Blackout

Dear Readers,

I have not forgotten about you, but I've been stranded for a few days in a Russian city of 300,000 people that apparently has no internet cafes or wifi hotspots. Back on the road tomorrow and I'll post updates as soon as I have a chance.

Power to the People

I want this dude's hair:




The roads in Lithuania were a welcome relief after Poland, relatively well maintained with few cars or trucks and it felt great to put the bike in fifth gear and open up the throttle.

My plan was to make for Vilnius, but first I wanted to make a detour to Grutas Park. The park consists of Soviet statues collected from all over Lithuania. Strange place, but fascinating:

They also had some interesting exhibitions of Soviet paintings, prints, and even stained glass.

I continued on to Vilnius, a very nice and relaxing city. Immediately decided to stay a second night and catch up on some planning. The planning unfortunately doesn't seem to stop when the riding starts and it can be difficult to find time to route plan, write emails, blog, etc. Vilnius has great architecture and many beautiful churches and other buildings:

Prostitutes and Polish Driving

I somehow managed to drag myself out of bed at 7:00, no small feat while staying in a party hostel, and headed north out of Krakow with the plan to head to Torun, about 275 miles away. This was another less than pleasant ride. Not sure what to say about Polish drivers except that they drive enthusiastically. Once again much of the way was two lane roads with quite a bit of traffic, this doesn't deter the Poles, however, from excessive speed or passing multiple vehicles at once. Several times during the day I had to brake and be prepared to go off the road because a car from the opposite lane was now barreling down my lane directly at me. Add to this the potholes, poor surfaces, and worst of all the ruts that I first discovered in Czech (and that were miniscule in comparison!) and it makes for an interesting ride. Even more interesting are the prostitutes on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, came across a group of 7 or 8 spaced out every kilometer or so. Tried to think of some way to take a photo, but I figured it wouldn't be appreciated! I let the locals have their fun and continued on at a sane speed, doesn't really make any sense whatsoever to pass as if you're at the Daytona 500 if you're just going to get caught up with everyone else at one of the numerous construction points or backups because of towns, but that doesn't deter anyone in the slightest!

Made it to Torun around 4:00 and decided to check out the town. Torun, the birthplace of Copernicus, is a beautiful place, and the best surviving example of Gothic architecture in Poland. It fortunately escaped destruction in World War II, and is very well preserved with many brick Gothic churches. The center was packed with Polish tourists, but few foreigners. Its a bit off the beaten path for most people.

Came across this group playing traditional music while checking out the town:

After exploring the town had a delicious ham, cheese, and mushroom filled pancake covered with a mushroom based sauce for dinner. I've actually been impressed with Polish food, typical of Central European food it can be rather heavy, but it is more flavorful than I expected. Discovered a student bar offering beers for 4.5 zloty ($1.60!) and struck up a conversation with the bartender before being invited to join a group of Polish students. Two of them spoke excellent English, (in general the level of English among young people in Poland is good – much better than France!) and we hit it off and many cheap beers were consumed.

Having no particular destination in mind the next I got off to a bit of a late start. Finally encountered some decent roads as I headed east, well actually the roads were shit but there was very little traffic so I wasn't constantly in fear of my life. Central Poland is like Kansas, flat and boring. Didn't see so much as a hill the entire day, just endless farms and forests. Decided to camp for the night on a lake, the northeast of Poland is a nice region of lakes and forests. The camp site was a bit dilapidated and my neighbors were blasting AC/DC, but it did the job. Met a Polish trucker on vacation and we discussed the miserable state of Polish roads and Polish driving habits, in the past couple months he's lost three mirrors from other trucks in the opposite lane!

Woke up to an absolutely miserable morning. Luckily I was able to break camp before the torrential rain started. I decided to wait out the worst of it and took cover at campground store. At the table next to me a group of middle aged Poles were downing beers before moving on to vodka, at 8:00 in the morning mind you. The rain and thunderstorms only lasted an hour or so and I hit the road, stopping just before the Lithuanian border for breakfast. Two German riders were also there, and we got to talking about our trips. I usually like meeting other riders, but one of them came off as a bit off an asshole. When I mentioned Mongolia, he asked in a haughty, condescending tone, “with that bike?” Of course they both rode BMWs with massive metal pannier. Not sure I need a BMW and with a bunch of expensive metal from the Touratech catalog on it to have an adventure!

Krakow

Mercifully once I made it to the highway I was able to make good time and reach Krakow two hours later. Still completely exhausted from two long riding days I checked into the hostel and went in search of secure parking for the bike. This was difficult than I imagined and parking ended up costing more than the hostel! Krakow seemed very safe and lots of bikes were on the street, but I've been warned several times by locals in various places not to leave it out at night so I decided not to risk it. Krakow is a great city, would have liked to have spent more than two nights there. Definitely a great place to relax , also a great place to party, beers costs less than $2!! I'll let the photos do the talking:

The first photo is a monument to Katyn, the site where the Soviets murdered thousands of Polish army officers, I'll let the rest of the photos do the talking:

The Longest Day

Leaving Tabor in the morning I hopped on the autobahn and continued east through Moravia. The Czech highways are constructed from concrete rather than paved liked an American highway and it was an extremely bumpy ride at 70 mph. The right lane also had the rather unpleasant feature of having uneven ruts formed by the heavy truck traffic. These can be terrifying on a motorcycle because you have to have to go in and out of them when changing lanes and they can be almost impossible to see . I've never heard of anyone having an accident because of them, but I can't say that makes riding on them any less scary. The ruts obviously made the left lane quite appealing, but it was necessary to constantly change lanes because of cars overtaking me at 90-100 mph. Not wanting to pass entirely through eastern Czech Republic I decided to make a stop at the small town of Stamberk. Stamberk is famous in the Czech Republic for the unusual wooden construction of its houses, it also has a castle with a large tower set on a hill overlooking the town. I can't say I found the houses very impressive, but I regretted not having more time to explore Moravia as it seemed very beautiful and there are apparently some impressive castles scattered throughout the countryside.

I'll confess that I found the Stamberk houses so unimpressive I don't even have any half way decent photos for them! You'll have to use Google or your imagination.

What had started as a beautiful day immediately took a turn for the worse as soon as I entered Poland. It began raining steadily and off to the south in the distance I noticed lightning. Thinking it was far enough way I decided to press on. About fifteen minutes later, I saw a very close lightning strike and less than two seconds later heard thunder. They say your odds off getting struck by lightning are miniscule, but I've developed a healthy respect for it after getting caught in a violent storm with terrifyingly close strikes during a patrol at Ranger School at Fort Benning that struck two students in another squad. Thinking it can't be too safe to be on a giant hunk of metal when lighting was striking all around I took the first exit and made a hasty dash for some cover inside a store and tried to wait out the rain, or at least the lightning. The rain showed no sign of letting up so I decided to press on. Southern Poland is not a fun place to ride a motorcycle, its heavily populated and the road network is not capable of handling the traffic. I had no alternative except to take a two lane road congested with cars and heavy truck traffic that passed through towns and villages every mile or two with backups of at least ten minutes at every light or roundabout. This basically lasted all the way from the Czech border to Zakopane, my destination for the night. It took almost five hours to go less than 200km and I didn't arrive in Zakopane until nearly 8pm, too late too see anything. Zakopane is a resort town located in the Tatras Mountains that straddle the border of Slovakia and Poland.

The town itself was definitely not for me, much too developed, although the mountains seemed beautiful. In summer its population swells from 25,000 to 100,000 and the sidewalks are as crowded as Manhattan's. I pulled in absolutely exhausted, having done over 550km, half of it in the rain and in heavy traffic. Definitely overestimated how much I could reasonably do in one day and Zakopane was not what I was looking for, but fortunately my excellent hostel (Goodbye Lenin) was located in a quiet setting outside of town and I met some friendly travelers and was able to relax over a beer. I thought about staying another night in Zakopane and taking a day off to do some hiking, but waking up to another gray sky made the decision for me. I would head to Krakow.

First I had to make it out of the parking lot. This proved more difficult than expected. To my left was the hostel, to my right a car, to my front a steep drop off leading into the forest, and I couldn't reverse because it was inclined. I decided I would edge forward and try to slip around in front of the car. Definitely not a smart decision. Thinking I had just about made it the rear wheel slipped in the mud and the bike slid a few feet down the drop off. Now it was stuck in the mud on a steep incline and completely impossible to ride out because of trees. The only option was to muscle it back up the incline. I took off the bags and attempted to lift it. Nothing. Went inside and asked one of the workers if he'd mind lending a hand. We managed to do a bit better and get it upright, but it still wasn't moving uphill. Went back inside and rounded up another person and the three of us finally managed to push it up. Unfortunately I didn't think to take any photos of what I am sure is only the first of many embarrassing drops on this trip. In fact I don't have any photos from Zakopane I think because between the weather and the traffic I was beat and in a bit of a foul mood.

In the footsteps of Wagner and Dvorak

The long awaited, much procrastinated over blog!

My original intention had been to take the most direct route and head north from Heidelberg through Germany and into Poland, but after stumbling across some photos of the Czech countryside I knew I had to go. Looking at the map I noticed I would be passing close to Bayreuth, the home of Wagner and the Bayreuth Festival. I left Greg's around 11:00 after having finally finished the last paper of my college career that very morning. My route took on small back roads through the Old Forest east of Heidelberg. Fortunately the rain that was threatening held off and this was a great ride through a beautiful landscape of forests, small mountains, and farms. After passing through it I continued on to Bayreuth. Bayreuth is an attractive city, with lots of old architecture and a large student population. Wagner's house and grave was a bit of a let down though, I later found this article from the New York Times: (link)

Wagner's house and grave:

Greg had conveniently recommended a pension near Bayreuth run by a German friend named Stefan and had sent them an email to let them know I was coming. Stefan and his family were great hosts, his wife Carmen is a professional, and apparently excellent chef, but unfortunately she was unable to cook that night and I wasn't able to sample any Bavarian specialties. I did, however, have an interesting conversation over pizza and beers with Stefan who was able to talk despite a broken jaw that came about from a seed in a piece of bread!

After an excellent night's sleep I left Stefan's under gray skies and a few hours later crossed into western Bohemia in the Czech Republic. I've always been interested in this area because of the music of Dvorak, one of my favorite composers. Dvorak was born in a small village outside of Prague in Bohemia, and many of his compositions were inspired by traditional Czech folk music from Bohemia and Moravia. The Czech countryside definitely did not disappoint and I would have liked to have more time to explore. My route took me south on small roads through Sumava National Park, a beautiful region of forests and rivers. Judging by the enormous amount of people I saw cycling, hiking, and kayaking the park is a very popular tourist destination for Czechs. The gray skies continued all day and it was so chilly I put on my heated jacket liner! This is a great investment I think, amazing piece of gear - at 1/3 heat I was toasty warm. I imagine full heat would give you second degree burns! I stopped at a roadside restaurant for lunch and was handed a menu Czech and German, not being able to read either I attempted to ask the waitress who spoke very little English for a suggestion. She did manage to catch the words “typical” and “Czech” though and soon brought me back a plate of cabbage, potato dumplings, and some type of barely edible and incredibly salty meat. Having little choice I dug in and finished everything except the cabbage of which I only managed a few forkfuls.

After this rather less than satisfying meal I continued on to Tabor. A small city with a beautiful old town centered around a square. Another popular destination for Czech tourists, tried several pensions and they were all full. Fortunately a waiter at a restaurant recommended a pension right off the main square. There was no reception so I used the payphone to call the number on the door and Olga, who owns it, came right over from her house around the corner and offered me a nice room for less than 20 euro. She also offered to let me park in her garage while recounting how she used to listen to the Voice of America when she was a student and the Communists were in power.

After the barely platable lunch and long ride I was famished and set off to find dinner. Not willing to risk Czech food again I decided to try an Indian restaurant on the main square. Having ate at various Indian restaurants in France I knew that Europeans generally have a low tolerance for spicy food, so I asked the waiter to prepare my thali spicy, and then to be sure, I added “extra spicy.” He gave me a questioning look and repeated “extra spicy?” Sure enough it came back spicy, but entirely edible and was actually quite good, much better than a lot of the Indian food I've had in New York. Going inside to pay the bill they laughingly asked me if it was not too spicy, they definitely thought they were going to get me! I explained to them I eat Indian food often in New York and have started to love spicy food (thanks Raj!) Turns out the Indians were not Indians at all, they were from Nepal, but I guess a Nepalese restaurant doesn't sell.