Day 1

A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” – Lao Tzu

It was a strange feeling when I left the familiar surrounding that I know from everyday cycling and set my food  (or wheel) in for me unknown territories, bearing in mind that I will return firstly after 2 months living like a tramp.. It remininded me the well-known scene from the Lord of the Rings as Hobbits leave their homeland because Marchegg, the first Austrian town I was passing by, bears with vast fields and the river a striking resemblance to this movie sceene.

Right from the beginning I was nicely surprised with perfectly marked bike routes. At least from Marchegg to Vienna, it was virtually impossible to go astray.

Unfortunately, my travelling started right from the beginning with a serious problem with my knee. To keep you in suspense, let's say for reasons then unkown I got a terible twinge into my right knee every know and then and each move of the knee was acompanied by terrible pain. This started as I arrived in Vienna and I contributed this to the overall fatigue on the first day. Therefore, I went to my favourite Kebab Kiosk to feed, literally. I thought I could eat a horse, but I ate only one kebab and one burek J

Just before leaving Vienna I made a quick break, when an old lady came up to me to asked whether I was not looking for accommodation. She was totally horiffied when I thanked her an said that I am going to stay in a tent for the next two months.

However, the pain in my knee was getting worse and more unrelenting. I did every 5km with an immense endeavour and was seriously afraid that I would have to give up on my fabulous summer advanture.

Later in the evening I was on the brink of total exhaustion.  I passed a huge water power station and at that point I made an ominous mistake: With that last energy I managed to summon, I rode like frenzy for 15km with the slogan „now or never“, unfortunately, the exact opposite direction. That means that instead of continuing, I set my camp 10km on the opposite side of the river from the direction I came.  Having arrived tired as hell, I decided not to build a tent. What a coincidence that 15 minutes after I had lulled myself into a sleep, a big thunderstorm with heavy wind came out of the blue (or in this case would be more suitable to say out of darkness) and sprang a nasty surprise on me. I never knew that I can build a tent so fast. Just in the nick of time I managed to build my shelter and put my luggage into it. 

My bike tent, a marvelous invention as it is, is extremely easy to build and has almost no weight. However, with its only one pole, it proved not to be very stable in strong wind. Therefore, I spent the night holding the tent from inside to prevent the ultimate collapse, until I gave  up the fight 2 hours in the morning. The tent acted like grass in the wind and I got struck with the construction several times. Fortunately it was agile enough and did not break.