This is was where we slept the first night at Slovakia.
And now some photos of the entire route through Slovakia:
Monthly Archive for July, 2006
It took time for everybody to wake up after the shortest niht of a year, because some people didn’t sleep till the dawn. But sooner or later, after having breakfast and packing up, we started cycling. The first part of a trip was through the forest, until we reached a place called „Maldziunai“ - extremely beautiful landscape – hills, hills, hills. And then the GRAVEL road started, and the rest of the way was like this
(up&down ~~~~~~~ up&down).
Delicious lunch? (bread, humus (?), tomatoes, hah, hah), little bit of cycling and here we are, in our sleeping place near the lake „ZVERNAS“. The process of preparing supper was as pleasant as the supper 
„thank you for the food,
thank you for the food,
it’ healing, it’s healing,
it’s healing us“
„aciu uz maista, aciu uz maista
jis gydo, jis gydo,
jis gydo mus“.
As well:
COMMUNICATION. That’s the best thing.
… read on in the handwriting …
23.6
restin day…? ?sleeping,? ?talking circle,? ?washing clothes..? ?midsummer night:
walking through the wood to a very special place.? ?People with flower-garlands in their hair.? ?Village with two houses..? ?rive,? ?flower meadows…? ?I really loved that place.? ?A place where I could stay.? ?The nature very powerful..
But..? ?drunk people around the fire..jokes…? ?different energies,? ?expectations.? ?Beautiful Lithuanian songs.? ?Dancing.? ?Fire show,? ?rain,? ?tea and cookies waiting for the morning to come.? ?20? ?min to? ?4? ?the liht is coming.? „?You are not supposed to sleep in that night?“
It was very beautiful to see pople? ?of our group with beautiful flower garlands?! ?Pictures..? ?Fun..
22nd June
dear diary-reader,
as you know gravity is not a friend of the bike tourer when she’s not doing her best to pull us to the painful ground at inconvenient times, she sees fit to keep us from ever reaching „the top of the hill“. This mythical place is always right round the bend or just a little bit further.
It is with these heavy thoughts that we were confronted with Lithuania’s rolling countryside. A series of hilly roads stretched before us like the many arched back of a great serpent reaching from hell. On, and on, and on, we went to Moletai for some fine Svyturys beer which eased the pain and set our appetite up for the local dumplings called „koldunai“, tasty indeed!
From there we met Andrius, who brought us on a trip around the Labanoras national park. This trip, and the resulting cycle to the sleeping place shall not be commented upon this writer! This is because a, they won’t let me write bad words and b, I’m trying to forget it for sanity’s sake. I’m sure somebody more forgiving will fill in the details but basically we saw a tree or to then played russian-roulette -cycle. It wasn’t all bad, - when we eventually arrived at a biketour recrd breaking hour, a big pot of soup was made and an old biketour friend, Iarden, was waiting for us with baclava. Cheers mate!
22.6
MAGICAL TREES
This area of the many lakes is beautuful.? ?We w22nd June
dear diary-reader,
as you know gravity is not a friend of the bike tourer when she’s not doing her best to pull us to the painful ground at inconvenient times,? ?she sees fit to keep us from ever reaching? „?the top of the hill?“?.? ?This mythical place is always right round the bend or just a little bit further.
It is with these heavy thoughts that we were confronted with Lithuania’s rolling countryside.? ?A series of hilly roads stretched before us like the many arched back of a great serpent reaching from hell.? ?On,? ?and on,? ?and on,? ?we went to Moletai for some fine Svyturys beer which eased the pain and set our appetite up for the local dumplings called? „?koldunai?“?,? ?tasty indeed?!
From there we met Andrius,? ?who brought us on a trip around the Labanoras national park.? ?This trip,? ?and the resulting cycle to the sleeping place shall not be commented upon this writer?! ?This is because a,? ?they won’t let me write bad words and b,? ?I’m trying to forget it for sanity’s sake.? ?I’m sure somebody more forgiving will fill in the details but basically we saw a tree or to then played russian-roulette? ?-cycle.? ?It wasn’t all bad,? ?-? ?when we eventually arrived at a biketour recrd breaking hour,? ?a big pot of soup was made and an old biketour friend,? ?Iarden,? ?was waiting for us with baclava.? ?Cheers mate?!?aited long in? ?….? ?and then we started a beautiful guided tour through the forest…? ?sacred trees and lakes.?
It was a very special place..? ?riding between two lakes in the evening sun?! ?In reality they are one lake?! ?Andrew the guide told us magical stories about that place?!
The horn-peninsula..? ?where the witches dance in midsummer night.? ?A very special pine-tree.? ?I had the impression that I could feel the spirits..? ?and this tree…sitting under it..? ?gave me so much love and warm feelin..? ?I wish to come back to tis place to have a women-dance-celebration.? ?The energy of this place made me dance&sing..? ?the beauty..? ?the power..? ?flowing..? ?beeing..? ?feeling my witch-power,? ?my female crazy beeing?!
„the spirit of the sun comes to me in the form of a beautiful dancin golden woman.
And her eyes fill me with peace.? ?Her dance fills me with bliss.?“
that’s the song that fits perfect to this horn of witches..
?„?Ask the fishermen if you want to know mre about the magic that is happening at that place?!“
WOLVES TREE.? ?Our ride is going on to the nxt magical tree!if you want to get a child? & ?it does not work you can pass through the tree?!
(I was dreamingabout children the night after.? ?I hope that did not work for me?)
Feelingthat tree gave me a lot of clarity.? ?I came down from the crazy witch dancing..? ?to a soft,? ?clear,? ?lovn mind.? ?Maybe the tree is like an understanding mother? & ?father.
HEALING OAK.
The third tree we visited was a? ?300? ?year old oak,? ?that is supposed to take our illness.? ?You touch it and you can give one illnsss you have to the oak.? ?But if you touch twice you get aother illness back.
That tree was very strong.? ?Respectful.? ?Let’s see if we could leae our illnesses there??
(riding?) ?cycling? ??? ?in darkness on gravel? & ?sand..? ?new experience.? ?Good night dinner?! ?Soup?
21st of June (Wednesday)
Dear diary-reader,
it’s funny how such simple delights can start your day in a good humour. This morning I actually awoke to find my tent in the shade and not under blistering Lithuanian Sun! What a relief to have slept well. Cream cakes made a change to our breakfast diet and all was washed down with coffee and pear cider in the delightful company of Kristina (the blonde) ).
a brief riverside meeting resulted in an impromtu cleaning action and the rubbish was turned into a work of „art“ by biketours resident sculptor Rikardus. On our way to our sleeping place we stopped near Anyksciai to see the Puntukas stone. A large carved rock which is as impressive as it sounds.
Our sleeping place was at the country tourism home „Vilkes namai“ owned by a young couple Tomas, Roberta and their daughter Cornelia. Biketour food has apparently become so well renowned that the neighbours came around for dinner. Lithuanian potato cakes were on offer, after a long days cycle they went down a treat!
Some foolish biketourers made a vain effort to dissolve their layers of grime in the sauna. This unfortunately left them exposed to the squadrons of dive bombing mosquitoes from the local swamp. A wise man once said „Put your tent up, you slaft hugger!“ and it was so sheltered that I drifted off to sleep amidst sounds of slapping and swearing. Ha Ha! (Nelson from the „Simpsons“ voice).
20-06 dear diary,
We are now in the centre of Panevezys, where just finished our first (almost) action on this tour. Pictures are still hanging on string, people are organizing lunch, somebody is trying to change the money. It seems that there was no initial ice of biketour ever, when people are still a bit unsure about the whole crazy idea to cycle all the way, everyone seems relaxed and enjoying themselves. Crazy,? that I am writing this, I should be may be describing my own feelings :). Well, I feel home. Home in Lithuania, and home in the biketour. Home with my family. Happy family. Caring family. Ever increasing and changing one. Also I am very very happy that I got to know so many nice and open Lithuanians.
This is was where we slept the first night at Poland.
And now some photos of the entire route through eastern Poland:
