Bicycle horror

Now I'll tell you how I tried to get from Athens to Amaliada and why it did not work. Next time will tell how I found me aplace to stay on a farm, lived there a week  and worked a bit.

(Somebody just forgot his bike on the railway station)

Well, I left Athens in the night to come to Korinthos in the morning while the air is cool and the road is calm. I took the motorway, and this road almost killed me with sharp rise, bridges and interchanges (I'm afraid of it) and the load immediately became heavier. I'm scared, the pressure jumped, and now I'm lying on a mat on the sidelines and my nose is bleeding. Well, I think, it's time to unload.

I left some staff right on the side of the road and started moving.

Nightime drivers are awful, they pass in 20sm distance from me, but the dogs are worse. Once I saw them in 300m before me, stopped a car and asked the driver to follow me and to scare the dogs with a signal. It worked for the first time. Next time close to Elefsina I was chased by a herd of 5-6 dogs of different size and they followed me till the gas station. Then they stopped and I run into the shop on the  gas staion very frightened.

-Do you speak English? - said I.

- Yes, where are you from? - was the answer.

- Russia, - said I.

- Так почему по-русски не говоришь? (Why don't you speak Russian then?) - asked the guy with a slight acsent. He was from Russia and it was just a miracle that I came exactly this place. 

He suggested me not to go anywhere that night and to stay on the gas station. I agreed. This is my sleeping place.

I woke up at 6 a.m. and the guy told me to go to the railway station and take a train to Korinthos. But I'm stubborn, I decided to go to Korinthis by bike. Can't really say anything about that ride, it was just horrible. I rode without a mirror (it was broken before) and didn't feel like making pictures.

This is a pic of pomegranate from that morning, that's all I have.

Driving to Korinthos I was saying myself that if I stay alife I would never drive anymore. From Korinthos I took a train to Kiato, a town on the seashore, where I made me a small campus right in the city. Old man on the gas station presented me a bottle of cold water and I thought maybe it's a good place to stay.

My campus.

I'm resting, the bike is under the tent too. It's very hot, the sea is clean and salty.

Washing in the sea. I took a rope from my tent. fastened it to the stone and tied all dirty clothes to this rope. The stone remains on the bank and I put other stones on it. The surf washes the clothes.

It looks like this. Then the tide began and I slept my clothes through so I had to dive to get it back.

The privet shower. It belongs to the family in the house behind my camp and they switch it on only when they need it. Of course, it was off when I came so I had to cope with 2 bottles which I had.

Neighbours just ignored any attemp to contact with them.

In the meantime, I've got another a neighbor, a fat fisherman with the umbrella. He was constantly looking at me and trying to say something. I wanted to drive to the supermarket, so I went up to him to ask for directions. Instead, he gave me a shopping list and money. I was so surprised and said nothing. In the evening he went home for a cup of coffee and brought me cherries in gratitude. In the store I bought a lot of yogurt and fruit.

In the evening I made a bonfire, my neighbour brought an octopus, maybe he wanted me to fry it but I didn't. Instead I offered him some tea which he didn't like and just poured it on the ground. Then he looked in my eyes and said: "Sex?". I laughed hysterically and he left.

Then I made ​​a sketch for this drawing, went to bed and next day took the local bus to Amaliada. 

Then I spent a week on a farm in Amaliada. Together with Alex we went to Sparta where I celebrated my Birthday. Right now we have to decide how to go on travelling togther cause the bicycle travelig chapter is over. That's sad, of course, but in the other hand it means that something new is about  to come.

It's getting more and more interesting.

Departure from St. Petersburg and transportation of a bicycle by the airplane

Hi!

Mila broadcasting.

So, I have started the unlimited travel. Now I go to Greece, then further to the east. The aim is to travel as long as it's possible.

This is a post about leaving Russia and road adventures on the way to Athens.

28.06.12. I was packing my things and slowly driving mad. My friend Tamara came to help me and we started driving mad together. We loaded my lagguage on Alter Ego (my bike's name), and it looks not so bad. But Tamara is still hezitating if it's gonna work or not.

Calling to the next member of mourners team. Her name is Rezeda and her phone is off.


Rezeda is not available...

Well..I'm going to subway station Primorskaya then by metro to the railway station and then to Moscow.

I packed it as I could. It's first time I removed the wheel: pulled eccentric, unscrewed the brake. I'm a beginner without any experience.

Ready to go. The bike is very light.

We came to the railway station on Vosstaniya square. This is my team eating shaverma (meat-roll) and drinking coffee.

We don't have a special store for bikes in our trains, so I had to put the bike on the uppest shelf where people usually put their lagguage. There was not such shelf above my seat so I used the neighbour's one. But my neighbuor, drunk idiot, didn't want to have it there. So he just put my bike to the second shelf and I had to watch it whole night long, cause the bike was trying to fall down all the time.

Good bye, my lovely Russia!

Arriving to Moscow. I assembled the bike right in the carrige.

My friend boltunist met me in Moscow, showed how to work on the bike, change the wheels etc. He also introduced me to his dog named Eva. This is Eva in a special backpack for driving with the dogs=))

We had a ride, ate and came to Belorussky railway to get a train to Sheremet'evo airport. Here we packed the bike for the flight, wrapping the most important parts into film-heater, which people usually put under the laminate on the floor.


Almost ready. 25m of И уже совсем сложили. 25 м of tape+5 ropes from the tent+ 1m of  film-heater+ a lot of patience.


This is my friend who helped me with the bike. And when I came to the airport one man suggested to help me to carry the bike to the trolley place. Thank you, my friends!


People in the airport were badly surprised to see me with this trolley. They usually made big eyes, saying "Oh my God!" and tried to stay away from me.


Then kind airport workers let me register free. Total weight of baggage: 15 kg bike, 5 kg of bike bag; hand luggage: 6 kg in a backpack and 4 kg bag compression bag of rags.
We are landing in Athens.


I was assembling Alter probably an hour. Damage is minimum - a chain has fallen off.



And  at five o'clock I took off from the airport to Athens by bike. Autobahn was a toll road, I had to ask the way. City begins in three kilometers from the airport, houses are low and scattered everywhere. Somehow I found a local road which is crowling between the mountains. Everybody said, it's 20km, but the bike computer regitered 40km. Late at night I found the house my host from couchsurfing. His name is Murio and he is Brazil. He also travels and hangs at the moment in Greece. 


This is a wonderful view from the window next morning.


That's all about the road to Athens. Next post will be about great time we had there.
=)