Em.'s In & Outs

Amsterdam
We rode from Den Haag and then entered Amsterdam through some lovely forest and then met with some of the GAFC crew (including Jenika!!)at the super modern (best ever) central library, which has a great restaurant and bar and patio. We had some meetings and interesting conversation about internal engagement and polished off orientation. We went out to eat and then to a ?coffee shop?, then talked about development while drinking rose wine on the stairs of a church.

The next day we rode into the campground where the first half of orientation would be held. Robbie and I bumped into 6 other lost riders trying to find our way to the place. It was the first time the entire team met, and it was really great to see Joanna again and catch up about the trips from the previous few weeks!

Orientation ran smoothly, people volunteer to run the different sections (values, logistics, bike maintenance, etc.) and we even ended before scheduled, which left us some time to hang out and shave heads for those who were so inclined. We also met with the Bahai community, our hosts who were paying for our camp spaces. The following day, there was some free time in which people went to bike shops (a new favorite outing) and then we met at another campsite where we had a ride leader meeting and a meeting with the country coordinators about accommodation.

Amsterdam ? UtrechThat morning, we had a flat patching session, after which we all came into a circle, had a check-in and then Yashar had us jump around while saying ?Utrech Utrech?. Great energy!

We left for Utrech and all took very different routes to get there. Regardless, it was beautiful countryside, alongside canals and shiny golden fields. It took us a little while to get there even though it was only 45km, but getting there was so cool : our host, Sam, lives in an abandoned office building for which he pays a fee (much lower than average rent) to prevent squatters from taking up the place. The result was that we stayed in this humongous place with tons of different rooms! It was really cool, some dancing, pasta, a meeting about a route change around Prague, followed by hide and seek =)

Utrech ? EdeWe first made it to Zeist, about 15km out of Utrech, for an external meeting at the headquarters of the Triodos bank, which was just awarded the Sustainable Bank of the Year global award, which mostly stands out for its really innovative financial products allowing savers to have their money invested in microcredit institutions around the world! We found about this place through Monica, Robbie?s friend from EWB, whom we also had a chance to meet! It was a really neat way of quicking off the trip, and I?m looking forwards to further conversations about microcredit!

The ride today was short, which ended being quite taxing for me physically! I was with a much faster pod and had trouble keeping up. I tried to adapt to the riding style (mostly compass-oriented) but I did find it quite stressful as I was not used to it. I was also very tired and so when we got in the military base in Ede (after they abolished conscription in the Netherlands, many military bases are left almost vacant so we got to stay there!), I immediately took off for a lonnnggg nap after which we chilled out with people until bedtime.

Ede ? Vreden

Today was the first long distance day : supposedly 100km, it ended up being 108km, which broke my record big time! I was riding with Jenika and Shani, and we had a really good time talking and singing and sharing stories. It was Shani?s birthday and so we stopped for an amazing ice coffee and mango ice cream on the road for like, 1:30 hour, just the time to see a few pods riding by us. The scenery was nice too : very cute mills around as we navigated a route we had confirmed from looking over maps at the tourist office. We did end up on the freeway for about 200m, which wasn?t cool, but then Shani saw a parallel road and we were then able to find our way pretty well, except when we got near the border we got sort of confused. But we found Vredener Weg, and after a few k we see this sign which welcomed us to Deutschland! Right there, just a sign, that was it, with neighbouring houses and a field with cows just happening to land on different sides of the border. It was a very special feeling, just starting to get this whole EU thing! We accelerated the pace and got into the football club juussst as the swimming pool next door was closing (very sad!). The night was fun though, Erin led an amazing stretching session and we had Jager shots and cake and then a night of sleep slightly bothered by a group of teen football players hanging out and listening to hits from the 90s (Green Day, Blink 182).

Vreden ? Munster

We took off for Munster with Joanna, Robbie and Mark. We had a good ride in some romanesque bike paths covered in cobblestones in forests letting out a bit of light that was reminescent of some fantastic stories. We hit the first hills of the trip (yes, goodbye Netherlands!), and got better at navigation as we found many information points along the way helping us figuring out which was the most direct and rideable. We rode through some really lovely small towns with an architecture typical of Wesphalia : lots of red brick houses with triangular roofs. It?s also nice to get more into the ?cycling? part of the trip, and start thinking of winds, weather, etc. The weather had been amazing since Amsterdam (32 degrees sunny days), but it became dicey as we rolled into Munster, so we had a crazy acceleration spree in and out of the bike capital of Germany to get to the Organic Farm where we would stay. I was a bit hedgy as I really wanted to put up the tent before it started raining (which was veined as I now grew up to having our stuff get wet anyways!). As time went by, our hosts, the Young Greens of Munster, started showing up and we introduced ourselves and mingled, talked about different policies in Germany and Canada, it was cool!

We had a day off in Munster the next day, which was helpful to do some housekeeping (heart-to-heart conversations, laundry, Internet!). I was in a better mood that day too (maybe helped by some great lunch ? cheese tortellini and ice coffee!) and had a more social evening, chatting with the Young Greens and signing all the hits from forever ago with the guitar and the fiddle. A great night! Munster ? GuterslohThis morning I was up and ready early, and we left with a big pod, including some people I hadn?t ridden with before : Jake, Chris, Charles. We had a good time, it took us some time to figure out where to take the bike route but otherwise we had a talkative ride by a beautiful river. We had some help by some great cyclists who showed us our way, and the day went smoothly (except for Jenika?s first flat!), we found directions to our campsite quite easily. We got there and there was a latino band playing and there was what seemed like a great chunk of the local population (including an aspirant mayor, also of the Green party!) hanging out with their families. We played volleyball and went swimming in the river, also tried my first real brakwurst and had a quiet chat with Jenika when others were having bread on a stick with our hosts.

Gutersloh ? Huxter

We had the best breakfast ever (I had 3 coffees) with tons of buns, cheese and meat slices, and so Gala and I were ready for our sweep day. Robbie and Mark rode with us, and 7km into the ride, a pin found its way in my tire : first flat! We fixed it, then started rolling at 23km/hr for a few hours, which was my best pace so far! Things were going well, and we finally met the R1 trans-european bike route, which was cool cuz we got to see signs pointing to St-Petursburg! Crazy! The day was going super well and we were making up lyrics to all types of songs until we realized that we had taken a wrong turn and got back to the exact place we were an hour ago, even after seemingly following signs for Horn, the next town. We asked for directions and did our best to follow them, then found 2 bike signs pointing in different ways for the same destination (not unusual, those bike signs can be confusing!) so we took one ? the wrong one ? and climbed a 20grade MOUNTAIN for 3km! That was the hardest climb I had never done ? panting the whole way on my gear 1-1. It was great getting to the top though, although frustrating to find that we had made very little progress. The downhill was really kick-ass though, and then after asking a couple people we found the most direct route to Huxter. We already had a very long day, and so it was really discouraging to find that we had 50 more km to go! And it started raining.. And we were on the highway. So little to say about this part of the ride. The hills also started rolling in more regularly, and it was hard to keep the pod together as we had different speeds, so we stopped regularly, and even lost sight of each other. As we were waiting we were passed by another pod who also got really lost. We all rolled into Huxter at 9-9:30pm, and our host, who is a volunteer fire-fighter, brought us to a late-night visit of the local fire hall, which was really neat! The moment we went back to the church-owned building we were staying at, I fell asleep right there!

Huxter ? Goslar

Somehow I really replenished my strengths overnight because I felt very willing and able to tackle the next day?s 100km, which is becoming pretty common! Joanna, Robbie, Mark and I started the day, without knowing what was ahead: a lot of hills! We really rocked it though, ate lots, drank lots, and made it there second! The town of Goslar absolutely beautiful, it used to be at the crossroads of medieval trade routes and was made very prosperous by a neighbouring silver mine. It is like a fairy tale, pretty much, and we got there during the local carnival, so there was a bunch of roller coasters around too =) The group had a debate as to whether we should change the route to have our day off here, and we ended up keeping the original plan because we had lots of long rides awaiting us. We made some yummy tacos, had a meetings reminding people of rules and then went to bed.

Goslar ? Stassfurt

Today was mainly a highway day. We followed major roads from Goslar to Stassfort, and stopped at a grocery store after 10km (1/10th of the way!) ? I found some really neat pants and jacket, and bought 3 big things of soft cheese for like, 2.5 euros. We enjoyed the food and some coffee in a bakery before taking off. The rest of the ride was really smooth : we had tail winds for the first time in the trip, and were going pretty fast with minimal efforts (it was flat too!). We had a great time, and somewhere crossed into Eastern Germany where Shani had a flat and then Robbie fell and it started raining, but everything turned out fine. We made it to our host the long way, but got there, unfortunately having missed an ?interesting? meeting with the community about social change (whose agenda was apparently pretty much oriented by the meeting leader). We had some good conversations ? lots of emotions already with the group dynamics and everything ? and then snoooozing it pretty well.

We had a day off in that really small town, which was probably a good idea because we were all very tired and enjoyed just reading and relaxing (and doing laundry!). We went out to town for some minor bike shops things, it was really weird just observing the small and big differences between here and Western Germany : more decrepit/abandoned buildings, and just less opulence generally, in all its forms. People were super generous with us though, we went to shower in the fire hall and then had a delicious meal at the local restaurant.

Stassfurt ? Zhana

Today was quite the historical day, we were going through Dessau,which is really famous for its importance in modern architecture, and Wittenburg, the city of Martin Luther, the founder of the Reformation (Protestanism). I rode with Joanna today, it was really neat cuz I neeeddded some space and she?s always a great listening hear. We had a bit of a chaotic morning trying to get everyone out in time (unsuccessful) and making some shots for the documentary crew. Half the day was pretty quiet, and then frustrating because we were getting there pretty good and then we got lost (twice, once longer than the other, some dude pointed us in the wrong direction and we lost almost 1:30!), but then we took this really cute ferry and had gummy bears, which was a great mood booster! The rest of the ride into Zhana went really nicely, we didn?t have time to visit Luther?s church but it was nice to roll into the church?s adjacent house and meet our host. We quickly found out that one pod had a accident and a bike frame broke, and someone fell on their heads. It was pretty stressful and our documentary crew went and got the 5 people in two separate trips, as we were having a nice time chatting about politics (again! My studying of Hertz laws and the German training system came in hady!) and then having a really nice spiritual retreat into the most beautiful church I?ve ever seen. The echo in there was nuts, we did some humming and it sounded like opera! Then our host read to us about us being social change agents, it was really neat.

Zhana ? Riesa

We left Zhana knowing that Robbie and I were the only ones on dinner crew likely to get there in good time, so we took it one click faster than usual. Eileen rode with us for the first time, and we were flying the entire day, going 25km/hr regularly, which is a first time for me! It was a great feeling to know that I could do that! We rolled into the water park in Riesa first, and then it started raining, which seemed to delay our grocery shopping efforts, which took longer than expected (never shopped for 20people for 5 meals on a 4$/person/day budget before!). Frying potatoes on the camp stove also took forever, and I was almost dead by the end of it. We ended up with a tiny bit of yummy poutine for everyone by 11pm, which I felt so-so about. Some people went to join the community party next door, while others enjoyed the dance hits while trying to get to sleep.

Riesa ? Dresden

I was sooooo tired this morning, I was like falling asleep on my bike, until a nice 1euro cappuccino stop and a discussion about wealth. It was neat, the ride went smoothly, some of it along the Elbe river was quite stunning with animals and really special towing techniques along the mountain sides. It was a fun ride, and then we met with two different sets of hosts near the gym where we were staying. We had a meeting afterwards, and then Jean-Pierre lead us to town, which was a lot better than I had expected! We had some cheap dinner and saw really nice buildings.

Dresden ? Usti Nad Labem

So Dresden was nothing like I had read in New Europe, which describes it as modern and boring. It had some truly beautiful architecture, and the Elbe River bed made it somewhat look like Ottawa, as Jenika pointed out. This morning was our first very early morning (we had to be out of the gym we were staying at by 5:30am so they could clean it for morning classes) and the first day riding without having set accommodation. Getting up after a late night (read : 11pm) basketball game was quite the effort, but soon the team was out and rolling towards the Czech Republic. Robbie and I were sweep and tied a few loose ends while giving pods a bit of headway, which some pods clearly didn?t need ? some teams cycled past a biggg mountain and got there in 2:30! Go team go! Today was, in my mind, the most scenic route we?ve done so far. Our enthusiastic host, Jean-Pierre, had warned us that it would be the most beautiful ride we'd had done - he was right! Beautiful river, amazing rock formation, just beautiful beautiful all the way. There was crazy art on the bike path crossing the border, it was absolutely unique and crazy. Rolling inot the Czech Republic was really neat, it was a bit of a shock just knowing 2 words in the language =) The bike path was well marked though and we found our way easily into Usti Nad Labem, after bumping into poor Erin who had heat exhaustion and was waiting for the car to pick her up. We met some of the crew (lost) under a bridge -- the city has a couple bridges, a bunch of high-perched high rises and a big open mine in the middle of it, pretty crazy! -- and then went to our meeting point to find out the great news that, after talking to people at the information point, Shawn and Charles had been put in touch with the mayor of the city which found us a place to stay near hot springs!! That was a big relief! So we got there and had amazing Czech snacks, followed by a plentiful dinner with the most vegetables I've eaten since we started this trip -- it was great! An animated meeting to close up the evening, and certainly a great day on this epic adventure!

Usti Nad Labem ? Prague

I had a crappy morning and was really edgy most day (poor Jenika who was riding with me!). I thought I lost her at a crossroads after climbing this long hill and totally lost it, and got it all out (i.e. cried for a half hour) but then it felt a lot better. We had absolutely no directions today so we were going by the compass and asking people where Prague was (actually, just saying hello and saying Praha with a confused look on our faces!). We somehow managed to find our way without big detours, and ride into some nice countryside. It?s crazy to be in the Czech Republic! Such a big change already from Germany, and I only speak like, 3 words of the language. Aiyaaaaa! Anyways, we had some good chats and the day was really hilly, but then seeing the signs to Prague was really special! We navigated to downtown the best we could and met most of the crew at the bottom of Charles Bridge, which is a really stunning landmark of the city we have yet to explore! We rode into the accommodation Maryam found for us (the same day!), and it was up a huge hill and so the shower getting in there was one of the best I ever had! I had great intentions of going out to town, which were jeopardized greatly by the amazing couch I ended up laying on, from something like 10:30pm to about.. 4am when people were coming back from the bar!

Prague!
It's our day off today in Prague! Overall feeling great, emotions have been quite intense those past days, actually, everything is so much more intense and crazy than I expected! I'm sleeping a lot (missing out on some things for sure but body is going like "woahhhhh take it easy" pretty regularly), like, yesterday I fell asleep on the couch and people tried waking me up for 30min apparently.. and then slept through a thunderstorm.. Oh well! Prague is beautiful, looking forwards to an awesome dinner and beer before taking off for the longest day of the entire ride tomorrow : 130 km! + it's gonna rain, oh yeah!