Old friends

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Castle in Slovakia





I haven't seen my once good buddy Andy Gillian for the best part of a decade and a half but thats nothing a good night out untill 6.30 in the morning did not fix. High five for Polish pop music. I pulled into the Polish border as the light from the day was quickly receeding and the fog so indicitive of winter started rolling off the mountain tops and into the valleys. I went to the first people that I saw who were standing in their driveway and asked in my best charade if I could pitch my tent on their lawn. No worries was generally the reply I got and this was no exception. Within moments of my tent hiting the dewy lawn before the poles were even snapped into position I was asked if I wanted to come into the house to sleep. Of course I accepted and after a lengthy introduction period consisting of dinner and beers with them we sat in front of google translater and had an almost normal conversation. I think. The following day to Andy's place in Katowice was much longer than I expected and it wasn't until the lovely attendant at a petrol station made a call for me, gave me a coffee and let me chill out in the store with Doris that I was collected by Andy's lovely wife and we headed for the city.

Not a good road to be heading down

Its fair to say the roads in Poland, certainly in the south are very difficult to negotiate. Perhaps when I get further north I will have a better time staying off the large roads and on the rural roads where the trucks and cars aren't allowed to scream by at 140kph. Needless to say we made it without too many dramas and I have been here for a couple of days. A very welcome relief for my poor ass which seems to be getting worse, not tougher and more resistant to soreness.

Slovakia was generally speaking a beautiful place and filled with lots and lots of contrasting communist concrete buildings and very old churches and castles of which I am not too concerned if I never see another one.

William shatner look alike

Leaving a small town the morning I was trying to get to the border, I went into a pub at 9am to fill my water  bottles. Its become apparant that these are really the only places open at that hour, not only that but there are usually plenty of people entertaining themselves there. This one however only had a couple of patrons who were very curious why someone was in a helmet and a bright yellow high vis vest ordering a water in their local. As happens I left the bar at 1pm and was just a little wobbly on my bike. It seems that I am similar to a circus in that people enjoy the company of the exotic animals as much as wanting to see them perform. In my case they want maps and photos and then when they need to leave they call their friends who buy more rounds and take the place of the original patron. Its like a relay where I always play catch up but cat pull out of the race.

Hello to you too Poland

It feels like the winter is on the doorstep. I have twice now had to fill a water bottle in the middle of the night with hot water to keep my self from a restless cold shivering night. There are plans to get some better gear in the next few weeks but it will not be too much longer until there are frosts and the first snow falls of the winter months. Heres hoping that doris loves the cold as much as she like throwing me off onto the pavement. I was riding along quite happily on a very busy road that had just been sealed. The problem being the new seal was an inch higher and an inch narrower than the old seal so once I slipped off the new sometimes the tires wouldn't grip the surface as I tried to come back to the new road. This time my weight went over but the wheels stayed and I skidded out sprawling over the lane of traffic fortunately between cars. Dodged a bullet there but Doris suffered an interesting injury. Instead of breaking her chain completely which by all accounts although messy is easy enough to fix she bent a link in half. Much tricker to fix and twice as greasy.

In a great little tid bit, the German ladies I mentioned last story time wrote to me and said the bike was no better and no worse for the time I put into fixing it. However they came up with the name bobby for the bike as I kept calling it bobby when I was tinkering and they confessed they couldn't understand why. I racked my brain and it dawned on me that I was calling parts of the bike I didn't know the name of 'thing-a-me-bobbys' so one of the gals is now travelling on her bobby.

Some dude showing off in Krakow

Heading to the Cz Rep next then north to where the real expedition will kick off. Here to warm fingers and toes.

Very Hungary

What countries is doris stradling

So I was just chillin out as one does when they dont need to be doing anything else riding my trusty bike along the stop bank of the river Duna when I came across a shepard with his faithful flock. Im not really sre that you would ever put sheep in a 'faithful' catageory but there you go. Leading the group was a Donkey, yup, a Donkey. For some reason I am not really sure of the Donkey took great offence to me even though I had gone well out of my way to avoid any confrontation. The Donkey turned my direction, walked, trotted then started running after me. What is one supposed to do what a god damn donkey starts to chase you? This was beyond all my high level response training for the military so I just rode like stink until the amused shepard called off the raging beast. I mean honestly, a Donkey.

Pumkins in Austria

Tracing my way through to Vienna I continued through the extreamly old city a couple of days thereafter to find myself in another city of just as intriguing history. That would be Bratislava, the capital city of Slovakia. Here I was stopped by a few curious folk who all commented on the state of me and the bike. The general concensus was that me and the bike looked in remarkably good condition for the 11000km we had just completed. I thought they were being nice but it was a good feeling not to be like the stinky kid for a moment at least.

Vienna

I have been following the Euro Velo signs for the last few days before I got sick of them and headed out onto the roads again. The Euro Velo is a network of cycle paths strewn all over the continent to make life easier for the drivers on the roads and the bikers. The problem is that everybody on the paths is on a mission so noone stops and talks unless you really impress yourself upon them. I did this too two such gals from Germany and we spent the day biking through what was left of Austria before we got to Slovakia. It was pissing with rain for a short time at camp so we used their roomy lodgings to drink wine and play cards and I was very grateful for the quality cheese they offered. A lovely break from the cheap plastic stuff I have been buying. I had a crack at fixing the gears on their bikes but it was a little beyind me without new cables so I think I made the situation worse. Still It was nice to be able to try and help someone even if I just ended up creating more work for them in the long run.

Good Boy

Hungry has been a little bit disappointing in that I have hardly met anyone and I have not really taken in much of the culture. I was speculating as to why this could be the case the other evening as I sat under a full moon and I think it is because I am so far off the tourist trail I had found the farmers and peasants of the inland counties. There are acres and acres of golden corn crops swaying and rustling in the afternoon breeze across this remarkably flat countryside, or where the crops have been reaped there are endless dusty fields streatching far into the distance. There are no curches, or museums or interactive displays telling of the occupations that have taken place here over the centuries, just the crops and the sun hardened paople that are serving the land. And me of course, trying my best to fit in with my white skin and stickered touring bike.

Waiting for the train in Hungary

So thats where I am at the moment. I have moved from Slovenia to Austria, Slovakia and into Hungary. Now as I write this I am a stones throw from the confluence of Hungary, Slovakia and the Ukraine boarders. The days are getting shorter but as yet the temps are staying perfectable rideable and the days are plenty long enough to exhaust ones self in a bike saddle. I was treated to my first medical issue the other day when I had to remove a splinter from my foot. Almost 5 months and that is the damage, not to bad me thinks. I did eat a face full when Doris dug her front tire in some very soft sand at the edge of the grassy road I was on and stopped dead. Of course I didnt stop until I hit the ground, rolled with the agility of a cat, resumed my feet with the grace of a tiger and pondered with the resilience of a dragon what the hell just happened.

Tom Foolary in Austria

A monument for the lives lost in Vienna in World wars

It would seem that my job prospects in the Uk are looking slim to none at the moment based on some of the emails I am getting back. With that in mind I will be looking to come back to Nz for February. What I was hoping from you lovely people is if you could give me some advise as to where I might look at some sponsorship for another couple of months on my bike. Go on ask around, who knows your boss may want their name on my sweaty top. I am flirting with the idea of heading south once I get to the Uk and head to Africa for a month. We'll see.

Corn field in Hungary. Likely not a sunrise

     Take care world and go have an adventure.