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 45: a rainy day in Novi Sad

The city has it's own, rough charm, but that's already as far as my description of the city goes, what follows has more to do with my mood and wandering thoughts and is not really tied to this particular location.
I went to the city center and there; Bata, Diesel, Mac Donalds, Fossil, Addidas, G-Shock, Coca-cola and many more of these logos were like a punch in my head. Not again for heavens sake! This triggered a thread of angry thoughts: So these are the symbols of progress, and wealth burnt in the heart of every city we call modern these days. The first thing to re-build. Is that fucking it?
All this aroud the church. -Some say the institutions that built these places of worship were as greedy and earthly as those occupying the fancy spots around cathedrals and churches today-. Whatever, but the artisans that built them gave it a soul. The hierarchy did not change much despite the revolutions, something else did. The builders today, I heard it myself, curse their work. This won't, can't last.
And of course a lot of cars, images of status and freedom we have lost and only exists in the bloody advertisements anymore that flicker over one of the many screens in front of you. Where is diversity? What about phantasy? What will be left of our work, once time worked it?
Right, what is left of phantasy and inspiration after we filtered it by mainstream, you find conserved, alienated by interpretations behind the vitrines of museums. Don't bother feeling what it might evoke, this thing you are not supposed to touch, just read the damn guide-book. And in the meantime we renovate what has lasted insted of creating novel beauty. Today I did not have the force to seek the magic in the details. Magic is subtle. Today I could not filter all the stuff that forces itself on you exploring any channels of human sensory input science has layed out recipes to control them. Today I was missing subtlety, could not see the beauty, today was just in my face. Looking at the obvious felt like starring at a void.
Suddenly values switch value...
Carry along, carry along the thread of thought it runs further, carry along!

Day 31: Krakow - Rabka-Zdroj

Today it has been raining only one time, it started shortly after 9 a.m.
It was foggy and after and entite day of riding in the rain there is no way around getting wet. After lunch break I gave up the idea of camping and decided to get as close to the border as possible and seek schelter in whatever place with a warm shower. The first one I tried had these huge signs towards the street "wolne pokoje" (free room), so there I go. Just after I arrived a guy came around and I asked for a bed. Hey dialed some number and handed me the phone. The women was asking how many persons and how many nights, the answer to both questions was one! Then she said no we don't have a room for you and I was thinking "you lazy b". Well she didn't knew that I was freezing and hungry. So I asked the guy if hey knew another place. Hey nodded, started to explain the way in polnish, noticed my blank face, grabbed a paper and pen to draw me a scheme. So I went with that and took off. One half the way, the guy drove up at my side and told me to follow. Hey caused a little traffic jam leading me to the place, I would have used probably half and hour to find. Then he stormed the house and found the people, where I probably would have given up. I was very grateful for his help.
By the time I arrived at the pension, I was soaked to the bones.
Temperature dropped a lot today, reaching close to 0°c during the night, and one the weekend there might be the first snow on the higher mountains and this advertisement one the side of a road for boots designed for temperatures to -70° just freaked me out.
Jep this is my last night in Poland. I think I'll head towards the Adriatic sea looking for milder climate.

Day 32: Rabka-Zdroj - Zuberec

... And , it was raining all night too, only I did not care much in my warm bed. I was waking up in the valley of the sun, surrounded by clouds that peered over the mountains from all sides. So eagerly I got on my bike and took of. After 5km I made a u-turn got back to the hostel, picked up stuff I left and tried again heading towards the first pass of the day close to Raba Wyna. And indeed, there was snow falling last night, which lay beside the road as I gained altitude. Climbing the last few meters, the road headed exactly south, the mountains of the Tatra appeared at the horizont. It was a very emotional moment, my eyes filled with tears of joy and release. The sky was black and the mountains white, it looked like heaven there.
But seeing the snow there I then was absolutely sure, that I won't venture through the heart of the Tatra. Yesterday I looked at a map and it's even hard to find hiking trails that cross the border from Poland to Slovakia and none of the trails crossing the Tatra north south was designated as bike trail. And my fathers comment about this areas wildness echoing in my mind, I don't want to go and try which of the hiking trails would be manageable with a touring bike. But it looks very tempting to return with a mtb.
Heading further to Chocholow and thus closing up one the border, the wind was in my face, and with the cold it was a bit of a fight. But when I arriveed there I made a break in front of the church, where a couple of minutes later a wedding took place. The people where showing up in the traditional cloths, a little chapel was playing, really beautiful.
Right after crossing the border, in Vitanova, I realized that the lunch, which was more a snack, that I bought with my zloty was really not enough. The cold plus the more demanding terrain asked for a warm meal. So I did a second lunch break.
The road towards Zuberec lead through a small vally. Nice street, low traffic and sheltered from the wind those was a really nice ride. There was a little rain, which I bearly noticed, since I got more wet from sweating, so no diving suit needed.
In Zuberec after crossing another pass, I was wondering weather to head for the next towards Liptovsky Mikolas. But it was past four, and at six is sunset (more than and hour earlier then when I left from Dresden), furthermore black clouds where bulging over the mountains further south, so I called it a day.

Day 30: Krakow

"I'm not here", is the title of a rather recent movie and this line crossed my thoughts a couple of times today.
Krakow is a great city. There is the cathedral, the palace, you can see on the city map, that it is an ancient city, where the old town still is partially surrounded with the city-walls. The city is crawling with people, it's full of life, which is very impressive. This place stands in contrast of what I've seen so far, concerning cities in Poland. What I found a bit weird though is all these advertisements everywhere for tours to Auschwitz. An English girl I meet at the hostel, who's apparently does her thesis about Genocides (Politics, History or Ethnology???) commented her visit at that place as "interesting", which was commented by me with; "interesting she says...!!!". Well, which kind of is all very interesting... in a weird way.
But between these pompous monuments, I was not there. It was like I always stood two steps beside everything that was happening in this town. So I did the usual, but it felt very different this time wandering the streets of the city.
Since I did not need any spare parts for the bike or to replace cloths I lost somewhere on the way, I mostly concentrated on the food. The offer is so huge, that I had a really difficult time deciding, but finally, when my stomach growled and I was on the verge of getting grumpy, I found a nice place. Actually it is brilliant to have two warm meals a day.
Another good part of the day was planning the route for the coming days. So the national park, the "High Tatre", was commented as quite wild by my father. Taking a closer look and asking a bit around, it seems to be challenging when you go there by  mountain bike and not such a good idea to try it with a touring bike. So since the information was rather sparse here and maps difficult to find in shops and on the internet, I decided to choose a route, that leaves me the option to circle around the national park. While getting closer, maybe I will find some more concrete information and hopefully people, who can recommend a particular route.
Since my body is not crying for more rest and it is all stocked up with good protein, I'll hit the road tomorrow. Anyway, Krakow would take probably a week to really plunge into it, so I save this for sometime to come back (I'll be here).
Well, other than that, it was me, that behaved very unspectacular today, not much more to add ...

Day 29: Wodlowice-Krakow

I slept on top of a lot of these Mole bumps, so before putting my tent I hat to stamp them down. before falling a sleep there was something pushing against the bottom of my tent and I started hitting on the floor, which felt a bit like in these game with the hammer where you have to hit the ground hogs appearing from different holes.
I got up later than usual, since it was clouded and there was no early sun to wake me. But I had the stuff together pretty quickly and started riding around nine.
The roads and trails today where very diverse; from very new asphalted roads, to older asphalted roads, to gravel roads, to grass trails, to soil roads and of course, there was also sand. But I'm not complaining at all, it was since a longer time to most exciting day of riding. The landscape was hilly and the roads went up and down, which very much corresponds to my moods. Additionally it was very exciting to see these small cliffs, ruins of old castles and the amazing autumn forests. From time to time I crossed villages and small cities. Most of them had a big square in the centre, where life was turning around. I liked to make small breaks there, sit and look. Half of the distance to Krakow was along the small river Pradnik, that forged a respectable canyon (for its size) into the landscape.
This canyon ends right before Krakow, so it was spitting me out into the city and I was a bit baffled coming from three days of mostly countryside and small cities and all of a sudden I was in the middle of deep urbanity. furthermore Krakow is an amazing city, really beautiful, no wonder it attracts a lot of tourists too. I just took a glimpse tough and went straight for the hostel. I'm tired and need to rest before I can enjoy this dense fussy bustle.

Day 28: Przyrow-Wlodowice

This little river turned out to be a real energiser. It's water was clear and cold. But after the first shock and a bit enduring I felt reborn. The sunset was amazing. During dawn a Polnish cowboy on a bicycle gathered a couple of cows nearby. He was a bit of a chat box until he noticed I don't really speak polnish. Him charting a lot probably had to do something with the smell of alcohol.
During the night there were a few drops of rain, which was not anticipated bye the weather forecast as I had remembered it, but it was announced bye the clouds on the eavenings sky and I put the outer layer of the tent this time. By 10am the sky cleared again and I went on a major road towards Mijaczow, where I believed to join the "Route der Adlerhorste". On the way I realized that there was a rather dense network of small trails around the area and I changed my route. I was great! I saw rocks! It went up and down through the hills and it was a feast for my recently bored spirit.
When I arrved at the destination I went for a coffee in a bar with internet and tried to digg up some information abour the "Adlerhorste". It turned out that I already crossed it in Zarki. So I stocked up food and went for Wlodowice. Since I'm not used to coffee anymore I was like on speed when I took of and drove like a crazy man. As I spent quite some drinking these two coffees and exploiting the internet connection of the bar, I decided to call it a day when I spotted this small lake one the map, close to Wlodowice. And it turned out to be the right decision, this small like is marvellous.

Day 27: Rzasawa-Przyrow

On days like this...
After a night where some f... dogs barked all night, a beautiful day began. Weather was fine, the roads I chose for the day turned out to be fine too, but it was just not my day. Little things kept pissing me off all day. And I was bored. There were houses behind fences all over. Of course there were dogs behind the fences too and on the fence some signs from security companies. I saw rather new villages without a center, and all you see from the street are fences and from behind one fence a guy was using his spyglass to watch a trekker lying one its side a few streets further down the road.
In between villagea there were colorfull stretches of forest, nice but could not cheer me up.
As usual I tried to find a spot at a lake for the night. The one I chose there was no way getting close though. I circled around it and tried to access it through a small bit of forest, that had no or only very old unused paths. After and hour getting bruses and eaten alive bye the mosquitoes I gave up. Now I'm a little further near a small river. Looks good.

Day 26: Lodz-Rzasawa

This morning the noise of many busy feet woke me up. I had trouble getting I gear. But it turned out that it was a good thing to ride out of the city on a sunday. There was not much traffic, no trucks in the street and the fewer people in the street seemed all busy with rituals and worship. Some went to church others took care of the graves, some cleaned their car and others went to the big shopping moles on the outskirts of the city. I glided on wolter with his cleaned and freshly oiled chain silently away from the city. It's funny to see these transitions between city and coutryside. These zones sometimes give me the impression of a weird kind if battlefield.
Each day of this autumn adds new colors to the trees, the "Stare" (these black birds with an incredible reperoir of noises) started gathering, forming swarms. That gave my motivation a little boost; I need to go south too.
The roads were good today. Either very large with good surface and reasonable drivers or there was a bicycle lain parallel to the road.
During my lunch break I heard a woodpecker, the I spotted him. He was very busy, so I tried to veeery slowly and carefully approach it to take a photo. I managed to get as close as three meters but with this camera and the branches in the way it was very tricky to get a good shot even though I saw it very clearly.
For the night I chose a spot at a lake again. I was wondering though what the huge gray surface a couple of km south could be. The big power cables, a pipeline and finally some smoke at the horizont tipped me off. It's one of these huge kole power plants. The lake turned out to be artificial. But it is also exploited by tourism. The bicycle roads got better towards the power plant and there is an increased number of hotels in the area. Its not bad.

Day 23-25: Lodz

A good part of my first hole day in Lodz was taken by moving from hostel to hostel. The Flamingo, where I stayed the first night, could have me only for one night. But I didn't like it there for several reasons anyway. So I searched for other hostels, with google maps and OSMAND, the open street map application on my phone. The attractive hostels where booked out, then I tried a couple of others, from the Virtual-Lodz website and also from the OSM application. One from the cities website appeared to have closed, and anotherone from OSM too. So I ended up at a place that was indicated to me on the day of my arrival, but at this time did not seem attractive enough. Well, in the meantime the preference changed and the place turned out to be quite ok. It was an old hostel, worn down a bit, but it had everything I needed, friendly personel and a pink staircase!
Here I met Rico, a guy that is currently studying in Dresden and who spent the lass three weeks driving through Poland with his old Mazda. He is about the sixth guy from that region I met during my stay in Poland. We spent the eavening haning out, drinking beer from the "skleb" smoking and discussing. The next day, before he went further to Krakow, we found a nice bar, that also for him was a discovery, after having walked through most of the center of the city in the past three days. It was a really cool place with comic art on the walls. When we left the place we ran into the owner of the bar who was showing the new paining on the wall on the outside of her bar. Apparently it was finished just the day before. And so, after some really good time, we went both our ways again.
There is one thing though Rico mentioned to me about an incident that happend during his stay in Warszawa. Apparently there was a guy who tried to burn himself in front of the parlament. Apparently it was often discussed by his friends and the information seemed a bit confusing. So I tried to look it up myself and first found something in "Der Standard", an austrian magazin. Pretty much the same is written here.
The rest of the day I was wandering through the city, looking out for a bike shop to trade some spare parts that turned out to be useless to me for some others.
The thrid day was dedicated to sightseeing. But here pretty much the same thing happend as in Gdansk. The weather was too nice to spend time indoors, so I lingured another day, eating a bite here, having a coffee there. Also I've gotten a bit restless and now I'm looking forward to hit the road.

Lodz appeared to be quite different from Szczecin or Gdnask. The people look different and the ambiance is a different one, maybe less relaxed than Gdansk. Although it is not allowed to drink in public in Poland, here some people don't seem to care about it. One thing that was much appreaciated by myself, was that there was no dog poo on the streets, that it a lot less than for instance in... hmmm ... Dresden-Neustad.

Day 22: Chodecz-Lodz

When I got up this morning, it was all moist and foggy. For me this were new conditions, on this journey, I never had to ride in the fog before. I liked the atmosphere a lot. people emerging from the myst or be swallowed by it. The flowers where like fireworks amongst all that white, or the yellow of some trees. The spiderwebs condensed some of the water and were hung with water drops. They seemed a bit like the ghosts of the flowers from the past summer, when haning on the shrubs.
Beside the visuals it really sucked. Eeeeverything was wet, nothing would dry
The fog cleared by the early afternoon and the sun came out. I jumped on the first field with short dry grass and lay out all my stuff to dry. After it was a lot better.
I managed to go almost all the way on low traffic roads, where I could see more of the Polnish countryside. I have to say, that its beauty gets a bit monotonous after a couple of hundred kilometers. Personally I like it when the landscape explores also the third dimension.
Tonight and probably one or two more nights I will stay in a hostel, get myself and my cloth thoroughly cleaned. I also need some rest. Even tough I got a good routine in the mean time with looking for a spot to camp, setting everything up, cooking, streching, ect. I loved this moments during dusk, when everything became slowly quiet. When I was by a lake this becomes even more apparent, when the water surface becomes a mirror. These were some moments of calm hapiness. But it's good to stay sometimes more than one night.

Day 21: Adamowo-Chodecz

Until Wloclawek, I had it's comming, there were only major roads. But I was prepared and I survived. The only situations where I needed to go beside the road, was when I heard a truck comming and saw vehicles coming in the opposite direction, because these truck drivers sometimes rather risk your life than slow down. Otherwise, the left enough space while passing.
Entering Wloclawek was a nice moment. Crossed the river while the cathedral rang 12. It's a nice little city with a lot of contrast. Old monuments, worn down houses, new houses, and "Plattenbauten". One the bridge, while I shot some photos, a man caught up with me, whom I passed moments ago, answering to his question "nie rozumiem" (I don't understand) and rode further downhill towards the bridge. He asked me other stuff and only few of his questions got answered. But then he insisted that I take four of the apples he had in one bag on his bike. They were big and nice looking. So I took two, saying I don't have enough space, but he started a fuss and would not stop untill I took them all. So I took them all and one in my mouth. Delicious! Nice man...
I tried to find a place where I could eat something, have access to a plug to recharge the phone and wireless internet. The first two I managed, whatever post still can be posted. So after I had warm lunch for a change, I took one the second bit of the days journey. It was more relaxed since there were bycicle lains on the following roads to Chodecz. After I got stocked up and was about to leave the city to find a camping spot, the wind suddenly got stronger, which I took as a hint to seak shelter. That I found next to the football field. Thunder was playing against lighting, all by rain. After the storm past, I ran into Jacek, a polnish cyclist. After some talking, me in english, he in polnish, we got company by two boys that were fishing at the lake. They helped translating a bit, but the conversation was very chaotic and I was not half the time what Jacek was getting to, but it was quite serene.
Hours later I put up the tent in the dark and was looking forward to rest after the long day.

Day 20: Jajkowo-Adamowo

The place I chose yesterday was really perfect. No deer, just a couple of squirrels and a beautiful sunset.
I got up early and back on the roads. I dwelled for a coffee in Brodnica, recharged the cell and did a bit of polnish vocabulary. Most of the rest of the day I managed to find side roads. It was nice riding through the countryside on a beautiful indian summer day. The fields were as green can be and the threads of spiders reflected the sun every here and there. I think the bicycle guide for europe I bought got it's quite right: "... an unspectacular beauty."
For this night I found myself another place next to a smaller lake (b.t.w. The one yesterday looked like indian the Krombacher tv advertisement). The water is not easily accessibe and does not look as inviting as yesterday, but looks nice.

Day 19: Gardzien -Jajkowo

Even though the weather was great it was a rather bad day. The spot I chose yesterday turned out to be not so nice after all. A deer attended to everyone of its harem so its seemd, all night long. He was pretty close and his organ impressively loud. Then some youngsters sat down at the fire place and brought the guitar and many drunken voices. Later their parents played with the soundsystem on the other side of the lake doing some polnish pop songs. Not participating in any of the groups, it all seemed like a big shouting match... All night long.
After I came back on the street againg I saw a cute painting of a deer on a house wall. Well just from hearing it, one would probably paint more something like dragon.
Then I had to accept that there was a big, man made hole in the street I wanted to ride. I couldn't pass it and was forced to take roads with a lot of circulation... All day long...
But then I found another spot at a smaller lake. The forest surrounding it is not so big, less space for deers, hopefully not enough. The water is clear and I have the perfect accsess to the water. My spirts are lifted again. Juhui.

Day 18: Stare Dolno-Gardzien

The spot I had chosen for the night was brilliant. In the morning I could observe the sun rising at the horizont, far away, where the plain touched the sky. A fox lingered on the close field and a bit later three deers almost ran through my camp.
Since the weather forecast changed from bad to not so bad I chose a spot near a lake this time. Here I can even take care of basic hygiene. It's nicely quiet here, so far no barking dogs and the road is behind a small hill. The "splomp!" Of the fisher throwing out his hook yet one more time, is the loudest human noise.
Apropos noise; it's amazing how we tend to surround ourselves with machine noises. Whenever man works the is a machine turning. And wherever there is a house on the countryside, there is a f... Wauwau barking if something approaches, that smells different than his master, though even there they make noise... It has to make noise...

Day 17: Elblag-Stare Dolno

Today was a short distance. After the city, I found low traffic roads again and rode partially one the R1 european route. The wind grows stronger again and the sun makes itself rare. When I stop riding I have to be careful not to cool down too much. It's indeed time to head south, some of the trees start hinting the change of colors. Tomorrow the weather is supposed to get worse and after two nights in the wild I will be ready for a shower anyway, so most probably I'll find myself a hostel. But first I enjoy my super place surrounded by fields, a small river is close by and some bushes gives wind and sight shelter. Earlier when I was asking for water at a house, I got some apples with it. The good women was talking cheerfully and didn't stop once she knew I don't speak polnish. Very nice lady.
Somehow I had motivation trouble today...
I'm glad though the emergency battery works nicely and after a long time my dynamo has a purpose again. This way I can recharge the cell phone in the eavening, which gives me more autonomy. By the way the open street maps work beautifully. I did not by a single map for poland , had nice routes and always found what I needed. Here and there I found some errors but I will try to report them.

Day 16: Gdansk-Elblag

After the search for a new mascot yesterday was without succsess and I was afraid having to leave Gdansk without a new one, Joda crossed my way. He was standing next to the computer at the reception of the Old Town Hostel. And he was up for a journey and jumped on the seat on top of my bikes front wheel. He left a note though, saying: "Joda gone travelling. Will be back. May the force be with you!" So at some point he will be "package-ported" back to Gdansk. This made me very happy indeed. This statue is also more solid than the happy lucky cat, whose Youarticulations suffered a lot because of the bumpy roads. Then again Joda is a Jedi, no wonder.
The weather was changing today and I was riding further east together with the rain clouds. I got luckey with the roads, only little traffic and everything was nicely rideable. My knie is a lot better and I think now I understand it's signals better. It was nice riding again after three days.
For the night I chose to campe wild. The spot I chose, I noticed later, is not far from a waist dump, but as long as the wind does not change it's not bad here.
also the landscape changed, there are more lakes and channels, I reached the border to the Masuren, also called the land of thousand lakes. Michal, a dude from the hostel, told me though, that there are even more than thousand lakes, beside some other useful information about his country and about which routs to take.
I was first attracted by this region because I heard about the big ancient forests. It turns out that this biggest connected peace of forests lies at the eastern border of Poland. Since Oktober is approaching quickly now, I decided to save visiting the very east of poland for another time and see that before mid Oktober I get a couple of kilometers south. The last thing I want is to be surprised by the Polnish winter.
So from tomorrow one the major direction changes from east to south for the comming weeks.

Day 13-15: Gdansk

My first day in Gdansk was mostly about reorganizing stuff, cleaning, talking with Australians on the camping, surfing.
I went from the camping into a hostel to take a holiday from the sabatical and get a bit closer to the center of the city, since the camping really was fare out. Although did not yet wonder around a lot, I got some first impressions. Above all I noticed that there a lot of cats in the city, a bit like in Istanbul. I know a lot of pigeon and sparrow cities form Switzerland, crow cities from Germany, but cat cities I know only two so far.

The second day was wandering through the city, aiming to replace some equipment that did not work out or I lost in an absent minded moment. This ended in a huge tour reaching much further than the  city center. Here I had no problem communicating in english. The people were very helpful and patient with me and my special requests. When they gave directions its ended almost always in a "point landing" and if not, it was probably my fault. On the way from shop to shop I took my time and let the eyes wander. It was a warm impression the city made on me, also because of the weather that was mild and sunny again. I liked the street-art and the buildings ranging from ancient to modern architecture as well as ruins and streets have a lot of character and life in them. I think my mood blended in with the one of the people here; very relaxed.
The tourists are concentrated around Dluga, but already in the parallel streets they mix with the locals... No Disneyland here.
In the eavening, when I went looking for something to eat, I ran into Elizabeth, a marine biologist from Warszawa, whom I met in the morning at the hostel. She is here for a conference but needed a break from the nerdy stuff and so happened to spontaniously keep me company. We found a nice pub in a little street where a fiddler was playing and a very old lady behind the bar drawing beers. So came about the perfect ending of the day.

The third day I wanted to do proper sightseeing, but this remained just a resolution. It was sunny again and this would not let me go into a museum or similar. So I headed for the docks and ended up at a beach. All this time at the baltic sea I never felt like swimming, but today it was just irresistible. And so I lingered one more day, listening from time to time at the polnish phrase book I got the previous day, enjoying here and there and espresso and noticing from time to time that I comleted one or the other circle through the city.
Yes, about the espresso; it is superbe! not as strong as the Italien one, but with an amazing full-bodied taste. Love' it! Somehow I did not expect it, but they really know their sh...

Day 12: Leba-Gdansk

I was hesitating wether to stay one day longer, also because it was raining all morning and I'm not so fond of riding in the rain and I don't like packing a wet tent. But then I was not so fond of Leba either (very touristy), it's rather in Gdansk I want to spend time and I decided to go for it. The rain stopped barley one hour after takeoff, lucky me.
The night before there was a wedding. I did not see it but the brouhaha kept me awake for quite some time. Ironically this days theme seemed to be death. Since I really wanted to make it to Gdansk, it was an asphalt day. The road leaving Leba is a main axis and there where uncomfortably many of these crosses and flowers on the side of the road. I was glad when I finally turned into a side road. But overall there was not much traffic and most of the drivers seemed to respect me as a traffic participant. A couple of kilometers south, while exiting Lebrok, I passed by a graveyard where people almost were streaming to. I probably never saw a graveyard so colorfull and packed with flowers like this one. I was very impressed how these people dealt with death.
It was nice riding one a Sunday. Whenever I crossed a village in the morning and early afternoon I saw spruce looking people most of the time on their way to the center, the church.
I made it to Gdansk around 7pm, after 130 and, who would have thought, around 2000m difference in altitude, that were achieved by ocillating between -9 and 300m above sea level. Also I reached the 1000 km in total. To reward myself I wanted to go in a hostel, but the first was not a place to feel comfortable and the second one my map appeared to have ceased to exist. So after circling through a good part of the town, I ended up on the camping. There I met two guys from Pilniz having made almost the exact same tour as myself, only they took 14 days and were camping wild most of the time. So I had my first long conversation since I crossed the border to Poland . The exchange of stories was lasting late into the night.

Day 11: Leba

I promised my knie to take a break.
Also Wolter (the bike) needed some maintenance, the bumpy roads were quit a bit of stress to the weels. So I did recenter them, fixed my first small needle hole in the tire and polished him a bit.

There are some dents in the back weel, probably from the times when I hit something and thought; "ouuuh this will be a snake bite in the air chamber". Apparently the weel suffered a lot more than the air chamber.

But over all Wolter is keeping up fine. Me too.