Donate the trip

You can donate the trip. Account: Anu Hark, EE862200221067441148

kolmapäev, 27. juuni 2018

Officially homeless

All night i cleaned up my room in students dorm and in the morning i gave away my keys. So now im officially homeless and not officially unemployed. Hope to find a job in Dolomites and maybe settle down for a whil or more. Hitching has been kind of hard today but still i have got somewhere... Bauska, Latvia, near Lithuania. I still bet that i will hit Polish border for midnight. Actually day starts now at 18.30 as i had my first caffe now and as you know day without caffe is called night. 😆😂
Just finished my caffe 💪👌
... and of course i have some dope
Life should be sweet sometimes, even on the road
Yaah, as i assumed, i got to poland before midnight.

And here i am, using the wifi of Orlen petrol station... classics

neljapäev, 21. juuni 2018

Offline, but still moving

There has been been long silence in my blog as i dropped my phone in Zlin (Czech rep.) and basically broke its "skull". So last time I had internet connection was on 13-th in Ostrava 👹. Ostrava was actually nice even though it is not super beautiful or historically interesting city. Its just an industrial sovietic style city. I didnt spend my time on sightseeing but went in climbing gym instead (not bouldering). I was just hanging around in the gym and disturbed other climbers with questions like "Is it nice route?"; "Can you belay me also after you have climbed it?" etc. Hehee, some of them were quite patient. After one of climbers showed me a potential sleeping place in park near to the castle but for me it was still too early for sleeping so i went to the river to find some cosy bar to take a beer. I think my 6-th sense and luck were with me - the first bar i saw was just super. Staff was really nice and beer as well. Big thanks to Šimon who hosted me and my bike at that night.

On the way to Zlin I cheated and took a train for first 30 km, so in the end I cycled only 95 km. Nice views and pictures that i lost because of breaking my phonre :D. But it remains in my memory.

Zlin was super quiet and also boring.... so i went to sleep already before midnight. This night i was "wild"camping on the local skiing slope just next to the factory of climbing shoes factory (Saltic). Muhahaa, people came to work already at 4 am, so their chatting disturbed my sweet dreams. After a short breakfast i took direction to Brno.

To Brno it was only 105 km by google maps.... but now it was quite hilly, so it took time. Still got to Brno early enough to go climbing in gym. I was very glad that they had automatic belay, so i had the possibility to climb even without any partner. Actually i still found some partners for some interesting routes which were not equipped wit auto-belay system. I really liked this gym.... there was a lot of stuff that you dont find in our small climbing corner in Tartu. Some tufa like things, corner and chimney like routes etc. Ian, a guy I climbed with recommended me also a bar where to go afterwards. It was that kind of place where there are always many people and most of them drink outside the bar, just sitting on the ground or standing. OK i went there, took a beer, finished my last piece of cheese and stared to looking for somebody to have conversation with, but before finishing my observation one guy asked about my flag. And here we go, he had been hitchhiker as well in the past and his friend from Germany was also talkative and knowledgable, so we chatted and chatted, changed the place because of closing of the first bar and kept talking till 2 am. By the way the second bar was the same that i visited ˇ1 year ago... random... nostalgy. I got an old sony ericsson from guys, as they happened to have some extra phones.

My knee problem was quite uncomfortable now, thats why i decided to have a easyer day. Just to Mikulov, a wine town near to border of Austria. Finally i gotta use som bike routes, just in between of fields and hills. Mikulov was worth to visit, even though its a bit touristic. Thanks to the bar/restaurant "Amici miei" I had the possibility to hang around without bike and luggage. The owner let me leave my bag in the bar while walking and he offered also nice pasta bolognese, tiramisu, random conversations with locals and himself. Up the hill near to sanctuary the view was perfect, but again - no phone, no photos. Ofcourse i needed to taste some local wine as well and why not to do it accompanied by Portugal-Spain football match and some local guys.

Michal, me and wine... at least there are people who take pictures for me :D

Next day I had the last stage of the first part of my cycling trip - Mikulov-Wien. Bike roads and road nr 7 took me there. Quite easy. There was gay parade in Wien and of course i observed it as well. They seemed to have fun. After wandering around i decided to settle down near river in the place where hundreds of ppl are watching footbal world cup together. Wanted to see some game as well! Hmmm, what was the guy doing with sardinian on the game of Iceland and Argentina. I went and asked ofcourse. Hmm Gianni was Sardo. Wuhuu, i got the possibility to speak Italian again. I told them about the need of leaving my bike in Wien and he organized some space in safe place for my bike. Big thanks to Gianni, Federico and Hostel Wombats. In the evening beer and liquer degustation started with italian and balcan gang.

Next day, sunday i started to hitchhike back to Estonia for my graduation. Getting out from Wien took some time but actually it was easier than i estimated, despite small hangover. Took 2 days and 4 hours to get back home. Not the fastest I could do, because I got into Warszawa and deffinitely got stuck there.

Now Im in Estonia, just had graduation and now ill have some days to meet friends, move out, hike in forest and enjoy the cool sea... lets say that I took a small break of vacation. Next week i will start hitching bac to Wien to take Massimo and continue riding to Italia. I will go a bit around.... hitch through Kiel and say hello to my bad friends Mischa, Öfi and Nikhil :D. Hope they are all there.

pühapäev, 10. juuni 2018

Update

Near suwalki, just before finding next ride
Update. Hitchhiking went unexpectedly easily. Maybe i waited 30 min un my start point in the border of Tallinn, then a (normal size) car picked me up... we were 3 of us and my bike in the car. You see, it is possible to hitch normal cars with bicycle even if there is more than 1 person in the car. Those nice ladies gave me a ride until Pärnu. I only needed to get out of town, finish my sandwich and another car stopped already. Bike to the roof and off we go. Funny guy who didnt say anything but just rode me to the border between Estonia and Latvia, 25 km more than his destination was. I ate another sandwich, went to truck parking spot, saw a polish truck, asked and voila! Directly to the border between Lithuania and Poland. Wow! Sometimes luck and sun are on my side (quite often actually while traveling.... they say that god protects and helps fools 😉). So... i was maybe a bit too pessimistic betting that i arrive only between Marijampole and polish border for midnight. Driver was only speaking polish and few words of russian, but we still managed to explain the most important stuff in polussian language. We got to Szipliszki and there he needed to make 9 hours pause....it was only 21.30 or something like that. Even though he tried to convince me to stay there and not keep going further (you know: it gets dark, nobody is going towards warszawa that hour because everybody starts break etc) i continued by bike towards Suwalki. At least i could have find somebody who speaks english and also some better sleeping spot in town. Actually i have no idea why so many people try to scare me. Are they super afraid and worrying about me or is it just the way to keep me in the truck, feeling dependent on them? If its the first case then very lovely of them, if the second then they have got my personality and the amount of hitchhiking experience totally wrong. I really dont have problems with bears and wolves in the forest, so stop telling me that its dark and there are animals and i shouldnt go to sleep there with my tent (ok, there is also Homo sapiens in some places... then i need to be careful).

While cycling i was holding my left hand with hitching thumb and for my surprise after 10 kms one truck stopped in parking and picked me up. Thanks to Estonian flag that im carrying with me. He was from estonia which means that i even had the possibility to talk (despite being from Estonia he was still talkative 😉). He was super nice and also intelligent so i enjoyed the time. We got maybe 100 km before warszawa and guess what i still stayed in truck parking at night, in the comfy truck. Just because he didnt try to convince me to stay there, it was just a normal couch offer (if you know what Couchsurfing is). Good that they have two beds in trucks - one for driver and another for key board 😆😂. That was the case. He had the instrument with him during the trip but this night it needed to sleep on armature of truck!

I started cycling at 12.... right now im just 75 km away of start in Piotrkow Trybunalski but will continue to Radomsko which means another 45 km.

laupäev, 9. juuni 2018

Mountains are calling and horse is cured, so I go

Hello-hello! Do you remember when did i touched the rock last time? I dont! It was super long time ago. So the symptoms of Itchy Feet and Itchy Fingers sindrome are getting stronger every day. Good news is that i managed to defend my theses and there is nothin holding me back now. Mountains are not coming to me so i go to visit them.
Massimo (my iron horse) had some serious health problem after the trip from Tartu to Tallinn 😯. For curing him 6 hands, 4 brains and 15 hours of treatment were needed but it was worth it.
To conclude this long introduction I'll just say:
I start to move towards the Alps now (Tatras will be on the way as well 😉). First hitchhike to Poland (praying that somebody wants to pick up my horse as well), then start riding Massimo. Hop-allez!

As always you can bet how far i get for midnight by hitchhiking. I guess ill get between Marijampole and Lithuania-Poland border.