We got the vibes

Let me apologize now for the regression of these blog posts into mundanity. This past week hasn’t been the most exciting per-say, but it has been a good week! I left Warsaw on Monday morning under the cover of a dense layer of clouds in the sky above. The clouds were very welcome, the day before had temperatures reaching into the low-30s, making it far too hot to enjoy cycling! I made a pit-stop on the way out of the city to stock up on food for a planned attempt at cycling 100 miles. A younger, smarter me would have just split the 250km journey into two even days of ~120km each. It’s not that 120km is no longer a challenge, only that 160km is an even BIGGER challenge! I think it’s largely a mental thing, but I am extra conscious of how much food I eat when planning to ride extra far. The last thing I want is to bonk out sooner than planned because of something easily preventable like losing the energy to turn the pedals. Long ride sort, I finished the day at 164.50km after surviving a brief, but intense thundershower at the 140km mark. I found a lovely spot for camping just off the road on the side of a cut block. I was fortunate to have some relatively flat terrain to make the journey a little easier (and quicker) than my previous century ride in Turkey in January. Tuesday I rode the remainder of the way to Korsze where a man named Damian was willing to open up his apartment to me for two nights on my way to Kaliningrad. He was/is an incredibly generous and hospitable host! Even though he grew up in Korsze, and went to school in the nearby town, Ketryzn, had never visited the Wolfsshanz site. The bunker complex is ~30km from Korsze, and 10 from Ketrzyn. So, Damian joined me on my Wednesday excursion out to the “Wolf’s Lair.” It was really nice to have a chance to chat with him about his bicycle trip from Poland to Senegal, and about his backpacking trip through South America while cycling to and from the site. On Thursday I made the trip from Korsze to Kaliningrad. One thing that I will not miss about cycling in Poland is how often the drivers come up behind you only to slam on the brakes and wait for a time when there is more space to pass. Honestly, I would rather have someone pass me closely, than have them risk getting rear-ended, and chancing me getting hit in the process. I had the most trouble at the border on this trip, than I’ve had on any other crossing on this trip. On the Polish side the guards noticed that one of my stamps isn’t entirely legible. They got hung up on a HR stamp (Croatia) that was missing a defined “H,” and were worried that it might be a “G,” even though I haven’t been in GReece since December. It’s funny they made such a big deal about it, because the stamp would have only put me in Schengen one day prior to my real entry on May 16. The stamp could prove to create more problems down the line, as the exit stamp from Croatia is the 15th of May, even though it should read the 16th. I did cross first thing in the morning - they must not have changed the date right away. Then I got to the Russian border. I handed my passport and FanID to the guards in the booth, but they were unconvinced that the photos in both documents were in fact me. They asked me at least three times to bend down to the level of the booth to show my face as they compared the pictures with the documents. While this occurred, the women in the booth enlisted the help of a guard with a more firm grasp on English to ask me questions. Why I wanted to enter Russia, where I would be staying, how long I would stay, where I would go after, and my age. They did let me through - I think the whole process took ~45 minutes. This exchange has made me a little nervous about trying to visit St Petersburg in the coming weeks when my answers may not be as definitive. Cycling in Russia is similar to cycling in Bulgaria. I did stay mostly on smaller roads (and only clocked 40km in the country). I had one road run out entirely and devolve into a sandy dirt track that ran alongside a gravel/aggregate excavation area. I noticed that my rear tire has a crack in the tread that exposes part of the liner on the tire’s exterior - it survived this trip without incident, but I’m on the lookout for a replacement before any catastrophe strikes. FIFA/Kaliningrad have set up a large fan zone in the center of the city with a big screen to watch all the matches with a few thousand of your newest friends! I’ve watched parts of several games at the fan zone - it’s just a really good atmosphere to be in! The atmosphere is not quite enough to make the Budweiser remotely palatable. I watched the better part of two games yesterday with a guy from Toronto that I met at my hostel. This alone has been equally as entertaining as the matches on the screen. Pierre’s familial background is in Ghana, yet a large number of Russians just see him and assume that he is Nigerian. While standing in the crowd and watching the matches there are often people that come up and ask him to take a photo with them. I almost feel a little left out because no one wants to take photos with the other Canadian. Today is the day of the big game! I’m writing this at a cafe before I make my way down to the FanZone for the France-Australia match. I’ll probably check out the Iceland-Argentina match there as well! I have to wait until 9pm Kaliningrad time for the kickoff of Croatia-Nigeria - it’ll be a late night, but that’s what coffee is for, right?