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.
