Mari Travels with Tango

The Finnis word 'sisu' is hard to translate, as it consists of maybe 1/6 guts, 1/3 persistence but for the most part, just refusing to give up. The past couple of days have been an enormous battle due to an almost stormlike headwind,and without a fair portion of sisu I think I would have just put the bike on the train. Instead, my progress has been at best modest and mostly snail-like. I have tried to console myself by the fact that it is still at least a little faster than walking! Yesterday,after an arduous day of dodging storm clouds and trying to not fight the wind but just accept it, I had a lovely surprise when Elzbieta,the owner of the campsite I was staying at in Wagrowiec invited me to the local water park/spa where we spent a lovely couple of hours soaking ourselves in the jacuzzi. However,the best part by far was the Finnish sauna that made me feel a bit homesick for the first time on this trip. Today,all my sisu could only get me here,so Berlin tomorrow is ve...

  The view to the lake in the morning. One of the things that makes travelling by bike so interesting is that as you find solutions to some problems and get used to hardships, new ones arise. This morning, I woke up to the sound of distant thunder, but felt reasonably confident that it wouldn't really affect me. After all, the dark clouds were clearly far away, and the almost constant thunder made it seem obvious that the storm would blow itself out before reaching the lakeside where my tent was pitched. Little did I know. Only half an hour later, and *just* as I had managed to pack up my tent and my bags, the first, heavy droplets started to fall. No matter, I thought, and calmly left my bags under a tree and took cover under the roof of the only building in the campsite, a tiny cottage. And not a minute too soon: For the next half an hour, I was in the middle of the wildest, most violent thunderstorm I have ever experienced. I am not scared of thunder as such, but it did o...

A re-sending as the previous one failed. Thus, this post is actually from Sunday, July 28. Date: 28. heinäkuuta 2013 20:42:00 GMT+0000 Subject: About attachment and letting go (Ilawa,PL) After a wonderful two days of floating on a cottonwool cloud produced by lovely company, delicious food, long hours of sleep and beautiful dancing, leavin Olsztyn today was really difficult. Despite all my years travelling and the constant practice due to tango, I am not getting any better in letting go of people, places or memories. On the contrary, each good-bye seems a little more difficult than the previous ones. It feels almost as if there was only a certain amount of faith in all of us,and as years go by,the reserves run low. Indeed, every time it feels that I leave a piece of me with the person I am saying good-bye to,and there is less and less of me left. And still, I continue on this trip that is turning out quite different from all my previous ones. Today,the tropically hot weat...

One of my favourite quotes, from the movie "Out of Africa' states: " Perhaps the earth was made round so we couldn't see too far ahead". This is very apt, as in my life and especially on these trips things can (and do) change very quickly. After the previous days' hardships, I was more than a little apprehensive about setting out from Olecko, but somewhere at the back of mind still hoped to make the 165 km to Olsztyn in one day. I have covered that sort of distances in the past, but with a lot more training under my belt and ideal conditions. This time, I had only a vague idea what the terrain or weather would be like, and knew that a more realistic goal would be somewhere around the usual 110 km mark. Riding on an unfinished highway, surely the widest bike lane I will ever have! :-) Just as the previous day had been full of bad omens, things that made me irritable and discontented, this morning I seemed to notice only sights that made me smile. There ...

 Fixing a puncture for the second time in a day, not amused. On every trip, there comes a day when I regret the whole idea of travelling by bike. Usually, it has come after persistent bad weather, interminable uphills or some emotional upheaval that have taken the wind out of my sails. This time, it started innocently enough,when my departure from Kaunas amidst heavy traffic made me turn into a smaller road. The shrapnels of metal I found buried in my tyres. Miraculously, only those in the front tyre had caused a puncture. The road soon turned into a sandy track that got steadily softer,making the bike skid and slowing the speed to almost walking pace. Refusing to backtrack, next I arrived to the worst corrugated surface one can imagine. When I finally got back to tarmac,it was clear I would not make it past Marijampole,where I had to check into a motel. In Suwalki after getting a new front tyre, ready to carry on again. Today,getting to the Polish border only ...

Although I'd like to think of myself as a rolling stone, but the truth is, I am a lazy bugger. Staying in one place for more than a couple of nights, I immediately start to grow roots, and the moment of moving on seems to be getting harder as years go by. Looking back, I remember those years travelling in Africa, when every morning I was eager to get to know new places, meet new people, discover new sides to myself. Now, it seems that every departure makes me feel a little more weary, and yes, lonely. The past weekend was a lovely one: I spent it at Nida Tango Retreat on the Baltic coast, with a bunch of great people. There was a good amount of dancing too with daily and nightly milongas, but this time, the best part of the experience was the carefree, lazy time I spent with my friends outside the dance floor. Indeed, there was so much fooling around, joking, talking and laughing that I felt it was more therapy than dancing! The place itself is breathtaking: a long, narrow p...

 Just arrived in Kaunas, happy to get off the bike and escape the impending rain. With two and a half days of cycling in Lithuania now behind me, I can safely say my fears about entering the unknown were unfounded. First of all, it turned out that the road I followed was the very same one I had been on many times on my bus rides to Vilnius, and thus, for most of the way, I was travelling through quite familiar scenery. In some funny way, this already made me feel much better about this part of the trip.  Daiva and Kees, the hosts of the lovely campsite in Pajiesmeniai. True, the Via Baltica is certainly a very busy road, with hundreds of trucks passing me every day, and with a lot of cars hurtling by at breakneck speed. Still, the shoulder that had seemed so narrow seen from the bus was actually pretty wide most of the way, and the state of the road was mostly good or even excellent, meaning that passing traffic could easily leave a lot of space between us. And for...

Funny how the human mind works. As I have been to Riga so often in and even by bicycle it is my third time here, it does not really feel like I am abroad at all. However, this morning I am finally heading into 'uncharted waters' (not literally, of course), when my route takes me towards the South and the Lithuanian border. And once again, I am feeling nervous about it. Although this time I have spent only two nights in Vita`s comfy flat on Bruninieku street, I am finding it really hard to move on. Perhaps, it is partly due to the memories of my previous attempt at cycling southwards from Riga: 4 years ago, on my long trip to Croatia, I contracted a stomach bug in Riga and was unable to ride my bike for several days. Thus, I got a lift with my Dad about 100 km into Lithuania. Now, despite all those cycle trips in between, in my mind, the road out of Riga is a really difficult one. My stay in Riga this time was quite different from previous ones too. As opposed to all the oth...

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...

With Wenla in my Dad's camper van. Oh, such luck I had today. The strongest and warmest imaginable North wind carried me a full 120km here from Parnu, and I was actually ready to carry on all the way to Riga. Fortunately, my Dad got me out of it, as this lovely campsite on the sandy beach is just what my soul needed to really get into the holiday mood. The riding is already really effortless, and even the dreaded A1 Highway that had seemed so scary a couple of years ago was now totally manageable, with trucks giving me a wide berth when overtaking. On the beach in Laučakmens, contemplating letting go. While cycling, I had ample time go think about my favourite thing: the embraces I get through tango. Their memory would have been enough to get me through the strongest of headwinds, but with the wind in my favour, I felt like the luckiest girl alive. Tomorrow, I only have another 60 km to Riga, and am already awaiting the lovely milonga at Balta Pirts.

Yep, this is it: My bags are packed, the rearview mirror fastened, the camelbak water backpack filled to the brim... In a few minutes, I'll be out of the door and on my way. Cannot describe how apprehensive I am feeling, although at the same time, extremely eager to get going. The thing that's making me worried is that as opposed to all those other trips, this time I am physically really unprepared. Before, I had been continuously on my bike the whole year round, making all my journeys to work by bike, cycling through the worst winter months. Now, it is almost two years since I did any long-distance biking, and basically have not trained at all! Last night, chatting with my friend Kaari, she commented how she would otherwise like to do a similar trip, except that she doesn't know if she could put up with the cycling. In all honesty, I had to reply that I don't know if I can either!!! :-D But yes, despite all the reservations, I really want to do it. And the only w...

Waking up this morning, the Riga Tango Fiesta now behind me, I am getting into the philosophical mood that tango travelling always creates in me. Slightly hung-over from last nights winedrinking with my dear Friend Vita, I found myself drifting in and out of wakefulness, and contemplating the state of mind that this weekend has generated in me. Firstly, I must say that it was refreshingly devoid of the emotional upheavals that have become almost a trademark of my tango trips. This time around, I was not alternating between moments of torture and bliss, but instead, found myself on a steady, gently undulating wave of contentment. One big factor is indeed the Riga tango community itself: As I have been visiting this place so often in the past couple of years, I am starting to feel almost like a local, but with the benefits of not being around all the time. People seem genuinely happy to see me, I get a lot of invitations to dance, and feel very accepted as I am. For some reason, I am...

 Leaving work. Despite (or perhaps because of) my careless attitude, the departure from Helsinki did not run quite as smoothly as I was hoping. After finishing my shift at the cafe, I loaded the bike, bid my farewells and started riding towards the harbour in the loveliest summer weather that Finland can give. The skies were clear, the soft wind warm and every person on the street smiling, almost incredulous that the summer seems to continue. However, only a hundred meters after my smiling departure I ran into trouble: upon changing into the smallest (so-called baby) front ring, the new chain got completely jammed and I barely managed to keep from crashing into the roadside. Damn, I thought, will need to be more careful! Climbed off the bike, disentangled the chain that had come derailed from the ring, and carried on. However, when a km later, upon starting the steep climb into the boat the same thing happened, I realised something is not right with the bike. This is more th...

Although leaving things to the last moment is my trademark, this time I have really outdone myself: Waking up this morning at 6 am, I still had not packed NOR even thought very much about what I was going to take along on this journey. Bearing in mind that I only had 2 hours before I had to leave for work made it all the more poignant that now was the time to act. However, the first half an hour I just gazed drowsily at the heaps of stuff I had carelessly tossed on my bed, and must admit that for a moment, it did seem hopeless. Before However, this is where routine helps. All those previous bike trips put me in an almost automated mode, and an hour and a half later, all the stuff is packed in my (surprisingly spacious) panniers, and I am reasonably confident that I have more or less all I need. As a matter of fact, I spent the longest time trying to decide which *tango* clothes to take! Now getting ready to leave the house, bearing in mind not to leave any fruit lying around t...

With one day left for preparations, am running through the list of things to do. As writing the blog has become such an elemental part of these trips to me, not being sure I can do it from my new (although old!) mobile phone has worried me a great deal. If this entry shows on the blog, it means I have managed to solve the issue. Let's hope!