Some much needed rest before the craziness starts

Sorry for the lack of updates, really it just came down to the fact that we were all having too much fun in Budapest. The 3 days of not riding was very much needed as it helped heal some of the riding wounds. Assuming wounds can heal if you don’t really sleep. Budapest is a lively town that doesn’t really like to sleep and we had very few problems fitting right in. We are all beginning to master the mid afternoon nap. It seems that if you get 6(ish) hours of sleep a night and get a good hour in the afternoon you will be more than ready to face the rest of the day. We of course were not aided in this cause by the fact that the place we were staying had a huge courtyard party every single night that lasted until 4am.

Our Budapest experience was hardly confined to the evening hours. Most of us took the days off to actually play tourist in the city. We hit up various museums and churches around the city. My favorite attraction by far was the underground military hospital. A large tunnel system was converted into an underground hospital / nuclear bunker and has just recently been opened up to the public. Almost all of the equipment including the medical supplies and tools are original and date back to the 1960s. It didn’t hurt that the average temperature of the bunker was 14C and also provided a break from the heat.

Another part of the tour I don’t speak about nearly enough is our external and internal engagements. In Budapest we met with the local chapter of the Young Greens as well as members of Green Bikes. Most of the Green Bikers had just finished a tour of their own so it was great to swap stories. The Green Bikes tour is also pretty unique as they do a workshop in the towns they go through so they have an extremely interesting take on external engagements. Who knows, you may even see a Global Agents for Change / Green Bikes world tour coming soon!

After three days it was time to get back on the road again, and this time we were met by our host in Solt in Budapest and he and a friend rode with us all of the way to the soccer field we were staying at. It was also the first time all 20 of us attempted to ride together as a group. Needless to say things took a long time and I think our host may now be selling his bike but at the end of the day all was forgiven and forgotten as we ate an amazing egg goulash and chatted the night away.

That brings us up to today and the town of Mohacs which is our last night in Hungary. We didn’t actually have accommodation here so we sent a fast pod ahead to try and sort it out before the rest arrived. As has been the experience thus far with our trip we rolled into town, found the town hall and put on our best Canadian accents and polite smiles. Within about 10 minutes we had located a place to sleep that was not only on the Danube but also had toilets and running water. It really is a testament to the kindness of everyone that we have met so far that this trip continues to be possible. The amount of times daily that we get lost and need help with directions when most of us can only speak English is hard to put a number on. It really does give you hope for this global community that we live in.

Up next we have a quick stop in Croatia tomorrow and then we will be heading out to Serbia for four days. Serbia is going to be particularly interesting as we can’t bring our car there as no one would insure it. This is simply yet another challenge we are going to have to face but none of us are overly worried. Really it is just the state of being that we have been living in for the last few weeks. When the going gets tough the agents get going. But really, it’s been a lovely summer breeze so far.

Video Highlights from Week 3 and 4

A full blog will happen soon, for now enjoy the video!

Food, Wine, and Much Merriment

We are being spoiled far too much here. Our last two dinners have been with incredible hosts in Vienna and Bratislava and it may be the first time on the trip that everyone has been stuffed. In Vienna we were staying in a church and connected with the Green Party who not only arranged a great dinner but also arranged photo sessions, radio interviews and a spot on at least two tv news stations. People in North America may not know who we are but it almost feels like we are becoming rock stars in Europe.

The town of Vienna itself was lovely and wandering the streets was probably my favorite part. All of the old builds were quite awesome and blasting around the city with the bike paths was a breeze. I was also chatting with one of our hosts and he informed me that Vienna has 170 theatres for a city of about 2 million people. Clearly there is a major focus on the arts there so I think another trip back is a must.

Vienna will also go down as a highlight of the trip I’m sure due to the storm that hit us as we were wandering the city at night. We were sitting at a fountain watching a lighting storm roll towards the city for about an hour when all of a sudden the thunder clapped and the wind started. Suddenly the friendly fountain we were sitting beside turned into a wall of water coming straight at us. Not to be outdone, the rain also started and quickly changed direction to sideways. Tree branches started to fall and we ran for shelter by a bank. Thankfully the security guard took pity on us and allowed us to watch the worst of the storm from the inside. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a storm come up so fast in my life. We heard the next day that 8 people had died across Europe as a result of it. Luckily for us we were staying inside that night--I don’t think any of our tents would have survived the night.

The next day the only reminders of the storm were the downed branches and trees. It was bright, hot, and sunny again, and we set off for Bratislava. We accidentally wound up forming a pod of 8, all of whom happened to be guys, and rocketed off the 75km to town. I must admit after spending two days in Vienna I didn’t find Bratislava nearly as impressive but it wasn’t without its charm. Anything the city itself lacked in appeal was more than made up for by the generosity of our hosts however. We were then met by a cyclist who rode us out the extra 25km to our host’s house for the night. Upon arriving we were met by balloons, food, wine, song and smiles and I’m fairly certain most people want to bring them along for the rest of our trip.

The only slight downside was it rained very heavily last night and my tent turned into a series of rivers and streams. Not wanting to upset the natural order of the new ecosystem being created I fled and wound up sleeping out under the picnic table. It actually wasn't that bad though, I felt much closer to all of the slugs that chose to co-habituate next to me.

It is with heavy hearts that we leave Slovakia, but new adventures now await in Hungary and we must move on.

Back on track

The last few days have just flown by. It’s amazing how fast we went from barely knowing each other into our tight knit family unit. I have caught a little flack from some people for making it seem like we are having too much fun. Well, I’m sorry, but we really are. When it comes down to it we are on this wild and crazy adventure that is totally different each day and there isn’t a group of people I’d rather be doing it with. Sure we have tough days and rough patches but whenever anything gets bad we just have to think, is there anywhere else we would rather be right now? The answer is almost always no.

I also feel like most of the group has reached a point where the mileage we are doing each day doesn’t really matter. This has been a great break through as it means we can focus more on the internal conversations. For example my pod going into Linz did 155km and I wasn’t actually that tired afterwards. We also have really started to try and work on our internal program to get into the various interests that everyone has.

On the host note, they’ve stayed as amazing as ever. We’ve slept at international artist communes, sustainable farms, kindergartens, and all sorts of fields, and each has had something totally unexpected about it. I find it very amusing how easily everyone in the group reverts into a seven year old whenever we get the chance. Staying in a kindergarten means playing with as many toys as possible every time. While this is a very amusing character trait that we all share I think it also says something about the way we all think about the world. We are all very in touch with our inner children. I think this is great as children always seem to have the best ideas. Whenever you tell them that they can’t do something their answer is always simply ‘why not?’ I feel like a little more of this would go a long way to solving many of the world’s problems.

We are also now out of the Czech Republic and into Austria. I think for many people the Czech Republic has been their favorite place so far. We may just always see where we are going as better than the last place but there did seem to be something special about the Czech Republic.

Riding into Linz yesterday was also a crazy experience as we went from 700m to sea level in 10km of downhill. I just want to say that I wouldn’t want to be riding this trip the other way around. Although we have had some crazy headwinds, so having them at our backs would be nice.

That’s about all I have for now. We are now in Vienna and saying goodbye to our documentary crew today so it is a bit of a sad day. It is almost hard to believe everything I keep writing about has actually happened as half the trip seems like a dream at this point.

The only real downside so far has been that it has been raining crazy hard and overall been very cool. We actually saw our breath as we were riding the other morning. It was smoking hot today though so things are looking warm and sunny again. Maybe our stuff will finally get a chance to dry.

Week 2 Video Highlights

A quick video update with some highlights from the last week or so.

Hello again world: recollections of repeated epic fails

Today I will be broadcasting from the tempestuous city of Prague in the Czech Republic, and it has been a crazy last few days. I almost don’t know where to begin so I’ll jump back to the start and work my way forward.

The craziness all started on our ride into Zahna which is just east of Wittenberg in Germany. There seemed to be some sort of force out to get as that day as we had several flat tires, a broken back rack, a broken front rack, a totaled biked, and a slightly concussed rider. I wasn’t riding with the group that had the accident, but from what I was told there was an ill-placed pole right in the middle of a bike path that was struck at 25km/hr by David. He promptly flew over his handlebars and Sabrina who was following behind him then crashed into his trailer and got a bit of a knock to the head as she fell.

David’s bike was totaled and had to be carried out of forest, and Sabrina received a minor concussion. Luckily they flagged down some passing Germans and got a hold of the documentary crew to come pick them up. It was a pretty hectic day for most of the group (especially for Miriam and Riel who had to drive for 5 hours to rescue everyone) but our hosts managed to lift our sprits right back up with the wonderful dinner that they had prepared for us. Zahna hadn’t originally been a town we were planning to visit, but they were the closet accommodation we could find to Wittenberg. I am so pleased we did stay there though because everyone there was incredibly nice to us. They had prepared a wonderful food spread for dinner, bought us wine especially from Istanbul, and gave as a wonderful tour of their local church which was over 1000 years old. Upon hearing about our event filled day the mayor even insisted a bike shop open up on the weekend and give us a special discount on repairs. Unfortunately David couldn’t find a bike that suited him there so he had to head off to Berlin to purchase one, but I don’t think he was overly heartbroken as it was covered by insurance.

I should also say that both Sabrina and David are doing fine now.

The next few days went much more smoothly although we still had a bunch of flat tires, broken spokes and racks. We also accidentally wound up sleeping next to a Rave in Riesa. Dresden was also a great city with another amazing host who gave an excellent tour of the city. Dresden has the distinction of having every last stone bombed by the Allies in the Second World War in retaliation for the

German’s bombing London. It was a strange walking around the downtown core and seeing all of these restored old buildings that were actually quite new. Their fronts had been rebuilt but behind a foot or two of stone was concrete. In many ways it felt a bit like a theme park but I think most people really enjoyed the city.

Looking back on Germany I was surprised by how much I loved it. I’m not sure what I was expecting but it was a wonderful country with great people. I enjoyed it far more than the Netherlands which I though I would love.

Sadly however we had to leave Germany and head into the Czech Republic and Uste nad Labem. We did have a lovely parting gift though as the bike trail wrapped along the river and I think for most people it was one of their most scenic days on the tour so far. I had a slightly different day from most of the group however, as myself and 3 others decided to go over the mountains instead of around them as it was 30km shorter. Up until this point on the trip I feel like I hadn’t really worked my body all that hard but the mountains leaving

Germany were a solid climb. I’m guessing we did at least an hour and a half of climbing. The views from the top were spectacular as were the downhill stretches so I think it was worth it. It also got us into the town by 11am and we didn’t have any accommodation prearranged so that certainly helped. It actually wasn’t that hard to find a place to stay though, in fact we found two. One was a farm just outside of the city and another was at a pool that was a little closer to Prague. Shawn and Charles found it by heading into town hall and speaking with the mayor. He then got on the phone and found us a place in no time.

Then there was Prague. Today is a day of rest (thankfully) but yesterday was probably the toughest yet on the trip for me. It didn’t help that I was still sore from climbing mountains from the day before but the trip to Prague was slated to be our biggest mileage total yet, 130km, and we didn’t have accommodation for either of the two days we were going to stay. What made the day so difficult was the bike trails. We crossed rivers, had sand, mud, cobble stone and pretty much anything else that you wouldn’t ever want to ride a fully loaded touring bike through. I actually enjoyed a good deal of it as it reminded me of being on my mountain bike but doing it all day was exhausting. There was also one stretch of path that was about 6 inches wide (our panniers make our bikes much larger than that) and on the right side was a 3m-drop right into the river. Some people walked their bikes through it but my pod managed to ride it out. We were then greeted with another 5km of cobblestone and pretty worn out by the time we hit the city at 4pm. In many ways we were the lucky ones though. We happened to run into the car on our way which told us we had a place to sleep so we just had to chill out at the meeting point until the next pod showed up.

Unfortunately it was another 3 hours before a group came in and the last group didn’t make it to where we were staying until around midnight. Still, we had a place to stay and a day off to sleep in so things seemed to be looking up. That was until a 3-hour thunderstorm rolled through at 8am and drenched absolutely everything. Most people have pretty good tents, but 3 hours of heavy downpour was just too much to handle and most started to leak. At least it is sunny now though so things are starting to dry out again.

So that’s everything that has been going on for the last few days. We have another big ride day tomorrow (125km) and then a couple short ones so that should help rest some weary bodies. Overall though spirits are still very high and most people have been able to laugh at our various mishaps.

The Reality Check

I am currently sitting in my tent in Staßfurt, Germany, after riding another 100km day and I have to say this last day was my favorite day of the tour. I had fun start to finish riding today and my body felt great despite putting it through all the the rigors of the ‘pod rocketship’ yesterday.

An interesting thing occurred today, we crossed into Eastern Germany. Now to me this means very little, as I was very little when the Berlin wall came down so I didn’t even think there would be a difference, we are after all in the country. The difference however very much exists. The buildings are different, more humble, and most have had some renovations done to them in the last 20 years. The age demographic is different as well, apparently a lot of the youth have left for the west and it has left a strange void in the population.

Today when we arrived in the town we were asked to speak at a town meeting of sorts on our cause and the organization. About 12 of us and 12 Germans attempted to communicate through broken English and German as we both tried to teach each other about our world views. Once again I was struck by just how kind and caring everyone was and how they too were very concerned about the state of the world. Continually running into motivated people really does keep us going through some of the tough stretches.

I was also struck by the fact that the unemployment rate here is about 20% and that many don’t have enough money for electricity or extra water. It makes me appreciate our hosts and their generosity even more and I feel like that feeling will only continue to grow throughout the trip. This experience really has left me a bit shocked though because there is a very real possibility that some of the money we have raised for microcredit could be used by people right here. I understand that there are poor people back home that could use it as well but for some reason because it is Germany in my mind I just wasn’t expecting it. I never expected to be experiencing the anthropological ‘other’ syndrome here. It makes me feel very spoiled getting to ride through their country on a new bike with 20 other new friends for two months.

In many ways this experience makes me think that the honeymoon period of our trip is over. Our bodies finally seem to be getting used to the grind we are putting them through and now it is time to start getting around to some of our lofty goals that we started this trip with. We needed time to goof around and learn about each other as a team but now it is time to get back down to the task at had. I am certainly not saying we aren’t still going to have fun, but I feel like our fun will have greater social implications now. Luckily I feel like others are picking up on the same vibe as well as we had a vibrant 4 hour discussion on the death of protests and green-washing. Many of us were so absorbed in the conversation that we actually had to be told twice that dinner was ready!

So our first 8 days were fun, but now it’s time for some serious fun.

The physics just don't feel right

I swear the gravity works differently in Germany. There have been large stretches of road that appear to be downhill and yet we almost seem to be moving backwards. Conversely there have been stretches that seem to be up hill and we've gotten over 40km/hr so it's clear the universe doesn't hate us yet. Actually that should be very clear from the fact we all keep managing to find our end destinations and the fact there haven't been any major injuries.

For those keeping track at home I am currently writing this from the city of Goslar in Germany. Today's ride was supposed to be our first 100km day and as per usual our mapping was off by at least 10-20km. My pod, pod rocket ship, only had to do 120km and we arrived here in about 6 hours. As I am currently writing this at 6pm we haven't seen another pod yet and it's been 3 hours.

Once again I have nothing but amazing things to say about the hosts we have had. They really are making our trip so much more special and incredible. Last night we got to head down to the fire hall in Hoxter and try on fire gear and play around on the trucks. I think it is safe to say that no one in our group has any trouble accessing their inner child!

We also had a wonderful experience in Gutersloh the night before. We were staying with a family who had what can best be described as an amazingly cool campground. It backed onto a river, had beach volleyball courts, and even a band playing when we all rolled in. Keeping with one of our values of inclusivity we very quickly managed to coax some somewhat shy Germans off their blankets and up to their feet to make a rocking dance party. We also learned the German version of the game 31 which they call Kanuck. I thought it was rather appropriate as it was Canada Day that the Canadians won, so score one for our country.

Of course no story is all rainbows and candy and we are no exception. The last couple days have been hard on some of our group with riders arriving quite late into the evening. Luckily those of us that have been there for longer welcome them with lots of hugs, smiles, and food and we've been able to cheer everyone up in seconds.

I also had a rather unfortunate experience the other night. I really have no one to blame but myself but I was running on 2 hours of sleep so I didn't properly put up the fly on my tent. Mother Nature then took it upon herself to flood my tent at 3am and I had to do some very quick thinking to save my stuff from getting totally soaked. The net result was that I wound up sleeping the rest of the night with my rain pants on inside of my sleeping bag and wearing a hoody for upper body warmth. It clearly wasn't the ideal situation but it was totally my fault.

We have another 100(ish) km to ride tomorrow so it will likely be an another attempted early night and 6:30am wakeup call. After that we get a day off though so our bodies can rest up for the rest of Germany.

Hello from Germany

The last few days have been a bit of a blur as most of them have involved 4-6 hours of sleep and 70-110km of riding. Yes, we have finally hit our first couple of big days. The first of the two big days I was part of pod “speed racer” and we literally rocketed off the mileage. Before lunch – which was about the 60km marker for us –we were averaging around 28km an hour. After lunch we took it a little easier and dropped down to 25km/hr. The net result was that we arrived at our destination around 3:45pm, and had time to go for a swim and a waterslide, get interviewed by a local TV crew, and play soccer against (and beat) some 16 year olds. All before the next group arrived at around 5pm.

Yesterday was a slightly different story however, as I was in pod “scenic route”, and while most people did 70km we did 110km. We did get to see some great little towns and ride right next to a bunch of giant windmills which was nice, but being a little lost, did take its toll mentally for a while. At one point we arrived at a roundabout to discover the towns from two of the exit routes we had already visited and they were only 5-10km away and we had been riding for 2 hours. We also learned that the bike paths tend to like to meander along the hills and are nowhere near the most direct route. They also sometimes like to turn into dirt roads and bisect farmers' fields. All and all though we got to our destination and even though we were drenched by a thunderstorm, we had loads of fun and memories from our excursion.

I can’t say enough good things about all of the people and hosts we have encountered so far. They have far surpassed anything we could have asked for in their kindness and humor and we would not be in as nearly as good of spirits without them. Our hosts have opened up their homes, army barracks, organic farms, and camps, given us free food, beer, and shared stories and conversations that have made our trip so much more special and it is still only days old. The people we have met while riding have been just as helpful and kind. On several occasions they have given us maps they happen to have, or even gone out of their way to escort us to streets to make sure we arrive safely. I think it is very safe to say we would not all be here without them. All of this positive energy really does make the difference when you have a difficult day or have to ride 15km uphill into a head wind.

Today we get our first day off on the trip and I think everyone is excited to get to play tourist in Munster for a change. It will also be a nice rest for our bodies and a chance to heal some of the cuts and bruises that are around.