Rest week & Destination Katowice (Poland) - week 1

The Hallstatt tour proved to be a great test for what was to come. The real thing has began. "Homeless Living" has arrived. It's been 6 days since this trip has started and till now a distance of 240km has been covered. A total of 2,041m have been climbed, but we have left the mountains behind us for now with the past 2 days of cycling mostly at a descent.

When leaving on Friday from Hitzendorf I couldn't feel very much. I had done my goodbyes many times back home; including a surprise "Hello I'm back for a week" in Malta after the Hallstatt Tour.

The final farewell with my parents before the long tour

It was the first time I actually managed to surprise my parents, and being able to witness the different facial expressions on their face as they processed the surprise, was quite an amazing thing.

The week in Malta was very much needed. It gave me some time to process the first tour and prepare mentally for the long one. An opportunity to spend sometime with the family, play guitar, and catch up with some friends.

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It's only been a few days but already the days have started blurring together. We have met very interesting people along the way who have shared much of their experiences with us. All somewhat different in nature, but each story was fascinating to listen to. I wanted to experience a different reality, and TRY to understand the realities of other people. The first week has already given me a great opportunity to do this.

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Hitzedorf to Gleisdorf

Our first night saw us in Gleisdorf, where we were hosted by Martin and Barbara. This couple had 4 children and now all have moved out, so they have now opened their home to travellers. So many stories and experiences were shared by this couple, yet my favourite has to be that of their son Felix and his Unicycle adventure.

Felix travelled for 6 months from Montreal to Mexico City on a unicycle. A frikkin unicycle. If anyone is interested in reading about his adventure you can do so by clicking un the link below. https://www.wienerzeitung.at/meinung/blogs/freitritt/788728-Mit-dem-Einrad-durch-die-USA.html

Breakfast with Martin and Barbara

Thank you Martin and Barbara. I can only hope that I will be able to maintain a life of adventure as I grow older in the same way you 2 have done.

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Gleisdorf to Hartberg

The second night led us to Hartberg where we stayed with Joachim and Tabitha and their 2 children. This family really had a sense of gratitude, and share that which they have with bike travellers. It was great to sleep on their couch after sharing a meal together and a nice chat after the children went to sleep.

With Joachim's family

This was a well needed rest for what was to come our way the following day.

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Hartberg to Aspang-Markt

The third day of cycling was quite a tough one. It may have only been 43.6km but we climbed 875m with some pretty steep gradients. It was very mentally tiring day. Especially for Nadja. It led to a pretty dark moment between us, but I was aware such things would happen when doing such a trip. Days will come where we are tired, hungry, destroyed and just completely feel done for the day. Yet through that darkness we survived and still managed to arrive at our destination in Aspang-Markt where we were greeted by Fritz. [As I had mentioned in the Hallstatt tour posts, we find ourselves hosted so graciously by strangers which we mostly find through Couchsurfing and Warmshowers. These online communities which connect travels with hosts have been so helpful] It was from warmshowers that we found Patricia and Hannes to host us and allow us to camp in their garden even though they were not even home for the first day. This is why we were greeted by Fritz (the father of Hannes).

We finally got to meet them the following day of our arrival and shared some meals with them and finally got to chat a little with the people who allowed us to stay in their garden. Again, such a giving family who were so happy to help in anyway possible. Thank you guys for taking such good care of us, and thank you Hannes for planting the Spartan bug into my head.... let's see what the future hold for me in relation to that.

Breakfast with the Cerny family

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Aspang-Markt to Theresienfeld

https://www.facebook.com/332020307472118/posts/339376106736538?s=526135283&v=e&sfns=mo From this moment till now cycling has been almost too easy. We are on a slow descent from the mountains that were climbed in the first days of the trip. Having said that the sun is adding a factor we didn't have on the first trip. We don't have climbs but we have the heat. It is pretty exhausting just being in the sun for these long hours.

Yes, I am used to long hours training in the heat from the Ironman days, but I was a man on a mission then. Now I am a homeless explorer with the hopes of finding shelter over my head for the coming night.

On arrival at Theresienfeld we were greeted by Alejandro and his wife Michi. These have done their own travels in South America where Alejandro did some video's about his travels while Michi wrote a blog.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCh8r7JsNEgPQoAMQ1VLz9Ew It almost felt like we were staying at "us" in the future.

This cycling day ended with a swim in a lake, and the actual day ended in Alejandro's Batcave.

Alejandro was an independent filmmaker who has now decided to change his career and continue to follow his passion related cinema and movies by opening his own store of action figures. When he showed me his collection it was rather breathtaking. I wish you luck on your business venture Alejandro and please send me pictures as it continues to develop.

Alejandro and Michi

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Theresienfeld to Essling Another hot day of cycling brought us into Vienna and we arrived at our host in the outskirts of Vienna. We took our time to arrive and rested from the sun whenever we felt necessary. It's quite a nice experience stopping by the ride of the road on a bench to have a lunch break. Very different lifestyle then I'v lived my whole life.

It was an interesting contrast from, cycling in such quiet areas to finding ourselves back into busy city life.

City life approaches

We were lucky enough to be hosted by Kathy, who we met through her boyfriends profile on couchsurfing. She was very sweet in accepting to take us in and introduce us to her 3 cats. Zizo, Zoe, and Pixie. She lives very close to Vienna yet you wouldn't think so considering how quiet the area was. In fact I am writing this post from within her home :).

5am wake up call with the attacking of the feet from Zizo

Post breakfast photoshoot with Kathy

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It has been an interesting week to start the long tour and I am rather happy with the way things are unfolding. Tomorrow will be our last day in Austria before entering Czech Republic. A new "milestone" in this adventure.