A Long Way For A Curry

19/06/25  - Day Thirty-Eight Up and off early this morning, stopping for breakfast in a town square. Sitting and enjoying the bustle of the morning rush hour: kids walking to school, people popping into the shop bakery. A lovely way to ease oneself into a day of cycling. Simply sitting and watching becomes so much more enjoyable and restful than you could conceive otherwise. I explored the next town briefly too, seeing a couple of churches and statues.  I had a leisurely lunch of blogging, gorging on food, swimming and being horizontal. Pretty hot today at 31 degrees so a strong breeze was much enjoyed. I cranked out 40 miles in the afternoon, the only thing breaking rhythm was another pinch puncture. A gorgeous sunset and wash in the river went hand in hand, but only went so far in tending to my weariness and loneliness. As always, tomorrow is a new day!    Hub of activity at 8am       Fallen Austrians of WW1       Baaaaaasshhh   ...

18/06/25  - Day Thirty-Seven Tiring day today but another 60+ miles in the bag. My bike gps ran out of charge so it might have been more like 65 miles. Started the day fairly leisurely taking time to cook some porridge and charge my power bank in the sun. I didn’t sleep well, taking ages to get to sleep due to the nearby road and every so often shocked into full alertness by the train horn. They must have to always use it in that one spot for whatever reason, very jarring, don’t they know I’m trying to sleep here!  Set off excited to get some more miles under my belt and take the afternoon off in Budapest! It was almost like someone had cursed me, as soon after my first break I caught a flat. Again on the inside of the tube. Surely it couldn’t be the rim tape issue like before, I had a new wheel after all. After a quick google it must have been caused this time by pinching when using the tyre levers. With this new wheel the tyre was almost impossible to get off and back on - f...

17/06/25  - Day Thirty-Six Woke to the sound of rain so gladly took a lie in to wait it out. Got away from camp at 9:20, and headed into the nearby town of Komárno. I needed a new chain tool that actually worked, to replace the cheap piece of shit that I had brought with me. After buying a mini chain tool, with spoke keys built in, I set about changing my chain. Luckily, the more-than friendly fella in there walked me through it, no doubt saving me a lot of time and curse words! I then replenished my spare parts - picking up a new chain, quick link, and brake pads. After then stocking up on food as well, I went to the station to use the toilet.  Just opposite the station, I came across quite the scene. Two immensely fat blokes had just been pepper sprayed by two tough looking Slovak police women. The two men cried out in discomfort and I saw another couple of people in the shop who had been sprayed too. A crowd had gathered, and I couldn’t help but laugh a bit. The two fatties...

16/06/25  - Day Thirty-Five The day the rim failed. Broke camp and set off at 8.20am. As I set off this morning I wasn’t too hopeful at what the day would hold. My mood from last night had lingered: I felt flat, low and wasn’t particularly enjoying myself. That’s when I thought to myself, f*ck it, why don’t I just double down and try for 100 miles today. Nothing like a big goal to occupy the mind, push out any room for negative thoughts.  I was still toying with the idea and liking it more and more, when someone greeted me from my left. It was a nice Slovak called Juraj, he was on a short 2/3 day tour of his own. He liked to return from Germany to his homeland often, for bike trips. We spoke for a while about my journey and about the best traditional Slovakian food I must try whilst I was here. Then he powered on ahead. It was shortly after this that I realised the extent of the headwinds behind me. I spun up to 19mph with ease and cruised along. Hell yeah! We’re in for a grea...