Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Day 25 - They weren’t donuts, but they were alright….

We left Lille on Saturday for Brussels. By all accounts the road would be nice, scenic, pleasant, and FLAT. Guess which one wasn’t true? Maybe we let all the promises of reaching Brussels go to our heads a little too much or maybe we are just creatures of habit and our habit happens to be procrastination, either way we left Lille rather late - 2:30 in the afternoon to be precise. We started off making good time and made it to Tournai, where we had to pass through the city center, at about 4:00. Unfortunately their happened to be an impressively decrepit cathedral and a parade so we quickly became thoroughly distracted. Around 5:00 or more likely 5:30 we decided that we ought to leave town since Brussels was still quite a ways east. In fact much further east than we assumed. After leaving Tournai, we immediately discovered which description of the road to Brussels was not true; it was not flat. The first hill was over a mile long and included a section that was marked on the map that designates a grade greater than 6%. There were four more marked ascents along the way and the road was not ideal for climbing. It was often very bumpy causing us to have to make even more of an effort in order to ascend each hill. Alyssa, with here new pannier, was now forced to join me on the ascents and no longer got to wait for me at the top as I crawled up the hill. We struggled on until the odometer read 725 which means that by google map’s estimation we only had five miles to go. I thought that this was a pretty decent estimation, but a missed turn and the windiness of the roads through towns actually added quite a bit of extra miles between Brussels and us. The trip was supposed to be 55 miles, but at 65 miles into the day, we were a good way out from Brussels on our map, and it was already a pretty dimly lit 9:45. We were actually in Gooik which turned out to be about 15 miles outside of Brussels; however, it was too dark to continue safely. We decided that we could go no further. Having rode most of the day in Belgium already, we noticed a few things about the landscape: it was much greener; much less agriculture was taking place; and most importantly for our current situation, it was much more densely populated. In France, the countryside was often times entirely un-inhabited; there were only fields and forests which was great for finding a camp site. Belgium had many more towns, much closer together, and the often just blended into one another. We were pretty sure that there was not going to be any isolated forests for camping especially with our proximity to Brussels. After scouting the area for some indicator of a hotel, I headed to a bar to ask for help. On the way over, an older man turned the corner who I asked if he spoke any English. He happened to speak a little which turned out to be more than enough to tell me that there was a hotel that was very nice, which I instantly equated with expensive, and I asked for a cheaper option or a place to camp. He asked if I had a tent and then offered a large grassy area right next to the grocery store that he worked in front of which we happened to be standing! I said that we would take it, I ran to tell a tired Alyssa the good news, and he showed us where he was talking about. He asked if we needed food or water, and after we assured him that we were fine, he insisted that we take some pastries. They were slightly flaky, filled with crème, topped with thick dark chocolate, and were pretty delicious. We set up our tent behind a small row of bushes, devoured the extra pizza from the night before and the pastries, and then watched sixteen or so UFOs ascend from the trees off in the distance, hover for a few minutes, and slowly fade into the clouds. Alyssa later saw some stars moving about in an odd manner, and then we snuggled into the tent to escape the cold and quickly fell asleep.

Day 24 - Un Pannier!

Today was another day of recovery for us. We were tired and didn’t feel like doing much. Our hosts were very understanding and allowed us to stay in their house, work on the bikes, and eat a bunch of food. Biking makes me insatiably hungry. Rest days usually involve me eating tons and tons of food. However, the trailer is becoming much “lighter” and easier for me to pull. It’s still slow going on some hills, but they don’t wear me out at all like they did toward the start of the trip. One of our hosts, Gilliam (Sorry if I spell this wrong; please feel free to tell me if I do.), has done many cycling trips around Europe, has an extensive collection of bikes and parts, much of which he has found in a similar manner to tree lawn picking, and offered to let us have a rack to put on Alyssa’s bike. Not only that he also gave us his old set of panniers which was actually only one pannier since the other on was turned into a campfire by someone when the bike was locked on the street overnight. It was incredibly nice of him to let us have them, and despite many offers of some form of compensation which were continuously refused by him, we lamely, despite it being good and French, left him and his housemates some beer as at least some form of payment for being such great hosts. Later on in the evening Alyssa and I made pizza with the ingredients that we bought earlier that day. We over estimated how much cheese, flour, and veggies we would need so two pizzas turned into four quite to the amusement of our hosts. There WAS a lot of pizza! After the pizza and some conversation, we all went to bed since everyone had to be up early-ish to leave the next morning.

Day 23 Finally arriving in Lille France

Today we made our way to Lille. It was 45 miles there and most of the time it was overcast. Actually I’m surprised it didn’t rain on the way there because the wind was picking up quite a bit and it was sprinkling a little also. On the way to Lille we ran into a couple of pissed off people. For some reason this crazy woman in a car rode past both of us honking and waving her hands at us. She had her turn signal on like she had wanted to get onto the highway but then didn’t because we were in the way. It was on a circle but she didn’t even go back around on the circle to try to get on again. Fucking crazy. That’s what breaks are for; slow the hell down. The second person was pissed at David because he was in front of a bus and was going slow because of the trailer so he honked also and yelled something in French. The two crazy people both were in the same town so I’m not sure why there were more crazy people in this one area. Speaking of riding in the road and bike trails… bike trails suck. If a city wants bikers to actually use the bike trails to get bikers out of the street, the city should maintain the bike trails just as it would a road for cars. I would rather ride in the street and hold up traffic than ride over all kinds of broken glass, avoid huge potholes, and have to go over curbs every couple blocks. Dumb dumb dumb and fucking ridiculous. Theres no point. Anyway we had an easy entry into Lille and found our next house to stay in rather quickly. Our host, who we met on couch surfing, is Charlotte.

Charlotte and her house-mates that we met - Gilliam and Marianne - were all very nice. We were starving and had been carrying around the ingredients to make some pasta with spaghetti sauce so they let us use their kitchen to cook it. We all ate together and were invited to go have a beer with them and their friend across town. We rode to a place where there were four long dirt courts where they played the “old man’s game” called petanque. It turned out to be a lot like bocci ball. We played a few games and ended up doing very well. I believe that together, Alyssa and I, would have been a petanque-ing juggernaut! Maybe I’ll trade bike polo for petanque so that I don’t have to face not being the best at something when I return….

Day 22- My first poop in the woods OR David’s day of being a shit

The morning started out a little rough. David woke up with something in his eye and/or it just being sore and irritated in general. Eventually we packed up all of our crap and left our campsite in the woods. It was definitely time to leave the woods when I discovered a tick just dropped out of nowhere onto my arm. When we had all of out stuff out on the trail we took off the main road to get to our campsite we ate and packed up the trailer. We checked for ticks and of course we found three more on me. David found one on my sock and another one that I cant remember where it was. I also found one on my stomach. Gross. It was time to leave, but I needed to poop. David gave me helpful tips, like leaning against a nice tree, and the deed was done! Too bad David didn’t take his own advice and poop that morning because he was definitely a shit the rest of the day, probably because he didn’t have a nice poop in the woods!

Today couldn’t have been any fucking hotter for biking, probably the hottest day yet! David had an extremely difficult time with the trailer and biking in general. We tried to choose roads that didn’t have marked hills on the map but there were a lot of hills on the roads we were on anyway. With all of that came a lot of cursing and attitude from David. At the end of the day it was just frustrating to deal with the hills, and it was taking forever to get anywhere. I was trying really hard to be supportive and helpful all day but at some point I just had to answer David’s attitude and tantrums with my own attitude because it was getting ridiculous. Throwing bags answering my questions with sass was getting old and annoying. We had wanted to go about 80 miles to Arras France that day but we had to just find a hotel in one of the cities on the way there because we were both tired. Thank god we found hotels earlier that day in some of the cities along the way. We stopped in Baupume France and got a room at the Hotel le Gourmet. The room was actually really nice and there was a shower and toilet in the room for only 38€. We really needed a break, especially from David’s attitude, and a shower. After we got the room we found a grocery store which was closing, and David was the last person they let in. I had to stay outside because we forgot to bring a lock for the bikes, and my only request was some cold juice. David redeemed himself by apologizing several times for being such a shit the entire day and buying lots of treats for us to eat. I got my juice and we also had ice cream, champagne, red cabbage salad, and a couple other yummy things.

At the end of the day we ended at going 60 miles.

A Change of Perspective:
Its true. I was bitching the whole day. I was very uncomfortable, tired, sore, and the hills kept coming. The crest of each hill, instead of showing a descent, almost always leveled out into another climb. There were ascents that lasted throughout the lengths of town; several were over a mile long of solid ascent. My legs, for the first time this trip, were burning nearly all day which was my largest cause of aggravation. They had not even been that exhausted after the ride to Paris from Ameins which was over 100 miles, and today they wouldn’t take us even to Arras. But to say that I was a shit pretty much sums it up. I was not trying to be annoying but its hard to travel with someone, be in such a terrible mood, and not have it affect them. I did apologize many times, but was unable to transform back to a civil human again until we arrived in Baupume. The icecream, two juices, cheap champagne - .99€ only! - and some good beer. I think Alyssa forgave me and pretty quickly too, but if she tells you differently in private, let me know so I can buy more ice cream or something.

Day 21- I finally fell off my bike!

Well we finally left Meaux! We stopped on our way out of town and bought more food for breakfast or at that point lunch which included yummy coconut yogurt! After riding a bit we noticed a field full of a plant we didn’t recognize so I ran out to the field and pulled one from the ground! It was some kind of root plant and it tasted sweet. I still have no idea what it was but David’s guess was a rutabaga.

I’m not sure how it happened but we stopped for water, and when we started riding again, I immediately got my front wheel caught in the space between the trailer and its wheel. Of course I completely flipped over my handlebars and somehow scraped up my shin, knee, and shoulder. It hurt a little but mostly I just felt dumb. I don’t even remember how it happened, I must have been zoning out…

That evening we found somewhere to camp quite easily and early since we had been riding through some National Forests. I was happy we didn’t have to set up the tent in the dark and there was time for us to eat and hang out outside the tent. We had to carry the trailer and our bikes in two separate lengthy trips to the campsite so we were out of site. The first trip we took the trailer and I was in back so I couldn’t really see where I was walking so my legs got all scraped up from the prickly vines that were all over. My legs look terrible, I’ve never had so many bruises and scrapes. I’m not even sure where half of them come from. We set up the tent easily though and changed into pants since I at least was already getting attacked by mosquitoes. Huge mosquitoes! While eating dinner we heard some rustling in the woods and a fox eventually passed by us. In the night there were some other strange noises especially from some birds that sounded like death.

Day 20 - Camping directly behind the hotel we stayed in the night before!

After packing up and leaving the Formula 1 where we stayed, we started our day with coffee at, of course, McDonalds after riding back into Meaux. The McDonalds was needed to locate the bike shops and bookstores in town that we needed to get new chains and a map of Belgium and Amsterdam. Here is a weird thing about France. The country is dead in August. Everyone is on vacation. The weirder and more subtle thing about France is that it does not at all adhere to the same ideals of capitalism that are so prevalent and taken for granted in America. Don’t get me wrong; capitalism exists here in all it glory, which, ironically, we came to be very happy about, but the people and business here mostly operate which what seems like a different mentality than they do in America. For example, in France, when its time for a holiday, you just shut your shop up and put a hand written sign in the window that you will return and please have a nice day. In Meaux, the only sizable town for sixty miles around and, more importantly, the only one that had cycle shops for sixty miles around, all the bike store owners must have gone on holiday together. While I’m happy for their chance at a break and the confidence they have at the prospect of loosing customers while a way from their shops (perhaps that’s why they all left at the same time) we still needed new chains. After forgoing breakfast because we assumed that the trip to get new chains would be quick and after having visited three shops, one of which was very far outside of town, we were getting frustrated. I started to think of what would I do if I were in America and if I were faced with this situation. Since I could simply go to my basement and pick out a few new-ish chains at home, I was unable to fully comprehend how this could happen in America unless it was at 9:00 at night and even then I could just wait until morning and not until August 28th or whatever date my local bike merchant decided to return from his month long holiday. Then I had a thought that would turn out to reverse the course entirely to what could have been a very unproductive day. What if a store was open 24 hours and carried a bunch of crap that you could get in case you need it? In America, people with far superior free-market instincts had that same thought long before I, and they had brought that idea to fruition in a recklessly profit-driven venture that they called Walmart. Now the avid reader of this blog will note that, although what we found was a lame French replica of what we know as Walmart complete with set hours of operation, the superstore model did exist in France and, on our way out of town to the final bike shop we checked which was closed for holiday, we happened to pass one of these replicas. I admit that I have never been happier to have found a discount superstore, but would the French replica live up to it’s American conceived forerunner and provide for us a selection of low quality merchandise large enough to include bike chains? It turns out that the L.Eclerc, the name of the French monster retailer, had an inventory of bike parts that would rival that of all but the most serious of bicycle retail shops! We got two new chains, lubricant, break-pads (mine are starting to wear), and they had fenders that definitely temped me for a moment. Next, since we failed to find a map of both Belgium and Holland at the local bookshops, we checked for maps and found to our further surprise that they carried Michelin maps for nearly every part of the globe! We left; amused at our happiness at having just left a replica of the very store that we both avoid while in the states. Our next goal was to get food for what now would be more appropriately called lunch but was in fact our breakfast. The trailer had been left locked up at the hotel while we ran errands without its cumbersome presence, and we had picked out a grocery store on the way back to the hotel where we planned to stop and buy food both for our immediate needs and for our trip to Lille. Yet, when we got to said grocery store, we were confronted with another aspect of the more leisurely atmosphere in the French economy. The grocery store, although it was 2:00 in the afternoon, was closed. Turns out that everything also closes everyday from 12:30 and 2:30, so we waited until it reopened with a crowd of locals. The crowd queued up at around 2:15 and then go pretty restless when the manager opened the doors but wouldn’t let anyone in until 2:40. We were annoyed but if everything closes everyday for siesta time, I’m not sure why the locals weren’t more prepared for the inconvenience. Anyway we got food, made it back to the hotel, ate on their patio, and decided that we wanted to have a siesta of our own instead of starting our journey to Lille. While eating, we discovered that the code that we got for our room still opened the door to the hotel, and since the showers and toilettes were separate from the rooms, we still had access to them. After scheming about how our code may still open our room, but discovering that it did not, we decided to find a place to camp nearby and use the showers at the hotel for one more night. I worked on the bikes, and Alyssa went to scout a place to camp. She ended up finding a great place right behind the hotel so we set up our tent and returned to the hotel to eat, cut our hair, and shower before going to sleep. The day also included our first flat tire, Alyssa’s rear wheel, which went flat as we were scouting out our camping spot. Alyssa and I quickly fixed it with a patch so we still have two spare tubes. Tomorrow we are finally leaving Meaux…We hope.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Day 19 - Lessons

After waking at the hotel and discovering a deep freezer full of mini baguettes and croissants that we couldn’t resist, we bought groceries for our trip and started off early to Meaux where we would decide to either go to Reims or to Lille on our way to Brussels. It was a hard morning to ride through, and I was irritated with the trailer (one of the lessons of the day) by the time we finished the short five mile ride to Meaux. We found a McDonald’s easily and just as easily found that we weren’t going to Reims since our only contact hadn’t yet responded to our email. After planning our trip, finding bike shops to buy new chains and oil based lube since our chains regularly were producing a gummy excretion that constantly, it seemed, needed cleaned from our derailleurs, and book shops to buy a Michelin map of Belgium, we confidently set off to purchase our supplies and head north to Lille. We made it to the center of Meaux where we realized that it was Sunday. We had again forgotten what day it was and didn’t consider the fact that everything is closed in France on Sundays. Our disappointment subsided and we visited Meaux’s historic cathedral. It had been started in 1170 which was a vaguely important number to Alyssa, and we started off on a new, vaguely planned trip to a large national forest. This is where another lesson was learned. The trailer had been difficult all day long, and after an entire morning of struggling, I was beyond frustrated and decided that my legs could not “break free” with this trailer. Some times cycling is hard and becomes a mental battle. The reward comes when your legs break free - a rhythm develops and it becomes easier. I found no reward today, only a lesson. Although taken for granted until this day, pulling a heavy trailer requires a lot of concentration and synchronization, and a few things were fighting me. First my tire pressure was a bit low. Second, the trailer, while going up hills, constantly bobs and tugs downward canceling forward motion. If pedaling is not planned and smooth, the trailer can almost entirely cancel out any work done while going up-hill. Third, because rhythm is so important while pulling a trailer, your bike has to be in very good working order. My chain developed a kink due to the wax collecting dirt. I probably slightly damaged a link when breaking the chain to bring it on this trip, but it was now accented by the dirt and had become stiff. Therefore it caught on the derailleur and caused a jump in my cadence. It may sound particular but that kink caused a lot of difficulty while taking the trailer up hills since it was most pronounced in my lower “climbing” gears. Anyway, we made it to the next small town outside of Meaux and decided that new chains were necessary and that we wouldn’t go on at the pace we were going. We would spend the night in Meaux. After stopping mid-way up a hill that lead through town that we were not making it up, we ate lunch at a fork in the road. The hill, in actuality, continued for more than a half a mile through the town - over a mile of ascent in total. Our lunch provided another us with another lesson. The croissants that I had put in a bag with a bunch of mini baguettes turned out to be frozen croissant dough which had melted on and covered the baguettes. Baguettes with croissant dough turn out to be pretty good so we laughed about it and ate them anyway. The rest of the day was spent hunting for hotels and camping sites. Eventually a hotel was decided upon but it was outside of Meaux. I have gotten over any regret that I feel about leaving Paris. There was some internal conflict, but Alyssa was right; we needed to leave. Expect more on Paris though. It was an interesting and difficult city.

Day 18 - “Let’s just get our of this dead horse.”

It took a while but by 1:30 we were on our way out of Paris. We followed a canal east. The canal was promised to take us to Reims which is not pronounced how you would probably think it is. We made it about 20 miles and the canal path turned to hard-packed dirt and gravel. Also, it was getting about the time to think about a camping spot. Big plans were made for a canal side salon to form so that we could make practical and stylish the hair that we have grown since leaving, but as usual our plans went astray. Our chains have been lubricated by wax on this trip. I’ve been a big fan as it last longer than oil-based and seems to initially work better. Dirt is a waxed chains Achilles heel, and despite being recently cleaned, they were soon loud and kinky. The chains become a bigger deal later on in this saga. After finding and pillaging an onion field, we heard rumor of a camp ground and decided to race the sun in order to get to it. The camp ground turned out to not only be our of our way but also full. We returned to some promising woods but were discouraged by what at least looked like poison ivy in the failing light and other dense undergrowth, so made our target a cheap hotel that was promised to be a few towns away. We made it just as the lobby was closing and got a room. The days travels had resulted in 40 miles and a resolution to leave the dusty canal trail for good the next day.

Day 17 - One more time…

We meant to leave, but we ended up staying. We found a hotel, but we called Florence and asked to stay instead. We also meant to be tourist one more day, but we just took advantage of the book store at the Pompidou instead. We meant to make spaghetti, but we got drunk and ate the food that Nico’s Grandmother used to make instead. Florence was still out of town, but continues to be incredibly hospitable and let us stay. I can’t see how the permanent collection at the Pompidou can compare to their bookstore even though we never saw the collection. Nico has new couch surfers after all, and my watch, which we asked Nico to look for at his place many times, was in my bag all along. Tomorrow we will leave Paris.

Day 16 - Expectations


Today was monopolized by the Louve. After breakfasting and cleaning up, we immediately set out for the Louve which turned out to be our sole destination for the day. I’m not even sure what to say about the Louve; our experience with it was that after an unknown number of hours we were exhausted with looking at art, but there were stages that may help to illustrate how we felt about it. First, we were very impressed with the size and the works and the layout...basically everything. After a few hours our thoughts, which you would catch once and while and would chuckle to yourself about, turned into, “Oh, that’s just another Rembrandt; And there’s some more painting from the 14th century; Ok, another room of paintings that are more than 50 feet long.” The size is equally as unbelievable. I promised myself that I would at least notice each work that I encountered without just walking by in order to get to a different room, but that was impossible. There is way, WAY too much to see in any one day. I’m positive that even with our brisk pace and eventually disregard for rooms that didn’t have the most notable works, we still maybe walked through a third of the museum. The most notable part of the day was when we realized that we only had an hour left and decided to see the Mona Lisa. It was ridiculous. The crowd, which was bearable all day long, steadily thickens to an annoying, impolite climax around the Mona Lisa. The painting is, after looking at paintings all day long, unremarkable and there are hundreds of people crowded around it taking pictures of it with a sea of multicolored hair as the foreground. It is absurd and wondered if “the most famous painting” was just a title created to keep most of the Louve’s crowd contained in a small area. After the Louve, where we walked around until well after closing when they barricaded us toward the exit, we went to the south of Paris in hopes of visiting the catacombs so instead settled for a photo tour of the “Rue de la Sexy.” Here we found no exciting postcards. The French take their sexy stores pretty seriously it turns out, and have no time for novelty items.

Friday, August 14, 2009

***temporary posting**** the sequell

We are poised to leave Paris tomorrow. Our postings have been sans-photo proof of our activities because of the low bandwidth of the McDonalds Wi-Fi Gratuit. We apologize and will update them with photos -as well as include a link to photobucket where all the photos we've taken will be posted - just as soon as we can get our hands on some decent internet. Also Brussels is about 189 miles so it will be a few days. We plan to have a much more leisurely cycling trip, however, since we have realized that rushing to make it to a city before night fall sucks, and we still have over a month to see Europe. Wish us luck!

Day 15 - Two Birds

Today was started as a stressful day. It was moving day for our little traveling caravan, and we were not ready. Moving day may not seem to be a big deal as we haven’t mentioned it much, but it consists of us carrying all of our possessions downstairs, which usually takes about three to four large trips, re-packing and re assembling the trailer, finding our new place, and traveling across the city with the trailer, and this morning we did not have a new host. Our host, Florence, was poised to leave town on a bike trip to visit her parents second house in Normandy. We were invited, but Normandy is in the opposite direction from Brussels, and it is too soon for a departure from Paris. As usual, on days of import or that require action, we woke late. We didn’t wake up until 10:30 which isn’t bad for us, but our host had been up since 7:00 - a weird position to be in when her apartment is a one room flat where we sleep on a couch that folds out into a bed three feet from her’s. Anyway we woke up, began to pack our things, and begin our exodus which first required a trip to McDonalds to see if anyone wanted to host us when two great things happened: first, Florence made us some breakfast for the second day in the row; and second, she announced that she planned to leave this evening to see her boyfriend who she had hoped to see last night, since he just returned from holiday, but that we were welcome to stay the night and that she would be leaving tomorrow morning for her parents AND that we could just leave the key in the apartment when we left tomorrow or even just stay the next night as well. Florence has gone beyond being hospitable. For me, I almost feel guilty allowing myself to do what she invites us to do because it seems too generous. Needless to say, our day started off much better than we assumed, and we left Florence’s place with plans to visit the Arc de Triumph, Notre Dame, and Musee de Pompidou instead of being encumbered with our luggage.

Speaking of our luggage, we have been contemplating shipping some extras home, but really have no clue what we don’t need. The reason for wanting to do so is that it is so cumbersome to move into someone’s place, and the trailer is so difficult to manage on hills of any notable size; however, we have no idea what to send home except some t-shirts and a pair of pants which seem hardly worth the effort. All this said, the trailer, in some ways, was a great idea that allowed us to find great-inexpensive bikes to bring, but it is far from ideal.

So we began another day as tourists. Today was hot and sunny in Paris; we made it to the Arc de Triumph where I already needed sunblock. The arc is bigger than we both thought, but, other than its notable size, was pretty unremarkable so we headed down the Champs Elysees toward Notre Dame where it was pre-decided to climb to the top of the bell towers in order to take some photos of the city as well as to see the upper levels of the cathedral. The cathedral was exceptionally crowded and was not nearly as impressive as the comparatively desolate cathedral in Amiens, but we waited in line and made our way inside only to find that the interior was also upstaged by its names-sake in the north. After bustling through crowds we returned outside, found and ate lunch, which included espresso ice-cream, on a park on an island in the middle of the Seine. We then attempted to visit the Pompidou museum of modern art only to find that what was promised to be free to us was only free if we were EU citizens, in our case it was 8 euro each. The bookstore sufficed after this discovery and was in fact quite impressive. With our planned day coming to an end, we decided to re-visit Notre Dame after having found money with which we could, in the usual Catholic fashion, use to buy our ascension. We were too late. The towers were closed. Alas, we went back to Florence’s.

After buying groceries for the nights dinner which included french-fry BALLS and lots of cheap wine, we arrived at Florence’s door and heard something that stopped us dead in our tracks which were predestined to lead us inside. Florence was home, and Sex in the City was played loudly from inside. Florence, if you will remember, was supposed to be at her bofriend’s for a rendezvous after he had been on holiday for a while. Were didn’t know what to do. Do we open the door and risk interrupting what Florence wasn’t’ able to do last night because of her boyfriends work schedule? We risked it and found that Florence was in fact home alone and her boyfriend was still at work which was not ok with Florence. She was again upset and feeling stood up. So we offered our wine and company as a distraction which she matched with wine of her own and a quiche with French goat’s cheese. Although we had had a very similar concoction the night before, we were grateful and talked with Florence about France, America, and their people for quite a while until she left for her parents empty apartment in the city from where she planned to start her journey toward Normandy to meet them. We may not see Florence again since she won’t return until Friday which is looking more and more like the date for our exodus from the city, but Florence said that she was happy that we were around which made me feel much better about her overwhelming hospitality. Not long after that, probably due to the cheap wine that we had bought, Alyssa and I fell asleep.

Day 14 - Crepe-ity, Crap, Crap, Cra.


Today we woke up and went to the Musee de Tokyo (modern art). Personally I thought it was terrible. The permanent collection was boring, and I thought the actual museum was crap and not well kept. Not everything was bad, but overall I’ve just seen better museums. Maybe I was just hungry? Speaking of being hungry, we bought crepes, peaches, ricotta cheese, and rice pudding for lunch. Delish. We went to the Louvre Gardens to assemble our crepes, and it was very nice. While sitting in the park we watched the pigeons and saw a couple rats playing in the bushes. The Louvre is huge! I didn’t realize how big it was. The Louvre is closed on Tuesdays so we didn’t get to visit inside it yet. On the way back to the loft, we went by the Moulin Rouge and all the sex stores again and took some photos. For dinner we made a quiche-like dish with potatoes, onion, egg, and cheese with our left over crepes! YUM again! That evening we talked to Florence some more. She was supposed to see her boyfriend, but wasn’t going to be able to anymore because he was stuck at work. She talked to us about her boyfriend problems… I decided we should go out for a drink. I also had wanted to take photos of all the flashy sexy time stores. The bar she took us to was kind of cool. It is open from 8pm to 8am. We bought some ridiculously expensive drinks there. Like a gin and tonic, cranberry vodka, and a shot of rum was 22€. Oh my god and the drinks kind of sucked. Not strong at all and small, I think the kid bartender fucked us. We bought the first round and Florence bought the second round. She convinced us to try a shot of flavored run. They add banana or vanilla or ginger to a bottle of rum with sugar. I got vanilla which is what Florence was drinking and David got ginger. It was pretty good. Nothing like what we have in the states. We came back a little drunk and went to sleep!

One of the things we forgot to write about was that, after camping, I had a couple ticks. Apparently I attract ticks and David gets poison ivy. Fun. I found one on my leg the first evening in the hotel in Amiens. I then found one on my arm the next day at the grocery store. After that we decided that we need to groom each other like monkeys which is exactly what we did! David found another on my back immediately. He then tried to use the trick that he dad taught him which is to heat up a pair of tweezers and pull it out. It might of worked really well, but I flinched and it "exploded" as David said. There was actually even a pop. Gross. Then he had to get the rest out of my back with the tweezers, which he let cool, and a needle.

Day 13 - Pickles at Last!


We had to leave Nico’s loft today but not until early afternoon. So we slept in a bit and then figured out how to get to the next place we were staying. Our next host was Florence. David found her on Warmshowers.com which is a website for cyclists to find warm showers on the road of course! Of course we got lost on the way there too! We spent most of the day moving and figuring out how to find her place. Florence was super nice and immediately inviting. We went upstairs and she gave us water, talked to us a bit about our travels, and gave us some maps of Paris. She was very helpful and we were very appreciative of her letting us stay. Her loft is really cute. One room and a bathroom with a balcony. She lives by herself but has a boyfriend. We left after a bit and found our way to the Eiffel Tower. I thought it was kind of cool and not that tacky like David thinks. There were a lot of people but we found a spot of grass to eat our victory jar of pickles! On the way to the Tower we passes a McDonalds on every corner. Whenever we need a McDonalds there isn’t one. When we’re lost, there isn’t one to be found. Ridiculous. Also on the way to the Eiffel Tower we passed the Moulin Rouge and David misses it so we have to go back - or maybe just did because we got a little lost again... That evening we made penne pasta in an oil sauce with spinach, basil, onion, garlic, and tomatoes. YUM!

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Day 12 - Floof me!

Today we woke up with our legs feeling pretty tired. We got ready and Nico took us to the open market that happens ever Sunday down a couple blocks from his place. Speaking of Sunday… we had no idea today was Sunday. Somehow we missed a day. In the message we sent Nico the day earlier we even mentioned that we would be arriving a day earlier than expected. Apparently not though. The market was cool, and we bought some fresh veggies to make Nico and his flat mates pizza this evening. The reward for making it to Paris in one day was supposed to be pickles and cheap champagne. We found cheap champagne but not too many pickles unfortunately. Its unbelievable the lack of pickle selection. Victor always talked about how the Pols brought all the good stuff to London and this side of Europe and I’m starting to believe him.

We’re pretty much just sitting around the flat trying to find another couch to surf for the rest of the week. Nico wasn’t sure if we were coming so he let other surfers stay with him the rest of the week so we need to leave tomorrow… Mostly we are being lazy today because of the amount of miles we rode yesterday. We met Nico’s flat mates and ate lunch with them. Very nice people! We discussed how crazy we were for cycling and how we should meet up with them when they are in Cleveland. We offered to go up to visit and/or to bring them down to Columbus with us. Nico mentioned wanting to see a typical “American University”, plastic red cups and all. We said Ohio State would be a great place to visit if he wanted to see typical and trashy.

At the end of the evening we ate our pizza, that was pretty good but different than how we usually make it, and we went out on a night ride. Nico and Toma were taking photographs for a video they are working on so we went along for the ride. And we finally drank our cheap champagne!

Day 11 - Hubris

Today was a late start. Not only did we sleep in, but then we went to McDonalds, which is becoming our regular hangout, to upload the blog and check emails. We wanted to start riding to Paris early but we didn’t leave until 12:30. Riding was much easier than a couple days ago. Less hills and overcast. This particularly enjoyable for David since he was wearing bright red sun-sleeves despite the sun-block that I gave him. In the first hour and a half we had already made it 30 miles. This was the achievement that caused us to do something we would later in the day regret. After eating a late lunch due to our late start, we were still making great time and decided that we didn’t need to find a campsite and would just ride to Paris in one day. Dumb dumb dumb. Here’s what happened; we made it to the outskirts of Paris by 8:00 and it was already getting dark; then we got lost and didn’t arrive to NICO’s, our host, until 12:00; we were tired and hungry and frustrated - AGAIN. All of this was because, for some reason, we couldn’t navigate around the city and actually get into the heart of Paris. At some point we took a wrong turn and found ourselves getting onto a highway after following an exceptionally long entrance ramp. Once on the shoulder of the four lane A1-N1 which is the main artery into Paris, we decided the safest thing to do was to walk to the next exit ramp. This is something I will be sure to avoid in the future no matter what. Although we knew we could make it after we had checked (and double checked) the milage to Paris, we still didn’t actually have any definite plans for where we would stay once we got there. Ugh this is the second time this has happened and it will never happen again. Never. Luckily Nico agreed to let us stay, which we found out at a pseudo-McDonalds known as Quick, and he wasn’t even upset that we arrived at 12:00. Honestly we thought it was 10 or 11. By the time we entered the city and found the place we were staying we were at about 105 miles. My legs (Alyssa) still felt pretty good but I was bored with riding and getting tired and anxious and frustrated.

Anyway, the flat is a pretty cool place. Two guys and a girl live here, all are our age. Nico is an artist and they also ride their bikes around the city. We were allowed to take showers when we arrived and eat. Turns out Nico will be visiting the states for three months just being a tourist and will be in Cleveland Ohio! Hopefully he will want to see us again when he comes.

P.S. We broke the 300 mile mark on our odometer - unfortunately I feel that much of that has been spent being lost…

Day 10 - Notre Dame?

We woke up late and with the intention to leave in the morning but instead, we decided to stay another evening because we were so tired from the day before. We found food, came back to the room, ate, and took a nap. Later that day we did some much needed laundry for the first time on our trip. While waiting for the laundry we got more food and ice cream! After that we explored the Notre Dame Cathedral of Amiens. It was a question for most of the day if this was actually THE Notre Dame. I, like an awesome art student and someone who should know art, had no idea. I couldn’t remember my art history class, which shouldn’t be a surprise to my roommates since Krystle’s and my F have been displayed on the fridge for most of the year. Krystle would be proud though… I could point out the rose window and some of the architectural features inside the Cathedral. VERY INTERESTING. That was about it for the day though except we did decide to get two pizzas from Pizza Hut which was really good!

Day: 9 Heres to hoping there was no poison ivy and 1cm = 2km

Turns out the light was on my side! There was also 20 pence on my side that I‘m convinced David threw over with the light to distract me from being mad at him for loosing the light in the first place!

Another account of this same event goes like this: While peacefully sleeping in our cozy tent, I'm suddenly awoken by a slightly grumpy Alyssa who has to go to he bathroom in the middle of the night. She greets me with, "Where's the flashlight?!?" "I don't know, I don't think I had it last." "Yes you did! Don't tell me you lost the flashlight!" In my groggy state I didn't remember that the last time I had the flashlight I had given it to Alyssa because I wasn't holding it right while she set an alarm, so I began to guiltily search the tent while Alyssa waited impatiently. Finally, she declared, "I'll just go without it I guess." I remained in the tent feeling even worse, but still searching so that I could at least light her path back to the tent, but soon she returned having relieved herself of everything but her animosity toward me for having lost our only light. I apologized again, and we fell back into sleep. Later that morning, after I had regained some warmth after having to tentatively ask Alyssa for some of the sleeping bag that we were sharing in the middle of the night, we awoke and began to roll up the sleeping bags. As Alyssa moved her pillow and lifted the mattress-bag, she declares, "Oh! Here's the light! And look! Some money too!" She then concocted this ridiculous story about how I had found the flashlight and planted it on her side with the coin - as a distraction - as to not incriminate myself for losing it in the first place. Ladies and gentlemen, these are the facts; please judge the incident as you see fit.

We woke up at 7:30 to start the longest day ever of riding. While moving our bikes out of the forest, David found poison ivy. We, or mostly I, wasn’t that careful in checking for poison ivy the night before while walking through the woods. David, as some may not know, is extremely allergic so poison ivy could be a big problem. It was really sunny out all day and quite beautiful - not too hot but still hot. When we started the day David guesstimated we had 40 miles to go from where we camped to Amiens. Well he guesstimated wrong. He thought 1 cm was 1 km but really 1cm is 2km. Holy shit; we rode 79 miles today, not kidding. We stopped at 2:00ish to rest and eat and we thought we only had 20 more miles to go but actually we had 40 more miles to ride. Today was the first day we were able to ride for miles and miles along the French countryside without having to stop in the city traffic. Since we were out in the middle of farm land there wasn’t really anywhere to stop for water or food (good thing I bought that 5L of water at the French Walmart that David was so pissy about). Of course the water was just about boiling from being out in the sun all day, but hot water is better than no water. At some point we realized that we made a mistake in our calculation of the mileage right about the time when we thought we should have been arriving in Amiens. We still had 26 more miles to go and we were tired. We had to stop more frequently for water and for rest and for walking up hills, AND it was taking forever to get to the city, but there really was no other option. We finally arrived in Amiens around 8:30. We found a hotel pretty fast but it was full and it was somewhat on the outskirts of town. We had to bike to the “city center” or downtown to find any hotels. We didn’t speak any French except “one (or two) coffees” and “Don you speak English?” We had no map of the city. So we started accosting everyone we saw for assistance. I personally didn’t care where we stayed or how much it was I was so tired. Surprisingly, to us at least, no one spoke English, but they all tried to help. David found some guys who took him to some hotels and spoke French for him and found us a room but they didn’t really speak English either. It was difficult to even communicate with these guys, but after they finally understood that we were looking for a cheap hotel, David ran back to where I was standing with the bikes and trailer and said that he would ride with these guys in their car so that he could see where the hotel was and so we could bike there when he got back. After waiting for 20 minutes for him to return with the two guys who took him to two different hotels to compare prices since we were in an “financiaire crisis,” we rode to the hotel that they had picked out for us and had talked to the receptionist on our behalf.

At this point all we wanted was a shower and food. We had showered the two nights before, but you really never would have guessed it; my French guides, who drove me to scout out hotels, had to wind down the windows, although they did it very discretely, but this may have been because they did not know the English to tell me about it. Honestly, there may not be words to describe how fragrant we were at this point…. Digressing for a moment, however, I hate to perpetuate stereotypes, but this one may be true; the French can be quite stinky. I’ve discovered, after arriving in Amiens, that it is not the norm, and the place where this trend was most notable WAS in what we have been calling “the French Walmart,” which is not just for their large amount of cheap stuff, low prices, and outskirts-of-town location. This place had some pretty notable and quite a few smelly characters. Please take note: I’m NOT trying to compare our musk to that of the smelly French people that I have encountered because we were in a different league, but while I was on the subject, I wanted to let you know that this rumor was NOT (at least entirely) a myth.

Returning to the subject at hand; we wanted a shower and food. We got to our room and got a shower quite easily, but food would take me on another unwanted adventure. I told Alyssa to take a shower while I went to get food since she was in no condition to travel any further. It turns out that everything in Amiens closes at 11:00 - everything. I walked around asking every bar I found asking “Oo-vrer?” which the small English to French dictionary told me was open and most people, I think, understood, but the answer was always no. I even resorted to asking at the Dominos and Subway which produced the same results. I returned empty handed and facing the prospect of eating the same meal of nuts, bread, and a few biscuits that we had bought in London; I was not happy. Alyssa, however, escaped this fate by passing out before I returned. I begrudgingly ate what little we had and soon followed her lead.

Saturday, August 8, 2009

***temporary posting****

We know that we're behind on our blogs but they are coming; please be patient. Right now we are in another McDonalds much to our frustration, drinking tiny coffees(one thing we DO miss about America), and getting ready to pedal to Paris. It will take two days to you'll just have to wait til then to hear from us; WiFi is hard enough to find in the city let alone the back-country of France.

Day 8 - A ridiculous trip to France....and more hills


We got up to take the train this morning to Dover so we could catch our ferry. Of course we got up later than we would have liked. Our train was leaving at 9:15 and we got up at 8:20 still needing to pack our stuff up. We made it to the train station and boarded with barely enough time. Our trip was supposed to last just over an hour and we probably switch cars about four times. It was annoying. I grabbed both bikes and David took care of the trailer. We must have looked ridiculous running between cars so we wouldn’t miss the different trains.

After arriving in Dover, the next thing was to find the ferry and to get food. We were both really hungry and needed coffee but David was especially hungry. We stopped at a market but they only had fruit and veggies- not really what we were looking for. I thought it would be better to find the ferry to make sure we were checked in and on time. We found the dock and asked to check in. Turns out there is a special place to take bikes and it happens to be with every truck and car that also needs to go on the ferry. Let me tell you it was ridiculous. I cant even believe they would send people on bikes down below to where the semis and cars get onto the ferries. It wasn’t particularly safe (not that anything we do is really safe) but it was just dumb. I don’t know how else to describe it. The receptionist who told us to follow the red line down to the area where bikes go but didn’t say anything about getting on the ferry or how busy and congested it would be. In my head I imagined us walking our bikes onto a moderately sized ferry not have to deal with too much… definitely not storing our bikes with the rest of the cars and cargo that were going to France. David, at this point, was getting pissed. I felt bad because I said we should wait to eat. I thought we would be able to check in and then get food real fast but we went straight for the boat. I had to handle talking to a couple security and ferry people because I knew he was so mad.. I didn’t want to not be able to get onto the ferry because one of us was short with someone. I think there could be a better way to deal with taking bikes on the ferry and I think I will perhaps write to the ferry company to complain.

A switch of perspective:

It is true; I was upset. However, we did eventually board the ferry without having an incident where I exploded at a ferry worker. Alyssa, although she witnessed all of it, somehow managed to downplay my anger in her account. She got the source right though, nearly none of the ferry workers knew what was going on, the ones who knew were useless as they didn’t explain the ridiculousness upon which they were sending us, and I was hungry. On the ferry things were much better. We took pictures, I napped, and Alyssa wrote the blog. Then we arrived in Boulogne; the trip took about one hour, but it seemed to transport us to an entirely different climate. It was sunny and hot in Boulogne. Our experiences with it were brief as we left quickly to find internet which was at a McDonalds which took us out of town. I think that the tourist information people did that on purpose….. Anyway we decided to camp that night for the first time and set off to find some woods. After getting lost we found, instead of a woods, a large, large hill. Needless to say, we had to push our bikes up it. Later we found that this hill was marked on our map and it was a 13% grade. At the top we did find a small church and discussed - not for the first time either - the fact that so much of what we’re seeing is familiar to us. We’ve both had a slight feeling of déjà vu with so much of what we’ve seen…

Another switch of perspective:

The 13% percent grade hill was even taller than the one in Greenwich. It was pretty bad and it took us at least half an hour to push our bikes up that hill. Like David said, we both have been noticing the feeling of déjà vu. In London, after we crossed the Tower Bridge, there was a court yard area next to the river at the bottom of the Tower of London that I definitely remember seeing in a dream. I even remember the cannons that were facing the river. Very weird. Also, at Victor and Monika’s house, in the bathroom there was a photograph of a cat above the toilet that seemed very familiar to me as well as the room we were staying in. The church at the top of the hill in France also seemed eerily familiar to me. It was higher up than we were on the road and there was a graveyard between the road and the church going further up the hill. I remember in my dream seeing it and looking down the road and then across the way to the open French country side. On our way to that hill we also stopped at this little stream area that had houses by it that seemed very familiar. There have been many instances like this and its just weird. I’m not sure what to make of it. I don’t exactly think of déjà vu as a thing where I’m in the right place at the right time. Its more of an eerie feeling I suppose.

After riding downhill for awhile we finally found somewhere to camp that was off of a horse trail. It was getting dark and we had to finish setting up our little camp site in the dark. We went to bed at 9:30 because it was so dark and there was nothing else to do but sleep… and David lost the light in our tent.

Friday, August 7, 2009

Day 7 - Lesson learned OR The boroughs of London need to invest in street signs that provide warnings like "Large Fucking Hill Ahead"

Today was a somewhat difficult and frustrating day. Our plan was to bike 70 miles from London to Dover and take the ferry the next day to France. We had almost no problem getting out of Central London but when we got to Greenwich… we absolutely could not figure out how to leave that borough… and I have never seen so many hills. Akron is hilly but no matter where we went it was always up a hill! We were getting so pissed! The streets weren’t marked and when asking for direction, we always had to go back the way we came but slightly different and up another hill. After biking up a couple hills we eventually just started walking the bikes instead of trying to ride. At one point after walking up one of the final hills David noticed there was a house named ‘Highest Point” as in highest point in all of England probably! Maybe not but it was really high. It was also frustrating because we had booked the ferry in advance and needed to be in Dover the next day at 12:30. Lesson learned: Take our time biking from place to place instead of rushing and getting even more lost because we are frustrated. I felt bad because David had the trailer and had to bike around all day on the hills with it while being lost. Its really heavy and I know it was a lot to deal with.

Eventually we made it out of Greenwich and found our way to Gravesend. We stopped at a McDonalds (my favorite place to stop while on the road) got more coffee and tried to decide what to do. The other interesting thing about the troubles of the day is that no matter where we went, there was ALWAYS 60 more miles to go. It was getting dark so we really couldn’t bike anymore in the evening. Since we still had so much more biking to do to catch the ferry we decided to take a train the next morning from Gravesend to Dover instead of missing the ferry. As far as sleeping arrangement, there wasn’t anywhere to camp so we got a cheap motel type place called Shamrock for £25. This area of town wasn’t too bad but still comparable to some sketchy areas around Columbus. Our room actually was being remodeled and they would only give it to us if we couldn’t find anywhere else. All the bedding and everything was new so it wasn’t too gross. No need to use the sleeping bags!

We found somewhere to eat that was actually open later than 9 and it had the same menu as the last pub we ate at unfortunately. Apparently we cant get away from boroughs and the same pubs in England. I cant stand that no where is open late! Closing early doesn’t work out so well for last minute planners. At the end of the day we biked 40 miles. Somehow our 70 mile ride would have turned into a 100 mile ride. Our total mileage is at 140 from biking around London. Not too bad and I think both of us feel pretty good about biking. We were a little worried before we left but it isn’t as hot here and it is more fun to ride around, except on huge hills.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Day 6 - Finding treasuressssssssss……

We woke later than we would like to admit again, but if you are starting to worry about the quality of our trip due to late starts, let me assure you that this trend will not continue. Since we were leaving the next morning we had decided to make our stops at all the places that we wanted to see and hopefully gather some farewell gifts for Monika. We went first for a day-time visit to Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, and Westminster Abby. Then, deviating from our morning plan slightly, we went to the Tate Britain for a whirlwind tour which we vowed to return when we return to London but later that very same day decided that it would be secondary to another point of interest that we had discovered. After visiting London’s other Tate, our sites were set on our days primary goal despite the fatigue that was beginning to batter our previously cheery mood. Although we hadn’t yet eaten and although we still also wanted to make a day-time trip to Buckingham Palace, we set off to South London to visit what was enthusiastically described by Victor as “the best thing ever.” The best thing ever was a market - the New Covent Market - and it was a thing of legend in Britain, and, more factually was the bane of Chinese food purveyors around the city. It was said that from the opening of the market into the afternoon, the fruit and vegetable stands were famous for throwing out tons and tons of produce that was still entirely good. What’s more is that from Victors account, unless you were a Chinese man with a van, the people were happy to give it to you at the back of the stands so that you could enjoy what the pretentious food customers simply (or apparently) could not tolerate even looking at. The only draw back is that we, of course, were late(6:00ish). We rode our bikes into a nearly abandoned market (that WAS huge) and at first saw no one….but then we heard a whistle. A man called us over and had us wait by the “fruit only” dumpster to where he brought out hundreds of mushrooms, stem tomatoes, turnips, cauliflower, grapes, and “the smallest tomatoes anywhere.” After my newly mended bag was over-laden with produce and Alyssa’s already uncomfortable bag was doubly so, we left. At first we debated about simply returning to Victors and Monika’s from which the entire city separated us, but we decided to tough up in spite of our leisurely sleeping schedule and go see Buckingham Palace. We eventually arrived back to greet Monika with the excess vegetables and promises of making her diner that we hoped would finally win her over to us since we thought that she may not be entirely happy with our presence. Our fears were completely vanished after we served her a cassorole of mashed turnips, cauliflower, and mushrooms with cheese (which was an entirely original and impromptu creation due to the under-boiling of our turnips) and “open-faced grilled cheese and tomato sammys”- the name of which I was just informed of. We sat and talked and she was very pleasant and said that she thought we were very nice. We then went to bed since our plans were to leave bright and early the next morning.

Day 5 I’m a scientist; what can I do but observe?

Well surprise surprise, we didn’t get up until after 2:00... BUT we did shower! Very exciting, we went three days without showering! After we showered ate etc we went back to the Tate Modern Museum and finished looking at the art stuff. We were going to try to squeeze in some more sight-seeing, but Victor wanted us to call him on a phone that he had found in the street to see what he was up to, so we did. The conversation whent like this, “’ello!” - “Hey Victor, whats going on?” - “I am drinking cider! Do you have any plans?” - “We were going to go back to Buckingham to take some pictures…” - “Good! I have a better idea! Why don’t you come up to the canals so we can have a fire with some friends, if they are still alive, and then we can drink some cider.” He then told us how to get there and on the way we scoured off-license stores for a bottle of Sailor Jerry to give to Victor as a gift for letting us stay. Anyway, we met up with Victor and on the way to the canals, which is apparently a sweet way to live in London - on a house boat, in a canal that is - I finally got to stop and pick blackberries! Actually Victor, Alyssa (at her reluctance at first), and I all pick loads of blackberries that were huge! The plants were wild but there was a patch that was maybe a quarter of an acre AND there were comparable patches the entire way along the path! But enough about the berries; we ended up meeting Victor’s friends which were rather surprising in character after having gotten to know Victor rather well, but maybe not given all that we have learned/been told about Londoners since arriving…..Maybe later we’ll digress more about the people of this strange land. We eventually rode back after a fire and said goodbye to Victor since he had to leave the next day to go for his mechanics testing.

SIDE NOTE: Just because I don’t want to eat as many blackberries as David doesn’t mean I was reluctant to stop and eat them. They were really good and FREE. I can control the urge and not stop every 5 minutes to pick some damn berries that are “high in anti-oxidants”.

Day 4 - Something made for everything is good for nothing


When we woke, Victor still had not yet, so we went to the store on our own, and made sandwiches which did not contain nuts or milk, but seemed to be satisfactory to both Victor who eventually woke late and managed to take a few bites before running out the door and Monika. We also determined that we will be in London until at least Tuesday since we let Monika take our tent to sleep in and she won’t be back until then. Then we drank coffee and promptly passed out. After waking at about 14:00 again, we decided to blame jet lag for both today’s unexpected nap and yesterday’s “fussiness.” We eventually made it to a “pound only” store to buy a card reader (notice the photos which you won’t even have noticed the absence of since we never sent the link until this was posted), rear bike lights, batteries, and foot powder - my feet smell terrible already.

We ended up waiting for Victor to wake up from a nap for a few hours and then got hungry and decided to find a pub and needle and thread since the straps on my bag started to rip out which of course I didn’t notice until we arrived in London. We ended up eating a pub-ish place with a very un-authentic looking menu, contemplated leaving, but noticed a down-pour had started and decided to stay because the also had wifi. We discovered that there was no ketchup but that Heinz has been holding out on us and English yellow mustard is far superior to our own yellow mustard. We then bought so cheap wine on the way back to Victors house and found him making dinner because he too avoided the down-pour by canceling all his appointments that evening. Victor, by the way, is a traveling bike mechanic and rides his bike to meet clients that call his shop to make bike maintenance appointments. After helping Victor make his dinner of mashed potatoes, mushroom gravy, and cucumber salad, I repaired my bag while we sat around and talked, drank wine until in was gone, and switched to vodka and rum that Victor seem to magically produce from his freezer just as the wine and we were wearing down. We ended up sitting around talking about London and America and life and, of course, alcohol.

Saturday, August 1, 2009

As soon as we arrived in Minneapolis, we learned that the flight to London was possibly overbooked. The airline was offering $750 per person to give up a seat AND a hotel room for the evening. That meant Dealta could possibly be paying for our next vacay… partially. Unfortunately the airline didn’t need our seats so we couldn’t spend the evening drinking margaritas and the day thrifting in Minneapolis planning our next trip.

Day 2
As soon as we got on the plane, we were handed UK arrival custom cards and of course we didn’t make reservations at a hostel yet so we couldn’t fill in where we were staying. David wanted to make up some ridiculous story about how we were meeting a friend in London who he had met at a conference and had been talking to over the internet. I immediately made it clear I wouldn’t do that and that I just wanted to tell the truth. David somewhat agreed… probably because our story needed to be the same. The first customs officer lady wouldn’t listen to us because we didn’t have our forms entirely filled out. So we moved down the line and found someone who would let us in. There is not even a phone book at customs to look up addresses so I’m not sure how we were expected to even find a place. The second customs officer man asked us a bunch of questions. First he asked, “How long will you be in the UK?” To which I replied, “Two months. Kinda….well actually I know we put two months but we’re also going to France and Germany so not really two months.” Next he asked, “Do you have a return flight?” “Yes we do. Its on September 22nd.” “Do you have the flight itinerary?” - “No.” - “You didn’t print it out?” - “No…” - “Are you two studying at the university?” - “Yes!” - “You will be returning to school?” - “Yes in the fall (a small lie on my part).” He finally stamped our passports. I forgot to tell him I wanted it stamped in the next box so it looked nice and neat. Of course he didn’t.

Our flight to London was supposed to arrive at 7 in the morning. We arrived at 12ish. I think Delta changed our flight ten times without letting us know. Getting our bags was funny because they were so duct-taped and trashy looking. We were waiting at the baggage claim with both of our backpacks waiting for our boxes. We turned around and there they were, both on a luggage cart for us! Also next to our boxes was a duct-taped coffee maker box that had been opened to be inspected. We got coffee at Starbucks and put our bikes together next to the coffee shop…. for the next three hours… and by we put our bikes together I mean David mostly put our bikes together. I helped by holding things, retrieving things, inflating tires, and unpacking things!!

After putting the bikes together we rode off into London! I’m already freaked out because Londoners drive on the other side of the street and I’m just afraid in general that I’m going to get hit by a car. Not even two miles away from the airport and David needs to stop because he found blackberries and wants to eat them. We rode around for awhile making our way to Central London. We were riding on the bike/ pedestrian trail next to the road which was dumb because the road would have been much faster. We did have the trailer and we weren’t sure of the proper biking etiquette. We made it to this village area that could be compared to Upper Arlington and got food at this mini mart type of place. Pita bread, cheese, water, and a can of split pea soup. Quite good actually but I’m sure we looked homeless eating it in the park.

We got coffee and internet at a café and tried to find a place to stay. No one was answering our couch surfing requests so we tried to find a cheap hostel. A double was £40 average. At this point we are getting quite fussy with each other. We were passing by a pub that had some people standing outside drinking so we decided to ask them where a cheap place to stay would be. The one guy, Victor, we met works for a mobile bike assistance company. We started talking and met his boss Rashid who told us we would be able to camp by the river for the night without anyone bothering us. As we were leaving the pub, Victor offered us a room at the place he lived, and convinced us because it was going to be much warmer than staying by the river. It was about an hour to an hour and a half ride to his house and he took us all throughout London. It was pretty cool and really pretty seeing it at night. Also, we got more acquainted with riding around London. The bike Victor rides is ridiculous. It is a very aggressive and speedy recumbent bicycle apparently for time trials. When he is on the bike, he is only three feet above the ground and with the way he rides I can’t believe he hasn’t been hit by a car while on it… although hes only had it a week. Turns out, Victor is from Poland! I was a little excited about that.

Day 3
The next day, we didn’t get up until 3:00pm because of jet lag and we were just exhausted. There was a note from Victor saying we could meet up with him at some point and that we were welcome to stay at his house for the time we are in London.

We spent most of the day biking around trying to find free wifi and getting food. We found this cute open market (Burough Market) with a bunch of fresh bread and fruit and cheese and flowers. We had lunch in a park again and laid there for a bit in the sun. The weather has been beautiful, not rainy at all. Also, I discovered my fork was getting loose, the first attempt of David’s to kill me. Yes, we were still fussy with each other… for most of the day. We crossed the Tower Bridge, took some photos, and watched the bridge go up for a sail boat like the one David wants to go sail across the Atlantic in. Then we went to the Tate Modern Museum of Art. The Museum was interesting and free! We didn’t finish looking at the Tate because we were so hungry and still had no coffee! Somehow we made it through the day without coffee and if anyone knows us, you know we both need our coffee or don’t fucking talk to us.














I (David) am now commandeering this blog post because Alyssa fell asleep writing it. We somewhat unenthusiastically left the Tate and walked along the south bank of the Thames to where we could see the huge bicycle wheel-Ferris wheel, Big Ben, and the House of Parliament. All were super touristy but still pretty impressive. Even though by this time it was late, we were super hungry, and the lack of coffee and, unbeknownst to us, what I now think to be jet lag was setting in, we made our way past Westminster Abby towards Buckingham palace. That was agreed to be a little unimpressive and very under landscaped; there was brick, and absolutely no grass. Anyway we eventually made it home where we talked to Monika, who is Victor’s girl or ex-girl friend (we were told that it was hard to tell right now), and we discussed making breakfast for her since she was leaving to go to Oxford to perform for money as a street entertainer. The breakfast she described, from what Alyssa and I could gather after the conversation included sandwiches, nuts, and lots of milk… We didn’t know what that meant so we got ourselves an assortment of food for the evening and waited for Victor to come home in hopes he could translate, which he was too drunk to do; he only laughed, and said that we would go together in the morning.