Lucky encounters (Norrköping)

My room in Björnalunda Vandrarhem. Cosy, don't you think?

It was a day full of rain and deserted roads, but not without its rewards. Had a reasonably early start as I wanted to make sure I would not miss the milonga in Norrköping. Judging by the map that only displays distances between bigger towns, it would be a little over 100km to where I wanted to go -not impossible but certainly no piece of cake either, at this stage.

I ended up spending the whole day, with only one proper break, in the saddle. It was just as well, as the rain that had been just a drizzle in the morning steadily accelerated into a true downpour by the time I got close to my destination. Luckily, though, I had the wind in my favour, so even the uphills seemed easy. In addition, I had some pleasant surprises such as finding an amazing abundance of wild strawberries by the roadside.

Riding into Norrköping just before 5 in the afternoon I had just enough time to find the milonga. Fortunately, the Work Museum where it was held turned out to be a well-known sight (who would have guessed?), housed in an old building next to a fast-flowing river right in the centre of town. I got there just in time, and straight away bumped into people whom I had met in other milongas elsewhere. How small the tango world is!



The milonga lasted unfortunately only 2 hours, but thanks to a wonderful introduction by Richard, a tango friend from Tango Frostbite, I got to dance the whole time. It really is amazing how much energy one gets from tango:there I was, having spent the whole day cycling, wet and cold, and yet the moment the music started i was full of the glow that always overwhelms me when I dance.

And the surprises were not over:before I knew it, the locals had arranged for me to stay with Zlata, a lovely lady from former Yugoslavia. Am writing this in my cosy and warm bed, having had a wonderful meal and girl-to-girl talk with Zlata, along with some rakija (plum spirits) to ward off a sore throat. What a great place the tango world can be!

Comments

  1. Mari20/06/2011, 16:58

    Hi,

    here again, my apologies. I did send the text last night from my mobile phone, but only got to check now... only to notice I had used the wrong address. From now on, however, it should go right. Am just about to leave Linköping, on my way to Jönköping. Will post more soon.
    Love, mari

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Paris, finally!

Image
Paris. Here I am, after all those weeks on the road, at the End of this Road. And I Love It: The city is lovely, the weather is beautiful, the people are friendly and the dancing is good. Most importantly, though, I feel really good about the achievement that took most effort in the very beginning and the last few days. As a matter of fact, I did get here already Friday evening, but time has just passed in such a blur that I simply have not had the time to sit down and write about it. Even as I write this (at 4 am on Sunday morning, having just returned from a milonga), I am about to fall asleep while seated, so I will need to be brief. On Friday morning, I had an early start from Peronne, and despite the minor (?) logistical problem of a 40-km stretch missing from my maps (funny, considering that they were the neighbouring pages of a series of maps) managed to cover most of the remaining distance without getting lost. This changed, however, the moment I got into the...
Read more

Getting into the swing of it (Pärnu)

Well, after two days of cycling I have both good and bad news. The good news is that very little seems to have changed for me in terms of travelling this way. Yesterday, although getting out of Tallinn was as stressful as leaving a strange city on a fully-loaded touring bike always is, I quickly noticed that indeed, I had not forgotten how to do this. Nor did the little over 100 km I covered both yesterday and today seem impossible to do, although the last 20 km certainly took some willpower. One thing that has greatly eased my settling into the right mindset is the fact that my Dad is accompanying me for a few days in his camper van. This means that not only do I have a soft mattress to sleep on and someone to pay my meals (;-), most importantly, there is someone to encourage me on (in his case, this means trying to get me to put the bike on the van and driving with him instead of cycling, something that I obviously wont do :-). All this works in my favour, as does being able to get...
Read more

The charm of the Danube (Vác)

And so, after 10 days of cycling, I am now almost within shouting distance of Budapest. What remains is 35 km of winding bike track, hugging the side of the now slowly, almost dreamily flowing river. The sky has a few scattered clouds that at this hour (11am) still offer some shelter from the heat that is set to climbing up to 40 degrees as the day progresses. Knowing there would be little escape from the sun, I set off from the campsite at 7, stopping in the centre of Esztergom only long enough to get some groceries for breakfast. A minor problem arose at the campsite reception, when the same guy who had refused to charge me when I arrived last night, saying I would have to wait until the morning, now said the reception would only open at 9. Now this was Far too late for me, as it would mean I would have to cycle the whole 80 kms in the already merciless heat. So, what to do? I simply put on my tour leader mode, the one that was once needed to keep my safari staff operational, ...
Read more