1 year on.....

Jesus that went quick, well its been a year since I got back from the Russian trip and despite my intentions to keep this blog rolling and keep family and friends updated its kinda fallen by the wayside, so I'm sitting here thinking 'what would be an enjoyable day to spend my first day off in months?' and this blog popped into my head.

Anyway I've been sunning myself in the home county for the past 12 months, working my ass off and generally having a good time. When I came back from Russia I jumped back into doing landscaping and tree work with a mate of mine. The moneys crap but the craic's good.

One for the Stihl catalogue ;)

Long way up on a dead Willow...

New toy! I wish I'd taken some pics of this project along the way. Me and a mate bought this defender back from the dead. Suffice to say 'never again!'.

Going to try and use this blog to document cool stuff we do at work as well as what I get up to at the weekends. I doubt its going to be as exciting as the Russian chapter but if anything it'll encourage me to take a few pictures and keep a bit of a diary.

23rd August - 5th Sepetember northern France with Fredrick 'big bucks city-slicker' Spencer. Should be some good pics from that one.

Take it easy......

Am I Growing up? (I'm Just Burning Out...)

Based on songs and stories, heroes of renowned...

 

Made it to Amsterdam, was even a day early ;) met up with Dr. Fatkins yesterday who looked suitably knackered after the monstorous 500 metre walk through the campsite.

I havn't updated this since I was in Lviv, Ukraine, where I managed to break my laptop screen, so what you're gonna get here is a quick rundown of the past few weeks. Just the highlights basically.

I left Lviv heading for the Carpathian mountains and the Slovakian border. I rode along a secondary road called the H13 which definatly hadn't been re-surfaced prior to the football last year...

Met this guy, Igor, outside a small resturant in Sambir, really friendly bloke, plus the resturant owner gave me a free meal when she heard what I was doing. Amasing.

Really enjoyed the carpathian mountains. Some fairly challenging cycling, beautiful scenery and not a lycra lovvie in sight thanks to the shit roads.

About five minuites after this picture was taken I heard an almighty bang, then another and another. I went round the back of the shelter and some local guy was throwing himself at the back wall of the hut and trying to break off some of the planks. Apparently he needed a few bits of wood off it to fix his house. Haha, man I loved Ukraine... 

Ukranian Ferrari!

Yeah, no cols here, but still well worth seeing. The roads are horific. Quite a few times cars came at me from the wrong side of the road simply becasue the other half of the road was so rough.

An old Jewish cemetery.

 

It took me about one and a half days to get from Lviv to the Slovakian border. Had a bit of shit off the border guards, who wanted some paper encouragement, but eventually I was let through. I got stopped twice on my last day in Ukraine, once at a checkpoint on one of the provincial borders and once by a policeman on his 20 year old honda that looked like it had been hand painted by a 2 year old child, apparently its fairly common for forigeners to cross the carpathian mountains and sneak into ukraine without the required stamps, anyway all was in order so he left me alone. Ahh Slovakia, back in the Euro-zone, I remember thinking 'Its all domestic from now on'.

C'mom Slovakia, show me your teeth ladd! haha

All of my route from home to St. Petersburg, Moscow and through Ukraine up to the carpathians was flat, I was in for a shock.

Yeah, you can keep England, I'm moving to Slovakia haha. Nice smooth european tarmac aswell. Prices are also very cheap, I was renting little cabin things in slovakia for between 6 and 8 GBP a night.



 Met this guy (gonna edit this and add names later, got them all written down, just can't remember them) at a petrol station just over the Slovakian border. His mate gave me a map of Slovakia which was really helpful (cheers pal). He even rode with me to the nearest campsite so I wouldn't get lost. Ended up having a few shandys that night ;) and spoke to my mom for the first time in 6 weeks haha. Also got bought a pint of half white, half black German beer by the absolute tank you can see sitting with his Mrs in the background. Nice one brother!

 

 Trailblazing..

 

A Russian tank in Slovakia. By this point I was pretty shot. I didn't have one day off the bike on the journey from Lviv to Amsterdam. Not a problem on the flat when your on the flat but in the hills not resting kinda takes its toll.

This guy worked in Bristol as a trucker running stuff to Birmingham, small world! Touring on a 45 year old 50cc yamaha. Looked pretty fun. About 5 minuites before I took this picture I was stuck in a big line of cars behind a truck that was parked in the middle of the road with its hazards on, I thought he'd blown a tyre or had some mechanical problem so I scooted around the cars and overtook him. As I pulled out in font of him I realised he'd hit a pedestrian, not a pretty sight. The police and ambulance had already been called so there wasn't much I could do so I just carried on. A stark reminder of the dangers of being on the road.

Every car that overtook me after that, after having passed the accident, gave me a bloody wide berth.

Yeah, hanging. That climb was insane, about 1 km of 20%, you can see the road I went up in the right hand side of the picture. Nice bit of descent on the other side though. Slovakia definatly has teeth.

Me with another bicycle touring hero, Steffen Low from Germany, been on the road for a year, done over 13,000 kms and visited some pretty exotic places (Iran, Georgia etc.) jealous isn't the word...

  'The sun may rise in the East at least it settles in the final location' ;)

Then into Austria, I rode along a trail called the 'Iron Curtian Trail' for a bit. Its on the Czech/Austria border. Pretty interesting.

 

One of the old Iron curtian bunkers. When the border was still up and running people on the west side could go right up to the fence and look over into the USSR. On the east side there was a 30km 'exclusion zone' which you had to have a special stamp in your passport to be allowed into, says it all really.

Vodka at 10am with this group of Czech canoists, great company although the sauce made the days riding interesting.

And the Czech Republic, country number 13. Honestly didn't do Czech or Austria justice but both beautiful countries.

The original plan was to visit Bratislava, Vienna and Prague but I decided to spend the last few weeks of the tour spinning through the countryside instead. With the netbook broken it would of been hard to find places to stay in the city and I always loose a day when I visit citys just because I feel I need to get out there, take some pictures and do the place justice.

 

I rode through Czech to a place called Cheb, then crossed into Germany.

Stopped at a Chinese market on the German border to try and get rid of some of my czech currency. Had a poke around one of the shops and pulled out a T-shirt, a sleveless top and a pair of shorts. The little guy on the stall totaled up the cost on his calculator. I almost pissed myself laughing when he asked for nearly 40GBP for three items of clearly counterfit clothing. I offered him 8 quid; basically all my change and, after a bit of banter, he accepted insisting that he was 'doing me a massive favour' hahahah!

Of course for all the awesome scenery and interesting history its the people who make cycle touring so fun.

 Helmut (god I hope thats right) and his wife, whose name I've forgotton like an idiot. The first English people I'd me for about 6 weeks (although I did meet a Scotsman in Ukraine!) Cheers for the beers guys and the fantastic stories (especially the one about your visit to Zimbabwe), hope you had a good trip back to sunny Essex.

Czech, cyclist I met in Germany, who wasn't too keen on the high price of German campsites. I've got to say I agree with him. In my books anything over ten euros is pretty extortinate, especially when you've gotta pay one euro for the showers too. According to team Esssex Norway is pretty bad for this (even the Germans find it expensive!). Cool guy, even though he didn't speak a word of English, we managed to get by with a wierd mix of German and Russian. He was cycling to Spain, good luck with the trip bud!

Met Peter outside a Netto in western Germany, immediatly clocked a proper cyclist when I spied the brooks saddle, koga randoneer frame and pretty awesome handlebar set up. Anyway Peter invited me to stay at his house and him and his wife put me up for the night. Great people. Even sorted us out with some dinner and brekfast the next morning! AND while I was there I managed to get my rear wheel repaired by the local bike shop, it had thrown three spokes due to the weight. Sometimes you need a bit of luck eh? A bit of luck and some good people. Thank you Peter, and happy cycling.

Wild camping in Germany!

 

Eventully I dropped off the hills somewhere in the middle of Germany and blitzed the few hunderd kms to Amsterdam. Nothing really interesting just putting the hours in on the bike. Well, nothing interesting except....

This fooking massive rat, look at the size of it!

 

So that was a very brief description of the trip back, I'm only about a week from home so I'll tell you guys all about it when I get back. Can't say I'm thrilled to be heading back to nothingtown after three months of balls out adventuring but hey, needs must.

 

To try and dull the pain me and Sherman Klump hit an all you can eat ribs buffet last night. The results were disgusting.

The Michelin man gave up after two racks of ribs, while I went on to equal the resturant record of five full racks of ribs. Yeah, I felt pretty ill afterwards...

 

I know theres much more to see in Germany, Czech and Austria. I didn't do these countries justice, so a return trip is definatly on the cards. South Germany is like a hill junkie's paradise.

 

I'm a bit gutted that I couldn't keep this up to date, I know quite a few people were reading it, so apologies for that but I hope this kinda makes up for it. I will probably stick another update on on the way back, let you know how I get on with the last 500 miles and I'll keep updating this when I get home.

 

Take care.

 

'Don't worry, don't be afraid, ever, because this is just a ride...' - Bill Hicks

 

 

 

Viva la revolution!

Life ain't about waiting for the storm to pass.....Its about learning to dance in the rain.

I'm in Lviv, western Ukraine. In my attempt to do at least one Ukranian city justice I've spent the day looking around the town. It took me a day and a half to get to Lviv. The main roads were all re-surfaced last year when Ukraine and Poland hosted the football so the going was pretty smooth.

The day that I left Rivne was a bit of a drag. Eastern Europe havn't quite got the hang of road signs yet and at Rivne the signs were showing 270kms to Lviv, looking at the map it was more like 200 but its toss up wether you trust Ukranian maps or Ukranian road signs more. Usually the maps are more accurate.

I took this picture a bit later in the day, there was no way I'd cycled 100kms from Rivne. At one point in Russia as I was getting closer to a town the kms on the signs were going up!

It was a pretty uneventful day, until about 5pm. I'd just cycled through a town called Brody and was making a beeline for a place called Olesko when I met this father son team.

 They were doing a bit of sightseeing, visiting some of the old castles and historical sights that are dotted about the area. As we were talking a man and a woman came out of a house a few doors down, man was I surprised when the woman spoke near perfect English to me! She invited me into the house, sat me down and basically told me that I was going to stay for supper, have a shower and tell them all about my trip. Awesome.

The conversation flowed pretty well with the woman, a friend of the mans wife, acting as a translator. He was a retired Soviet air force and Ukranian air force helicopter pilot. He had served 15 years in the Soviet military and 15 years in the Ukranian military after the country became independant. When the USSR split up he was offered Russian citizenship and a comfortable office job by the Kremlin which he turned it down because he 'wanted to help his own country (Ukraine) get back on its feet'. A true Ukranian patriot.

We talked quite a lot about Ukranian politics and in particular corruption and the problems with the current regime. When I left he gave me a flag with the democratic party of Ukraine symbol on it, a pretty cool present, however it fell off the back of my bike somewhere on the road into Lviv. Gutted. Anyway managed to pick up a flyer from the town centre with the same symbol on it so thats going on the bedroom wall when I get home ;).

I stopped in Olesko that night with the signs still showing over 100kms to Lviv. After a good nights sleep I jumped back on the bike and headed off down the road. About 20 minuites later I saw a sign, 60kms to Lviv. Crazy. So a couple of hours later:

Look at that dirty, sweaty unshaven tramp. If he put as much effort into his career as he puts into cycling to obscure places he could have a nice car, a 2 bed semi in the suburbs, a wife and an exciting job selling insurance. Well guys its the dream! hahahahah

Found a hostel easy enough thanks to the free wifi at a petrol station.I didn't do much last night, just monged about. I went to a local takeaway and got some food, two burgers and two large portions of chips for fatty! Opened up the burgers and immediatly realised I'd been done. One word. Salad. The actual burger was about as thick as a piece of paper and they had filled the rest of the bun with green, leafy healthy shit. Errrgh.

Thought the chips would be better...

I didn't cycle to Moscow on bloody salad! Unfortunatly there was no way around it, I had to eat my way through the disgusting healthy rubbish to get to the greasy chippy goodness underneath.

So today I hit the tourist trail in Lviv, its a great town, tonnes of old buildings and stuff to look at. First port of call was Rynok square.

Rynok is the central square in Lviv, it was planned in the second half of the 14th century. A bit of a building site this week as there is some sort of festival going on, but still a pretty beautiful place.

After Rynok I made a beeline for High castle, the highest point in Lviv which promised great views of the city. En route I went through an outdoor market. Behind all of the traders selling I <3 Lviv T-shirts and cuddly toys there were a few bric-a-brac stands. I like these kind of places cause there are always a few hidden treasures. After a bit of a rummage I found a few interesting items which I think make better souviners that a crappy hat or a fridge magnet.

Top left, its a nazi match box holder, not sure if its real or not, the jurys out, but I can't find another one like it on the internet. Top right is an interesting one, pulled it out of a box of junk and paid six quid for it. After a little research on here it turns out its a 'Medal for Labour Valour' it was awarded to:

Labourers who heroically dedicated themselves towards the building of a socialist society or have demonstrated a complete understanding of machinery/equipment to provide a high level of efficiency or for significant contributions in culture/science/manufacturing.

There were over 1.8 million of these medals awarded.

The two bank notes were four quid each, the one on the left is 20 reichsmark, no prizes for guessing what country thats from, and the one on the right is 50 karbowanez from 1942. Its Ukranian money from when the country was occupied by the nazis. Both the notes have the nazi eagle and swastika stamped on them (you can see in the picture).I walked away less than 20 quid lighter with all this history, amasing.

It took me about half an hour to walk to High Castle and climb the hill.

Yeah, I didn't realise there was dirt on the lens until I uploaded it, damn. Still you get the idea. Its the highest point in Lviv at 413m above sea level (its a man-made hill). There really isn't much of the castle left, in the 19th centruy it was made into a park and a Union of Lublin mound was constructed to mark the 300th anniversary of the union. (you can do your own research on the union of Lublin!)

 Met these two massive hawks on the way down!

OK so next port of call was Lychakiv Cemetary, this one looked good on the internet but to be honest it was a bit of a let down. Got there and realised you had to pay to get in, which seemed fairly odd. Anyway I paid (about 80p) then watched about ten people just walk through the gates so I think they're relying a bit too much on peoples good will...

Yep, basically a big creepy cemetery with loads of dead guys and girls. I've met cyclists who've told me that they camp in cemeterys cause they're always quiet at night and the locals don't go near them cause they're scared of evil spirits. Rather you than me my friend.

Hell, this brother makes me look like Brad Pitt!
A lot of the headstones have the dead persons face carved into them.  

This guy must've been a physicist of something. Many of the headstones are crosses but a good percentage are wierd shapes like this. I thought there would be more crosses to be honest cause Ukraine is a pretty religious country.

I left the cemetery after about half an hour and went back into the town, had a crafty beer at one of the local bars. Top tip, try and actually learn some Russian/Ukranian before you come here, people think you're a bit of a nob if you don't speak the language. They speak Russian and Ukranian here but Russian I feel is the dominant language, maybe with a bit of Ukranian mixed in. (for phrases like thank you, please etc.)

The good life.

I went back into the town centre for a bit, took a few pictures of the buildings.

I think its some sort of church. Loads of nuns in Lviv ;) haha! Also had another scam artist try it on today. I was walking down a residential street in the suburbs looking like a proper tourist, bum bag, map in hand etc. when this scruffy young guy comes up to me and tells me that hes a policeman and that he wants to fine me for some misdermeaner. I almost wet myself laughing and told him to F**k off, I did consider givng him 50p for a photo to put on here but when I got my camera out he disappeared very quickly.

Can't remember what this place is! Cool looking building though.

Busker in Lviv!

After my little circuit I headed back to the hostel, picking up a new spare tyre on the way from a local bike shop, for a general chill out and a bit of route planning. I'm two days from the Slovakian border (maybe one If I cut the corner through Poland) targets then are: Bratislav, Vienna, Prague then across Germany to Amsterdam. T-minus 3 weeks till the meet up ;). Gonna be spinning some mega miles to get there on time but it'll be fun.

Adios.

“Tears will get you sympathy, sweat will get you results.”