"If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay home". ~James Michener
This time I had a clear goal which
I had to fulfill: I needed to be in Ulm at 7 pm as I had
previously arranged with Judith, my couch host, through the couchsurfing
website. Having had some debts from the previous day, I had to try
something I never managed before – to make 150 km in one day, even after
my almsot sleepless night. Unbelievable as it may seem, I did it, but
I was totally beat. I started early in the morning, already quite
tired and deprived from sleep. Once again, I decided to take breakfdaast after
driving at least 30 km. During this time, I got hopelessly lost for several
times again. Once I had really bad luck - I lost my way so I planned a small
retour with my GPS. On the map the way looked pretty fine - a nice wood lane
with few ups and downs. In the reality however, the path was not fit for biking
at all. I fell down several times, was fully covered in mud and was hunt by a
myriad of mosquitos. When I realized my mistake and frantically tried to pull
back, my whole luggage fell apart and I had to fix it. That was an ominous
moment because there was no chance to see off pestilent mosquitos and the swarn
easily overran me. There were dozens of them on each limb within few seconds - I
thought they would eat me alive.
I learned few interesting things that might seem
quite obvious:
1. In dark woods, nothing good awaits you.
2. No more retours in woods.
3. Screaming and swearing does not see off mosquitos
4. After you got bitten several dozens times, you can
actually get a bad headache.
5. Watch the episode of Akta X about uncanny insects
that eat humans. I felt I was getting through something similar.
The first part of the journey continued with other
steep hills on the road from one village to another and having seen how
terribly slowly I trudged through them, I thought that in the end
I would be forced to call off my today’s arrrival.
Thanks God the road became better and last 50 km to Ulm were perfectly marked.
I cannot say that I enjoyed this day because I was pushing myself
to the limits and did not have any time to enjoy much rest.
I pulled over after 35 km, with a solid 10 km loss in
a small town to have breafast. It is an unforgettable experience as
I drank my ice coffee and ate cookies after arriving at the town totally
hungry and exhausted. For such cases, I should have had an iron ration,
something like the last portion of food intended for situations like this when
things get out of hand. Afterwards I rode like crazy until I had another bigger
break (45 m) in a bar. It turned out to be a classical pub, even without beer
on tap, with Rammstein blaring out of the jukebox. Never mind, I rather
needed juice for my electronic devices than for myself.
After my quick refreshment in the pub, I bumped into
another crazy biker like me. He was heading straight to the Alps with the
"turtle style" as I do (understand: bike, sleeping bag, tent and
food). Riding in the picturesque Alpine land must also be an indellible
experience and it is a nice inspiration for another trip sometimes in the future.
By the way, I would like to say something more about the iron ration that I
mentioned few lines above. After my morning ride without proper breakfast, I had
been pondering for a while about purchasing some power bars and energy gels
to create an emergency iron ration. Well, this guy was so nice that he gave me
some for free as we somehow came to this topic because he bought them
precauciously at the beginning of his trip and until his arrival in the Alps
they were for him just excessive luggage. He said he could easily buy there
another sport supplements and therefore would gladly give me some. This was
such a nice coincidence; it was like you wish something and then it falls
down right from the Heaven. I am immmensely thankful for this backup. He
basically donated high caloric energy backup worth of at least 15 € to me. May
his generosity come back to him!
Last 40 km to Ulm there was finally some nice and flat
terrain, but I was already totally exhausted. Nonetheless, it really
looked like I can arrive on time. About last 10 km from Ulm, I met
another guy who helped me with directions. His name was Lukas and he also did
several crazy biking trips around Europe. This summer, he is planning to travel
in Serbia by bike and therefore meeting him was like running into another
similarly crazy person like me, thirsty for advanture. He accompanied me to Ulm
and when he found out that I had to get to Blaustein, a small town
another 10 km behind Ulm, he decided to help me with the way there. As we rode
through the city, I realized that without his help I would not have
founded my way to Blaustein until midnight due to overly complicated bike roads
in this big city. When we arrived in Blaustein, we exchanged our cell phone
numbers and planned a meeting for the next day in case he is available.
Without internet connection I was unable to find
Judith’s address so
I had to call her to pick me up. She escorted me with her car to her place
where I could finally rest after this extemely challenging day. Judith
turned out to be also a passionate traveller, never old enough for trying
out crazy things and travelling around the world. We were of the same opinion
that classical all inclusive vacation would kill us as we just need to explore
new things and cannot stay longer at one place. She is a very nice person, works
as a teacher on the highschool, likes organic food, practices Buddhism,
rides a tuned Harley Davidson and totally loves beer - a really cool
companion! It is really inaffable how I felt when I sat down and had
few bottles of beer after my crazy trip to Ulm. The true happiness and sense of
accomplishment is truly behind words, I wish you could actually feel it. Still,
if you could, I would not wish that you had to go through the same as I did on
the way to Ulm. We sat together on the balcony until midnight and exchanged
various travelling stories. It was a really pleasant evening after all that
hardship.
Day 08+ Resting in Ulm
I can barely describe what a good feeling it
was to sleep safely in a normal bed without apprehension of wild animals or
wild people. After a quick breakfast, and a wonderful cup of coffee (Judith
has a very expensive coffee machine and it was clear from the beginning
that it was not just some coffee), Judith took me on her way to work to the
city centre, and I could start sighseeing as a normal tourist.
Firstly, I strode into the city centre that was waking up to the new day.
I bought some snack in the nearby shop and enjoyed sitting in the main
square and observing people. After walking around in the city centre,
I had to get the McDonald's to write some e-mails. I was particularly
pride of closing my FB account for undefinite time and of a pleasant news
that I had passed the most challenging workshop in the last term. I went
to celebrate it with a picnic on the world's largest church tower (Munster
cathedral). Ascending more than 700+ steps was pretty OK, but at that high
I felt quite dizzy. I could not believe that the man could possibly build
this to the sky reaching building several hundreds years ago. I felt it
could fall apart anytime when I went up, but afterwards my fears were
consumed as I was having my lunch nearly at the top with a beautiful view
over the whole city.
In the afternoon I called Lukas to find out
whether we would meet as yesterday arranged. His plans with a boat trip fell
apart so he was ready to go. We met in the Biergarten
with another friend of him, a colleague from work whose name unfortunately
totally slipped my mind.. After spending an hour with pleasant conversation, we
went to the park to play a Swedish game of which I totally forgot the
name. It basically consisted of throwing wooden sticks at the oponent player's
structures– like a catapult battle. It could be a pretty dangerous
game for drunken people, but fortunately, this was not our case – we had just
few beers from the local Biergarten. Interestingly, it is common that every
bigger Biergarten brews its own beer. Judith agreed to join us afterwards in
the Biergarten and we went for few more beers. Lukas invited me for the dinner
and I had a great opportunity to try out a typical Bavarians
speciality – pork knee with potateo salad. It was a huge portion, but my
hunger was greater and I gulped it all down with an ease. Actually,
I thought that I hate such fat food, but for some rason I found
it extremy appetizing, even to such a level, that I bought
a supermarket version of this dish the next day. Later on I talked
with Judith at home about travelling and stuff by few more beers for the rest
of the evening. I must say that I am immensely thankful to both of
them for their generous hospitality and making my experience of the Bavaria absolutely
unique and awesome.
Just a little bit philosophy
I wrote
this part sitting on the bench in the front of the Munster cathedral the other
morning to elucidate on few facts about my trip. Do no worry, my philosophy
reading has nothing to do with this contemplation. In fact, the lectures are so
abstract that they are unapplicable for any deep musing about travelling.
Great many people could think that I went crazy
when I decided to spend my holidays in utmost uncomfort and even cough up
so much money for that. Still, to some people, my travelling experience that
I have described so far might sound fascinating, but many would prefer
reading about it in the comfort of their homes than experiencing them on their
own. On the other hand, many other experiences sound horrific and one could
easily feel pity for many unpleasant situations I had to get through. Be it
as it may, behold, dear reader, that this tríp is not just about torturing
oneself with utmost uncomfort. It might seem like that on the first glance, but
it is actually enjoying the life in a completely different fashion
as we are normally used to. Renouncing comfort, I found hapiness in
mundane things and learned to value basic amenities that we totally take for
granted. You will probably never experienc the true hapiness of drinking water
unless you desparately seek for it. Similarly, one can hardly imagine the whole
gamut of emotions that a traveller experiences when he eats his favorite meal
totally exhausted, shivering from hunger and too feeble to perceive anything
else. That same food, however, eaten in the front of the TV while being bored
rigid, will never bring you the same happiness and satisfaction. Thus,
renouncing comfort brings you happiness through pretty little things that we
are normally not fully able to appreciate and comprehend. Therefore, this is
not a torture, but enjoying, even overindulging the life, yet in
a slightly different form. Waking up into the new gallery of wonder every morning has
also its special charm. Never the same place again, always something new and
unusual. Moving forward towards your destination makes you see new things,
talk to interesting people and think about the world from the different
perspective, the perspective of a traveler. For this very reason it is
fine to escape from your golden cage of comfort from time to time to see the
world trough the other eyes and in the end, rethink and reconsider the
blessings that you might have not been to able to appreciate during your hasty
pace of everyday life.
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