Gratitude

One Thing I planned to do for some time now and is a bit overdue by now. Here is to prayers:

Danke

Dziękuję barzo

Dakujem vám

Köszönöm

Hvala lepa

Puno hvala

Hvala Vam

Faleminderit shumë

Blagodaram

Mnogo blagodarya

Efharisto poli

Çok teşekkür ederim

... to the lands and its peoples. I had the privilege to see the best of you.

Day 43: Dunafalva-Sombor

Yesterdays sunset was truly amazing. One of these calm moments again. I heard and owl, the mice in the grass, a woodpecker and of course dogs. There was a lot of barking throughout the night, sometimes it sounded very close. In the middle of the night a stray dog woke me up barking a couple of meters away. That son of a b... had me worried for a moment. With this kind of dog you never know where you're at. As it went away I was praying that it would not return with its clan. It didn't.
Today the weather was great, sunny and windy but warm air. So I took off the long trousers, riding only in my sexy biker tights.
First I went to Monacs, crossing the Duna with the ferry. Here is a great example of how people react on the small Joda statue sitting over my front wheel: So I was asked for a ticket, and I asked in retun if I can't get its directly from him. Then he waved me through and his younger college commented: "welcome aboard master Joda". After having spent the rest of the money for toothpaste, food and coffee, I went towards the Croatian border. The wind blew straight in my face, but I leaned forward, putting my elbows on the handlebar and curved my back. Anyway my biker tights gave no surface for the wind to be caught in.
The kids here were funny, they would shout hello until I greeted back. Usually its was one time, but in case the noise from, the wind in my ears would not let me hear them, they kept insisting. Also I got the impression that more and more people waved while passing, the further I got south. In Poland, although the people are friendly and helpful when approached, greeting a stranger one a touring bike is not a custom there.
A few kilometers later, in Batina, I, crossed another border, this time to Serbia. At the other side of the bridge, crossing the Duna a second time, I needed to get my passport out for the first time. After getting it stamped there was a sign in the middle of the road, that said "border" again. I wondered... A guy one front of my did with his car what I was about to do too with my bike; turning around the thing. But as he did so a Lady came running out of a cabine and ordered him back. And of course she did not leave its at the question if he has to declare something, but he had to open the trunk and the bags in it. "ei ei", I thought. When it was my turn I answered her "no, nothing to declare." She said: "open the bag!" I said: "which one?" She pointed at the left at the back. "what's in there?" She inquired. While slowly fingering with the tent on top, to take it offfor easier access to the bag in qestion, I answered: "a sleeping bag, spare cables for the gear shift and tent accessories." In the mean time another car queued up behind me and she waved me through before she'd seen any of the content.
In Serbia I felt a bit disorientated for a moment. The osm is very incomplete for this area. Then clouds started covering the sky and I decided to head for Sombor and looks for a pension instead of camping. Also my guide mentions the uncleared mine fields, which should not be a problem, just avoid going where since 10 years nobody left a trace. Hmm, right... It still left an uncomfortable aftertaste.

Day 42: Kalocsa-Dunafalva

This morning there was only a little ice in my water bottle. I slept well and when I got up the fog was hanging low and thick over the Duna and hid the other side and even the ships. Was a very cool scenery I was presented with during breakfast. I though I slept long, but I was back one the road shortly after nine a.m. at some point I hit the breaks hard, stopped and cursed the noise the new brake pads made. This squealing drove me nuts. I though this would settle itself, but it didn't, so I did.
Afterwards I continued with a quiet wolter on the asphalted dyke.
The sky is a deep blue and the sun shined all day but the cold wind while I was sweating a lot made me feel uncomfortable. Also I'm still not quite sure about how to tackle Serbia and Croatia. I'm torn between wanting to see Serbia and my longing for mediterranean climate.
Todays spot is of my preferred type; right at the border of the rivet easy water access and a lot of eavening sun. Love it. I did not advance so far today but this way I could have a quick bath in the Duna. Veeery refreshing, I did not last more than a couple of seconds and did not dive. But for this alone I needed to pull myself by the hair towards the water.

Day 41: Racalmas-Kalocsa

When I got up this morning the condensed humidity on the outside of the tent was frozen, so was the water in the bottle I left on the bike. But it was manageable, breakfast in the sleeping bag and soon the sun shone on my spot and I could get in gear.
Also today I had some trouble getting in a flow but unlike yesterday I managed this day better.
Most of the trail roday was on dikes, their huge and the surroundings area flat as a tarmac. Not everything was asphalt, some were natural surfaces, but everything was well rideable. Also the route is well indicated, that one does not really need a map.
Today I also encountered for the first time since Gdansk, a couple of bicycle tourists, Andreas and Carolyne from Munich. This Duna route really seems very popular, even during the late season.
For the night I found a spot beside the river. Looks beautiful.

Day 40: Budapest-Racalmas

Everybody was warning me how cold it will be today. Yes it was fresh, but a clear blue sky (perfect weather to fly). I left Budapest in a warmup speed along the Duna. But somehow I had trouble getting in gear today. After 30km I thought the first time that I had enough for the day. As I went close to the river I was looking out for a spot to stay. But there were so many houses, that I had to go for a while before I found something a bit away from the river.
I did some modifications one the back bags, I actually should have done before leaving. Better late than never. The front bags suffered quite a bit on the single trails in the slovak mountains, so I was sewing for an hour to fix the bigger holes. By the way these low rider bags are also refered to as "road master". On the single trails I was often thinking of them as "off road disaster". They are a bit large and got caught every now and then by some obstacle.
Now the fox is howling. They are nice creatures, but their voice...

Day 38-39: Budapest

What can I say... the city pretty much leaves me speechless. It is more touristy than I had the impression on my first day, but in the following days I saw barley more than the central part of it. Nothing but to check out the thermal baths, you would need a couple of days.
But as it happened the last couple of times in cities, after more than a day staying I get restless. So I am glad to take the road again tomorrow.
This time I unfortunately did not have as good company as other times. There are a lot of Americans in the hostel, and man! they sometimes make it not easy to like them.
Funny is that after another 1000km I had another tiny hole in the tire, this time the front one. As long as I only have a small hole in the air chamber every 1000km I count myself lucky.Had to change the break blocks though and while I was at it, I bought a new chain, that was getting stretched a lot the recent days.
So tomorrow, in the early morning, I will sneak out of Budapest, like I did it in Lodz, let's see if I get away as easily as back then.

Day 37: Stara Huta-Budapest

Yesterday I somehow managed to loose the one and a half liter water bottle somwhere on the last kilometers, so no tee in the morning, but an amazing sunrise, while the full moon was still at the sky. Beautiful.
It was the first nice day since I entered Slovakia, it was all sunny but there was a nasty cold wind. Can't have it all...
So I headed for the frontier. On the way there the hills got smaller and since I took all asphalt roads today (not wanting the same as yesterday happening again), these roads even went around the bigger hills. Since I took off very early (8am) today, by midday I had 50km behind me as well as the frontier. While sitting in a cafe, I checked the maps and tried to decide how far to go. I checked the routes to Budapest and noticed, that this is another 90km at least to go. So I set another point at half way I thought, I'll see how it goes and there I can decide wether to do it all or look for a place to sleep. Somehow, in my head,  I was already set to arrive in Budapest today. There I planed to have a longer break, and I needed it now. This will be really sport, I thought, having five hours until sunset, this would be rather close to make it.
So I hit the road and I went fast. Somwhere on the way on a road going along a field, there was a deer that fled pretty late and we ended up going in parallel for a bit. Then it stoped close to the road, apparently it wanted to cross it. I stopped too and we looked at each other. I tried to take a photo and the deer run further to cross the road in front of me to head towards the woods on the other side. They move so graciously, these animals. When they jump, they seem suspended in midair for this fraction of a second.
So after an hour of good advancing it was clear to me; I have the wind in my back, so I will reach out to Budapest. After two hours and a couple of minutes, I had almost another fifty km. I paused, ate all what was left of food in my bag and tried to dry all the soaked cloth in the sun. A good half an hour later I was on my bike again, feeling the legs getting a bit tired. When I came to a village, there was a white dog. After I caught up with it, it decided to run along with me. First I thought it's just doing its round, marking here and there at a fence, where behind, the dog of the hous would bark like mad. It was a pleasure seeing how this white dog made fun of the other bloody barkers. I thought, great, this handsome fellow is taking revenge at my place. The village was a long one, and at some point I got a little worried about the dog running around me, corssing the street, comming back etc. Since I was closing up on Budapest it was finished with the calm roads and the traffic increased with each couple of kilometers. So I stopped, called 'come here ghost dog'. It actually came to me, sniffed my hand, I gave it a couple of strokes and padded it before telling it to go. And so we parted. I generally hate dogs, most of them have bad character, if they have some at all. But here I thought, maybe it a bit like with humans, the jerks are the same everywhere.
The last bit of road to Budapest was not so nice. In Slovakia and the first bit of Hungary, there where first of all not many cars and secondly the ones crossing me where really cool. But closer to the city it gets all crazy. All these stressed people, that are in a hurry to get somewhere and risk your life to get there five minutes earlier. One might think they are on a godly mission, ready to sacrifice your life for some greater good. But I'm sure, talking to most of these people, they would appear very friendly. Funny that  these good people then go, steal for some bank or work for an industry that is messing up the environment.
I finally arrived in Budapest at dusk, I just made it. But it took me some time before I found a place to stay. The fist hostel (osmand) turned out to be a four or five star hotel... not quite in my budget... The second one was one of these appartement renting things, where you only could check in by e-mail. So I went to the next bar, had an espresso and some wifi, and finally arrived the Backpack King. Here I was offerd a Hungarian 'Zwetschge Schnaps' as welcome. That was great.
Jep, quite a day. new personaly record for a days distance: 150km (1800m gain in altitude). Furthermore I crossed the 2Mm mark today.
Now I'm exhausted, just managed to have some fast food and now I'm looking forward for a good nights sleep and one or two days relaxing here in Budapest.