Saturday, August 08, 2009
iWay reparations
Tabor
That was our longest ride so far and we somehow (after a day off, that's usual) managed to leave quite late, and then rolling out of Prague took a while... And the 130km ended up being super (I mean, super) hilly! I almost collapsed from being over tired after getting lost about 4 times despite our countless attempts to ask for directions on a winding bike route. At 5pm we were still only 30km from Prague. Anyways, epic day, I thought I wouldn't make it, but we rolled into the coolest accom ever just as it was getting dark. We stayed at CESTA, a mill bought up by artists running residency programs for people all over the world. Paintings everywhere, and we got a yummy meal over a chat on the gypsy and skin heads situation in the Cz Rep!
Tabor II
We had a chat with our hosts in the morning about arts and funding and social entreprises and I wish I remembered more of it - oh well, it was really interesting to listen to those guys' perspective on the world. cesta.cz for more details. Our riding day was about 35km, and I was riding with Shani and Jo. Shani's knee started hurting so she stayed back to wait for our support vehicle. At that point things were going well, we sort-a missed a turn though and a few miles later asked for directions and were given a map, which was awesome! But then... We somehow compared that map with the maps we found in the villages, misread a towns' name, ended up on a dirt road and then in a random village looking for our host's address (in the wrong village..!) and a quite large communication barrier. After about 2hours of trying to get back on track we finally talked to Phil on the phone and were like.. 8km away. It was really cool to get to the hosts though, they're a British couple that purchased these barns in Tabor and are striving for a sustainable lifestyle -- they have solar showers and composting toilets! They were super welcoming (we had a hog roast!! very tasty!) and we had really awesome conversations about civil society. A day to be remembered!
Cesky Budovice
That day we took the bike path because the highway was not too great when we saw it. It was the rainiest day of the trip so far - it poured on us all day. We had a good stroll however across a number of villages and then rolled into CB, a larger town with not sooo much to do. This was actually ideal - - we were staying in a school gym (it was Saturday) and so everybody was just chilling and relaxing, and then Gala lead an activity on why we were here, and we got to share with others in the group, it was fantastic. After some yummy stir fry dinner, we had a quick chat on microcredit, which was also good (but it was getting late). Overall a good, long day of physical and mental work and great conversations cumulnating on some serious joy of feeling connected to everybody on the trip.
Cesky Krumlov
I along with a few of us had our second interview with Boudless, our documentary crew. That was meant to clarify and expand on our answers on "being an agent of social change". We all sat in a coffee shop for a while, did the interviews, then Erin had an epic flat (the tube came out of the tire and was rolled around her cassette!). With her, Jenika, Jake and Robbie, we took the bike route to CK, a town which is entirely a UNESCO World Heritage site (screams UNESCO dance!!). Our ride was super mountainous but stunning, and rolling into the town was a magical moment - it's all 15th century buildings preserved, and the town is built around a river that turns and turns, and there's a beautiful castle, and lots of great spots to eat amazing Czech dumplings! We had a great evening walking around and letting our eyes being marvelled at all the beauty.
Linz
Bye bye Czech Republic, hello Austria! My legs were very tired this morning and it took a long time to warm up, especially as we were biking along a circling uphill for most of the morning! Just after the Austrian border, things started getting muuucccch better as we started having downhills, the most memorable being the 10km descent from the mountain range into the Danube valley. We went faster than cars, it was nuts =) Some people's computer said 60km/hr! It is here that we finally encountered the beautiful river that will be our companion until the end of Romania. We had a grreeeeeat ice cream and then found a place where I had sushi, which I was craving since the day we left Toronto! It was magical. We stayed at this soccer/multisports stadium and had a really great game of bump -- haven't played basketball in so long, it was great! I then got started on reading Everything is Illuminated and consequently parcelled the silence with giggles. Great day!
St-Poelten
Funny how things are relative. Today was the longest day of the ride so far (145km) and it felt like a piece of cake. Mind you, we were cycling in the Danube valley and so it was very flat. And also very beautiful -- lots of mountainous, foresty scenary along sparking water, very enjoyable! We had a 2hr stop under a tree and I had a really cool conversation with Mark about "project managing our lives", it was super good. Then we rolled.. Then : Ice coffee (a theme of this trip!) And then we met up with Yashar's pod and sped up the last 25km to roll in a field near a hockey arena where we were staying (having showers there was awesome, it was so cold in there!).
Vienna
This morning it was 28degrees at 7:30 am. Soooo it was even hard to be in the sun making sandwiches at that time! Jo and I jumped into the river to refresh ourselves in the morning, and then a bunch of us took off for Vienna. The B1 highway was really hilly and it was a hotttt day. We thought we were smart taking a break around 1pm to let the heat pass us, but we were wrong : it kept on getting hotter and hotter. The break was a great opportunity for sharing thoughts around the following question : "what goes through your mind when you're climbing a hill?" (answer : snap! poopy pants!) and also politics and election campaign thoughts from mark, super interesting as always. So it was a really though ride, and it took us a while to find our accom spot in Vienna. When we got there (it's a building owned by a church that Daniel, this cool CouchSurfer, had found for us), everyone was napping. We weren't so lucky and did ice cream instead. It was Maryam (our documentary crew producer)'s birthday and so the dinner was well enhanced by some champagne and great dancing on Ghetto Superstard and such hits. We were all pretty drunk (I was speaking Chinese, that's a great sign) when we hit the public transportation to go downtown. 1.5hr later, we find the place the Lonely Planet suggested, it was boring, we find a club, I was exhausted so we had burgers and took a cab back. It was still a great night of bonding over ethylic alchool.
Vienna II
Our day off in Vienna was well packed with external and media activities Daniel arranged for us. We made it to the center of town to meet with radio and television delegates who interviewed us and took a bunch of shots and footage (it was crazy seeing it online afterwards!). Then we made our way to the UN complex where we were given a tour of the buildings and then a lecture on the more political (and popular) aspects of the UN, that is, the General Assembly and the Security Council, which was interesting except that I slept through most of it -- I'm more interested in development. Oh well. It was really neat being in some meeting rooms and being explained how the official UN languages and translation worked. We had a few hours in the afternoon which were mostly dedicated to go to a bike shop to take care of our multiple squeaky noises and cracks and deficient pieces. Still found the time for a delicious ice coffee and a nice tour of downtown (really amazing city architecture!!) before having a yummy meal in a nice restaurant with Daniel, some local politicians from the Green Party and a few more media representatives. After dinner, Eileen snuck into the theater in from of the place and a few of us had the utmost privilege of attending the last couple songs by this really entertaining African band. Zoumba, ba ba ba ba zomba, ba ba ba ba zomba yo yo yo ba ba ba zoumba! (New theme song of the trip!) It was super genious.. But not quite as impressive as the EPIC rainstorm that followed our getting back to our accommodation (worth mentioning that our group didn't have the keys so we had to wait under the rain!). It reminded me of monsoon : chairs flying in the street, horizontal rain, trees falling, it was nuts. I'm glad we weren't riding through that!
Velky Biel
Today we were going to Bratislava, which I was absolutely looking forwards to! We left as a double-date pod with a chaperon, and had a mellow start, followed by two complicated, long-to-fix flats and complemented by a ride leader meeting on a 2km long bridge. I also met some French couples traveling on tandems, it was fun! The ride was otherwise pretty straightforward, we ended up catching just a little glimpse of Bratislava, which I was a bit disappointed about because I got such great vibes from the cycle into. Those concerns were soon to be dispersed when we met with some friends of our hosts (my friend Zuzana's family friends) who rode with us to Velky Biel, the village we were staying at. Their welcome was just so astounding : they made a huge banner welcoming us, there were balloons, it's just.. impossible to describe! We had a wonderfully yummy home cooked meal and Ivar and Katarina were just totally in for a good time : we had some dancing, some swimming in a crystal clear lake near their house, then we ever had a "second dinner" consisting of amazing Slovak sausages. The entire evening was a charm, it was so nice to be with such a great family too =) Amazing amazzzzinnnnggg
Gyor
Off to Hungary already.. Incredible. So we left Slovakia (some of us, myself included, pretty sad to be leaving!) and head into Hungary. Today was a though day for me, had some interpersonal mishaps but they all got sorted out thankfully. We met with the Unitarian church in Gyor, which was really specila : cool to meet young members of the congregation too! We sung our national anthems, so funny
MORE TO COME, GOTTA GO, STILL 50KM TO RIDE!
That was our longest ride so far and we somehow (after a day off, that's usual) managed to leave quite late, and then rolling out of Prague took a while... And the 130km ended up being super (I mean, super) hilly! I almost collapsed from being over tired after getting lost about 4 times despite our countless attempts to ask for directions on a winding bike route. At 5pm we were still only 30km from Prague. Anyways, epic day, I thought I wouldn't make it, but we rolled into the coolest accom ever just as it was getting dark. We stayed at CESTA, a mill bought up by artists running residency programs for people all over the world. Paintings everywhere, and we got a yummy meal over a chat on the gypsy and skin heads situation in the Cz Rep!
Tabor II
We had a chat with our hosts in the morning about arts and funding and social entreprises and I wish I remembered more of it - oh well, it was really interesting to listen to those guys' perspective on the world. cesta.cz for more details. Our riding day was about 35km, and I was riding with Shani and Jo. Shani's knee started hurting so she stayed back to wait for our support vehicle. At that point things were going well, we sort-a missed a turn though and a few miles later asked for directions and were given a map, which was awesome! But then... We somehow compared that map with the maps we found in the villages, misread a towns' name, ended up on a dirt road and then in a random village looking for our host's address (in the wrong village..!) and a quite large communication barrier. After about 2hours of trying to get back on track we finally talked to Phil on the phone and were like.. 8km away. It was really cool to get to the hosts though, they're a British couple that purchased these barns in Tabor and are striving for a sustainable lifestyle -- they have solar showers and composting toilets! They were super welcoming (we had a hog roast!! very tasty!) and we had really awesome conversations about civil society. A day to be remembered!
Cesky Budovice
That day we took the bike path because the highway was not too great when we saw it. It was the rainiest day of the trip so far - it poured on us all day. We had a good stroll however across a number of villages and then rolled into CB, a larger town with not sooo much to do. This was actually ideal - - we were staying in a school gym (it was Saturday) and so everybody was just chilling and relaxing, and then Gala lead an activity on why we were here, and we got to share with others in the group, it was fantastic. After some yummy stir fry dinner, we had a quick chat on microcredit, which was also good (but it was getting late). Overall a good, long day of physical and mental work and great conversations cumulnating on some serious joy of feeling connected to everybody on the trip.
Cesky Krumlov
I along with a few of us had our second interview with Boudless, our documentary crew. That was meant to clarify and expand on our answers on "being an agent of social change". We all sat in a coffee shop for a while, did the interviews, then Erin had an epic flat (the tube came out of the tire and was rolled around her cassette!). With her, Jenika, Jake and Robbie, we took the bike route to CK, a town which is entirely a UNESCO World Heritage site (screams UNESCO dance!!). Our ride was super mountainous but stunning, and rolling into the town was a magical moment - it's all 15th century buildings preserved, and the town is built around a river that turns and turns, and there's a beautiful castle, and lots of great spots to eat amazing Czech dumplings! We had a great evening walking around and letting our eyes being marvelled at all the beauty.
Linz
Bye bye Czech Republic, hello Austria! My legs were very tired this morning and it took a long time to warm up, especially as we were biking along a circling uphill for most of the morning! Just after the Austrian border, things started getting muuucccch better as we started having downhills, the most memorable being the 10km descent from the mountain range into the Danube valley. We went faster than cars, it was nuts =) Some people's computer said 60km/hr! It is here that we finally encountered the beautiful river that will be our companion until the end of Romania. We had a grreeeeeat ice cream and then found a place where I had sushi, which I was craving since the day we left Toronto! It was magical. We stayed at this soccer/multisports stadium and had a really great game of bump -- haven't played basketball in so long, it was great! I then got started on reading Everything is Illuminated and consequently parcelled the silence with giggles. Great day!
St-Poelten
Funny how things are relative. Today was the longest day of the ride so far (145km) and it felt like a piece of cake. Mind you, we were cycling in the Danube valley and so it was very flat. And also very beautiful -- lots of mountainous, foresty scenary along sparking water, very enjoyable! We had a 2hr stop under a tree and I had a really cool conversation with Mark about "project managing our lives", it was super good. Then we rolled.. Then : Ice coffee (a theme of this trip!) And then we met up with Yashar's pod and sped up the last 25km to roll in a field near a hockey arena where we were staying (having showers there was awesome, it was so cold in there!).
Vienna
This morning it was 28degrees at 7:30 am. Soooo it was even hard to be in the sun making sandwiches at that time! Jo and I jumped into the river to refresh ourselves in the morning, and then a bunch of us took off for Vienna. The B1 highway was really hilly and it was a hotttt day. We thought we were smart taking a break around 1pm to let the heat pass us, but we were wrong : it kept on getting hotter and hotter. The break was a great opportunity for sharing thoughts around the following question : "what goes through your mind when you're climbing a hill?" (answer : snap! poopy pants!) and also politics and election campaign thoughts from mark, super interesting as always. So it was a really though ride, and it took us a while to find our accom spot in Vienna. When we got there (it's a building owned by a church that Daniel, this cool CouchSurfer, had found for us), everyone was napping. We weren't so lucky and did ice cream instead. It was Maryam (our documentary crew producer)'s birthday and so the dinner was well enhanced by some champagne and great dancing on Ghetto Superstard and such hits. We were all pretty drunk (I was speaking Chinese, that's a great sign) when we hit the public transportation to go downtown. 1.5hr later, we find the place the Lonely Planet suggested, it was boring, we find a club, I was exhausted so we had burgers and took a cab back. It was still a great night of bonding over ethylic alchool.
Vienna II
Our day off in Vienna was well packed with external and media activities Daniel arranged for us. We made it to the center of town to meet with radio and television delegates who interviewed us and took a bunch of shots and footage (it was crazy seeing it online afterwards!). Then we made our way to the UN complex where we were given a tour of the buildings and then a lecture on the more political (and popular) aspects of the UN, that is, the General Assembly and the Security Council, which was interesting except that I slept through most of it -- I'm more interested in development. Oh well. It was really neat being in some meeting rooms and being explained how the official UN languages and translation worked. We had a few hours in the afternoon which were mostly dedicated to go to a bike shop to take care of our multiple squeaky noises and cracks and deficient pieces. Still found the time for a delicious ice coffee and a nice tour of downtown (really amazing city architecture!!) before having a yummy meal in a nice restaurant with Daniel, some local politicians from the Green Party and a few more media representatives. After dinner, Eileen snuck into the theater in from of the place and a few of us had the utmost privilege of attending the last couple songs by this really entertaining African band. Zoumba, ba ba ba ba zomba, ba ba ba ba zomba yo yo yo ba ba ba zoumba! (New theme song of the trip!) It was super genious.. But not quite as impressive as the EPIC rainstorm that followed our getting back to our accommodation (worth mentioning that our group didn't have the keys so we had to wait under the rain!). It reminded me of monsoon : chairs flying in the street, horizontal rain, trees falling, it was nuts. I'm glad we weren't riding through that!
Velky Biel
Today we were going to Bratislava, which I was absolutely looking forwards to! We left as a double-date pod with a chaperon, and had a mellow start, followed by two complicated, long-to-fix flats and complemented by a ride leader meeting on a 2km long bridge. I also met some French couples traveling on tandems, it was fun! The ride was otherwise pretty straightforward, we ended up catching just a little glimpse of Bratislava, which I was a bit disappointed about because I got such great vibes from the cycle into. Those concerns were soon to be dispersed when we met with some friends of our hosts (my friend Zuzana's family friends) who rode with us to Velky Biel, the village we were staying at. Their welcome was just so astounding : they made a huge banner welcoming us, there were balloons, it's just.. impossible to describe! We had a wonderfully yummy home cooked meal and Ivar and Katarina were just totally in for a good time : we had some dancing, some swimming in a crystal clear lake near their house, then we ever had a "second dinner" consisting of amazing Slovak sausages. The entire evening was a charm, it was so nice to be with such a great family too =) Amazing amazzzzinnnnggg
Gyor
Off to Hungary already.. Incredible. So we left Slovakia (some of us, myself included, pretty sad to be leaving!) and head into Hungary. Today was a though day for me, had some interpersonal mishaps but they all got sorted out thankfully. We met with the Unitarian church in Gyor, which was really specila : cool to meet young members of the congregation too! We sung our national anthems, so funny
MORE TO COME, GOTTA GO, STILL 50KM TO RIDE!
