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Darlowo was a really wonderful little town, and I debated staying for another night. The hotel was great (if a bit expensive), the town was very walkable and had plenty of sights to see. I woke up and checked the weather and saw that there was a 40% chance of thunderstorms. Against my better judgement, I hit the rode anyway, wanting to get to a beach town named Ustronie Morskie for a fun Saturday night. Here's a final shot of the hotel and it's cozy spot next to the river:
The ride started off pretty mediocre, on a very narrow and busy tourist road out to the coast. After about 20 miles, I stopped for a cup of coffee in Mielno, enjoying the sunshine and people-watching. Upon opening my handlebar bag, a surprise was waiting for me: I had left a banana in the bag, and it was slathered over the entire interior. Ugh. Using these little cheesy wax napkins that are endemic in Poland, I managed to get the worst of it, and only had a couple of casualties (sorry map of the Czech Republic that I was supposed to return to a friend). All of my papers and maps now have a black and banana-smelling fringe on their pages. Also, my hands were sticky which I immediately transferred onto the handlebars.
However, nature provided me with an excellent bike and hand washing method: an afternoon torrential downpour! About a mile outside of Mielno, the winds picked up suddenly, and lightning started booming down way too close for comfort. I'm able to recognize the difference between "Oh, just a strong rain storm" and "Get the hell indoors, NOW!". This was definitely the latter.
I huddled under an awning back in town along with a dozen or so soaked, smoking beach tourists. We waited for a bout 15-20 minutes, until the weather passed, and we all returned to what we were doing. Here's some video from underneath the awning.
And here's a photo of a beach town before the deluge:
And here's about an hour later:
Trees were down everywhere, blocking roads and paths. The center of every town had shin-high beach town garbage water clogging the streets, a frothy brew of rainwater, suntan lotion, beer and PCBs. And my feet were soaked with it.
Still, I was in the mood for adventure, so I tackled the various obstacles gladly. I came upon this gorgeous old Prussian lighthouse, one of the many dotting the Pomeranian coast:
After the lighthouse, the path got very dogdy: lots of trees and detours, mud puddles and branches. After two hours, I figured I had made through the worst of it. Lifting a fully loaded touring bike over the likes of these kinds of obstacles is no easy task, but I did it:
And after two hours of this, where was I: RIGHT BACK AT THE FREAKING LIGHTHOUSE!!!! I couldn't believe it. Completely deflated, I abandoned all hopes of using the Baltic Sea bike path to get to Ustronie Morskie, and just used the main highway to get to town. It was about 10 miles of windy, hilly riding, but at least I didn't see that goddamn lighthouse again.
Ustronie Morskie seems like a prototypical Pomeranian beach town: lots of beautiful, clean beaches, and a truly tastless array of beach crap shops. I enjoyed the night though, mostly because I met a couple of groups of Polish women who spoke English. I was excited just to get the chance to talk to someone, and they were excited to meet a foreigner who wasn't German (this part of the country is overrun with them in summer, apparently). All in all, a day with lots of up and lots of not-so-ups.
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