Szeged – Zrenjanin

About 1000km to go to the Black Sea. And I’d hoped to cut off almost a quarter of that today.

A friend’s cousin had offered a ride from Pančevo to Belgrade tomorrow. Since Belgrade isn’t on my route that was a welcome break from the tour. Unfortunately, Pančevo is about 230km from Szeged. Only once have I cycled 230 kilometers in one day before and that was without luggage.

Lost some time finding a way across the border to Serbia. The old road No. 5’s border crossing is long closed and there’s only the new motorway crossing. Ended up using the motorway for a few kilometers, which is not officially allowed but tolerated by the police of both countries. Border formalities were hassle-free. A quick passport check on both sides and a quick question: “Where are you going?” – “Bulgaria”.

The countryside has been flat since Budapest. No mountains, no hills, no nothing, just flat. Especially here on the Serbian side there is a serious lack of trees, too. It’s been a challenge at times to find a shady spot for a break.

Met an Australian cycling couple coming from Jordan, and a few road bike riders.

I didn’t make it to Pančevo. I’m in Zrenjanin, approx. 75km from Pančevo and apparently very close to the village of Lazarevo where Yugoslavian ex-general and war criminal Ratko Mladic was caught this morning.

Cycled: 173km (which includes about 20km riding inside Zrenjanin evaluating other options of getting to Pančevo (bus, train) and eventually looking for a place to stay!)

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Kecskemét – Szeged

Erika picked us up at János’s place at 7:30am and we walked over to her work place, a coffee and sweets shop were I had breakfast.

Left half past 9 – and wasted more than an hour finding a way out of the city. All the roads heading in a southish direction would not permit cyclists! So I was forced to take road No. 44 to the east!

Attempted a shortcut via a dirt track again but gave up after a couple hundred meters.

Anyway, to make a long story (read: ride) short: I zigzagged my way around road No. 5 and cycled almost 140km to Szeged instead of the 80 it would have been had cycling been allowed on that road.

Decided to stay in Szeged for the night and cross into Serbia tomorrow. The border is about 15km from here. The campsites I found were either in the wrong direction (back to were I came from, or closed. I’m now lodging in Hotel Izabella, a simple place on the 2nd floor of a run-down … hm, dunno what it used to be. Looks a bit creepy from the outside.

Sitting in the city centre. It’s still warmish and there are quite some people out. One stall-like pub has live music, everthing from Cranberries to Lynard Skynard. People dance, erm, in formation, for lack of a better expression. That is, there are about 30 random people on the dancefloor all doing the same moves.

I’ve heard that girls in Tbilisi, Georgia, are dressed for party 24/7. Szeged girls definitely try that, too. :)

Cycled: 137km

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Budapest – Kecskemét

What a bad start, what a hard day, and what a nice end.

Well, first things first.

András had offered a ride to Kecskemét which is about half way to Serbia, since he was going there for work reasons. So we got up at 4:30am (ouch). Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to pack all my stuff before he had to leave. So I stayed back – and fell asleep again. :( Eventually left his place at half past 11 (second ouch) and left Budapest’s outermost suburb after 15km of riding.

The direct route to the Black Sea openrouteservice.org had prepared for me goes straight to the south-east. To save some time it doesn’t go via Csongrád (where I had already arranged for and subsequently canceled a CS couch) and western Romania.

So not far from Budapest the road turned into a dirt track. At the beginning of that track I crossed paths with a number of cars with half-naked men and women, and some were parking next to the track getting it on…

A bit later the track became quite muddy and on average every ten meters or so a puddle barred my way. I had to push the bike through some of them and each time I wasn’t sure if I’d just get wet feet or loose the whole bike in the mud. Then the surface became fine lose sand and the wheels slided left and ride at their will. After more than 40km of hard work I emerged on paved road and in civilization. I wonder where in Germany would it be possible to go on dirt tracks for 40+ kilometers without meeting a single human soul?

It was late afternoon already and I was in serious need of a shower before I could get anywhere near my sleeping bag. So I deviated from my route and headed towards Kecskemét looking for an official camp site.

There were indeed signs pointing towards a camp site in Kecskemét, but I lost track of it at a big intersection in town. I asked two random people sitting at an appartment block’s entrance for directions. They didn’t know from top of their head where a camp site might be located but started phoning around to help me. Eventually they recommended some bed & breakfast. However, instead of giving directions they invited me to stay at the guy’s place, who lived in the building we were sitting in front of. So I met Erika and János.

After a shower they took me to a restaurant and showed me around the city. Lovely people!

Cycled: 97km

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Budapest, Part II

Didn’t do much today except for shopping for some groceries – the contact lense arrived and I’ll be heading south first thing tomorrow morning.

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Leányfalu – Budapest

Had a lovely relaxing day in the beautifully wildish place (the house was built in the 1940s and the land surrounding it almost looks like it hasn’t been touched since then – that’s only a slight exaggeration :)). Went back to Budapest for the night by car.

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Vel’ká nad Ipl’om – Leányfalu

Happy Birthday, little sister!

All night there were people out and about all around my little lake. My neighbours, who’d pitched tents as well, were already gone at half past 5 when I got up. Had a quick swim and breakfast, and left at half past 6.

The quiet roads followed the river Ipoly that also marks the border with Hungary. When I came to the place where I wanted to cross I saw that the bridge was destroyed. It has probably been that way for quite a number of years, that is, since the Cold War or longer. However, on my map there was a track that would somehow connect the two road ends. On the other side stood a man who looked almost as puzzeled as me. My guess is that locals had built a temporary bridge that was washed away by some recent flood. Got to update OpenStreeMap. I thought about wading through but the waters were too deep so regretably I didn’t even try.

Crossed the river (and border) near Balassagyarmat instead. This time it looked more like a proper border, even though the border station was of course abandoned. Decided to trade traffic-free backroads for a shorter distance and continued on M22 towards Vác where I wanted to cross the Danube river by ferry.

Unfortunately, or rather fortunately, M22 turned into M2, and cycling is not allowed on single-digit designated roads. So once more I retreated to the quiet Hungarian back roads that are so great for cycling. M2 goes more or less straight to Vác with long slow climbs and heavy traffic; my little road, on the other hand, was flat and saw very few cars. I ended up in some small village at the Danube. From here it was a pleasant ride along the river to Vác. After crossing the main stream by ferry and a smaller branch by bridge I soon arrived at my brother’s weekend retreat.

Temperatures had peaked at 37°C again (in the sun).

Distance: 111km

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Bükk National Park – Vel’ká nad Ipl’om

Got up at 5am to watch the sun rise from the top of the lookout tower.

From Bankut down to Mályinka was a pleasent 10km downhill ride. Then the terrain was rolling hill-ish, but the road mostly followed the valleys. Cycled towards Ozd on roads that weren’t in OpenStreetMap yet.

Turned south-west in Ozd, to follow the Hungarian-Slovakian border. Crossing it was my primary goal, but there were no paths or roads going to Slovakia for quite some kilometers there. It wasn’t even noon yet but temperatures had already peaked at over 37°C.

At 12:30pm and after exactly 80 kilometers of cycling I finally ended up in the neighbouring country. The border is easy to miss, though. Both countries have implemented the Schengen agreement and there is no visible border anymore (safe for a ‘Welcome to Slovakia’-sign).

Slovakian backroads seem at least as quiet as the hungarian ones, a bit more deteriorating, maybe.
Had a late lunch right outside Fil’akovo. 10 Euros for 3 starters, 1 main dish and drinks – not too bad. Had no Euros and paid in Hungarian Forint – and was ripped off.

Turned south and looked for a lake to have a swim. The first one shown on the map didn’t exist in reality. The second one did, near the village of Vel’ká nad Ipl’om. There’s lots of angling folks here but I managed to find a lovely secluded spot right at the shore. Unfortunately, I don’t have a fishing rod. Anyway, pasta with pesto is yummy, too!

Distance: 130km

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Budapest – Bükk National Park

Last night I came up with the idea of going to Slovakia for two days or so while waiting for my parcels to arrive in Budapest. At the same time András offered to take me to Eger where he would go for work reasons. I decided to combine the two things and go from Eger to Budapest via Slovakia. András suggested a visit to Bükk National Park and we decided to camp there for one night.

So we took the car and drove over to Eger this morning at quarter to 7am. I started cycling to Szilvásvárad at 10 while András went to work. The sky was clear with about 30-35°C in the sun and the road was a bit hilly. Szilvásvárad is about 30km north of Eger and I arrived there at noon. Our meeting place, Bankut, is about 20km inside the national park on the Bükk high plateau at about 850m altitude. It took me 2.5 hours to get there. The ride was lovely, on deteriorating roads with almost no traffic, even though at times I wasn’t sure I was still going in the right direction.

Shortly after András arrived it started to rain and hail quite heavily and we fled into the car and stayed there for almost 1.5 hours. Then we did a 500m hike up Bálvány peak (956m) and enjoyed the amazing vista from its lookout tower. Eventually I cooked some pasta for dinner and we decided to pitch our tents right on the platform.

Cycled: 53km

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Budapest

The past two days in Budapest were great. My brother took the days off and we spent quite some time together both at home and cycling around the city, organizing and buying stuff for my trip. I managed to get the visa for Iran within one hour including getting cash from a nearby bank.

Not everything went smoothly, though. Right before leaving home I lost a credit card and a contact lense. The latter is now on its way to Budapest. However, getting a new credit card appears to be more difficult. I was unable to reach my bank’s agent (Deutsche Bank) by phone and she never called me back. Very poor service. One more reason to finally get rid of my account there.

Anyway, I’ll have to stay here for a few more days. Unfortunately, it appears to be impossible to take the bike on a train or bus to Varna. So right now I’m unsure how and when I’ll get to the Black Sea.

It looks like I’ll do a little subtour to Slovakia over the next days while waiting for contact lense and credit card.

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Bremen – Budapest

For more than a year I have been dreaming of doing a cycling trip around the Black Sea. Unfortunately, the political situation in the North Caucasus has been unstable for a long time and is still far from being calm and safe for independent travel. Nowadays the border between Georgia and Russia appears to be open again, but the Russian Autonomous Republics of North Ossetia (where the border crossing is located on the Russian side) and Ingushetia nearby are said to be not safe. Chechnya is just around the corner, too. So, at least currently, it seems not wise to entirely circle the Black Sea.

After changing plans a couple of times, I’m now attempting a trip that takes in the countries south of the Greater Caucasus, namely Georgia, Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Iran, and involves a lot of cycling but also some trekking.
A visa for Iran has been arranged and I will pick it up here in Budapest in the next days. I was unable to contact the Azerbaijani embassy in Berlin so I will have to try and apply for a visa for Azerbaijan either in Kars, Turkey or Tbilisi, Georgia.

The first leg of the tour is done by train. I arrived in Budapest tonight where I am staying with my brother and his family. From here it’s a 1200+ km bike ride to Varna at the Bulgarian Black Sea coast from where I’ll catch a ferry to Georgia on May 31st – if I manage to secure the Iranian visa within 2 days.

From Poti, Georgia, where the boat will drop me off, I have a rough idea of where to go and what to do and see, but it will all depend on mood, stars, visa, weather, wind, people, countryside, and last but not least the political situation in those countries.
I had pretty much exactly 3 and a half months of time for this trip. However, a couple of things have changed and it is now more or less open-ended. It’s unlikely to last much more than 4 months, though.

Well, first I have to get there…

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Visiting degree confluence 53°N, 9°E

Have you heard of the Degree Confluence Project (DCP)? It’s a website that records integer degree confluence visits. If that sounds a bit geeky… well, it probably is.

Anyway, degree confluence 53°N, 9°E is just around the corner and since I had a bit of spare time today I paid it a visit.

The ride with the singlespeed was lovely. The confluence is located just south of Achim, a small town just 20km east of Bremen, inside a grain field. Accidentally, I found a geocache there, too. On the way back I practiced following cycle path signs. ;)

According to DCP, 53°N, 9°E has been visited a couple of times. I plan to attempt a couple of first-time confluence visits during my upcoming summer trip, though.

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Ollerup – Flensburg

A few days ago, Freja and Andreas had suggested to go to Jutland (the mainland part of Denmark) via the islands south of Fyn instead of Fyn itself. Since I hadn’t found a couch to surf in either Kolding or Vejle, and since I’d thought about cutting the trip a bit short for various other reasons anyway, I’d decided to go for that island-hopping route.

Had breakfast with Helle and Louise and chatted with ’em for a bit too long so that I missed the ferry that would bring me from Svendborg to Ærø. Instead, Louise gave me a brief tour of their school.

I then changed the plans for the remainder of the tour entirely. Took a ferry from Bøjden to the island of Als, had a look at beautiful Sønderborg, cycled along the northern shore of the Flensburg Fjord, and crossed into Germany at border stone No. 1 of the German-Danish border.

On the last stretch before the border my router (openrouteservice.org) had a little easter egg for me: uncompacted gravel up a steep hill that was impossible to climb on my bike. I had to push it for the second and last time.

Cycled into Flensburg from where I took a train back home.

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Næstved – Ollerup

Left Anders’ place around quarter past ten, with approx. 140 kilometers of cycling ahead, the longest stretch of this trip. From Næstved I went south to Vordingborg, where I crossed to the island of Falster over the Storstrøm Bridge, then on to Nykøbing, where the only crossing to Lolland exists that can be cycled.

The weather was still beautiful and so far the wind has been a good friend, too, blowing from northish directions. In Nykøbing my direction of travel changed to west and it got even worse in the town of Maribo from where I was headed north-westish.

Near Nakskov I got lost for a few minutes when I followed the cycle route signs leading to Tårs port (where the ferry to Langeland leaves) instead of my map. When I finally arrived at the port, I saw the ferry close its hatches and the friendly lady at the ticket counter noted dryly that I could now relax for an hour.

Reached Ollerup, near Svendborg, at half past 7pm where I met Helle and her friends/housemates, my CS hosts for the night. They’re a bunch of most lovely people and I felt welcome and at home instantly. Went dumpster diving with the girls after a tasty dinner.

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Copenhagen – Næstved

From Copenhagen I cycled along the Bay of Køge down to the town of Køge, where I had lunch and then changed to a more Eastish direction towards Næstved.

Arrived there around 7pm and met up with Anders, my CS host. Had a great time swapping travel stories, drinking beer and playing Portals 2 until late.

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Roskilde – Copenhagen

Had breakfast with staff and students of the school and then left for Copenhagen.

The ride was a bit of a pain due to the route and a nasty headwind. It’s about 35km from Roskilde to the capital, on a pretty much straight major road with almost nothing interesting to see left and right.

Met my cousin and her friend again who came over from Lund to visit CPH, too. So we spent the afternoon in this lovely city. Christiania, the free state, was closed due to protests against CPH’s government’s attempts to ‘normalize’ life there.

The Danes ride more stylish bikes than the Swedes.

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