Days 26-27 – Good Days and Bad Days: Wroclaw to Katowice

Days 26-27 – Good Days and Bad Days: Wroclaw to Katowice

Friday January 30, 2015, 187 km (116 miles) – Total so far: 2,255 km (1,401 miles)

Day 26: Wroclaw to Opole – 92.8km

I struggled to get out of bed in the morning again, despite the day off I was still feeling tired from all this cycling. Due to this it was around 11am by the time I was leaving Wroclaw. Compared to the lovely cycle into the city along cycle lanes, the cycle out of the city was awful. It was a narrow road with a constant stream of trucks flying by. I kept to the footpath for as long as I could but this was pretty bad as well with a very broken surface. When the footpath finally ended I had no option but to join the stream of traffic.

This road was horrible but I had no other option. I had been expecting a tailwind to help me towards Opole as I have had one since entering Poland but today it had turned into a headwind. This meant that I was making very slow progress along this road. With the traffic flying by me left shoulder with very little space to spare it made things even more demotivating. I put up with it for a couple of kilometres before I reached a turn off I could take. This turn off would allow me to cycle alongside the main road on a smaller road through a residential area.

I had expected the surface to be bad but I hadn’t expected what I was greeted with. The road was made up of a soft paste interspersed with hundreds of potholes. It was impossible to make any progress on it so I had no option but to retreat back to the main road again.

I put up with another couple of kilometres on the main road but it was thoroughly miserable, dangerous cycling and I couldn’t take much more of it so I took the first viable turn off I could find. From my map I could see that there were backroads which would take me through villages all the way to the town of Brzeg where I could then take an alternate route which would loop me into Opole from the north rather than the west.

This plan started well with a nicely surfaced back road to the town of Scinawa. There however the road ended and I was greeted with a mud track. This was the only link between Scinawa and Lipke where it looked like the tarmac would begin again. I didn’t want to face the main road again so I got off the bike and started pushing. It was fairly miserable but at least I was away from that damn traffic.

I finally made it out onto tarmac again after a good 20 minutes of pushing. Things were starting to look up as I made good progress along the tarmac despite the headwind. Then it started raining. This was not my day.

I arrived into the town of Brzeg and made my way to the turn off for the alternate route to Opole. The main road I was originally on was the 94 and the new road I was aiming for was the 457. Being a more minor road I was hoping that it would be a good bit quieter and luckily it was. With both time and a headwind against me I had to push hard along this section aggravating the pain in the outside of my knee. But with darkness coming on soon I had to ignore it and just push on. Unfortunately for me the late start and the time I had lost earlier in the day meant that it got dark surprisingly quickly while I was still in the countryside and before I had even reached the outskirts of Opole.

You’ll have to forgive me for not taking any photos from this point on. The run into Opole in the dark was a thoroughly miserable experience and photographs were the last thing on my mind.

When it got dark I put on my hi-viz jacket and switched on the lights I had. Even so it was quite dangerous cycling along these country roads. With the rain there was even less visibility than usual. Also the Polish drivers were a lot more impatient than their German counterparts so I had a lot of close overtakes. After some of the worst cycling of the trip so far I made it to the outskirts of Opole. There was a cycle lane here for a couple of kilometres which made things easier but with the oncoming headlights I was barely able to see a thing. This made things difficult as the surface of the cycle lane wasn’t great.

After some more miserable cycling I got to the ring road surrounding the city. Here I was able to go through an underpass and arrived in the industrial zone surrounding the city. Things got even worse here, there was no cycle lane or even footpath for some sections at the start and when the footpaths/cycle lanes started the surface was terrible. With the oncoming headlights I still wasn’t able to see a thing so the next half an hour was spent being rattled to bits as I made my way over all the gaps and cracks in the pavement. In addition to this it had gotten properly cold and my hands were completely giving up on me. I had to stop every couple of minutes to try and warm them up. My gloves were soaked through (waterproof my ass!) and with the cold and the wind, my fingertips were ice cold. With the rain continuing, my slow progress and the freezing hands this was definitely one of the low points of the trip. Then…I got a puncture. This really was not my day.

With my hands not working and the freezing temperature there was no way I would be able to fix it. My only option was to push. Luckily I was close to the city centre now.

When I was drying off in the underpass beneath the ring road I had switched on data on my phone and checked the accommodation options in the city. I was thinking of going with either a hostel or cheap hotel. With my clothes all soaked through I decided a hotel where I would be guaranteed a radiator would be my best choice so I reserved a spot there and saved the location on my phone.

Now that I had a puncture I took out my phone and checked how much of a walk I had. Unfortunately it was at the other side of the city. I continued pushing the bike making my slow way across the city. During this time it had started snowing and the temperature went below freezing. My hands were now a lost cause. This made checking the map on my phone extremely difficult. The screen was wet and my hands were wet so unlocking the phone and zooming in on the map was a difficult task. Through a lot of patience and perseverance I finally got it unlocked and found out where I needed to go.

After what felt like hours (but was actually only half an hour) of pushing I made it to the hotel. I quickly checked in, stored the bike, got the feeling back in my extremities and took a warm shower. It had just been one of those days, definitely the toughest of the trip so far. When I was dried out I still had the puncture to worry about. Luckily they let me bring the wheel up to my room instead of fixing it outside in a cold shed, that would have really topped off the day! With that all fixed I was able to relax. At least tomorrow could hardly be any worse!

Day 27: Opole to Katowice – 94.4km

Wrecked from the previous days efforts it was again a late start this morning. When I went to retrieve my bike I had to make my way across the ice rink where the carpark had previously been. It looked like I was getting my first taste of the Polish winter I had heard so much about. It took a surprisingly long time to get the brake cable reattached when putting my wheel back on which slowed down my departure even more. Luckily for me the tailwind which had deserted me yesterday was now back so I knew I shouldn’t have that much trouble reaching Katowice before dark. Fearghal has booked a room in a hostel in Katowice and I had arranged to meet him there at around 4:30. With the tailwind this plan was looking good.

Due to all of the snow last night the landscape had completely changed. I had managed to escape the snow since I had descended into Dresden a few days ago but now it was back. I joined the main 94 road which I had such a tough time on the day before. I expected that I would have to retreat off it onto back roads at some stage but I had a nice shoulder to start with and the traffic was bearable so I continued along it trying to make some good progress.

In no time I was passing through the town of Strzelce Opolskie and following the 94 road out the far side of it. On the far side of this town there was a sign saying that trucks were not allowed on this section of the road and had to take a detour. This was most welcome! Without any trucks speeding by me this made the rest of the days cycling through the snowy landscape an absolute pleasure.

I stopped for lunch midway through the day. I was able to make a seat in the snow above the road and was able to relax here in the sunshine eating my usual lunch of bread and cold meat. The tailwind, blue skies and good road continued and I was able to pedal along blissfully all the way to the Bytom, one of the many satellite towns surrounding Katowice.

The journey from here into Katowice was relatively painless and I arrived into the city well before dark. There was a highway which descended through the industrial smog all of the way into the city. Katowice is more of an industrial city than a tourist destination. Despite the urban zone surrounding Katowice containing over 2.7 million people the city doesn’t boast a huge amount of facilities or things to see which I would find out later that evening. I arrived at the hostel with plenty of time to spare and awaited Fearghal’s arrival.

The hostel had lost Fearghal’s booking but with it being winter here the hostel was virtually empty so we had no bother booking another room. Here we were able to catch up. It was great to meet another Irishman on the road, on top of this Fearghal is another outdoors man who likes a bit of adventure so there was plenty to talk about. He has been working in a town south of Katowice teaching English for the last few months and due to this has been learning Polish, which is something like his 5th or 6th language to take on!

After catching up and grabbing a shower (Note to self: check which direction the shower head is pointing before turning on the shower. Blasting a load of cold water into your face and chest isn’t a lot of fun.) we decided to hit the town of Katowice. Fearghal’s guide book for Poland only listed something like 4 or 5 restaurants for the city. For a city with such a high population that seemed very unusual. It all made sense though when we got to the city centre, there were very few pubs or restaurants to speak of here. It took us 45 minutes of walking before we finally came across any Polish restaurants. All we had come across before this were Italian or Asian restaurants or American fast food chains. Fearghal explained that a lot of this is to do with the family values in Poland, restaurants wouldn’t be anywhere near as popular over here compared to back home as families much prefer to sit down at home to have a meal together than going out. In the end we had to resort to Wifi to find out where all the Polish restaurants were hiding.

The place we ended up was 2nd on Trip Advisor and was far fancier than anything the two of us were used to. As a result we felt very out of place in our checked shirts and jeans! When it came to ordering drinks I asked for white wine. Fearghal said he could see the panic in my eyes as I was asked whether I preferred a dry wine or god knows what other types the waiter listed off! I just asked for the house wine to get out of the situation as quickly as possible! When the wine arrived the waiter gave me the taste test where he pours a small amount in the glass and I was supposed to sample it. I hate this sort of thing, it’s not like I’m going to ask him to take back the wine. Nonetheless I had to go through the motions of tasting it, pretending to wait a while and then saying it was grand. All while the both of us tried to keep a straight face as it was obvious how uncomfortable I was! The meal ended up being great, I was able to get a taste of some proper Polish food. Afterwards we were given a vodka shot (which is how all meals should end!) before heading on our way back out into the cold streets of Katowice. We hoped our search for bars would prove a bit easier than our search for restaurants.

The search for bars was definitely a lot easier but still there weren’t many options around. We found one sign pointing down a back alley and decided to follow it. From my experiences drinking in Warsaw last year the best pubs were found down back alleys so we decided to follow the same logic here. It proved out to work perfectly as we found an awesome little pub hidden away here. It reminded me of a great spot called Costello’s in my home city of Limerick. The music was a mixture of punk, rock and metal with a little bit of Irish trad thrown in for good measure! The seats were made of Coca Cola crates stacked on top of each other with a cushion on top and the paintings on the surrounding walls were…interesting. I immediately liked it here.

After a few drinks here we moved on to the next pub which was a lot quieter and a more classy affair. Despite being a Saturday night the whole city seemed to be dead, we couldn’t understand how a city this big just seemed so empty. On our way leaving the second bar it turned out we had been locked in so we had to lift up the shutter which now blocked our exit before closing it again behind us! We tried another pub which was again very quiet. We got a few strange looks and stares in this one which seemed to be a common theme, there really were no tourists or English speakers around. After a drink here we decided to return to the first pub we had been to as this was by far the best of them. I reckon we would have been hard pushed to find a nicer pub in Katowice so luck was on our side.

After a final drink here we stared the long walk back to the hostel. We were in bad need of a kebab (a customary end to most nights out in Ireland!) but it looked like we were out of luck as most places had closed by the time we were leaving the city centre. Then miraculously an open kebab stall appeared on our road out of the city, perfect! We each got a customary kebab here before making it back to the hostel and hitting the hay with some fairly dizzy heads!

It was brilliant to be able to have a proper Irish session out here in the south of Poland so far from home. I had missed the great banter and drinks of a night out which are such a large part of life back home so I was glad that Fearghal was able to make the trip down here to meet up. The great day of cycling today followed by the great craic of a night out in Katowice made for an infinitely better day than yesterday, it’s amazing how much your mood can change so much over the course of two days.