Final report online !

I've finished writing my report!

The writings have been merged with the pictures from the Flickr accounts on an external homepage.

go there now!

If youre connection is too slow for a 10MB per page check out the text only version, but it's only half the fun.

If you want to communicate with me outside the comment mode of this site write to
tillheld "at" zedat.fu-berlin.de

Berlin Berlin

I'm back home!

The report is written and will be put online on an external page next week.

Istanbul was nice, but I'm glad we made it back.

Stay tuned for the final update of this travelog.

Take care - Till

fotto fotto

thats me at 3200m...

go check all the nwe fotos all the way from Russia to Turkey, along the Georgian coastal regions up the mountains to Svanetia and back to Tbilisi.

fotto

Alive n' kickin'

Just came back from the mountains. Had some problems with the bike just 8kms out of Ushguli. Made it back to civilization with 4WD and bus from Kutaisi. At the Bus terminal vital repair work was done on my bike. I'm now able to go either further across Georgia or - if the weather stays that way - make my way to Antalya (Turkish riviera) and then up to Istanbul for the flight back to Berlin on october 12th. This is now all to be done with the bus and if time and weather allows it partly by bike.

so long

further coverage and fotos sonn to be published...

Georgia, finally

I'm in Georgia now, cycled all the way from Trabzon. The weather is graet, I'm hoping it will stay that way when heading for the mountains in two days.

This is not the end of my journey but I've reached the aim. Thats why I wan't to spend the day outside with the two French-Canadians (3months 8000ks from France headin east)I've met in Batumi.

I'll be writing about all this when its raining...

Soci-Trabzon...what???

like in the old times...

and so was was the hour long queueing at the counter. Its kind of strange having a young lady taking your orders directly into a wireless device whilst being pushed my all those Russian tourists for whom the restaurant with the golden M is like promise land.
Today, spending a large amount of money for a Big Mac Menue plus Salad, I celebrated my departure from Soci and Russia, at last...
I'm not going directly to Georgia but to Trabzon in Turkey. The last three days have been full of disappointments. It seems that You just cannot plan a journey ahead just relying on info from the Internet. Its still the Telefon and lots of imponderabilities meaning you have to be there and ask people and then again and again.
I hate being dependent on the good will of a bunch of corrupt post-sovjet guys operating the only ferry there is to Georgia. They wanted me to wait for three days and then stand infront of the counter for another 5 hours in the morning for a ticket that not only I but many, many other people wanted. If theres a demand why isn't there a supply. I call that a market disfunction, or a monopoly...
I even went to the Abchasian border to ask about the chances of making it to Georgia via this ...Ananas-Entity. Being de facto governed by Russia it wouldn't be much of a problem to get in and through. They just wouldn't let me in at the Georgian border. Thats what the guys in the UN SUV told me.
As always short in time, gotta catch that ferry

The new Fotos are on the first flickr account. Check out the date and time, the most recent foto is on top. Foto 1 – Foto 2

Russian Riviera

Leaving the Krimea...














The new Fotos are on both flickr accounts. Check out the date and time, the most recent foto is on top. Foto 1 – Foto 2


I'm in a Russian tourist resort 50kms outside of Novorossisk. Its 320 kms to Soci and theres a boat to catch on friday 5pm. Theres also the usual bureaucracy hassle with registration and all. Lets see, how hes going to manage all this in just 2 ½ days. Maybe my left knee is going to save me from doing it all by bike...
To all the sceptics about taking the bus: the official mileage Berlin Tbilisi is 3147kms. I'm going to do more than 4000kms, so keep your mouths shut ;)
Well, its Russia again. The prices are twofold compared to Ukraine and the infrastructure is better. I have not and maybe will not get used to the idea of now being in Russia. Its not that different from Ukrain. Its just that theres all that political stuff that I'm thinking about even when in Berlin that keeps me from embracing it.
Anyway, people are nice and of course very exited about my journey. Today I got a honey melon just when I ran out of water.
Seems that I'm running out of time...
Theres going to be extensive day-today coverage of all the little details in Ukraine and Russia within the next weeks. Maybe I will update the pictures earlier so check out both flickr accounts.
Foto 1 – Foto 2

The Corrections

After what turned out to be an hour long walk across the darker parts of Odesa I finally found an internet cafe where I could post what was written so hastily at the hostel (there the connection had broken down)
The hyperlink for the fotos didn't work and thers LOTS of spelling and Freudian mistakes in this one.
Its already late so I'm going to sleep well and a little bit longer in the morning before getting out of this town.

Odesa, staircases and naughty neighborhoods

sitting here in that Euro standard/price hostel in the busiest street of Odesa makes me think of Budapest, the hippie hostel and different the attitude of the travellers there. to cut it short, there's self complacent men sitting in the other room drinking beer wating for the night and all those cheap Ukrainian girls to come. Its amzing there's not a single female guest but all young and eager looking girls working at this place. There's those obligatory two japanese guys in my dorm looking kind of stressed out from whatever long journey they've been taking.
If you understand what the female stuff is talking about in a not so exerted friendliness they use when speaking english to the guests but in Ukrainian/Russian. You'll get a sense of what conflicting temptations the life of a young ambitious "Ukrainza" is exposed to. Its all about assumed options, for the (western) guys its just about getting laid or being flattered by women who need to get a husband if the want to move up the ladder (something not really to be found in those western countries they come from).
Lets all read Michel Houellebecq’s book's and be cynical about it, shall we...

Anyway, as I'm in Ukrain right now I had to be in Moldawia in the first place this is what happened:

Day23 (2.9.)

After another night out in the rain at a camp spot chosen rather haphazardly on a fiel right next to the street (I did and continue to do this for there is no reason, why one of the local clowns should attempt to rob the curious foreigner out there in the rain with cars coming by every 90secs or so) I got up early and rode the remaining 10ks to the border. Stocked up my food supplies and made it it in just under 10min across what is to be the future Schengen Border.
_
little interruption here: one of the female employees has just being surprised by a local friend with a bunch of little roses (as she joyfully exclaimed). Maybe thats a precautionary measure being taken by the local boys given the obvious avocations.
But to be honest I don't really see this blonde marrying the guy with the roses...
_
As I could already see when getting to the eastern parts of Romania things where about to get worse in just any sense. People are poorer, less fortunate (theres no real near time perspective for Mioldowa joining the EU) and they just lok like that. This is not to say that there aren't nice people you can have conversation with (I'm finally able to use my Russian again!).
After a couple of ks it started to rain again. I didn't bother to put on the haevy rain gear since the trousers aren't fitting too well and the neopren spats are just clumsy when walking on them.
The thing about cycling in the rain with short pants is that you can do that as long as you keep going. Theres nothing worse than getting up again in cooled down wet gear. Given this I made an early stop just 50ks out of Chisinau the Capital and aim for that day.
After a weird encounter with an aged lady making the sign of a cross many times at the sight of me and then telling me that she only rented out rooms to Jews and that she was much cheaper than the guy upstairs I sensed that I got into the wrong building. The right one was on the main street right next to the "Abmen Valuty" were I changed some money. Again the first encounter with the lady renting out teh rooms was somewhat funny since I was helloing for about five minutes in the hallway until I found out that she was in her office asleep at the desk.
She couldn't change the 100LEI bill (5,84 EUR) for the room was supposedly only 80. So I went out to buy some things and eat something not cooked by me in that little alupot meaning a Schnitzel with fries and salad plus the lemonade for just 2 EUR. You'll might get an idea what this about, Moldawia is cheap! When I came back to the hotel it turned out that the room was only 18LEI (*shame on me for missing the slight difference between 80 and 18 in Russian). Thats a new record even for me, 1 EUR for a room to sleep in alone for one night (there's alway SOMEthing included...)
This time it was the occasional cockroach running under the bed when turning the lights on plus a wedding party going on all night right outside my window (no, I was not ivited and didn't dare asking since everyone semmed to be really dressed up and s tuff). Sometime at night the music changed from humpta-humpta gypsie-style out of the ballroom to boom-boom out of the cars of the remainimg youngsters out on the parking lots.
I had a beer with the local boys at a billiard place nearby being invited to glasses of Moldowan Congnac (30yrs old, you could really taste the wood) out of a plastic bottle. Just when I left the place the girls showed up. I don't know what took them so long, maybe the fact that they really dolled themselves up. Despite all that I went back to my room listening to that music all night long.
Oh, and there was a rat fissling with the plastic bag containing the waste that lay on the floor close to the whole in the wall where there was to be a sink.

Day24 (3.9.)

The main reason for checking in to a hotel after a rainy day on the road is to dry things up, especially the shoes. I already told you about that little fan hair-dryer I always carry with me. It only takes about two hours of noise and someone elses energy to get the boots dry again.
Last nights party had somehow emerged into a jolly morning pint (bit less turbo folk and more humpta-humpta again)/ Anyway it was me leaving early for the Capital with only 18 hours left on my visa.
It took 90min of hammering on the road to get me there. I could only take a brief look a what seems to be a big and changing city for I was being guided to the right bus station to catch the BUS to Ukraina.
Wait a second... didn't that guy tell us he was goin to do it all on the pushie.
Well, I can tell You it was surely a one time only experience. Not that I hadn't taken the bus with bike and all the stuff on earlier occasions. It was just the fact that it took us 6 1/2 hours to do that 200km or so drive from a to b bypassing that banana-entity called PRIDNESTROVIAN MOLDAVIAN REPUBLIC. I knew that border crossings in busses could take a while but this was a real one-time only chance of being treated like cattle in a bus that had been built before the invention of air conditioning.
I was really sorry that my passport had already been collected, otherwise I would have hopped of and done it all in 10 min instead of 2 dreadful hours.
We finally made it to Odesa where i got of at the bus station close to the main basar. I was tired and hungry and got the first dodgy hotel i could get. Now that one was up to set a new record in my personal statistic. Not that it was another one in those single digit EUR category, but it was the sheer size of this place that was amazing. Lots of thugs and floosies around. It was the way you would expect it to be in a really naughty neighborhood. (see the pictures)
The open window was only meters across the market. At night you could watch people going to sleep under the sales booth and a guy beating a young girl calling her a dirty whore for standing around acouple of yards away at the corner. Earlier on he had received money from her and it was obvious that she was dependent on him in a real sad way. It was a big drama that somehow reminded me of A Streetcal Named Desire but in the morning it was all getting up and to work.

Day25 (4.9.)

First thing in the morning upon leaving that place was to get a city map. I cycled a bit around town waiting for banks to open. I saw the staircase and lot of American tourists and then hooked up to a local mountain bike hero that seemed to know where to get things for the bike. He was really nice first showing me the expensive shop where he worked and then the stand at the basar being more affordable for the low tech stuff. I went back to his shop to let him do the maintenance and also baught a new fleeze sweater because minesomehow got lost the other day when getting of the bus on the basar. It was worth it because it wasn't expensive and the old Adidas one was really worn out after five years.
Next thing was getting to this hostel, washing clothes and making all those observations I've written in the above. I'm going to get out to get some fresh meat (no, just for the pasta sauce)...

leaving Romania with a bad stomach

Don't try this at home...

I'm in Iasi close to the Moldowan border. Yesterday I was puking along the highway. I don't really know what was taking its toll there, sure it left me with no real strengh and the need to slow things down a bit.

check out the new fotos from the Romanian countryside, the old ones you can find here (be aware that it starts with the most actual picture)

Day18 (28.8.)

After taking it all back to Rhegin I found out that it was sunday and that I would have to Spend those 20 EUR on a hotel rrom no matter what. I spend the whole day (17) watching TV and checking out downtown Rhegin wich is something that can be done in 30min.

The morning after it was already 12:30. Last night they showed Twin Peaks, but only starting at 2am. After leaving the hotel and buying that new "kautshuk" it was already 2pm. It sonn became claer that this was to be a real backroad. Bumpy cobblestone roads in the villages and disintegrating tarmac from the Breshnev era in the woods. It really reminded my of Georgia...

Upon reaching Lapusna, the aim for that day, it had already begun to rain. Thats when I saw the only building with lights on and peaople inside staring outside at me. I took my chances and asked if I could put up my tent in the backyard. I fiddled with the tent and asked for water and soon got invited to come inside. From that on the oldest of what turned out to be real Romanian Lumberjacks made it clear that I could stay inside and ordered me to get my luggage and bike inside aswell. Although there was somewhat of a language barrier we got along well and had a nice evening with very orginal food and all. The interior design was a real classic. Playboy calendars alongside with Husquarna pin-up girls holding up those chainsaws in a real sexy way.

I was told that the former state datcha of Ceaucescu was on the other side of the road and that back in the olden day he used to take his German business friends for a hunt from time to time.

Day19 (29.8.)

I took of at 9am and was told that the road ahead was a real "drum foristei" a forest road an d that I should just stick close to the river in order to keep on the right track. After 2km I was hailed and stopped immediately by a funny bunch of guys who turned out to be the lower cast in the hirarchy of Romanian Lumberjacks. They only had a little shack to sleep in and weren't really focussed on getting up and to work that morning. In fact most of them were really drunk and that was probably the reason for the whole extravaganza that followed. I had to drink of their moonshine, horses where dragged onto the scenery and jolly pictures where taken. In the end I managed to get of without paying for the wonderful pictures that had been staged, horses n all.

The next 15 or so kms where bumpy and uphill. But upon reaching the sumit I knew that the rest of the day would only be downhill. What a pleasure...

Things turned out differently somehow. After a few kms that took me out of the mountains I could see that the next 5 kms would be more of an ordeal than a nice ride down the valley. It was'nt just muddy the whole road was torn apart by the carterpillars that where usually driving on it and all soggy from the rain the night before. I fell of my bike twice and had to push it several times. At one time that kept me from drowning in a real swamp that consisted of a ditch filled up with sawdust and water. All alone I took the freedom of cursing, well Romanian road conditions and those responsible for it. In the end already close to the next village I could'nt even push the bike since the rear tire was blocked by clay and grass.

Upon entering that village it took me another 15 minutes to find someone who would'nt just stare at me in disbelief when telling them that I came all the f...... way from Laposna but letting me rinse and clean the bike with a water hose, something not so easy to find in rural villages. When I was done I was all soaked myself and found a motel down the road at a modest price of just 4 EUR for a double with TV.

With no Internet and nothing to do I took to the village a did what you do when nothing to and waiting for the shoes to dry. I got a haircut, baught some postcards, called home and drank a beer at a pub.

The rest of the night was again watching Romanian and Hungarian TV. There are funny shows featuring really well-equipped blondes that made a career in Italian TV. The other extreme are shows on national TV showing old people all geared up in traditional costumes singing lip-sync to what seems to be also very traditional music. I'm not against retaining traditions and such but the way they show it on Romanian TV really takes the cake. It looks sort of like a sedative once invented to let people forget about the horrors of their daily lives.

Day20 (30.8.)

Carrying a hair-dryer is really worth the weight. All you do is plug it in for two hours watch Agassi play his last US Open and in the end the shoes are dry.

Today was the last day of climbing those Carpathians that hadn't really worried me all too much. It was 10kms of switchback roads and a little rain. The descent lead me through a nice gorge that seemed to be major touristic destination. Its always funny when coming along places with people standing around buying souvenirs not really knowing what they are doing. Well, I guess that is what they call leasure time.

For me it was hard work in the pouring rain on a road that was'nt steep but covered with the coarsest gravel they have putting the rolling drag at the highest level imaginable. When reaching Piatra Neamt I checked in to a small pension sleeping in the doormans room for still a lot of Euros compared to normal Romanian prices.

Day21 (31.8.)

Getting that cheap bed was under the precondition of leaving at six o'clock. I had a muesli with lots of sunflower seeds - a bad idea as it turned out later - and took off for what was supposed to be the final ride to the border. The road conditions where ideal. Smooth tarmac and strong tailwinds. By 1pm i had alread done 100kms. The only thing was that my stomach started really worrying me. I took an extended lunch break and tried again. Nope, instead I took to the fields along the road puking it all out. I still don't know what it was. I had some water from a roadside fountain that teasted really good. Anyway, bought some Coke and pretztel sticks and set up my tent just before the rain set in.

The night was long since I got to bed at 4pm and it was'nt really quiet for it was raining all night.

Day22 (1.9.)

Today I had a quick ride into Iasi. Sorted out some financial problems before headin into the unknown (Moldawia and Transdnistria in particular) and cooked some pasta in the city park. I'm going to ride the remaining 30kms to the border to be able to get an early start into Moldawia by tomorrow morning.

check out the new fotos from the Romanian countryside, the old ones you can find here (be aware that it starts with the most actual picture)

creative pause in Romania

Guess what, last night my rear tire exploded.

check out the new fotos from the Romanian countryside, the old ones you can find here (be aware that it starts with the most actual picture)

Day14 (24.8.)

Got a new rear rim with new spokes and took to the road at 12h. It was the main Euro Highway to Cluj Napoca. That's the road evryone takes whos got some east/west business goin on in Romania. First major climbs along the river valley.

Day15 (25.8.)

Up in the mountains its cooler, so in the morning waiting for my tent to dry I could just simmer for a while in my tent imagining those mountains ahead.
The thing with maps at 1:700.000 is that you can only guess what mountains you're about to be climbing in the following days. But that only keeps things interesting does'nt it ;)
Today was also the first day I was able to catch one of those hikes we biukers like. Not only we suffer at the mountains but also the trucks that have been build before the fall of the sovjet empire. Thats what really makes this love-hate relationship. Hanging on to the backside of a truck wheezing up the hill at little more than walking speed lets you forget about a lot off evil honking and almost beeing blown off the road. It also strengthens the left arm...
I reached Cluj around 5 pm and left it after a little shoppinh tour. After that it was only another little climb out of the valley onto the new lesser frequented road.

Day16 (26.8.)

It was raining from 4 to 6 am. When I got up and going it was all dry. This day I was really unlucky with the tab water. I bought a 2L bottle of Coke instead. On the road the usual crap food becomes asimple source of energy.
It was a winding road with lots of little valleys to get in and out of (meaning up and down). When taking a pause at 3pm cooking my last pea soup from Lidl in CZ I was washing my dishes in a small river with a dead black chicken in. Bad omen?! Don't think so, just a little disgusting when finding out too late.
From that on it was escaping the rain. I did a pretty goo job taking the last climbs on the way to Rhegin. On my way I saw a puking Italian lady outside a BMW X5. That brings me to another exiting discovery: its actually+50% of the cars that have an Italian license plate. I didn't know much about the Romanian minority in Italy, but its seems they're doing pretty good since those Italian cars make up about 95% of the market value that is out there on the street. It reminds me a bit of Turkey where it was kind of the same with Turks playing rich uncle from America upon visiting their relatives in the villages of rural Turkey.
After checking out a couple of hotels in Rhegin I decided that it wasnt worth spending 20 EUR for a night. So I took the road into the unknown. Another backroad kepping me away from those TIR trucks and close to the villages. Shortly after passing a miltary compound with lots of old equipment rotting in the rain it made a big bang. I already gave you the answer to the question. No, it was'nt the military trying to shoot that suspicious spy-like guy on a bike. It was the second Continental Travel-Contact tire that IU've managed to kill on my journey. This one only lastet only about 600kms. Know thats a bad omen if I want to get to Georgia on a bike.
What I'm going to do tomorrow is to buy a new tire, put it on the front rim and use the last Conti for the back. Maybe I can order a new Marathon XR into Odessa.
"Que sera, sera,
]Whatever will be, will be;
The future's not ours to see.
Que sera, sera,
What will be, will be."

check out the new fotos from the Romanian countryside, the old ones you can find here (be aware that it starts with the most actual picture)

Romania and Spoke problems

It took me 2 days and 300km to get from Budapest to Oradea the first town in Romania. It was a fast and unspectaculasr ride across the puszta plains.

on day11 I found a good Bike shoop in the centre of Budapest through the shimano.com shop locator. They said that the rim was still OK and did the centering for 4 EUR. I saw that the rear tire was broken - the reason for the constant wudupp-wudupp. Luckily I had a foldable spare tire with me.Next time I will take the Marathon XR instead of Continental Travel Contact that I'm riding on right now.
The rest of day was hangig around the Hostel and...yes, meditating. No Yoga bullshit but that 20 min meditation I've told about earlier.

Day12 (22.8.)got up at 6:30 shortly after the last ones went to bed. After 40 kms I had reached the eastern outscirts of Budapest and a road that was less Autobahn than the one leading to the airport. Non the less that day I had to go on the Euro Highway 4 that leads eastwards. It has exellent tarmac and with tailwinds I did 40ks in an hour but it is no fun. On the backroads it was the total opposite. No traffic at all, just the occasional truck carrying the harvest from all the fields there is. After 161kms I put up my tent and was only bothered by an unknown animal of unknown species and size at night that made quite some noise approaching through the brushwood and then just breathed beside my tent for a while. If anyone knows send me youre suggestions what it might have been. I don't really think theres bears in the plains of Hungaria, maybe a crocodile or camel...
Day 13 (23.8.)
If youre short with Hungarian Forinth buying breakfast with youre VISA card at a supermarket is a great thing. It just gave me the energy I needed after that exhaustive ride the day before. This time it was all riding through villages with people in amazement at the sight of such an unusual tourist. I was even able to send another packet back to Berlin. It contained another Kilo of stuff I don't need anymore (maps, books, handheld computers and the like).
Shortly thereafter I heard that knack from the back of my bike that tells me that a spoke was broken. Maybe carrying that Watermelon around all day was little to much. I was still able to ride the bike without worsening things. After another 40 kms of carefully avoiding every pothole I reached the Schengen Border to Romania. customs took only a couple of minutes and I was outside of the EU! The 15 km road from the border to Oradea is sidelined with either abandoned industrial sites of the sovjet times or new ones being set up with the EU accession ahead by the end of the year - or maybe next year...
Looking for a hotel in Oradea remained somewhat of an elusive quest that took two hours of riding behind friedly taxi drivers showing me the way to hotels where I was greeted with a frosty smile by the concierge telling me that not only their hotel but all the hotels there are are fully booked out and, no, there was no way of getting a room for less than 25$. All stupid bullshit of course.
It was the first time on this journey that I encountered that relict sovjet behavior of not beeing able to give a simple answer without having the carrot right infront of your face. But that was only in the hotels, on the streets everyone is able to have at least a simple conversation in english (I had BIG problems with these kind of things in the last three contries...).
Before going again out of town to find some camping resort that was promised to me by two very bright guys working in a pet shop I just headed for the university. I just asked two girls walking back to their hostel and they helped me through the negotiations with the doorman who initially had his doubts about all that. But then gave in and showed me a room that I could share with a young student of computer sciences. He only told me that I had to leave early in the morning (I think he was afraid of his superior finding out about that illegitimate guest)...He DID knock at the door at 5 in the morning.

Day14 (24.8.)

After sitting around the city centre watching the city getting up and to work I was looking for a "professional bike shop". Ended up on the basar but then went back to find a very unfriendly salesperson first refusing to let me enter the shop with my bike and then telling me just like those unfriendly people at the hotel that nothing was possible, in other wnot to bother them and fuck off.
Found the righ shop after all that has just opened while I'm still here tpin...

The King is back!

I knew i could still do 150ks with a fully loaded bike. Well, I just got to Budapest after what was a hell of drive first twords the Danube, then along and finally over the hills right into the capital of Hungaria - my fourth country.

check out the new fotos, the old ones you can find here (be aware that it starts with the most actual picture)

But where were we. I think it was



Day5 (15.8.)

After hitting the major Euro Highway - the one that I promised to make so many ks in so little a time was becoming narrower with almost no road shoulder left I could ride on. I had to backtrack uphill and in the end it was 10kms of worthless riding in the rain. Pretty frustrating for starters.

In the end I found the right road tha took me to Pardubice and thurther on to the direction of Brno. it was kind of rainy all day so I made thought it would be good to outwait the rain inside my tent...the minute i put it up the sun came out:)
It was a nice spot after all.

Day6 (16.8)

After getting an early start on the road it had to stop at a gas station to clean my bike and especially the driving chain since it got very dirty during those recent rainy days. Cleaning my chain is an almost meditative thing that takes about 20 minutes and the same amount of Q-Tips. The thing about gas stations in Slovakia is that the seem not only to sell gas and all the other stuff but the also cater for other needs, basically the ones of male drivers. Theres always a young lady waiting to clean your window. Sometimes a rather sad thing to be watching. I would say its somwhere between working as a waiter and, well you can figure it out.
For the night I spottet a nice storage lake that turned out to be very nice but no good for camping so put myself up on the banks of a water sport company that was located at the bottom of the dam. During peak hours the little river became very big.

Day7 (17.8)

Next morning the weather was sunny from the beginning. I made a quick ride into Brno, a rather big town in the east of the CZ. It is worth a minitrip of its own. I just stopped by at the tourist info and bought extra strong sun protection. I coul;d really make some kms that day and finally after fetching 12L of water at a gas station I got myself installed on what used to be the field where the battle of Austerlitz took place in 1805 or so. It was a quite night, only in the morning I was just right to take off while the farmer was humming down the field in his tractor twords my tent...

Day8 (18.8)

First time I had tail winds! That was very much to my liking since I was feeling a bit tired and my legs werent a strong as I had hoped for that day. I took many rests and buttered up at the last Lidl before the broder to Slovakia. It has become ritual of spending the last money at a supermarket near the border crossing. So far I have managed to spend the exact amount of money that is left in the actual currecy Im trying to get rid off.
In Senica 30 km behind the border I asked the nice grils of the tourist info if they had an accomodation "below the usual standart", they had exactly this. A hotel room for me and my bike with a TV and all for just 8 EUR! I really enjoyed the shover after what was four days of camping. Then I took to town to check out what entertaining there was in this town of 15 hundred.

Day9 (19.8)

The bed was so good that it took me until noon to finally get going. But it turned out to be a good decision. My legs where doing fine and crossing what was indicated as the "small Carpathians" was no big deal. Going downhill I reconed a constant "wudupp-wudupp" on my rear tire. Im going to solve that problem in Budapest.
In a little village I got to drink fresh wine (in German it would be called Federweisser). The guy selling it in plastic bottles out of his front lawn was very nice, he even gave me grapes that where absolutely delicious. After lots of kms again I spend my last Slovakian money at a supermarket and rode out of town with lots of water abord rady to camp in the fields.
I found a nice place. It was behind some bushes so no one could see me from the road. I was cooking one of my favourite dish when beeing on the road: Penne Rigate (the real Italian ones from Lidl...) with baked beans and cheese. Then I went to bed and was only disturbed by the sound of a little frog hopping into the yet uncleaned pot outside the tent. I all went well until 2:30 in the morning when I heard a traktor...
It turned out that the farmer liked working at saturday night. Be it that he did'nt had air conditioning and therefore preferred to work at night or that simply liked his new halogen beamers. For me it meant getting packed and into emediate evac mode. At 3am he was about 50m away, thats when I packed the tent and moved to a different location just a couple of hundred meters away. This is a first timer by the way, I'm not going to change any of my habits because of this.

Day10 (20.8.)

To make things really worse last night when slowly driving twords what was supposed to be my save heaven I drank out of a 1,5L bottle of Cola. i fell out of my hands spilling its content all over my driving chain. So next thing in the morning I realised that the gears werent working properly. It was a shitty 10km ride to the first gas station where the usual 20 min meditation followed.
It took me about an hour to do the remaining 25kms to get to the river Danube and to the broder crossing to Hungary. Again it was buying goodies at the supermarket. I decided to go along the river and then cross the mountains to get to Budapest. It was a I-really-wanna-get-there-TODAY kind of a ride. The sun was really hot. I had to constantly slip-slap-slop but at 5pm after 140km I reached the city center of Budapest.
When hitting suburbia I was told that today was National Day and therefore all shops and internet places closed. I really should have widened the focus during the preparation of this journey. You really have to get there first before you can ride the Caucasus...
Anyway, asked a couple of fellow travellers and they told me about that nice Hippie Hostel they where staying at. A phone call and I had the permission to put up my tent in the courtyard. Getting a bed was out of question. It took me another 2 hours and litres of Coke to finally get there but it turned out to be just right.
It will be my last backpacker community experience until Istanbul in October.

Day11 (21.8)

today I try to get a new rear tire that will endure the coming adventures.

check out the new fotos, the old ones you can find here (be aware that it starts with the most actual picture)

oops

seems like blogspot didnt like the hyperlink to my flickr account. You can find it below.

anyway, camped on the fields of the battle of Austerlitz, really like the air conditioned Lidl supermarkets on my way where I´m cooling down from time to time.

more extensive coverage on all of this later.

CZ to SL

I´m in Slovakia in the small town of Senica 30 km behind the border. Weather is great (got sunburned on both arms and knees), infrastructure in SL reminds me a bit more of the "real" Eastern Europe. Now I can even afford a Hotel (8EUR).

sorry for not updating the

Brno, three days to Budapest

Im in the tourist Info in Brno, lovely old town. But that is to say about almost every little town ive seen so far. Still seeing about 50 cyclist per hour. But they are just short range cyclists. Telling people that Im riding all the way to Tbilisi is always a good introduction when asking for refill of my 1,5L water bottle.

more detailed info soon

Day5
Its raining outside. Just been to the postal office and got rid of 5kg. Last night I slept at what turned out to be a workers hostel. 6EUR incl. a bunch of construction workers. The guy I shared my room with was a 60yr old pensioneer from Poland still working abroad. He invited me for a drink and he told me lots of stories about places he'd been working during the last 35yrs. He didn't seem to feel sorry for his fate, he just said "my wife is working in Germany, what am I supposed to do, sit around at home with my measly pension?!"
About some German collegues he said they simply lacked the flexibility to go to a place like Irland. Next morning he got off to work at 5:30am.

I'm trying to make some kms on the Euro Highway today... but wait its already 2mp

Well, maybe tomorrow I will crack the 100 for the first time on this journey.

Crossing the first mountain range in Czech Rep.

Thats how my first campspot in Zittau, Saxony looked like the morning after.

It has been a lot of ups n downs since then. I have to admit that i didn´t really know what was ahead of me. I have done extensive research on the topography of the Georgian mountains but are currently travelling with a 1:300.000 road map.

Anyway, those mountains have now been dealt with and current road conditions are undulating

Heres a short summary of what hapened so far:

see http://www.flickr.com/photos/tillstar/ for more pictures

Day1

Clearing my room and getting packed took quite some time. I got off at 5:30, took the train for about 250kms to Zittau, Saxony, where it was dark, cold and rainy on my arrival. It took me some time to find a gas station where i could buy some pasta and then a camp spot for the night that had already advanced. I ended up camping about 150m outside the official camping ground which I refused not only because it would have cost me the eqivalent of ten nights in one of those worn out sovjet style hotels in Ukraine that I love so much.

Day2

Getting up and going befor the ward would get me. Crossing the border to Poland which only lasted for 1,7km. Next thing was Czech Rep. Lots of cars froom the Netherlands! Lots of other cyclists aswell. About 50 per hour. Theres a fairly sophisticated network of bike trails that I´m riding on. I don´t really know where 4085 is leading to - did I already say that I got insufficient maps for CZ - but mostly it gets me to the next town. The Euro Highways are a no go in CZ. I´m glad the Czech road infrastructure is so fully developed, but as a consequnce i need to stick to the backroads thereby making a lot of detours but also getting a good impression how life is in the villages.

In Liberec I bought a new crank set and took a rest at a storage lake listening to three hours of turbo-folk adaptions of Abba and the bawling of a bunch of young men playing beach volleyball.

The second day ended on a mountain where I was asking a couple of retirees if could put up my tent on the meadow infront of there cottage. Next thing was exquisite sandwichy and tee. Later when asking for the toilet I was offered a hot bath. It was only until then that we really started communicating - in russian. What followed was a bear and a short summary of both our lives. Around four in the mourning a perky wild swine approached my tent but was driven away by Kuba the dog...

Day3

Getting up took quite a wile since it was still raining. Got off a 11:30 riding up a narrow road through the woods. Downhill a high speed my bike felt a bit wiggly both due to the high weight but mostly out-of-center back tire.

That day I left the mountains behind and got to valleys where the roads are lined with appletrees. The weather got better and there was no problem with another roadside camp.

Day4

Today i rode into the town of Hradec Kralove. When finishing this post I will pick up my bike at the mechanic and book a room in the - according to tourist info - least expensive accomodation in town, 5EUR for bed in a dorm.

until i found out how to properly layout this blog go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/tillstar/ for more pictures

Rainy days and a test drive

The weather for the next week looks BAD. Its all rain in the Czech Republic. When your alredy on the road you just keep going even if its really bad. But sitting at home waiting for the last banking cards to arrive going out in the pouring rain with your bike is bit masochistic.

Tomorrow I´m going on a little test drive in Poland. And then theres another farewell BBQ...

by the way, the last one was great.

Anyway, I´m hoping to e on the road by the end of the week.

almost set up for the journey

one week and I´ll be riding my bike again!
This is the plan so far. I think i can get there by 1st week of September.
Once I´ve arrived in Georgia I´m going on a bid of an extended round trip.
check out
http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~tillheld/Generalstabskarten/index.htm
for proper maps.