Juraj Svajdlenka - Travel page

*posted by Juraj Svajdlenka @ 12:18 PM* 1 Comments

3.August 1997

Day "D" is here and we are going. We are waking up so early, last checking of our equipment and we quickly everything move to our car. Luggage is necessary wisely insert into car and bike state fasten on car. And on the state our bikes. State is connected to car back and it is suitable only for 2 bikes. But we have 3 bikes. After first attempt wheels of bike are very near of ground. We need to go more than 200 km on highway and this not a good idea. At last we removed some wheels from bikes and it looks better. After a few km we stopped and I removed rest of the wheels. Next stop and we are checking states of bikes. Now everything looks fine and we can continue. We are going to "Trencin", where we have to pick up Gabika's father. He must drive with car back to Trencin. And later, after our journey go for us to Zilina. But it is far future for us now. Way to Trencin we manage without problems. Only Gabika's father was surprised how we fasten up bikes on car.

Norway 1997 - Preparations To Zilina we arrived short time before time of our departure. After quarter of hour we found departure place. But we don't see no bus not even other people. Only empty square. We phoned to travel agency, and they informed us with actual situation. They go with van on gas station. What, van? We know that it was signed on 15 people on this travel. And 15 people plus 15 bikes plus big amount of luggage is impossible to transport with van. Square was situated near a travel agency office and in short time come some people from travel agency. We got to know that from 15 people we reminded 5. Plus our guide and driver. 7 people is good count for van, not for bus. We weren't very happy from this info, but later we were very satisfied with this situation. Van arrived and we are quickly became acquainted with rest of our group. Our next members are women Olga and Hela. We are also welcomed with our guide and driver. Our driver Jarko together with our guide and me lodge in our luggage into car. We don't have so much time, because we must catch our ferry in Rostock from Germany to Sweden. We fasten all 8 bikes on top of van, last leave-taking and finally we move off.

Norway 1997 - Rostock Our situation is next: We are going via Czech republic to Germany. Morning at 6:00 we must be in Rostock from where is going our ferry. During our way we become acquainted all together. It looks like, that here meet together a good group. And that was confirmed also many time later. We continue with comparing our previous experience with biking and I my optimism is decreasing. Our guide Peter compete on bikes. Olga, physical training and russian language teacher, took part in many triathlon competitions before. And Hela is also experienced biker. Opposite of me, because I spent a lot of time in my work and now my condition is very poor. We crossed Czech boundaries, and our driver Jaro is fast as wind. A few hours later we were in Prag, capital of Czech republic. Slowly is getting dark an we are near of German boundaries. We are going on E55 way to Dubi passage. We are together watching on poorly dressed girls(prostitutes) near a road together with shops full of gypsum dwarfs. Boundaries crossed without problems. Some time we were watching out on country of capitalism. We had only short stops for our necessary needs. First night we must spend in a car. Gabika lay down between seat rows and Lucia together with me sleep on back seat. Hela and Olga also settled to sleep. I am very tired and in short time I sleep. From time to time I am trying to change my position and my eyes are going down. Around us is a darkness and we are driving quickly to our next target, Rostock.