Today’s distance / 今日の走行距離: 72.5km
Average speed / 平均速度: 13.8km/h
Time on skateboard / 走行時間: 5h 15m
Max speed: 35.5km/h
I was hoping to get in contact with some Couchsurfing people in Fribourg last night, but unfortunately I only emailed some people yesterday morning. It was far too last minute, and many were not home. However, I did manage to find a secluded spot in a park to sleep for the night – feeling rather too conspicuous in my bright yellow sleeping bag.
The result was that I didn’t sleep too well, and woke in the morning feeling a litte tired already, on top of the fatigue from yesterday. I did need to make it to Offenburg that night however, so I could meet up with Markus, a friend I met through my website. Markus (http://cyclingwithoutborders.wordpress.com/) is planning a Germany to China epic cycling trip for early next year. He came upon my website when looking for resources in his planning. Markus had offered for me to stay at his place, and I was not one to pass that up.
I set out from Fribourg at about 9am, and headed out into the unknowed. I still didn’t have a map of the area, so I was just following road signs. Somewhere in the middle of the day, I ran into a medievial festival in a small town called Kenzingen. The organisers were charging a 2 Euro entry fee into the main street, but I was waved through after I asked whether I was going to have to go around the town to get past.
I must say that at least this part of Germany reminds me a lot of New Zealand, especially Southland. Forested hills, a few pastures. Therefore so far I’m not particularly excited by the surroundings. The German people however make up for this lack of enviromental stimulus. Kind and friendly, they are interested in what I am doing. They take my mind off my yearning to be back in the wide open hostile spaces of Tajikistan.
Now the plan was to get in contact with Markus by the evening, so he would know that I was heading in his direction. However, the whole experience of trying to get in contact with him was a great learning experience. Let me show off my recently acquired knowledge:
If a phone number in Germany has a ‘0’ at the beginning, it means that you have to dail it.
I tried many times to call the number that Markus had given me, but I was always dropping the 0 from it. I always got reponses from the other end from confused German people wondering why I was asking for Markus…
The result was that I couldn’t get in contact with Markus, and ended up sleeping under a bridge. Just as well I was under the bridge; it rained cats and dogs at night.
What's with the guy in the sheepskin?