First report 15 October, Panevezys, Lituania
Har far svenskarna ursakta, men det ar ocksa ganska frustrerande att skriva utan de dar tre bokstaverna....
Kari drove me and the bike to Uppsala the 12th, where we had lunch at my brother Anders's place, with his family, brother Pelle and our mother and Kolbjorn and his girl friend Kajsa. At three Kolbjorn drove me to the port in Stockholm where the ferry departed. It left at 17.00 for Riga.
The trip went fine, I stayed on a four bed compartment with two Russians. The ferry was OK, and the only mishap was that I forgot my little bag with all my money, credit cards and passport in a bathroom, where I had changed clothes. When I realised that half an hour later I must admit that I cursed myself. Running down four decks just to find it where I left it- and all valuables left.
Riga old town.
We arrived Riga 11 Monday morning, and I took a quicker round in the old town. I also visited a bookshop to ask for the book the Prophet by Khalil Gilbrain. She shone up and told me to follow. She happily produced it - in Latvian! I bought with me to read Zen and the art of Motrocycle maintainence, by Robert Pirzig. I have read it many times before. It is still one of the best books I ever read, and he is thinking about the same things as I do (and yes he went crazy from it). The book is also about a trip with his son. Anyway, I thought I also should bring the Prophet, and I couldn.t find it at home.
Anyway, leaving Riga at one on the big highway heading south. Soon I managed to come on a somwhat smaller road, but still verty busy. Gradually I choose other routes and wasd finally on the kinds of roads I like. I had plan to do a 40-50 k the first day, but I couldn't find any hotel or hostel, and I really didn't fancy to stay in the tent the first day. Ended up cycling 88 km to find a place to sleep. And that corresponds to the total distance I made by bike for a whole year before. I think you can guess how my bottom was next morning..The place was nice, but cold, they haven's starting the "heating season" yet which means all rooms are damp and cold/. Got nice home made deet sausage and other local delicacies on the farm where I stayed.
Next morning was awful. I had such a pain both outside on the skin of my buttocks and in the muscles into the bone. I wasn't helped by a very strong headwind and generally lousy weather. Anyway I made another 33 km, passed the border to Lithuania and ended up in the town Birzai, which I visited some ten years ago. It was the centre of the early organic farming in Lithuania as the area is nature protected. Town has four breweries. Beer is so important that after the Swedes (YES, the Swedes) looted and burnt down the whole city, the brewery was re-erected before both the town hall and the fortress. Typically enough I went to three supermarkets and none of them stored three of the local beers and stocked only 2l bottles of the fourth branc. However, in a bar I could taste two of them. Good stuff. Stayedin a gues house in town. Was quite curious to see how I would feel the morning of the thrird day. The pain was still there, but after half an hour of biking I was feeling better. The weather was also nice to start with I am now in Panevezys, which is a major industrial town in the North of Lituania after 71 km of cycling. I decided to look for internet, which prooved to be a challenge. I was guided here to the cinema (!) by a 16 year old girl that was heading in this direction. But she was like the 20th person I asked (and I targeted people between 15 and 25). I will probably stay overnight here. The outskirts of Panevezys are like a horro movie, all ran down industries, but the centre is pleasant.
Farming on the Latvian side lookedf pretty dead, large tracts of unused land. On the Lithuanian side it looks a bit better. Much better than when I worked here in the late nineties / trying to help the organic sector to get going (and it has).
Forget English! In Riga it works well but for the rest almost nobody speaks English. Russian is much better and some speakl a bit German, but the level of English is almost on par with the Swedish.
It is cheap here. In one small caf'e I visited this morning they were selling beer for 50 Eurocent for 50 cl. There were ten guys drinking when I came in. You should have seen their faces, and even the waitress' face when I ordered a tea!. You eat a decent meal for 3-4 Euros and a simple meal for 2. A bigger problem is to find somewhere to eat!!!!!I biked 71 km this day on a fairly big raod and therewas simply no place to eat. A bit hard for Gunnar. There are plenty of small (and I mean really small) shops that sell the most essential stuff - which translates to cigarrettes, liquour and beer, but mostly you can at least get some crackers and a sausage there.
No photos here / the computer refuses to read my cameras files.
Kari drove me and the bike to Uppsala the 12th, where we had lunch at my brother Anders's place, with his family, brother Pelle and our mother and Kolbjorn and his girl friend Kajsa. At three Kolbjorn drove me to the port in Stockholm where the ferry departed. It left at 17.00 for Riga.
The trip went fine, I stayed on a four bed compartment with two Russians. The ferry was OK, and the only mishap was that I forgot my little bag with all my money, credit cards and passport in a bathroom, where I had changed clothes. When I realised that half an hour later I must admit that I cursed myself. Running down four decks just to find it where I left it- and all valuables left.
Riga old town.
We arrived Riga 11 Monday morning, and I took a quicker round in the old town. I also visited a bookshop to ask for the book the Prophet by Khalil Gilbrain. She shone up and told me to follow. She happily produced it - in Latvian! I bought with me to read Zen and the art of Motrocycle maintainence, by Robert Pirzig. I have read it many times before. It is still one of the best books I ever read, and he is thinking about the same things as I do (and yes he went crazy from it). The book is also about a trip with his son. Anyway, I thought I also should bring the Prophet, and I couldn.t find it at home.
Anyway, leaving Riga at one on the big highway heading south. Soon I managed to come on a somwhat smaller road, but still verty busy. Gradually I choose other routes and wasd finally on the kinds of roads I like. I had plan to do a 40-50 k the first day, but I couldn't find any hotel or hostel, and I really didn't fancy to stay in the tent the first day. Ended up cycling 88 km to find a place to sleep. And that corresponds to the total distance I made by bike for a whole year before. I think you can guess how my bottom was next morning..The place was nice, but cold, they haven's starting the "heating season" yet which means all rooms are damp and cold/. Got nice home made deet sausage and other local delicacies on the farm where I stayed.
Next morning was awful. I had such a pain both outside on the skin of my buttocks and in the muscles into the bone. I wasn't helped by a very strong headwind and generally lousy weather. Anyway I made another 33 km, passed the border to Lithuania and ended up in the town Birzai, which I visited some ten years ago. It was the centre of the early organic farming in Lithuania as the area is nature protected. Town has four breweries. Beer is so important that after the Swedes (YES, the Swedes) looted and burnt down the whole city, the brewery was re-erected before both the town hall and the fortress. Typically enough I went to three supermarkets and none of them stored three of the local beers and stocked only 2l bottles of the fourth branc. However, in a bar I could taste two of them. Good stuff. Stayedin a gues house in town. Was quite curious to see how I would feel the morning of the thrird day. The pain was still there, but after half an hour of biking I was feeling better. The weather was also nice to start with I am now in Panevezys, which is a major industrial town in the North of Lituania after 71 km of cycling. I decided to look for internet, which prooved to be a challenge. I was guided here to the cinema (!) by a 16 year old girl that was heading in this direction. But she was like the 20th person I asked (and I targeted people between 15 and 25). I will probably stay overnight here. The outskirts of Panevezys are like a horro movie, all ran down industries, but the centre is pleasant.
Farming on the Latvian side lookedf pretty dead, large tracts of unused land. On the Lithuanian side it looks a bit better. Much better than when I worked here in the late nineties / trying to help the organic sector to get going (and it has).
Forget English! In Riga it works well but for the rest almost nobody speaks English. Russian is much better and some speakl a bit German, but the level of English is almost on par with the Swedish.
It is cheap here. In one small caf'e I visited this morning they were selling beer for 50 Eurocent for 50 cl. There were ten guys drinking when I came in. You should have seen their faces, and even the waitress' face when I ordered a tea!. You eat a decent meal for 3-4 Euros and a simple meal for 2. A bigger problem is to find somewhere to eat!!!!!I biked 71 km this day on a fairly big raod and therewas simply no place to eat. A bit hard for Gunnar. There are plenty of small (and I mean really small) shops that sell the most essential stuff - which translates to cigarrettes, liquour and beer, but mostly you can at least get some crackers and a sausage there.
No photos here / the computer refuses to read my cameras files.
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Postat av: Lena
ojoj, att inte hitta mat måste vara jobbigt!
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