Narvik.
On the 14th of October we arrived to the town of Narvik very late at night after a long, rainy, snowy day. Our CS host, Rune waited us with a delicious dinner.
The next day Rune took us to visit Narvik. It was a beautiful experience. He took us to the port where she bought freshly caught crab and fish for dinner. I had the chance here to taste crab, being raw and fresh.
Afterwards we went up on a hill where the whole port could be seen and in the meantime he told us things about the Norwegian lifestyle, way of thinking, history and hospitality. We had the fish for dinner, then as delicacy we peeled the crab and ate it.
After dinner we enjoyed Rune’s home cinema watching the Untergang, Hitler’s last days. Today we were part of many new experiences, thanks to Rune. He’s a nice guy.
Meeting fellows from Tîrgu-Mures
We had left Narvik 2 days before we luckily came along Zoltán and Zsolt. Előd eyed the truck with the MS marking. You can’t imagine that happiness! They gave us all goodies on earth: apple (how delicious apple), bacon, sunflower seeds, nuts and one Ursus beer for each of us.
After a short talk we parted, we set off to South, Zoltán and Zsolt headed to North. Thanks for the flavours from home, guys.
Fauske
On the 19th of October we arrived to the town of Fauske. Weather wasn’t any better, snow and winter-like weather was constant. Before arriving to Fauske we went upwards all day long. We didn’t sweat this much since we had left the Alps, but the landscape compensated for all.
And this is ok. Before arriving to Fauske our camera broke. It was depressing as we could have made beautiful photos, and the bigger problem was that the most beautiful part of Norway was yet to come. We do not have the possibility to buy a new one so we tried everything to come by one. We went to the local newspaper in Fauske and gave an interview, hoping that someone will notice us and help. We posted our problem on our blog as well. The first help is already with us. Marcell and his family from Espoo sent us 50 euros to help with buying a new camera.
The price of the new camera is approximately 200 euros. We decided in Fauske that we won’t follow route E6 as it goes through the mountains, but the Rv17, along the seaside. From Fauske we headed to Bodo and in the hours of the morning we almost believed that bad weather is over, as we saw the sunshine and clouds went away. Our happiness didn’t last long as around 6 o’lock p.m., 20 kms before Bodo we found ourselves in a snowstorm. The road became icy in no time. It felt like we were couriers in winter. Obviously we didn’t continue our way, we looked after lodging. We knocked on the door of a stable and asked whether we can spend the night there or not. It wasn’t possible to stay there but Julie, who was working there offered her house in Bodo. We accepted it, put the horses in the stable and went by bus to Bodo.
From Bodo to Steinkjer on the Rv17
It is the 22nd of October, weather is the same. It is already the 14th day raining, snowing, being cold. Nowadays a snowstorm comes just that, what’s more after 6 o’clock in the evening the road turns icy, so we progress a little bit slower.
23rd of October
Distress doesn’t come along. Weather didn’t deny itself, moreover we got a little hail as well. It was’t dangerous but we didn’t have a place to go, the pieces of ice pattered on our helmets.
The road didn’t get icy in the evening but as we were looking for accomodation, my second boot broke and I just couldn’t move. There were a few houses in the neighbourhood but unfortunately none of the owners let me use the garage to fix it. Because the original boot was fixed in the Czech Republik, so I had a solution, only that on the margin of the road, in the dark and rain it’s not that pleasant to change a boot. But I didn’t have any alternative, and as result my hands legs got frozen. Luckily in the meantime Előd got a place (a garage, of course) to stay in for the night. The owners were kind, they let us take a shower, and they gave us hot tea and supper. This was the 15th day at a stretch when weather wasn’t kind to us.
24th of October
Rain, little bit of sailing, then in the evening another problem: the recently changed rear tyre tore. I was helpless once again. We flagged down a car and asked the driver to take us to the nearest port where we found a waiting room. We spent the night here.
25th of October
When we got up sun was shining, after 16 days this is the first without rain and snow. While sailing we found a truckdriver who agreed to take us to the nearest town, where I got a new tyre. It’s just that now my rear flange is soon to die. We spent the night in a waiting room again, thanks to a guy from Congo. We are approximately 300 kms far from Trondheim.
Norway
What an experience for the human eyes to see as the see intertwines with cliffs, mountains. They make a huge couple. The presence of sheer power is sensible in the air. We had to cycle in a beautiful place like this till Nordkapp. The northernmost point of Europe is located on a big island named Mageroya and an almost 7 kms long tunnel has to be crossed in order to reach the island.
The deepest point of this tunnel is 212 m under sea level. 3,5 kms take you down, than the remaining 3,5 kms is upward. It was a great feeling. After the tunnel only 40 kms parted us from our goal to reach the northernmost point of Europe. We travelled this last portion without luggage, as we had even two accomodation possibilities on the island. This last part of the road was difficult even without bags as we had to cycle upward headwind almost all the way. On the last 500 meters a sudden cross-wind literally swept us off the road.
In the next phase one’s eyes meets the Arctic Ocean already. I just can’t put into words what I felt then. That has to be seen and sensed. Tourists came by bus, they took some pictures then they shortly hopped back on the bus. The two of us were just sitting there smiling. And I know that those tourists weren’t even close to the feelings that encountered us. We travelled 10.000 kms when we finally reached Nordkapp. Probably anything else cannot be appreciated better. It lasts for a lifetime.
We spent one week on the island of Nordkapp, 2 nights at Christian Vendler’s place, 5 nights in Arnt Egil’s friendly snug. We met them both on couchsurfing. In Arnt’s home we met Alan Bezard, a French wayfarer. Alain is presently 56 years old and since 23 years of age he travels around the world as a wayfarer.
His last adventure happened this winter, when he went from Helsinki to Nordkapp by foot within 4 months. Who wants to know more about this journey, a detailed description is found on the next site:
http://helsinkinordkapp.blogspot.com/
Arnt and Alan are two amazing guys. We ate, drank, talked, relaxed and entertained ourselves. Originally we requested one night from Arnt, but he said every night that we should perhaps stay one more day. He meant it and we gladly stayed. We didn’t feel like burden.
Weather was favourable – lull and sunshine. We asked Arnt to take us by car to the northernmost point. He gave us the carkeys and we were free to go.
Yes, we had the luck to go to Nordkapp twice.
That day in the afternoon we went out fishing to the gulf. Előd threw the fishing-rod and he caught a fish right away.
In this excitement I wanted to take a picture but as I was in a hurry I let one paddle and it went away from the boat. It was funny. We were staring at the paddle while it got farther and farther. At last we got it back and continued fishing the result being 6 fish in one hour. It’s not bad, fishing is pleasure this way. The only disadvantage of the fishing was that we got frozen, but in the small hut we got warm quickly. We ate the fish for lunch before starting. I felt like home in the hovel thanks to Arnt and Alan. These two fellows could be beautiful positive examples of humanity. I have learnt a lot from them.
When we left Nordkapp island, the next target was the town of Tromso where we were waited for. The distance between the two points is approximately 600 km. Weather was on our side, we cycled nicely headwind toward south, in the meanwhile we collected beer cans so that we can make a little money. Thanks to Arnold we even had the possibility to try the recumbent bicycle.
Everything was good till the town of Storslett. There we encountered winter. Meterologists forecast for the next 4-5 days a large quantity of moisture and fall in temperature and snowing as result of the latter. It was a problem that we could no more use the tent, so we had to look for other accomodation. We were sitting in front of a grocery when a guy came, stopped, greeted us friendly and after a short conversation Előd asked him whether he could gave us lodging for that night. He was thinking, and excused himself asking us to let him go and buy things and meanwhile he comes up with a decision. The end of thinking was accomodation and going out. We got a whole appartment for the night. And the result of pub-crawling was hangover.
We were grateful for the hospitality shown towards us.
Thanks: Stein A. Blix Johnsen, Tommy Henriksa, Sverker Bohlin
10th of October
Because of snowing we decided no to go to Tromsö, but to set off for South to the town of Narvik where we had CS accomodation. After leaving the town of Storslett, we cycled all day in rain in approximately 2-3 degrees. We were moving on mostly on sea level, one hundred
meters above sealevel was snowing.
Through the evening we reached the town of Olderdale wet and frozen. The tent didn’t even come into question. We knocked on the door of some houses and asked whether we could stay for the night. The positive answer came after the fourth knocking. An elderly couple took us in, and they didn’t offer us the garage, but a place in the house. They gave us hot tea, supper and breakfast. When Agnor Matthiasen opened the door, her first sentence was that ‘You must be frozen’. They were very-very kind and when we started the next day, anxiety was sensible on their face concerning our fate. We promised to take care of ourselves and to keep them posted.
11th of October
We set off. We knew there was more precipitation to come. But it was not rain anymore but snow. It was snowing all day long. Christmas spirit was there with us.
We were indirectly part of a small incident, two trucks clashed behind us. Only the trucks were injured.
We arrived to the place called Skibotn our bikes being halfway frozen. We went in a store to hand down the beer cans, while we were inside the bikes got totally frozen. Front, rear brake, switch, everything.
In front of the store there was the police. Lights were on, so we went there to take our chances. We didn’t have any luck as although the lights were on, no one was there. Or else it is customery in Norway that lights are on everywhere. We mostly pulled the bikes from the police station to the next house. We knocked on the door. An old man came and we told him what we wanted. He asked us to wait a minute then he closed the door. Shortly the door opened again, this time a lady came, she greeted us and didn’t wait for our reply, she only stated that we must be frozen, and invited us in. They offered us hot chocolate and we told them who we were, where we came from and what our goal was. It turned out that we were invited to the home of a recently retired police superintendent. That night we got accomodated in the house again. The next day we showed them pictures and told them other stories about us. Before leaving they packed food for us. The lady looked anxious when we parted. They reassured us that weather was going to be favourable and that we would have tail-wind.
12th of October
So we din’t get any tail-wind, rather headwind which made our cheeks go red. Precipitation was less, sometimes as snow, other times as rain. We spent the night in a small workshop.
13th of October
Most of the precipitation went away, the sky was getting clear towards the evening.
There wasn’t headwind, so we first cycled 80 kms a day after a long time. Although it wasn’t raining and there was no headwind, cold sips out the power from the body.
We found a wallet with all kind of personal documents and a small amount of money, and while debating how to take it back to the owner a policecar came, we flagged it down and gave the wallet to the polce officers happily and pleased.
We spent the night in the town of Setermoen, in the headquarters of the BARDU Sport Association. It was the president of the club who offered us this possibility – this being the result of knocking on doors – and we accepted it gladly.
Weather has been very-very favourable till now.What we lived through in the past few days should have been felt already in Finland. Till now wheather pleased us, now it seems as it would say that for a while I’d be harsh, then good days are to come again. An we know it will be better. Weather is not people’s enemy, they can prepare themselves against it. I do not see anything bad in cycling in snowfall. We enjoyed it, and I think we’ll enjoy it further. We get dressed up and go. Sometimes we are cold, then we warm up. That’s it.
Asking and giving is not a shame. It is not a bad thing that we ask for people’s help. It is not easy to ask and give, but if one lives with his/her chances, he/she will be more by it. I often think about what the man who didn’t invite us in such a weather felt, and what the host felt who took us in for a night. Probably I’m naive but I think there’s a chance that next time when the certain fellow is asked for such a favour he/she will not refuse the request.
Nordkapp
We were lucky to see the arctic light in Finland and we were only a few days far from another beautiful scenery that’s Nordkapp. The feeling that we are closer and closer to the end of the world got stronger by the minute. Nature changes radically as one crosses the border. The woods disappear remaining the bare, sheer cliffs and water, the fjords come along. What an experience for the human eyes to see as the see intertwines with cliffs, mountains. They make a huge couple. The presence of sheer power is sensible in the air. We had to cycle in a beautiful place like this till Nordkapp. The northernmost point of Europe is located on a big island named Mageroya and an almost 7 kms long tunnel has to be crossed in order to reach the island.
The deepest point of this tunnel is 212 m under sea level. 3,5 kms take you down, than the remaining 3,5 kms is upward. It was a great feeling. After the tunnel only 40 kms parted us from our goal to reach the northernmost point of Europe. We travelled this last portion without luggage, as we had even two accomodation possibilities on the island. This last part of the road was difficult even without bags as we had to cycle upward headwind almost all the way. On the last 500 meters a sudden cross-wind literally swept us off the road.
In the next phase one’s eyes meets the Arctic Ocean already. I just can’t put into words what I felt then. That has to be seen and sensed. Tourists came by bus, they took some pictures then they shortly hopped back on the bus. The two of us were just sitting there smiling. And I know that those tourists weren’t even close to the feelings that encountered us. We travelled 10.000 kms when we finally reached Nordkapp. Probably anything else cannot be appreciated better. It lasts for a lifetime.
Arnt Egil’s friendly home
We spent one week on the island of Nordkapp, 2 nights at Christian Vendler’s place, 5 nights in Arnt Egil’s friendly snug. We met them both on couchsurfing. In Arnt’s home we met Alan Bezard, a French wayfarer. Alain is presently 56 years old and since 23 years of age he travels around the world as a wayfarer.
His last adventure happened this winter, when he went from Helsinki to Nordkapp by foot within 4 months. Who wants to know more about this journey, a detailed description is found on the next site:
http://helsinkinordkapp.blogspot.com/
Arnt and Alan are two amazing guys. We ate, drank, talked, relaxed and entertained ourselves. Originally we requested one night from Arnt, but he said every night that we should perhaps stay one more day. He meant it and we gladly stayed. We didn’t feel like burden.
Weather was favourable – lull and sunshine. We asked Arnt to take us by car to the northernmost point. He gave us the carkeys and we were free to go.
Yes, we had the luck to go to Nordkapp twice.
That day in the afternoon we went out fishing to the gulf. Előd threw the fishing-rod and he caught a fish right away.
In this excitement I wanted to take a picture but as I was in a hurry I let one paddle and it went away from the boat. It was funny. We were staring at the paddle while it got farther and farther. At last we got it back and continued fishing the result being 6 fish in one hour. It’s not bad, fishing is pleasure this way. The only disadvantage of the fishing was that we got frozen, but in the small hut we got warm quickly. We ate the fish for lunch before starting. I felt like home in the hovel thanks to Arnt and Alan. These two fellows could be beautiful positive examples of humanity. I have learnt a lot from them.
Headed to South
When we left Nordkapp island, the next target was the town of Tromso where we were waited for. The distance between the two points is approximately 600 km. Weather was on our side, we cycled nicely headwind toward south, in the meanwhile we collected beer cans so that we can make a little money. Thanks to Arnold we even had the possibility to try the recumbent bicycle.
Everything was good till the town of Storslett. There we encountered winter. Meterologists forecast for the next 4-5 days a large quantity of moisture and fall in temperature and snowing as result of the latter. It was a problem that we could no more use the tent, so we had to look for other accomodation. We were sitting in front of a grocery when a guy came, stopped, greeted us friendly and after a short conversation Előd asked him whether he could gave us lodging for that night. He was thinking, and excused himself asking us to let him go and buy things and meanwhile he comes up with a decision. The end of thinking was accomodation and going out. We got a whole appartment for the night. And the result of pub-crawling was hangover.
We were grateful for the hospitality shown towards us.
Thanks: Stein A. Blix Johnsen, Tommy Henriksa, Sverker Bohlin
10th of October
Because of snowing we decided no to go to Tromsö, but to set off for South to the town of Narvik where we had CS accomodation. After leaving the town of Storslett, we cycled all day in rain in approximately 2-3 degrees. We were moving on mostly on sea level, one hundred
meters above sealevel was snowing.
Through the evening we reached the town of Olderdale wet and frozen. The tent didn’t even come into question. We knocked on the door of some houses and asked whether we could stay for the night. The positive answer came after the fourth knocking. An elderly couple took us in, and they didn’t offer us the garage, but a place in the house. They gave us hot tea, supper and breakfast. When Agnor Matthiasen opened the door, her first sentence was that ‘You must be frozen’. They were very-very kind and when we started the next day, anxiety was sensible on their face concerning our fate. We promised to take care of ourselves and to keep them posted.
11th of October
We set off. We knew there was more precipitation to come. But it was not rain anymore but snow. It was snowing all day long. Christmas spirit was there with us.
We were indirectly part of a small incident, two trucks clashed behind us. Only the trucks were injured.
We arrived to the place called Skibotn our bikes being halfway frozen. We went in a store to hand down the beer cans, while we were inside the bikes got totally frozen. Front, rear brake, switch, everything.
In front of the store there was the police. Lights were on, so we went there to take our chances. We didn’t have any luck as although the lights were on, no one was there. Or else it is customery in Norway that lights are on everywhere. We mostly pulled the bikes from the police station to the next house. We knocked on the door. An old man came and we told him what we wanted. He asked us to wait a minute then he closed the door. Shortly the door opened again, this time a lady came, she greeted us and didn’t wait for our reply, she only stated that we must be frozen, and invited us in. They offered us hot chocolate and we told them who we were, where we came from and what our goal was. It turned out that we were invited to the home of a recently retired police superintendent. That night we got accomodated in the house again. The next day we showed them pictures and told them other stories about us. Before leaving they packed food for us. The lady looked anxious when we parted. They reassured us that weather was going to be favourable and that we would have tail-wind.
12th of October
So we din’t get any tail-wind, rather headwind which made our cheeks go red. Precipitation was less, sometimes as snow, other times as rain. We spent the night in a small workshop.
13th of October
Most of the precipitation went away, the sky was getting clear towards the evening.
There wasn’t headwind, so we first cycled 80 kms a day after a long time. Although it wasn’t raining and there was no headwind, cold sips out the power from the body.
We found a wallet with all kind of personal documents and a small amount of money, and while debating how to take it back to the owner a policecar came, we flagged it down and gave the wallet to the polce officers happily and pleased.
We spent the night in the town of Setermoen, in the headquarters of the BARDU Sport Association. It was the president of the club who offered us this possibility – this being the result of knocking on doors – and we accepted it gladly.
About weather
Weather has been very-very favourable till now.What we lived through in the past few days should have been felt already in Finland. Till now wheather pleased us, now it seems as it would say that for a while I’d be harsh, then good days are to come again. An we know it will be better. Weather is not people’s enemy, they can prepare themselves against it. I do not see anything bad in cycling in snowfall. We enjoyed it, and I think we’ll enjoy it further. We get dressed up and go. Sometimes we are cold, then we warm up. That’s it.
About asking and hospitality
Asking and giving is not a shame. It is not a bad thing that we ask for people’s help. It is not easy to ask and give, but if one lives with his/her chances, he/she will be more by it. I often think about what the man who didn’t invite us in such a weather felt, and what the host felt who took us in for a night. Probably I’m naive but I think there’s a chance that next time when the certain fellow is asked for such a favour he/she will not refuse the request.
From Prague to Berlin
At north from Prague we can find the picturesque Svycarsko National Park. It is a part of the region known as Czech Switzerland or Bohemian Switzerland, which lies on the Czech side of the Elbe Sandstone Mountains on both sides of the Elbe River.
Here we could find Europe’s greatest natural stone bridge, a unique monument., and under this 55 Czech Krone. :-) It helped us to bought some ice cream and ate it among the Elbe River’s shores.
It was interesting that most of the people was Asian in the last village before the border. Most of all they were usurers and wanted to make money of cigarettes and everything what man can imagine. We saw at their stock even Romanian beer.
People often came here to buy cigarettes, because in Germany it’s expensive and the restaurant’s prices were favourable too.
We were biking among the Elba river to Drezda and had the chance to sailing on it.
Entering the town it was almost evening so we postponed to visit Drezda the next day.
I liked the spacious streets and the large places. Above that Drezda is an amazing town like every other towns which has a river flowing across them. At one part of the river is the old town and at the other part is the new part of it.
Leaving Drezda we lost our way, but found it quickly to Berlin. Nothing interesting happened on the road to Berlin, it led through green forests.
Reaching Berlin Előd got double flat tyre.
Next day we set out to visit the city. Előd got one more flat tyre. We were in black mood, so we decided to visit Berlin’s sights alone. During I went to the center from the Alexander Platz, Előd tried to find solution to the numerous flat tires. He met Laci in a bike shop who could help him and entertained us for the night.
Laci lived in Berlin for four years. Came here from Hungary, before Germany he lived in Sweden too. He prepared a delicious dinner of Swedish goat cheese and Lebanese sharoma.
Berlin has two big characteristics themes.: the II World War and the Berlin Wall. They give a really loud voice to these historical events.
It was interesting to me how “coloured” was Berlin’s population. I mean by that origin, stile, colour of the skin.
From Berlin to the Sea
80 km from Berlin in a small village Krochlendorf there was an Outward Bound center. Here we had assured accommodations. We slept in a castle, it was wonderful.
The next night we spent on no man’s land on the border between Germany and Poland. We had one more day biking to the coast.
But this day wasn’t the best of ours. First of all Előd had double flat tyre once more. Then we wanted to buy some bread for lunch, but couldn’t use our cards. We had some euro, but couldn’t change it. Asked two men, but they didn’t even answer. We found a bank but they didn’t change it. At the end a men helped us showing a place where we could change our 5 Euro to 20 Zloty.
The Baltic Sea was angry and blowy. However Lehel took a short bath, he didn’t really enjoyed it.
Maybe the sea was missing link of this summer. It was an uplifting feeling being there and biking among it’s coast.
On the Coast
We spent a few days near the Baltic Sea. One morning walking on the coast I met a wild pig. It was funny for me. It was staring at me form 5 m. Then ran in the sea took a bath and ran forward. I always smile when I think of it.
We visited the Slowenski National Park between Rowy and Leba among the Baltic Sea coast. These are wondering dunes which changes their place with the wind 3 -10 meters yearly.
Then visited Gdansk , Poland’s port-town and set off to Warsaw.
After so many bad days we had a good one. I could eat a lot of raspberry at a polish farmer, we met gypsies from Sáromberk ( Romania ) - they bought us hot-dog and water and gave us 2,5 Euro , because as they said “ romanian remains romanian”. At the next gas station I got a chocolate from a polish man. Finally we found 20 Zloty in Warsaw.
Days and days are different...
Warsaw
The first thing I remember was that intense wind ahead us. We were riding 350 km in such conditions to Warsaw. It’s the largest city of Poland, located on the Vistula River roughly 260 km from the Baltic Sea and 300 km from the Carpathian Mountains.
Here we saw the most beautiful waterworks and the greatest building ever. This was the Palace of Culture and Science.
Bialowieza National Park
Is an ancient woodland straddling the border between Belarus and Poland. It is one of the last and largest remaining parts of the immense primeval forest which once spread across the European Plain.
The border between the two countries runs along the forest and is closed for large animals and tourists for the time being. The forest is home to 900 wisent ( of those 4000 specimen living on the world ), the continent’s heaviest land animals. The security fence keeps the wisent herds physically and genetically separeted.
This was our last station in Poland. Here we had a guide to wander a part of the forest. We were seven in the company: 2 french, 2 belgian, 1 scotch and the two of us. After the tour the french guys invited us for lunch and a beer. And at the end of the lunch they invited us in France.
The Baltic states
This was the blind part of the map for us. Now we know people are kind and the weather is wet. In these countries almost every night we had our tent pitched in the garden of a house. Here were the best places to camp and as I remember nobody said that it’s forbidden. Moreover we always got something by the camping place: milk, hot water, a lake to swim with clear water.
Most of all we used the highways for biking because only these were asphalted. The highway by-passes every settlements, so the road was a little bit boring.
The greater towns which we visited:
Kaunas - Lithuania’s ex capital city - nothing interesting, just a lot of bum everywhere.
Vilnius - Lithuania’s capital city. The old town was really wonderful and we talked to a nice girl who explained us the country’s names means rain.
In the capital of Latvia, Riga our guide and host was Karlis Ventis, who invited us to a party at a university. We felt so good us at the party, wasn’t this till we left our home. Karlis was 20 years old and liked biking tours, he was from Poland to Budapest a short time ago. His parents were so kind giving us everything good what we could imagine. Great thanks to the Ventis family!!!!
In Estonia we met three french, two boys and a girl. They were on road till march, went up to Nordkapp and biking to Istambul. Intending to reach France on march next year.
Then we met two germans, who were on their honeymoon on the way to Tallinn.
Tallinn is a part of the UNESCO World Heritage. The main attraction are in the two old towns ( Lower Town and Toompea ) which are both easily explored on foot. Here we saw the greatest library.
We spent one night at the harbour before sailing to the Scandinavian Peninsula.
In Tallinn we closed up one chapter of our adventure. We are on the road for three and a half month. Instead of the planed 6000 km we had biked 8100 km. We have three days late in time,
met a lot of nice people, saw so many beautiful places and not to mention the experience.
We had our best experience climbing the Grossglockner, drinking the best beer in Czech, seeing the most beautiful girls in Poland , biking was the hardest in the Alps, and the most beautiful capitals are Prague and Budapest.
Finland
One evening we set the tent in an old lady’s garden, we got supper, breakfast and a lot of kindness. In return we showed her photos, videos and told her stories.
Another evening we arrived wet in the garden of a house, and we didn’t sleep in the tent, the owner let us in his sauna house. What’s more, he heated the cottage for us, so we got warm and dry quickly. Thanks for this.
Then we reached the lakes. Nature gave us huge calmness by offering such a colourful landscape. The view of the lakes associated with the perfect calmness and harmony. It is a great feeling when one cycles in a wood, then suddenly emerges a lake whose shores cannot be seen. We travelled 100 kms in this splendour.
Jyvaskula is 4 days far by bike from Helsinki, it is a university town in the middle of nature.
This was where we met two students, Teemu and Ville. They told us a lot of things about Finland, they even accompanied us for a tour of the town and of course we didn’t miss the sauna. Thank You, guys.
We continued our journey towards Lapland. The next stop was in Oulu, thanks to Marci and Ajno. Márton Ekler got to Oulu from Zalaegerszeg. He was our host for two nights and he waited us with goulasch. We spent the evening with entertainment, talking and playing a board game. The next day we rest, I saw a small problem on my bike, my rear tyre loosened, so I set off to look for a bike store. I found two. In one of them they asked 10 euros, in the other one I would have had to pay 20 euros for my hub to be constrained. Back home experts would take maximum 2 euros for this. The situation was risky, I didn’t dare to continue travelling without having it repaired. So, at last the adventure cost me 5 euros, because I told them about our journey and they appreciated this. And I was cheerful that the horse is healthy again. In the evening we went out for a while and met Zsolt, Pista and Józsi. Before starting, Marci gave us goodies from home: sausage, sunflower seeds, peanuts, salami. Thank You, Márton and Ajno.
Lapland was only a few days far from Oulu. We continued the journey, the landscape being beautiful. Rovaniemi is the offset of Lapland. This was where we met Santa Claus, we crossed the arctic circle, this was where Előd turned 28 and this was where we met a nice lady, who - when hearing about our journey - gave us a degree certifying that we had crossed the arctic circle. Kacsesz got one as well. And she told us good news about the arctic light.
We stepped into the land of reindeers. And from now on nature was the sole ruler, this fact being sensible. There was hardly any traffic. It was colder, almost all leaves were gone. Here I had a feeling that we were headed to the end of the world, this feeling lasting up until Nordkapp.
In Sodankyla we were accomodated for the night by Riika Maijanen and Vesa. Riika is member of the Finnish-Hungarian Fellowship and the president of the Fellowship in Sodankyla. Talking in Hungarian to a Finnish guy was interesting.
We spent the next evening 55 km far from Sodankyla, in a small cottage. This was where we first saw the arctic light. It wasn’t powerful or big but it was amazing to see this celestial phenomenon; as it appears on the dark sky it is heavenly. I was as happy as a child.
We were 3 days far from Norway. During these three days both my front and back switch cables broke, I changed my chain and the gears after 10000 kms.
On the way we met Michelle who has been on the road by bike for four years. We couldn’t talk very much, as it was raining, though I would have had lots of questions.
We spent three beautiful weeks in Finland. It is the most beautiful country we travelled around. The calmness of nature, the beauty of Lapland and people’s kindness makes the time spent there unforgettable. Thank You, Finland.
From Narvik
Hello, we reached Narvik in Norway. Everything it's fine with us. On the last 5 days it was snowing, but the local people helped us over the night, so it was no problem to getting cold. Norway it's beautiful.
Slovakia
After the day we’ve spent with Tamás we were just the two of us again. We set off to east, to Spissky Castle. In the way we visited Banska Bistrica. Nothing special, the town holds the athmosphere of the Communism. Nevertheless it is a special place for us as we watched the final of the Football World Championship while having a cool beer.
After we left Banska Bistrica we met a drunk old fellow in a small village. We stopped for lunch, he came and asked a lot of questions mixing German with Russian, then he left. After half an hour he returned, he was a bit more sober and he didn’t mix the languages either, he spoke better German. He said he came back to invite us for a coffee and he added that he would be our host for the night. We didn’t accept the invite as it was merely 3 o’clock in the afternoon and we had a lot to go that day. Finally he gave us 3 euros. He felt offended we didn’t accept the invitation and subsequently we were sorry too. This was the second time we refused an invite. We met a Czech cyclist wayfarer who was on the road for approximately 50 days as we were, just that he was already headed home. He travelled along most of the Balkan Peninsula. He told us he was in Alaska and is South-America by bike. It was nice to meet a guy like us, with the same hobby.
Before seeing the Spissky Castle, we visited the Dobsina Ice Cave. We arrived to the cave in the evening and wanted to boil rice, but we didn’t have any water. In the parking lot there was an RV. After a few moments of thinking, we knocked on its door and asked for some water. The man boiled the rice for us while he was telling us stories and offered us beer. His name is Alfred Tham, he came from Berlin to visit the ice cave, which is one of the biggest in the world. Unfortunately we weren’t able to make photos inside the cave.
After visiting the cave we saw Spissky Castle. In its neighbourhood, that’s the North-Eastern part of Slovakia, live a lot of gipsies. There were villages inhabited exclusively by gipsies, but they weren’t hostile. I lost my bicycle-lock in one of these villages. I noticed it, but as soon as I turned back, the kid ran away. Hang it! – it’s worth a try, I’ll follow him, let’s see whether I get the lock back. The street was full of gipsies, everyone enjoyed the happening. I stopped 5 m far from the kid, showed him the flat of my hand, hoping to get it back. The kid smiled, everyone was watching us, no one moved. A little bit of time passed this way, then I thought: damn that lock, I’d better get lost before they take away my bike as well. Suddenly the kid changed his mind, he came to me and gave back the lock. I got on the bike much relieved and absquatulated peacefully. We slept that night on a stage.
The following day we visited the castle.
We reached Poprad on the same day, this is the last bigger town we encountered on our way to Krakow. I found out here that because of the heavy load (we got much luggage in Bratislava) and because of the streets of Slovakia, my rear boot broke.
I got a new one for 16 euros, that is not that good as the old one, but it’s not broken. I spared the old one too, hoping it would mend some time. And carrying is my way of being, we carry all sorts of unnecessary things. At the end of the journey I’ll be curious to find out how many superfluous things I had carried. Before leaving Slovakia, the cliffs of Visoke Tatry made us joyful. Those cliffs are sharp, they are as saw-teeth.
Our days in Slovakia were eventful, we had a good time there.
Krakow
Another town which is part of world heritage. It lies on the bank of Wisla river and it has probably the most beautiful castle of Poland. On the territory of the castle there are the royal palace, the church and the view from the castle is magnificent.
We visited the town in 39 degrees. We started with the castle, then we went to see the rest of the old town. This was the time we were more ecstatic than about all the buildings of Krakow. In some points firefighters poured water and we found one of these points. You can’t imagine that happiness.
And this was just half of the happiness, because while cooling down we met a Hungarian respectively a Polish group, who were headed to the Northern part of Poland, to the seaside. They invited us for a beer, which we accepted, this way the cooldown was perfect.
After the drink we visited Emilio Schindler’s factory. Schindler was a German officer in World War II, who saved the life of many Jews by employing them in his factory.
On the road in Poland
When reaching a village on our way to Krakow, we found ourselves in awkward situations again. One of them was funny, the other one less funny.
The weird thing was that we found a man lying like a log on the side of the road. More exactly on the side of the highway which is busy as we all know. We were marvelling that no one stopped to see what the problem was with that guy. We stopped and noticed a woman in a restaurant nearby. We announced her by asking her to follow us, than we showed her the reason why. The problem was solutionized fairly quickly, a car proved to be handy and the fellow was on his way to the hospital. As it turned out he was in alcohol induced coma. With a hint of exaggeration, after saving a deer, we almost rescued a man’s life.
The funny scene happened right after this. It was noon and we found a small table in front of a store, where we thought we would have lunch. I went down to ask the lady whether we can sit and eat. The lady did not know any other language but Polish. I rubbed my head not knowing what to do. She looked at me and didn’t understand what I wanted. OK, I’ll ask her to come out and we’ll show her what we want. I signed her to follow me. She came. In the meantime Előd was communicating with everything he could with the paramedics, because they were notified eventually by someone about the man lying on the margin of the road, but he was not there anymore when they arrived. The paramedics didn’t speak any foreign language either. In the meantime the lady got to the front of the store. We started to explain her as we could that we would like to eat on that table. She smiled and didn’t understand what we wanted. We were smiling too. Half content of the bag was already on that table but we still didn’t understand each other. 10 minutes were gone when she finally comprehended what we wanted. Cheerfulness and happiness on both sides, she signed we could have our meal leisurely.
This kind of communication results in many interesting skits. It was good to be part of it.
Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps
In Oswiecim we visited Auschwitz –Birkenau (Auschwitz II) concentration camps.
We weren’t able to make legally any photos, but these were not the places where one took photos with pleasure. But there is much information available for visitors. Visiting is necessary if one wants to feel the atmosphere that prevailed there in those times.
We were in a fairly good mood when entering the camp, but when leaving it we weren’t that smiley anymore, in the meantime the weather got gloomy, rainy too.
Here we met a French cyclist wayfarer headed to Romania. His name is Fabien Savouroux and who wants to find out more about his journey, visit http://laptitevadrouille.over-blog.com/
We spent the night about 200 m far from the camp, as time passed and it got dark. The next day the radio station Erdély fm called us and took a telephone interview that was broadcast live.
Czech Republic
After leaving Krakow we were headed to the Czech border where we come upon an American guy.
Our direction was Brno, he went to Prague. He came from San Francisco to travel along Europe for three months. That evening while having a beer we mutually spoke about our experiences. The next day he set off to Prague, we went to Brno.
On the whole Czech area there was nothing but ”up the hill, down the hill”. Well, it was tiring and annoying too.
In Brno we got together with Tomas Sikora, I met him on Crete.
This was the place where we first had Pilsner beer. The best we ever had.
After Brno we went towards Ceske Budejovice. You might wonder how the road was. ”Up the hill, down the hill”... In Ceske Budejovice Előd was helped with the bump in his rear tire.
Unfortunately the interference wasn’t that helpful, as he had more and more punctures. On a day he had actually two breakdowns. The reason? We don’t know...
Before visiting Prague, we went to see Plzen, where we met Petr Stojka.
We got acquainted in the summer of 2008 when we were hiking in the Făgăraş Mountains. There we ate pizza again and drank good local beer.
The next day we visited the Pilsner factory, in the evening Petr helped me fix the broken rear boot. This way I have a spare boot now.
On our way to Prague we visited Karlstein Castle, where we finally come along a pass. I was as happy as a dog. The surroundings of the castle is beautiful to an extent that made Előd enter a ditch as he wasn’t looking at the road but to the landscape.
Nothing serious happened, he got a few bruises. And a photo of the bike route taking to Prague.
There are lots of bike routes in the Czech Republic, the only disadvantage being the abrupt ground. This wasn’t good for us.
Prague is probably the most beautiful city we have ever seen. I formulated with probably because I still can’t decide whether Budapest or Prague is the nicest. Beautiful buildings, huges squares, million people. This was the place we met a Serb cyclist, Mihailo Djordjevic. We had a beer together.
And I turned 26 in Prague.
In the present we are in the capital of Lithuania, Vilnius, hurrying to Helsinki.
Salzburg
Salzburg is a fantastic mountain destination on the border between Germany and Austria. The birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, is dominated by churches,castles and palaces. Its picturesque old town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The landmark of Salzburg is Central Europe’s largest intact fortress offers fantastic views of the city. The Princely Residence, a magnificent early baroque edifice with splendid halls and gallery featuring European paintings dating between the 16th and 19th century. The nearby vast Salzburg Dom where Mozart was baptized, is without doubt the main attraction of the old town. “Mozart’s Geburtshaus” is located is located in Salzburg’s most attractive and most visited shopping street with its high and narrow houses and romantic courtyards.
Leaving Salzburg we were looking for accommodation again. We wanted a place where are no slugs because it’s a great problem in south Germany and in Austria. It’s a pity that they were uneatable. We shouldn’t have had problem with food.
We found a house with a well-kept garden where the owner was filling up his pool. Hoping that in such an ordered garden there were no slugs, we asked the man to pitch up ours tent. We were not right so he let us to spent the night on the children’s jumping board.
Biking along the Danube
The weather was hot so we took a swim in each tarn among Salzburg and Linz. Before reaching Linz we found a fawn in the dike. It might be the victim of an accident. We return to it with helpful people from the nearest farm and continued our route.
Linz wasn’t the best place for sightseeing, it seemed like a manufacturing town.
From here to Bratislava we were biking about 300km along the Danube on the bicycle road named “Donauradweg”. We met a lot of cyclist. It was quite an elevating feeling to bike along the Danube shore.
I hope someday we will be able to bike along the Mures river too.
I took a bath in the Danube. It was funny as I went in and its depth was under my knees. I went in 10m and still the same situation. Then suddenly disapeared the ground under my feet and I had to swim.
Hungarians Meeting in Vienna
As we arrived to Vienna, Kati heard us consulting in Hungarian about our next step. She was in a hurry to the Hungarians weekly meeting organized in a pub. She was so kind and invited us to the party where we got to know a lot of gracious people.
They came here in the hope of a better life, but it wasn’ t so easy especially at the beginning to assimilate in a whole new environment. But the long toughness had its achievement.
We spent the night at Kati’s. Next morning we set off to visit Vienna’ s sights. It was the same as Salzburg, Ulm and Munich.
I have beautiful memories of this city: I took apart of the marathon and spent a few days here.
We visited the Schönbrunn Castle, the Stefansdom and some of the historical buildings. In the evening we watched the German-Spanish football match, the second half of it with a dispatch-rider sitting on the curb.
We were chatting with him comparing the prices in Austria with the prices in Romania. He gave us two brake shoes.
Possibly we could spent the night at him, but next day we should have been in Bratislava to meet our family. But we were not able to agree , so after a little dispute we spent the night on a bridge out of Vienna.
Meeting the family in Bratislava
It was wonderful to see our beloved ones again. They took the trouble and came to Bratislava just to saw and help us. They brought a lot of delicious foods, we didn’t know which one to eat at first.
After so many happy moments we set off with our family to the castle which is located on a hill overlooking the river Danube, the southern-most hill of the Small Carpathian Mountains, 150m above the see level. You can access it by foot from two sides - from the Old Town or from the Slovak Parliament building up at the hill.
I don’t think if we ever thought that we would spend a few hours in the Castle of Bratislava with our family. We had a little time to drink some beer with them too.
One day biking with Tamás
The meeting was in Bratislava at the castle. Saying goodbye to our family we met Tamás at 6 o’clock. He was our guide in Bratislava and a part of Slovakia.
Leaving the town Tamás found us a nice place to camp near a beautiful lake. He took care of us, we had no problem anymore what to eat or drink. Combining the foods we had salad made of fresh vegetables with meat for dinner, and the dessert was dumplings filled up with crud cheese.
of course we drunk some beer by the fire and solved life’s great problems.
Tamás told us he had arranged everything for a biking tour to Roma, but his job didn’t let him to achieve.
The morning begun good, the sun was shining , we had fruit salad for breakfast, so we didn’t need anything else.
Tamás lead us to Galanta where his one-time roommate Gellért was living. On the road we found a wonderful tarn and refreshed ourselves because the weather was hot so we need a little time out. Unfortunately the road’s quality and the many packs that we got from our family was in the way of our advance, something always fell down of the bikes.
We reached Galanta at lunchtime and Tamás asked us to eat in a small restaurant. In the meantime Gellért arrived. We got to know each other, he already traveled by train the whole Europe last summer.
They are superb people, Gellért knows very well what he wants from life, Tamás knows it too, just he is hesitating sometimes.
It’s a fantastic thing to found new friends always.
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