I stopped here as a guest and ended up staying on as staff. When I arrived a small notice on the hostel whiteboard read: ‘Help needed! 20 hours work per week in exchange for bed and breakfast’. My legs and head felt tired from three months on the move, the Euro 2012 football championships were kicking off in a matter…

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As you may have noticed, I have recently neglected to update the website. Sorry about that. The reason for this lapse in blogging (other than laziness, which let’s face it, is the real reason) is that I haven’t spent the last 5 weeks cycling. Instead, I’ve worked at a hostel in the Polish Tatra mountains. Tomorrow, I will upload a…

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After spending 5 days in rainy Krakow I made the executive decision to put Ukraine on hold and explore the Tatra Mountains in the very south of Poland. This meant cycling to Zakopane, dubbed the ‘winter capital of Poland’. I made it, and now, accomodated cosily in a small wooden cabin hostel in the mountains, I’m settling into a routine…

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When I arrived in Warsaw I thought I’d be back on my bike in a few days time. The plan changed though. Seven days later, at 7am, I wheeled my bike and baggage out of an apartment in a different city altogether barely able to take in the latest episode of my cycle odyssey (the Williad as my brother James…

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This week I cycled several hundred kilometers from Vilnius to Warsaw in temperatures that had me wishing for the Scandinavian snowstorms of a month ago. Every day except one has surpassed 30 degrees celcius, the cool wind that blew in the Baltics has disappeared and the so-called fridges in the Polish supermarkets barely get the Coke cold. I want to…

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