaved the bike. It is not easy to
imagine how careworn I was at that time. That uncertainty totally overwhelmed
me. I was preparing for the worst and pull out some biscuits when suddenly a
stranger came up to me. He asked where I come from and it turned out that he
was from Poland so we quickly engaged in a conversation as country neighbors.
He invited me for a drink and I gladly accepted because riding the bike on that
scorching heat made me hankder after something cold. We had a French version of
Coke and started to compare our trips. He introduced himself as Krzysztof and
did his vacation on bike from Basel to St. Nazaire, what is the end of Euro
Bike Route 6, the most common and longest bike route in Europe, stretching from
the Atlantic Ocean to the Baltic Sea. He stayed in hotels, but still I find it
very mesmerizing that he undertook such a trip, supposing that he was in his
40's. But as we later spoke about it, your travelling style does not depend of
your age, but your spirit. Some people are adventurous, the other less, that is
the simple truth. I told Krzysztof about my worries with the luggage. He had a
look at it and generously offered a good solution: a piece of a strong line
that held the whole construction together on the broken side, preventing it
from dismounting completely. I was happy over the moon that out of the blue
someone appeared and helped me in this urgent situation. Sometimes when I look
back at similar situations which I had encountered many times before, I cannot
believe that it is all just a mere coincidence. Anyway, since we were sharing a
good deal of our routes, Krzysztof suggested that we could bike together. I
tend to be rather cautious about strangers, but when I realized that there was
nothing to be afraid of, I gladly accepted. In the end, I had spent almost a
month travelling alone and having company would be a great change. So I could
finally change my audiobooks for a real conversation. We discussed on a wide
amount of topics including politics and history and exchanged our views about
the situation in these two neighboring countries. You can imagine that such conversations
are very useful because you can learn about things from a whole different
perspective. That is also what travelling is about - broadening your view.
Krzysztof came up with an interesting idea to have a
little swim in the river for refreshment. I had never swum in the river before
and I wanted to try it out. Of course, every river is different, but one thing
they have in common: the stream may easily take you away once you cross a red
line from which there is no return. I got almost taken away by the stream and
had to swim hardly to come back. It might not have been a big problem, I could
have come out at a different place, but this would probably not have as good
access as the one we were staying in. In any case, it is like a whirl, quite
fun, but one must be on guard because any careless action might have serious consequences.
After the swim Krzysztof wanted to look for a hotel,
but in the end we decided to stay in a camp because it was not only cheaper,
but also more sociable. Besides as you can imagine, anything with shower and
basic amenities would mean sheer luxury for me. After checking in we did some
shopping and prepared a delicious, for me rarely warm dinner. We had two
succulent steaks with baguettes, olive and tomato salad, some kind of another
salad from the supermarket, and two sorts of French cheese that we splashed
with beer and my wine. It was absolutely awesome! I was so full that I could
barely fall asleep. We called it the day at 1 am and went to bed. Krzysztof rented
a big tent that was tenth the size of mine modest everyday dwelling. You could
actually stand in the tenth, it had two bedrooms and even a kitchen with a
fridge and electricity plugs. Just the camping luxury at its finest!
No comments:
Post a Comment