Time flies when your cycling

Dobredan!

Thats Good day in Slovenia and Thank you is Hvala <3 I really like this word. In Czech and Slovakian Good day is Dobri (dan) so quite similar, in Finnish this would be "Hyvää päivää" which at least for me sounds quite old fashioned but we also use"päivää" which I guess is then "dobri". In Czech "hello" for younger people and friends is "Ahoj", I really liked to use it because it sounds like a pirate "ahoj, all in board" so I used it with everyone until one day I was having my pasta dinner By a lake and an older woman was walking her dog and I happily greeted her, when she started to say things in Czech to me from where I could understand that I shouldnt say ahoj but dobridan to her and I was just smiling like an idiot at her. After that I knew the difference :D In Hungary "jonapot" is hello and "köszönöm" thank you, "cheers" is a bit more difficult "egészségére"...try saying that! For me its been important to know even these words, just to make a connection in supermarket or on the road.

Its too long from the last post and believe me when I tell you that a lot has happened and I dont want to waste one whole day in Ljubljana to sit and write about it so ill make it shorter and use more pictures (click on the picture for a better quality). After Germany, my mood started to be better and I didint feel like an alien anymore when entering the local Lidl or cycling trhu small villages, I felt more powerful, more detached from my feelings of loneliness and its easier with everyday.

I hafty say that I didint really get a clear picture of Czech Republic, its beautiful but time went by so fast and I had three warmshower hosts from which Alex in Brno actually is German/Russian and Luca in Prague is Italian, only Lucas in Kolin is from Czech and he was supper nice with hes girlfriend Sunny :)

Luka from Prague

Prague

I couldnt finnish this :D

A bit controversial..homeless and bridal pics

Lucas from Kolin

Alex from Brno

Vegan treat :D 

Czech soda..not my thing :D 

Alex cooked me a super meal <3

Yes!

Yes mom. I eat :p

The driving culture in Czech Republic is quite crazy and I didint feel comfortable at all driving with cars, the drivers use their "car punk" a lot, even just to hunk when your cycling in the road (which is the only road to reach my destination) to let you know that its not ok for them. I dont advice cycling in Prague because the infrastucture is not yet cycling friendly and the roads are these old brick roads but Prague is a beautiful city and I had a great time hanging out with Luka who recently moved there from Italy.

Most beautiful part of Czech Republic was definetely the south with small mountains and wine yeards <3

After this it started to be quite hot everyday which makes it tougher to cycle because even if you drink a lot of water, it just goes right thru you. I added salt and lemon to the water so it actually helps more. First stop in Slovakia was a lake 70km before Rudava, super nice and safe.

Then after two days to Bratislava. Its a cute city with amazing views of Tonava river (Donau) and I had a great host Milan who is also a cyclists and let me stay in his appartment with two other cyclists even thou he wasnt at home <3 Thank you Milan and also Romain and Agathe from France, such a lovely couple.

Tonava

Ice cream in every country :p

Fell down

Blue church in Bratislava

Milan from Bratislava

Best way to pack your lunch

Yes!

Next Budapest

The next day I started cycling to Budapest and the road was perfect, Tonava looks more like a sea then river because its so wide. Beach almost all the way to Budapest, so many good wild camp places that I allmost stayed for one night more before Budapest :D Actually my plan in the beginning was to cycle in three days from Bratislava but the road and wind was so good that it went in two days and I got one extra day in Budapest (80km+120km). Here I had a hostel bed for one night and warmshower place at Andis who is a lovely women (I forgot to take a pic :/) with small appartment that she wanted to share and im super grateful for this. Shes also a cyclists, obviously, for her 100km is easy :D

Lunch By Donau

Swimming break at Donau

Border of Hungary

Met some friends <3

Budapest

Ghetto mass grave

I didint like to cover myself so I called it superwoman 

From Budapest I cycled to Lake Balaton, which was a dissapointment because even with a great cycling route everything around the lake is privatised because of the government. I had two wild nights and then two nights at an amazing place 10km from Balaton, I was sleeping in Fridrikas garden literally 5m from a vineyard :P This is the poing when the scenary started to be mindblowing and now in Slovenia it just gets better all the time <3 I like Hungary and the people I met, its quite relaxed and its not so serious. Its a cheap country compared to Finland and there is a big gap between Poor and wealthy people, when your cycling trough a country you really See it all, so much more then normal tourists. I feel really blessed and I wish Finnish people learned to give more, to share and open their self more to the surroundings.

At Fridrika and Zisu

Lovely couple on the border of Hungary and Slovenia

Snail invaasion in my tent

Snail.yack.

Now im In Ljubljana, Slovenia and I really like it. Slovenia has only around 2,2miljon inhabitants which was a surprise for me (yes, I didint do my homework before leaving), its super beautiful but harder to cycle. After two days of mountains and one city day of walking my legs were shaking in the evening, tomorrow ill start slowly heading to Kranska Gora which has HIGH mountains. I might die. Slowly but happy :D

At Mancas <3

What comes to Riding for Hope, theres still 5 days left to donate and now we have 490 euros from the minimum of 1000 euros so im still hopefull. I dont know why the campaign isnt working this year and why there are less donors, its the same cause and just as important. Maybe you can tell me if im doing something wrong or why you feel like not being apart of the campaign? :) Well ill be happy eitherway, at least I tried and more important at least I experienced something amazing <3

Well Szia for now and next time ill write from Italy.

Ps. Im visiting a local ngo in Bologna and ill interview them about trafficking in women, prostitution in Italy. That will be super interesting!

Laura
Riding for Hope