Stories from Baracs to Banja Luka

Croatia is a country, where i stayed the shortest time, only two nights. My time in Hungary was filled with meetings with different animals, but in Croatia i met People. I crossed the boarder  at Barcs without any map, since in Hungarian side was out of maps of Croatia and Bosnia. After 15km from the boarder, I got into town called Virovitica, where a girl showed me a place to buy map. I went to have coffee and look at the map into nearby cafeteria, where the locals were already offering me a place to stay. One of the guys was very keen on Finland and knew probably more facts about Finland than me! Normally, I would have stayed, but since first time on the trip I have some sort of schedule to meet my mom in Montenegro, I had to continue my way forward.

From Virovitica the road started to climb up to hills. How happy I was to start to get some elevation and views again. The whole area made me smile and laugh, forest, small villages, cute grandmothers, rivers and mountains. Unfortunately, I have lost all my pictures (since Hungary)because of broken memory card. Well, that is life and the most beautiful moments will stay only as memories.

I have been swimming in the rivers and lakes over a week now. I was lucky and found a river also after the climbings and got refreshing bath. I had checked from the map, that there were two lakes along the way and my plan was to set up my tent next to one of the lakes. I found the lake, found beautiful camping spot again with both sunset and sunrise. Ah, and how much I love to go to sleep after sunset and wake up with sunrise. Perfect rhythm for me. I slept like a baby until 4am, when a man woke me up shouting and shaking my tent. For some time, I hoped that if I am just very quite and will not show myself he will go a way, or forget that the whole tent even exists. Well.. The tent was shaking so much that I had to get up. I was actually more angry than scared that somebody is waking me up middle of the night in such violent way.




We had a small chat with the man, without same language. I understood he wanted money, but he gave up pretty easy and left me alone. I went back into my tent and was not able to fall asleep again, so had early morning coffee and breakfast. Before sunrise I was already on the road. Thank you to that man, I had one of the most magical morning with lot of birds, watching otters playing ( how cute they can be!) In very close distance to me.

I stopped in Daruvar to charge my batteries, it's always great reason to stop and have a coffee. When I was done and just about to leave, I got stopped by man talking in Swedish to me. I would have never thought how well I could understand Swedish after spending some days alone. I went to have a coffee with the couple and suddenly I found myself from thermal pool, having the most relaxing day ever. The water cooked my muscles into jelly and I was barely able to walk to another pool. I have not had a break since Budapest, and even if the road has been mainly flat I felt it in my legs. I was treated like a little princess. I got front tire, and I was not allowed to touch it, but my new friends fixed it, while I was sitting on the shadow.



I was served with food, friends, positive energy, kindness and happiness. I got my own private two floor house to sleep, where I had shower and soft bead. How touching the kindness of strangers can be. How openly people have been welcoming me during this trip. Next morning, it felt like the whole town was planning my trip to Bosnia. So many different route ideas and safety tips. I even got company to drive with all the way to the border. The route from Daruvar to Gradiska was hilly and beautiful, with lot of abandoned houses due to the war.

So far Bosnia has been treating me good as well. First night, when I got tired I went to ask from caffe/bar, if I can pitch my tent behind the bar. The people in the bar had a discussion and came into solution that I better not to stay there but in the house. I ended up staying with the family in the countryside. Such a lovely Bosnian mother took me in like a lost daughter, giving me many kisses and hugs all the time. While watching the family photos from the times of war, I learned lot of history of Bosnia and whole Balkans. I also learned that in Bosnia, people kiss three times on the cheek to say good bye.

What can I say, thank you everybody for making my route from Barcs to Banja Luka unforgettable experience. While cycling in Hungary, I was finding my way to continue alone again. I was hoping to meet people and once again my hopes were heard. Before this experience, I had to go back into the memories, go through them, find myself back into the present situation. I am positive person by nature and it helps me through many situations, but by denying the negative thoughts would be just cheating. "Luckily" while riding, on some of the roads there is nowhere to hide my own thoughts.

What have I been up to in Banja Luka? Big big surprise, fixing my bicycle. This time, I straightened the front wheel (took only 1 hour, I am getting good at this). I also was fixing the front break system and found out that the plastic around one certain screw had cracked. So I decided to change the whole front brake system to new one. Anyways, the left side of the front brake had started to be a bit lazy and end of every day not returning the brake pad into its place anymore. Thank you Huntteri, Helkama and Pyörähuolto.com for goving me such a compact and usufull repair kits. Honestly, I have used them every second day with my old bicycle.






 
 
Now, i am as ready as I can be to start to do some serious climbing up to the canyons and mountains. Bigger and steeper than in Slovakia. I hope to make it on time to meet my mom :)

Song for today: http://youtu.be/mehLx_Fjv_c

Hungary

Even if my sister is already back home, I have to mention our first days in Hungary. In Slovakia locals told us that Hungary is flat flat fact country. So, we entered into new country (Balassagyarmat boarder crossing) with a vision of flat (like Finland ) roads. The north part of Hungary was not flat, even if the hills were not as pig as in Slovakia, the hills were still there. Since the altitude went down, the heat went up as well. One word of my stay in Hungary. It is hot. Ok, two words: it's hot and it is boiling. Summer of 2015 has been very hot in Europe and in Hungary the rivers were dry, so it was hard to find a place to swimThe heat eats lot of energy, and makes me lazy to drive long days. One early morning ( at 6.30 am) when we were cycling towards Budapest, we had wonderful thunder storm. We were so happy to have some rain that we did not mind at all to get totally soaked.

We managed to get into Budapest without too much trouble. Normally, I don't like to enter into big cities but this entrance was pretty easy. While asking directions from locals, we got some cold energy drinks and right directions.

The type of nature changed after crossing to Hungary, for example, the forests were totally knew type. . Also, to be mentioned, the country did get flatter after Budapest. I enjoyed the easy riding, since I know there will be mountains waiting for me in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina !  

With my sister we already wondered where are all the people from the villages. While riding through the villages I could barely see anybody. When I say it, I mean it. I have passed villages and villages without seeing a single person. The only people I saw were inside the passing cars. Yet, the people I have met, have been absolutely wonderful. People are greeting me, waving and smiling. I have gotten food bags from grandfathers. Not many people speak English, so it has been hard to communicate. Yet the Hungarian language is beautiful to listen and actually Finnish and Hungarian languages comes from same language groups.

After my sister left, I cycled to lake Balaton, which is the biggest lake in Central Europe. Since I come from Finland, which is the country of 100 000 of lakes, Balaton was small and packed with tourists. Yet, I was happy I choose to cycle there, since there has not been many swimming opportunities in Hungary and it's one of the only places in Hungary having cycling roads. And free thermal water in every village!

So, how does it feel to cycle alone again? I admit, I have been catching myself often going back into memories ( how far can I go?) or planning the future, instead of being present. Sometimes, I realize that 20km have passed me by, without noticing. Yet, there has been magic in every turn when I feel most lonely, and this pushes me to continue with smile upon my face. I give an example.

When I arrived to lake Balaton, I was happy to see a lake again, had my second breakfast and thought to put my outer tent to dry, which I had put  on my back rack in the morning, since it was wet from heavy mist. When I looked at my back rack, I found out that the tent cover is not there anymore. I have to admit, I am bad in this kind of a situation. I panic, I did not remember when I had seen the tent cover there last time, was it 5km away or 30km away? I try to look at the pictures on my camera, but the memory card does not function. I have been so happy with my tent, it has kept me dry during heavy rains along the trip. I got myself into this self blaming circle, why did I tight it there, why I have not head when it felt? Why this and why that? Then I remembered the words of a friend, who stopped me once into this kind of panic situation, and I decide to sit down and breath until I feel calm and I know what I will do.



After considering all the options, very strong trust on finding the tent cover arrived. I went back on my bike, stopped first group of cyclist who were coming from same direction than me (I had met them before, because one of them had a flat tire and I asked if they need any equipment). I asked them if they had seen orange tent cover and without having same language I understand that 10km away they saw it and a lady had picked it up, and put in in her bag. They had not seen the lady afterwards, so I thought that she must be ahead of us. I continued cycling, and after 2 minutes I found my tent cover hanging from the tree. I felt so relieved and thankful.

In Hungary, the roads that I have done are not going through big national parks, or remote areas, since I am meeting my mom in less than 2 weeks in Montenegro. Yet I have been close to wildlife, sometimes closer than I wanted. One evening, I was so happy about my camping spot and after dark, I was looking my next day's route. Suddenly I hear sound from the pushes,but I don't really care about it. I thought it is just deer passing to drink water from the river. Suddenly, I hear this weird sound, and my head is wondering if the deer is horny or what's wrong with him.

Then I start to recognize the sound and understand that there is wild boar outside of my tent. I have seen them before, realized how huge they are and heard they are pretty aggressive, when surprised. First I thought that he is just going to drink water, but when he started sniffing my tent, I got pretty nervous lying right next to this 200kg of fat and muscles. Normally, I don't have food in my tent, but this evening for some reason I had put all the food under my tent. In addition, I did not think that wild boars would come so close to human. The boar was there for one hour coming and going, making my heart beat faster than ever before ( I was afraid he heard my heart beat as well, since in some point I was not able to hear anything else than my own heart beating). Nothing happened and I figured out that my nerves are in a good conditions and the wild boars might be just curios.

I crossed the boarder to Croatia few days ago, and soon I will be in Bosnia. 

Sister time in Slovakia

Slovakia won our hearts with its natural beauty during our first 2km after boarder crossing. We found a fast river flowing in between the mountains, and decided to set our camp there. After cycling in 35 degrees heat in Poland through the first mountain passes the cold, fast mountain river was just like answer to our dreams. While we were swimming the river gave us a frisbee, which was floating in the water. So there we were playing frisbee in the river over 2 hours. Next morning the mist was so thick, that we were not able to see the river anymore, even though our camp was just next to it.






The next day we fast found out that there is no flat spot in Slovakia. Either we were rolling fast down (in the beginning it was frightening to let the bike roll fast, but soon we learned how to handle the heavy bikes in the turns of the roads) or trying to make our way up on the mountains. In Poland we were almost dead after our first hill which lasted 3 kilometers, but surprisingly fast we got used to the mountains and just accepted that the spiral roads have always at least 10 more turns, than hopped. We were our own superheros after each uphill. It is amazing feeling to know, that the hight of the mountain would not kill us, but the speed. Of course, there were moments, that either one of us or both of us got tired. During this times we made stops more often. The heat that we had was normally 38 degrees in shadow, so we were soaked with our own sweat. The heat also takes big part of the energy and the amount of water we were drinking was bigger than I have drank ever before. During our normally day, we drunk at least 10litres of water per person.







Because of the heat, we started to woke up before sunrise and cycle until Midday, have a brake and continue in the evening. This worked with us, since both of us are morning persons. How refreshing it is to have morning coffee with the rising sun on the mountainside. And how luxorious it was to feel chilly while rolling down the mountains without any traffic or people in the villages.







I wanted to see Tatra mountains, so we headed towards the high peaks on the horizon. During our first day in Slovakia we cycled over 70km, even though the first 30km was uphill. In the beginning we we were both checking our bikes to see, if there was something wrong, because it felt that the bikes did not more as they used to. When we looked behind, we found out that we had been climbing up slowly but surely since the morning (or since we crossed the boarder into Slovakia). So the slow speed was not because of bikes but becouse of the foot of the mountain.




We got to east side of Tatra mountains, found another beautifull mountain natural pool river (it was giving even massage) and put our tent there. We enjoyed amazing homemade strawberry jam in the evening. I had gotten the jar from Poland from beautiful family, and had saved it for special moment. Thank you, it was so good! :) We had heard that there were lot of bears roaming around, so we decided to "hide" our food away from us in the evening and hang them on the tree.



We found our food in the morning untouched and after heavy breakfast, we pushed our bikes out from the forest and continued biking. After 2 min of cycling, I asked Lauriina if she would like to hide the bikes, and have a short walk up to the closest peak. I love my sister and her flexibility and
willingness to jump to destiny unknown without having second thought, so before we realised we were climbing the Tatra mountain. What a create decicion. No words to describe the beauty of high Tatras. It has been one year, since I have been on the mountains last time and how happy i was to share the special moment with my sister! The climbing was not easy and we were stupid not taking food with us, so after 5 hours, we had to turn and go down.









From High Tatras we continued to another national park with our sour muscles (first time during the trip) . We decided to have a day of there and go to walk into the park called Solvenki Raj for one day, and leave our stuff into the camping site. After spending a week wild camping, we got shocked with huge busy camping site and regretted our decision. The next day, after we got back from our 9 hour hike on the national park, we were wordless. For nothing does the place carry out the name of paradise of Slovakian paradise. Just stunning canyons, beautiful forest and happy sister times. Just to mention, lesson learned and we had enough food :)












We were both stunned with the beauty of Slovakians nature, but we had had not that much interaction with the locals. While traveling alone, I got used to meet and make friends with local people everywhere. Either it is easier to approach to traveller who is alone, or we were so happy together that we made kind of closed circle. Eventually in Brenzo, we met group of super friendly guys. We got to see the night of meteorite showers with them at the hillside of Brenzo, and went to stay at Martins place. The next day we continued with Martin to Polena National park.








Just pure gratitude towards Martin, not only to plan, but also to show us such amazing national park. We were both with my sister pushing the bikes up the steepest parts of the mountains as read faced as possible. There was no way we would have managed to cycle the rocky super steep uphills, but once again we made our way as superwomen. We were not allowed to camp at the place where we had planned, so we cycled through the forest in a tiny path, with our headlamps towards plan b. Two words: adventure and happiness. With big smiles on our faces we got to the tiny hut, and we made the bed comfortable with the brunches of spruce. The next day it was time to say sad good byes to Martin and continue towards Hungary.

Thank you to Martin (who planned our way all the way to Hungary), we had beautiful ride to the boarder. We stayed the last night at the mountain side, where we saw both the sunset and sunrise. What a way to say good bye to Slovakia. In Slovakia, I could had stayed longer just to discover the beauty of its nature. Unfortunately, I was in rush to go to Budapest and reach my plain to Finland. This is also reason, why I have not updated the blog. I had to prepare myself for a conference, where I had an honor to speak. During my last days or week of the trip it took all the extra time in the evenings, so I had no time to write the blog.

Currently I am in Hungary and my sister is back home. Learning to cycle alone again, feeling lonely, knowing this feeling will pass, being happy at the same time to be on the road again. Feeling so grateful to have a such a wonderful sister and being able to share a road with her. She is absolutely light of life. How grate it is to miss such special person and to be able to share such special memories.

Here is taste of Slovakian music: http://youtu.be/2oZKgddmJAQ 



And this song for today: http://youtu.be/Qtb11P1FWnc

Story of mountains in Poland, my first mountain passes

My sister has arrived safely, and we headed straight to Krakow. Krakow was the opposite to Warzav. Warsaw is the business capital of Poland and Krakow is the cultural capital. In Krakow, the architechture and different areas of the city makes it good place for exploring, and for a city break. Of course my own physical tiredness effected to my the general feeling about Warsaw, but still I believe, Krakow was more my kind of a place. From Krakow we also bought some watermelon and other fruits, which are normally hard to carry while bicycling around. Yammy!




In Krakow  we decided to pass the Tatra mountains from east side, since there was some interesting national parks, which we wanted to see. We also heard, the views are better and less tourists are around. So on the road, after 5km from Kraków, it started to be more hilly and the smaller cute polish villages started to pass by. We did not expect to see so many cute houses and well kept gardens. They were absolutely adorable! It also came as a surprise, how many new houses were under construction along the way.  Five years ago, the area would have been so much less build. Anyhow, the views were stunning and we were happy about our choice of the road.




 The weather was giving us extra kick with temperature being +33 and the road temperature +45. Well, it's often said that while bicycling, it's the most important to keep the muscles warm, and I promise you, now they were warm enough.. Even if the 3km uphills were hard for sure, there was bigger climbings waiting for us.


What can I say, the southern Poland region is the first mountain pass that we have ever done with the bikes. The first 3km of 15 % uphill was shock for the legs and lungs. Half way me and Lauriina had to make a breathing brake. Honestly, our lungs did not make the squeaky sound but more like angry dog noises. Luckily this was the first shock and the uphills from that on started to feel easier the more we cycled them.



We are pretty good cyclist partners with my sister, since we know how to push each other's just little bit more. Often we are telling to each other's that two more turns on this serpentine road and we will have a break. After we have reached this two more, the other one of us says: let's do two more. As long as we remember to keep our speed slow and steady, we for sure manage to pass all the mountains.


The mountain region of Poland has been just stunning place to cycle. The roads are ok, villages are pretty close to one another, so it's easy to find a place to fill up the water bottles (which get empty pretty fast, as you can imagine). For sure this part has been physically hard, but so beautiful that we don't mind to have several brakes in the villages and on the mountain sides during the climbings. How refreshing it is to wake up in the morning on the mountain side, and see the clouds underneath spreading away, while the sun is rising. Ah, and the sunsets!


I cycled five weeks mostly alone, and to get used to my sisters company has gone smoothly. Well, it's easy to share the road with someone who knows you better than anyone else, and who likes similar experiences. It has been also mind opening to realize, how I have created my own way of organizing the day and doing basically everything. So, to realize my own routines it's good, and it's time to change them and create new once, which suites better for both us. For example slower mornings and instead of dinners drinking too many beers, which we both regret in the mornings.



Lession learned on the way: don't laugh too long and too hard while biking these long uphills, otherwise the legs get tired faster than hoped. This has been major challenge for us, since when looking one another we just see too pink pigs trying to reach the top of the mountain.


Now it is time to say good bye Poland, for the country that has surprised me big time. I am still questioning, why in the beginning I was so concern to cycle in Poland? Absolutely, Poland is not anymore only a huge country on the map, but now it brings me a big smile on my face when I think back the adventures and the people I have met along the way. Thank you everybody for making my trip through Poland so epic.

Poland

Greetings from Poland!


Before i started my journey, Poland was the country i was the most concerned.  Now, after i have been here for one week i am wondering why? The unknown is often scary, and for me Poland used to be big country on the map, that i did not know much about. Am i still afraid of Poland? No, no no :) i am surprised, how open and helpfull people are. Not many people know English, but not only once, sisters have been called to help to transalate the discussions, and lunch boxes have been packed for me.


The first days i spend in two different national parks,Wigierski and Bierbrnzki, where i saw elks and deers. One of the best mornings so far was in the first national park, where in the morning i opened my tent and saw 2 deers grazing next to my tent. They just looked at me and kept eating, what a start for the day! In bierzwalski national park, i was woken up by woving of wolfs, got up from the tent to see them, but without success. In the morning i found tracks close to my camp, so they came to say hello during the night, when i was asleep. The parks reminded me a bit about Finnish forests, since they were covered with pain and having lakes here and there.

In the last post, I told that i had some problems with the bike in the park, but once again these situations brought me to meet kind, openminded and intelligent people, with whom i could have for sure stayed for longer. After i had done some roads in bad condition in Biebrzanski national park, my back wheel had gotten some damage on it. I was not able to continue driving with it, but now the problem is solved. I also learned another usufull tip: thighten the screws once in a while.. Well, better to realised it now than on the moment when the screws are dropping one by one.. :)

I also learned (second time) that brakes are important. I have had strong headwinds ever since i got to Poland. So once i arrived to Warzsav, i was screaming from joy that i had made my way all the way here. And yes, i was screaming and laughing all by my self on the street and yes people were watching.


Now i have been basically doing nothing. Sleeping, sleeping, walking little and sleeping more. Learned that the things that we take for granted home have became such a luxury for me on the trip. To have a coffee in the cafeteria and sit there the whole day, sit more in the parks, next to the river, in the old town and just look at people, talking to strangers and having fast internet to listen some good music. Ah, and i got my laundry done in the laundry machine!! They smell just so wonderfull :) so regular small tings have become luxury.


Warsav is a city with huge roads crossing the city from here and there. Yesterday when biking back home, i saw 200+ bicyclists having a demonstration for the better bicycle roads. I Joined them and learned that every last friday of each month they are having this demonstration. What a great way to get the people together and demonstrate for the important development. After second World War, Warzav has been totally destroyed and later rebuild as it once was.


Today my sister will join me for some weeks and we will head towards Krakov and the Tatra mountains. Feeling super exceited about our reunion and it feels good to get some company to share the beautifull moments with. I have never cycled up the mountains, so i am looking forward to that. But now, before anything else its time to rest and get the energy back :)


Here is the song that was in my head while fighting against the headwind on the last streched before Warzav: http://youtu.be/9iDWTP_GC2M