Days 30-32 – The Polish Winter Finally Arrives: Krakow to Przemyśl

Days 30-32 – The Polish Winter Finally Arrives: Krakow to Przemyśl

Tuesday February 3, 2015, 256 km (159 miles) – Total so far: 2,596 km (1,613 miles)

Day 30: Krakow to Tarnow – 88.2km

After having escaped hangovers the morning after my previous two sessions of the trip I was starting to feel invincible. This was the last thing I felt when I woke up Tuesday morning. Finally the hangover had won. I had forgotten to set an alarm so I woke late. I had wanted to cover 100km today so was planing to get up and leave early, that plan was now out the window. With a splitting headache I stumbled out of bed and got to the hostel breakfast just before it ended. Then, still slightly drunk from the night before I loaded up my bicycle and stepped out into the harsh sunlight.

I cycled out of Krakow’s old town in the sunshine. It was quite a beautiful scene and despite the splitting headache I could still appreciate it. By the time I had bought some food and water for the day it was past 11 when I was leaving Krakow. Thankfully there were cycle lanes most of the way out of the city. The drink definitely still hadn’t worn off so I was glad of this!

Once out of the city I followed country roads through the small villages surrounding Krakow before joining a secondary road which in turn fed onto the main road between Krakow and the city of Rzeszow. This secondary road passed through a large forest. There was a cycle path for the entire length of it but unfortunately the entire thing was covered in snow and ice so I had to stick to the road. It was along this road that the hangover finally subsided and I could cycle in peace.

It was getting late by the time I hit the main road but with the help of a strong tailwind and a smooth road I made some good time and arrived into the city of Tarnow just before dark.

There was a hostel here in Tarnow on the edge of the city so I decided to stay there for the night. I don’t think the owners quite understood the idea of a hostel though as it was basically just a guesthouse/cheap hotel. I ended up spending the night surrounded by photos of Marilyn Monroe. There was a portrait of her right above my bed, an image of her across the bin and nearly one entire wall was taken up by photos of her. It was all very unusual. Despite being stared at by about 30 Marilyn Monroes I got to sleep pretty easily after the days effort.

Day 31: Tarnow to Sędziszów Małopolski – 66.7km

Rather naively I had been expecting a tailwind so got out of bed late. Unfortunately for me the wind had changed direction overnight and I would now have to fight a headwind all day. I still had 265km to cover over the next 3 days to reach Lviv so I was hoping to knock a good chunk off this today to leave me with two easier days to reach Lviv. The headwind and late start meant this was never going to happen.

The hard shoulder which I had along the main road all day yesterday continued for the ringroad around Tarnow and a small bit afterwards. Then however things got a bit tricky. When the road went through/around any village or any turn off appeared then the road split in two with a central barrier dividing the two lanes. What this meant was that the traffic was all funneled into this one lane which in turn meant that when cars and trucks were passing me that there was minimal room for them to pull out. With the cars this was fine but with the trucks they were flying by with very little space to spare.

The first few of these funnels I went through were only 20-30 metres long but of course Murphy’s Law was in full effect and every time I entered one a truck would come up behind me and speed right by me. I had 5 or 6 of these hair raising passes before my nerves got to me. After this I waited at the beginning of each one to make sure there were no trucks behind me before entering. If I then heard a truck coming I would then pull over into the kerb. These funnels continued throughout the day, some of them had snow and ice pouring out into the tiny strip of tarmac which I had to cycle on meaning that I was sent out into the centre of the lane. For some of these sections I had no option but to get up on the snow at the side of the road and trudge through it.

As the day drew on these funnels were becoming more and more common and would continue for longer sections at a time. For the longer sections I just gave up and moved onto the snow covered cycle lanes/footpaths. These made for slow progress as I had to wrestle the bike through the snow but it was a lot safer than fighting for space with trucks.

All of this toing and froing meant I was well behind my target of getting to Rzeszow before dark. When I did have a clear road the headwind was making progress difficult. In addition to this some snow and fog appeared out of nowhere and due to this it started getting quite cold and dark very quickly.

My crossing of Poland in winter had been surprisingly easy so far (with the exception of my horrible run into Opole) so I guess I was due a tough day like this one. I pedaled onwards through the snow which was being blown into my face by the headwind.

With it getting dark so quickly I had no option but to call it a day early so I aimed for a hotel just after the town of Sędziszów Małopolski (yeah, I have no idea how to pronounce that either!) The snow was getting heavier now as I struggled onwards through the streets of the town.

On the edge of the town I was able to take a shortcut along a footpath across some train tracks onto another road. It was on this road as I cycled up a hill, through the powder which had formed on the road, with an icy headwind blowing in my face, with heavy snow descending around me, in the dark that I finally got a cheer from a Polish person. In most countries I’ve cycled in you will get the odd horn beep or cheer from a bystander as you struggle up a hill or fight a tough headwind. It’s just a small symbol of acknowledgement that can sometimes lift your mood when you’re struggling. Poland was the first country where this just didn’t seem to happen. But finally, here on this dark, cold, snowy climb I had received this acknowledgement in the form of a Polish man shouting “Bravo” and clapping. It had taken some effort but I had finally received what I had thought was impossible. I could now leave the country happy!

Luckily there was room at the inn and I was able to have a warm night’s sleep. With this hotel being a good distance from any shops I ignored my budget and had dinner at the hotel. I hadn’t tried a huge amount of traditional Polish food so far during my time on the trip so I made up for it here trying a couple of dishes.

Day 32: Sędziszów Małopolski to Przemyśl – 100.7km

If I wanted to make Lviv in two days time I would need to put in a big day today. Lviv still lay 200km away which included a border crossing where there could possibly be some heavy delays. So, I got up and left a bit earlier than usual. There was a heavy fog down over the countryside and the snow from yesterday and last night had blanketed the countryside in even more snow than before. Between yesterday and this morning it seemed that the Polish winter which I had heard so much about was really here now.

I switched my bike’s rear lights on as I disappeared into the fog on the main road to the city of Rzeszow. Despite some strong crosswinds the cycle to Rzeszow was relatively straightforward and I was soon following a perfect, salted, snow free cycle lane all the way around the city which brought me to a minor road heading southwards into the mountains.

As I climbed up into the hills, the fog disappeared and was replaced by a perfect blue sky. This road was exceptionally quiet, I had been a bit on edge all day yesterday and during the morning as the main road with all of the funnels was one of the worst I had come across on my journey so far. It was really nice to be able to relax again.

With the lack of traffic all I had to worry about was pushing hard against the headwind so that I could reach Przemysl before dark. This required a lot of intense cycling so it was no surprise that my left knee was complaining to me again. If I just ignored the pain though I hoped it would go away eventually!

Towards the end of the day I reached the start of 3 long climbs which lay between me and Przemysl. At the top of the first of these there was a great lookout point with a view over a river. My route through Poland hadn’t passed through any scenic landscapes so far, it had mainly been cities and wide plains, so it was nice to get a view like this before leaving the country.

I slowly made my way up the last two climbs before starting the last stretch into Przemysl which is the last big Polish town before the Ukraine border. It was along this stretch that I witnessed yet another crazy piece of Polish driving. It’s very common here to be cycling along minding your own business when an oncoming car appears from behind another one into your lane facing you. Oncoming cars will always overtake here even if you are in the way. As a cyclist you are expected to get out of their way by aiming straight for the gravel/snow at the side of the road and braking hard. I was used to this happening all throughout Poland (and in several other countries throughout the world) but it didn’t stop it getting any less annoying. On this stretch of road an oncoming car started overtaking another one right in front of me. He didn’t give me much time but I managed to make it off the road before he got to me. As I looked up I saw him on the phone as he did this! I raised a middle finger behind me towards him as a symbolic gesture to all the crazy Polish drivers I had encountered during my trip across the country.

In addition to the oncoming overtake another trait I had noticed with drivers here was that they gave the absolute minimum of room necessary when passing from behind. Most didn’t want to cross the white line in the centre of the road despite it being perfectly clear ahead. The thought of deviating from the fastest line possible was incomprehensible it seemed.

This impatience was a big surprise after seeing how patient Polish people were when walking through cities. Despite the road being perfectly clear a lot of the time the people waiting at pedestrian crossings would refuse to cross until the green man light came on. In Ireland it would be ludicrous to do this if there was a completely empty road in front of you. I just did the Irish thing and jay walked my way through all of the Polish cities. Sometimes there would be a huge crowd of people waiting before I came and sometimes the odd person would follow me across. I kind of felt like I was setting a bad example! Anyway I’m getting off the point here, it was just very unusual to see such a contrast of such incredible patience when people were walking through cities and then such incredible impatience when they were behind the wheel of a car.

Anyway enough of my rambling and generalising, after this incident I pedaled the last stretch into Przemysl under a striking red sky. It was dark by the time I reached the centre so I walked to the only hostel in town and got a cheap room there. It had been a tough 6 hour day of cycling but I had made it. The snow and fog of the Polish winter had made things a bit difficult over the last two days but I had made it through and now lay just a short distance from the Ukraine border. I had made a drunken bet with a Polish colleague from work who didn’t think I would be able to cycle across Poland in the winter and would instead need to take a train/bus so it felt nice to have achieved this. How in the name of hell he’s going to get a bottle of Irish whiskey to me now though I have no idea! It’s probably impossible so I might have to let that one go!

Later that night I made an attempt to replace my brake pads which had already worn down to steel. My brake cables unfortunately were not moving very freely at all, the snow, grit and constant freezing and unfreezing was probably a huge part of this. In addition to this one of the lockrings had become detached from my rear brake lever and would not go back on. Also, the cantilever brakes themselves did not seem to be centred correctly and tinkering with the centering screws was having no effect. It was a proper mess. I gave up at 2am and just went to bed as I was starting to fall asleep at the bike. I was going to let morning me worry about the problem!