Weekend trip to Usedom. Day 2. Somewhere - Military Restricted Area

On second day (Saturday) we fucking cycled 136 kms. New record for 60% of the group members and the reason why at least 20% of the legs still hurt.
As in every group formed by 5 guys, the day started with fights about size:

- Mine is bigger!
- No way! look at this.
- Uh. Yours is huge, can I touch it?

Spiders in this case, but we definitely need some women next time. Just in case.

We had a wonderful breakfast in a picnic table that we found next to where we had been sleeping. All kind of stuff, including peanut butter (yes, there was a guy from the States in the group. Peanut butter proves it), vegetarian burritos, cheese, etc...

With some delay, we started cycling direction North. The first half of the day was too wet. Football socks can become fucking heavy in this circumstances. Fortunately there is always a Netto, Penny or Lidl where you can buy socks. Yes, advertisement for free! You can complain in the comments below. At some point we stopped under a bridge to dry, change, eat and drink. Someone suggested to sleep under a bridge at night. I thought about myself sending an sms to my mother: "Mom, everything is going well in Germany. I'm sleeping under a bridge, but hopefully tomorrow will get better".

 

(The two guys on the right aren't family)

Well, at some point the weather improved and we had a very pleasant tour. Everything was working cool. We checked the map and found a big forest perfect for finding a good camping spot. Just the small detail that, as we discovered there, it was a military restricted area, where none of us was planning to spend the night. So, we kept pedaling, broke the distance record and finally crossed the forest. First path we saw into some trees we followed and finally found an acceptable camping spot. We could see a couple of houses in the distance, but we were protected enough.

We put the tents on, changed some clothes and started with dinner. Some hot soup, bread, cheese, sausages, peanuts... and for dessert: the cheapest whisky you can probably find. It was kind of undrinkable until we mixed it with 2 lemons. But it became awesome after adding clove and warming it up!

Weekend trip to Usedom. Day 1. Berlin - Somewhere

Beginning of the day. Weather is shitty, but the A team members are reliable and we are on time. We can finish the last details and check our equipment. The bikes could be in better conditions, but being their first trip, I'm sure it could be worst. Scheduled departure time 15:30. Real departure 15:22. Fucking impressive: we are more germans than the germans.

We have a small incident crossing a wet wooden bridge, luckily nothing serious. And we take the chance to leave a message for Team B.

We also get lost a couple times, even when we have a map, a compass and at least one smartphone. Signs could be better someone says.

It's much worse in our countries the other replies. Both are too right to discuss and we keep cycling. Mudguards prove to be a nice extra in any bike, we agree on that.

We are already late in our schedule, but the essential delay happens when we end up in a medieval wedding next to Marianenwelde testing our aim with bow and arrows and talking to the groom's daughter.

It's a pity she doesn't want to camp with us. There is also a gentleman that serves us honeywine in really big glasses, medieval weddings are awesome.

Before we are to drunk to shoot or drive, half of the B team arrives and updates us about his journey. The rest of the team will arrive earlier than expected. They are the pros.
At some point our glasses are empty and there is no daylight anymore. Seems like a good time for finding a spot to camp, the second attempt is good and after setting our tents up, we start snoring. Hopefully, with a smart tent distribution and supported by earplugs, everybody slept well.

GPS technology

Here is another perspective of the weekend to the Ostsee, with our GPS mapped and everything!

http://marchingabout.blogspot.de/2012/07/to-ostsee-from-berlin.html

What all this bike touring has to do with bikesurfing, I have no idea. In my defense, it shows just how much fun cycling about and away from Berlin can be.

Will not be lazy and will update blog with pics and a story or two from the trip :-)

In search of adventure up north.

Two of the posse on our trip to Usedom at the start of our voyage north from Berlin, in what would turn out to be a wonderful and event-filled weekend of biking, camping, archery, honigwein, medieval wedding, fortunate circumstances and mishaps but with no epic fails!

Tired now, will post more details on the morrow, good sirs.

Stay tuned to this channel for this tale of high adventure in a rain-swept land.

John goes on a short excursion

Will be heading off to Insel Usedom for the weekend, naturally enough with my bike. Email correspondence for those requesting bikes will resume on my return - Monday 16th.

Thankfully, I have combination locks, which means that bikes will be picked up as normal at weekend! The bikes are self-organising... Well, not quite... Yet ;-)

Don't miss me too much.

Spread word of the project to far flung lands :-)

Karma Rules!

Do you know what Karma is? For different perspectives you can check the Wikipedia definition, watch My name is Earl, or read this post.

For me, Karma means that when you do good things, these things come back to you. And the same when you are an idiot. I don't see it from a super phylosophical point of view, for me is probably simpler. It's just that when you are nice, people tend to be nice with you. And this is what happened yesterday.

I found the picture at http://zentao.wordpress.com/2011/10/21/gutes-karma-schlechtes-karma/

I went to Friedrichshain to collect an old bike from a Couch Surfer. The frame is broken, but most of the other parts are in very good condition, so I will find the way to use them. I was talking with Sam (the CSer) and he told me we are going in a bike trip together this weekend. Wow, I didn't know it was you, blablabla.. :) At the end Sam gave me his old panniers (I had to buy ones for this weekend) and I came back home happily with the old bike and my new-old panniers.

When I was back home, Sqgl (another CSer) came. He had to give me a bike back, and he wanted to have a talk and a drink. So we went to a bar next to my place, had two beers and a cool chat. We meet another CSer that just brought another bike back and a Sqgl's friend. At the end, a very nice almost spontaneous meeting.

When I came back home, I got a message and I was invited for dinner!! Daya (my new indian friend) wanted to cook for me and some friends, because he wants to borrow a bike in the future: Excellent food, nice talks, some beers more and then back home.

At the end of the day, John Black got new-old panniers, some beers and excellent Indian food. And even mor important, a nice day surrounded by nice people. Maybe this is Karma.

And it is not that I lend my bikes to the world for having something in exchange, but in days like yesterday, it just feels really cool to give and to receive.

JB loves you, you love JB ;)

All is going according to plan.

Now that the combination locks have been introduced, I have been under less pressure to cycle back to the house to make meeting with the CouchSurfer who has requested the bike. The system is becoming a bit more streamlined from a logistical point of view.
Zum Beispiel: Take today, three bike collections but a very personally a busy day. Previously, this would have caused:
a) me ; stress, to be back in time for every pick up
b) me ; more stress, as I waited for people to show up - ongoing problem of punctuality in these pick-ups
c) possibly fewer bikesurfed days; if I was unable to co-ordinate a mutually suitable time for pick-up
d) the Couchsurfer ; inconvenience having to show up at a certain time

HOWEVER...
Did not have to be here for any pick-ups, just let them know where the bikes would be, the combination on the locks and what the bikes looked like and BINGO! all collected when I returned home this evening.

Also got the promise of two more bikes joining the system in the coming weeks.... always helps when I get this type of tangible encouragement :-)

Bikes4ever