Travel Story: Winter Cyclo Touring | A frightening adventure in Poland.

in TravelFeed4 years ago

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Heyho fellas! How are you? Sharing an untold story.


I know people like travel posts with jaw-dropping images of outstanding destinations around the world. But, I'm a firm believer that words are capable of presenting a story better than anything else. Not that I've achieved the objective with this piece of storytelling. At least I try to believe so.

That being said, this first post of a two-part series lacks the visual appeal. The reader will understand the reason behind the lack of images. Moreover, there wasn't anything to register, apart from memories of an important dialogue I had along the way.

So, let's hop on the bicycle and go back to Kraków, the starting point of a winter bicycle adventure I did between 2018/19. This untold story happened on EuroVelo 4 towards Oświęcim in Poland, Europe.

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November 12th, 2018. After a joyful few days meeting blockchain friends in Kraków, the festival was over, and everyone prepared to embark on their homrward journeys. The morning was gelid, as expected for a late fall in Poland, but the sun peeked bright behind the buildings. Remi was organizing his car to return to The Netherlands. Juergen watched, incredulous, the way I arranged my bicycle to set off on the adventure across Europe.

After spending the previous day shivering in a 39°C fever, my body was unprepared. A severe sore throat made eating difficult, whereas a minor surgery in the healing process on the index finger required care ― terrible conditions to wander around.

But… as the other adventures I had faced, there was nothing I could do other than start cycling and adapt along the way. There were no plans, no schedules, no accommodations arranged. Only a bicycle, a tent, cooking gear, and a map with Oświęcim pinned.

Roald Amundsen onde said that “adventure is just bad planning.” And what a terrible planning I had for that morning. I missed a canister of gas for the cooking stove, perhaps the most important item for survivability. So, after wandering around Kraków waiting for the shops to open at around 10 in the morning ― which they didn’t ― I moved to a faraway Decathlon store.

Not open. Holiday todaysaid a man washing his car at the parking lot.

Of course! Independence holiday, I remembered. Amidst the nonsense back and forth between closed shops, the hours passed quickly, and only by 1200 hour I hit the road.


Alongside the Vistula river, the EuroVelo 4 guided me west, for the most part on remote vicinal roads with deserted farmhouses on both sides ― everyone was sheltered I assume. The azure sky inspired me to continue. Progress was slow, painful, and soon I ran out of water. I gotta ask somewhere. I identified this young man, perhaps in his 40’s, working at his garden. I waved with the bottle in my hand.

Do you have some water?I shouted from the outside. He approached and stared at me for a second or two before heading inside. After a minute he came back swaying his head.

Are you cycle touring?he asked as he handled the filled bottle.

Yeah, I’ve just started really.

But, it’s winter time!he observed.

I know, even worse when I’ve got a sore throat.

Lookhis jaw dropped ―, do you want to come inside? Do you need medicine?

We chatted a bit, and I finally gave up and accepted the offer to eat a sandwich. The man was absolutely curious that a stranger appeared in his front yard, cyclo touring, under winter conditions. I sat at the counter table while the puzzled man prepared tea on the other side. His flawless English allowed a fluid conversation.

You make me curioushe started. ― The reason is because I want to cycle tour with my son. During the summer of course. How do you do it? Especially in this cold.

WellI thought for a second, I don’t have plans. I cycle and camp and if I need help I ask.

But where do you camp?

Anywhere… but I prefer to ask farmers, like I did for two months in Patagonia.

In Poland? You want to camp on a farm, in Poland?

Yeah, as long as I leave it the way I found it should be fine.

No, no, no. In Poland?he asked again.

Y-eah?

At this moment the young man went from smiles to a serious tone, eyes staring at me, both hands placed at the counter top.

In Poland? Do you know about the Iron Curtain?

S-sure, I doI cautioned.

About Communism?he continued.Look, I don’t advise doing it. No, no.

Well, If I ask, what’s the problem?

No, no. Not herehe shook his head.I love your idea, I want to cycle tour myself. But old farmers are not used to having strangers camping on their land.

But…

Seehe interrupted, until some thirty years ago our country was locked. Nobody traveled here, especially the way you do. No tourists. Those farmers had lost their lands to the Communists. The problem is not you camping, it’s that they won’t accept, nor they’ll speak English. Before you can explain they’ll kick you out. If you ask younger people, like myself, you should be fine. But not the grumpy old farms. Do you get it?

WellI choked, now that you’ve said I might reconsider.

Please do. I absolutely support your journey, just be careful. You see this guyhe shouted to his wife, he wants to camp anywhere, during the winter, in Poland!

The only option he left me was to laugh.

You won’t believe my other stories thenI scoffed.

I would love to! Really. Now eat as much as you can, you don’t want to travel at night.

The young man was a champion of a friendly persona. After all, he had invited a stranger into his house, for which I’m eternally grateful. But the chattering ended up delaying my departure. I wouldn't reach Oświęcim the same day.


Worried with his horrific story about Communism times, I bore the pressure of being in the middle of Poland with the sun rushing down the horizon. I’ll have to break the promise and sleep on a farm.

To the left a swampy field offered no ground for the tent. I cycled a little further. Night fell upon me. To the right a dark forest seemed perfect, so I entered a little further to hide from the road and set the tent on an irregular terrain. Without the gas to cook, the dinner consisted of whatever I had laying around. Shortly after, I fell asleep. Then, sparse sounds of gunfire echoed. Pow-Pow.

A sudden rush of adrenaline awoke me. The vision of angry farmers made me clench the butt cheeks. Fucking hell. In complete silence, I heard the eco again, this time farther away. Pow-Pow. If they knew I’m here, they’d be here already. Pow. The sounds echoed even farther away. Or maybe they are hunting somewhere. It’s gotta be, they are hunting, silly me. I stood there in such a silence I could hear the heart beat. My eyes dropped, the sore throat kicked in. The last thing I remember is that I fell asleep again.

Continues...


Thank you for reading this story and commenting down below!

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~Love ya all


Disclaimer: The author of this post is a convict broke backpacker, who has travelled more than 10.000 km hitchhiking and more than 5.000 km cycling. Following him may cause severe problems of wanderlust and inquietud. You've been warned.


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Wehee, thank you.

I might never do such a journey, but I always enjoy reading your stories.
Hope things are going smooth for you in these weird times...

You'll have your own awesome journeyrs, I'm sure. Things are going smoother now, at least since I stopped watching TV. I'm also back to exercising, which has drastically reduced anxiety. We gotta hold on tight, things will get better soon.

How's everything for you?

Yeah, I had some interesting adventures, maybe not as much as I wanted, but still more than many have had. Damn that TV, I literally hate it (except when I connect my lap top to it, lol). My anxiety mostly is caused by the falling economy. It's in a very bad situation and yet, not stable. For me, it's OK, but many are struggling. The minimum wage was worth something around 150$, now it's not worth even 100$.

I realized this kind of cycling is not for me (at least not in Iran) because of all the stresses from passing car to finding a safe place to sleep. Especially those passing cars and trucks! But still I want to do it with you, some day, maybe in Iran, maybe in Europe, maybe in Brazil, who knows...

Still I'm hopeful, but it's hard to keep it up when you don't see any result proportional to your effort.

As long as we keep on putting some effort we should be fine. I've proposed myself a list of problems to solve, shit that I'm not happy with; from the simplest tasks to the most complex ones -- at least 100 problems to solve. Every day I'm able to fix one of them I risk them off the list, so it's one little boost every-single-day.

as i said when you were on this trip, cycling through europe in winter is a bit crazy :D

Kinda crazy hahahaha, I never expected the snow would hit me though. I gotta say it was worth it, but I'll possibly not repeat (I hope)

Well that guys was right in some aspects but generally, I wouldn´t say it´s that bad here in (post-communist) Central Europe anymore... Sure, there is a big difference in mindsets (and everything :D) of the older and younger generations but even among those old "grumpy" farmers, there are kind people who would host you and take care of you... Maybe you met some of them and you will tell us about it in the next chapter :) I am looking forward to it.

Oh yeah! I believe that his worries was more towards them not understanding English. Imagine, you wake up and there's a tent in your farm, with a random guy speaking a foreign language.

Aother day I asked for water on another farm where an old farmer was super gentle, but he did look at me dead serious.

Furthermore, I believe that people in post-communist nations tend to have more empathy after all they've been through. On youger generations you don't notice as much.

Well more empathy but probably also more distrustfulness ;) It is true that many people from the old generations that spent most of their lives in the communist era might be grumpy and bitter as the Polish guy said but not all of them of course. We have some cool grandpas and grandmas too :)

It's important that we talk to them -- a lot! And if possible record while asking questions about their time. I'm a fan of a YouTube series entitled "Streets of London", where the guy interviews random people. I've had enough experiences, from hearing this old fellas, to frighten me to the bones about communism.

I understand his worries but I think it was a little bit exaggerated. I can imagine that you would face issues with the language but I don't think that they would kick you out of their ground immediately. I'm sure that you don't look like you would want to hurt them :)

It's nice that traveling brings such experiences. Meeting strangers and making friends is what makes it exciting.

Thank you for sharing your story!

Hey, thanks for the comment!

I don't think they would kick me either. Well, I did eventually sleep on other people's farmlands without a problem, except the gun shots hahahah

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