pics #537 - #585

Sunday February 20th - White Rhythmic Mirror
After breakfast I meet with Lucy again for pictures with the fully loaded bicycle and then leaves in the direction of Vrátna valley, this one was adviced by Braňo from Bratislava. The temperature is getting lower as the altitude rises. The peaks surrounding the valley are in hidden in the fog, the best scenery was the entrance of this valley, a narrow canyon, where a torrent flows through snow bridges. It is a dead-end valley, so I go back and down the road, but this is not affecting the temperature in anyway, and I have to climb again.

           Vrátna Valley

I am decided to camp anyway, to test my resistance and my gear against the cold. I am forced to stop on a frozen road in the end of a village. While I am carrying my bag upwards to the forrest, an old man calls me and we start to talk without understanding each other whatsoever. He calls his son who talks German, and his daughter-in-law is an English teacher, so we go on with a translator on the phone. I explain that I am not lost, that I am not wanting to sleep in a hotel, that only a camping spot is fine, which I can imagine being unusual by -7°C. In the end I arrive in their family, meeting the happy paretns of two youngs boys. After a shower diner is ready and with stank we talk of many interseting subjects. Then I go to sleep in the guest room, it is certainly more comfortable than under the tent.

Monday Feburay 21st - Blue Resonant Storm
After my (late) morning yoga practice Stanka offers me a nice breakfast of ham, cheese and jam. We go on our talk of yesterday, it feels like I am meeting an old friend: we share about yoga, ReiKi, angels, coincidences, personal development ... While keeping an eye on her youngest son, she tells me about the background of this region, quite poor because of unfertile soils, scarcely populated, and firmly rooted in the catholic beliefs. After some pictures with Jan Soból, the grand father, my savior of yesterday, I leave an oasis of hospitality under a beautiful sun, and with sandwiches for a day.
A stop at the peculiar church of Radôstka, and another one at the astronomical clock in Stara Bystricá, where I wait for the animation at the full hour.

           Radôstka

A head wind is blowing and I am slow even in the falt, so when the climb start after Nova Bystricá I have no inertia. I must stop on the side of the road to repair the front wheel, and take the occasion to change the brake pads as well. And the ascension goes on under a radiant sun, very slow, regular, unending.

           Higher,colder, slower

It was -7°C at 400m high, it reaches -12°C for a new 'summit' of my trip at 940m, and I also beat my record of a slowest average daily speed, Lance Armstrong rigthfully stopped competition, afraid of me! Temperature does not move while I go down and I have no wish for camping. I am indicated hotel where they pretend having no free room - with 30 keys at least on the panel-. It's 35€ for a night. I argue that I do not need their "free breakfast", because I have my own food and better eat it to reduce the weight on the bike, and besides I am on low budget. The price decreases of 10€! I should have kept on bargaining, because I do not need their towel, neither their soap, their bedding nor heating in the room... well it will be next time. I cook with my stove in the shower, sew my jacket, organises my bags to better balance the weight. Looking back to the last days I find it incredible to pay money for not having any human contact.

Tuesday February 22nd - Yellow Galactic Sun
It is again a nice sun and a cold -7°C in the morning. And again repairing the bike in the cold, the speed-hub cable this time. Compared to the South-West part of Slovakia, villages seem better maintained,/or is the sun giving me a different look?

           Zákamenné

The climb toward the border with Poland is easy and I am expecting to finally have a great downhill. In fact, it is 10% but on a forzen road, so I am off the bike walking next to it, while trucks go very slowly down. When back on saddle I feel th emany holes in the roads, while snow is balling.
           Visła river near Rajcza

Motivated to avoid one extra day on the cold road, I am heading North. Who said Poland was flat? Down in the plain, it is hilly enough to make me constantly change speed. I have been pushing so much that my right knee is hurting now. Night falls while I enter Bielsko-Biała, looking for a youth hostel. Frozen, I knock at a door and a young woman answers me with enthousiasm in English. Kasia is looking for the adress of the youth hostel and soon my bike is loaded in her father's car who drives me there. 50 złoty for a night is a correct price -12€- and I can use the kitchen.

Wednesday February 23rd - Red Solar Dragon
I have a tour in the snowy streets to sightsee before stopping at Kasia who invited me to pass by before I hit the road to Oświęcim. Her mother serves me lunch, and prepares thea in my thermos, while Kasia gives me plenty of indications on which road to take, what to see, hoping that I will be fine, me mad cyclist on the cold bumpy polish roads, not speaking a word of Polish. I ask for the basic to pronounce the language, because there are many special letters, like Ł pronounced like W in 'what' or C, Ć et CZ which are different variants of "TCH", Z are often used as accents, ... so it is possible to say "Brzeczsze".

           Bielsko-Biała

It is snowing while I cross calm villages and I reach my destination which is Oświęcim. You certainly heard about it by its name given by the German in WW II: Auschwitz. I actually arrive by the camps, Auschwitz II- Birkenau, extermination camp, not far form the train station and railways that transported thousands of condamned prisonners, Polish, Russian soldiers, Gypsies, Jews. And Auschwitz I - forced labour camp, where is a museum. The indications outside do not motivate me to check in details how human horror is. At the same time, Khadafi, friend of President Sarkozy and Berlsuconi, is bombing Libyian people. At the train station I wait for Marta and her husband, She speaks an excellent french!

           On the way to Brzeszcze

          Auschwitz II - Birkenau

Thursday February 24th - White Planetary Wind
I take a walk in the center of Oświęcim, with a silesian university, chapel and church, a nice market square, a classic castle overlooking the Wisła river. A nice town.

           Oświęcim: Silesian university, chapel and church

          Oświęcim: Market square

Friday February 25th - Blue Spectral Night
Staying at the appartment, practicing yoga, cooking a cake... It is a surprise for Marta and her husband when they come back home. I am already planning on the title of my book: "How I went to India for enlightenement and came back as a pastry chef.". For diner I taste my first Pierogi ever, delicious. Pierogi are dampling, a speciality of Poland, luckily those ones are home-made. In the evening, we meet with Marta's sister and her son Oskar, who is eahger to talk with me in English. With the help of a pair of English manuals, it is good fun.

           Home-made pierogi

          Self-made ananas cake