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When I saw a town named "Krokowa" on the map, there was no way that the Expedition wasn't going to stay there for a night. This town is in a region of Poland called Kashubia, which is separate ethnic region of the country. Here's a sign that says "Welcome to Krokowa County" (or something close to that).
The map said I had a quick 40 miles to Krokowa, so I chose a route up the coast through the three towns of Gdansk-Sopot-Gdynia. This was an enormous mistake, and if anybody reading this blog ever is thinking about bicycle touring in Poland DO NOT GO ANYWHERE NEAR GDYNIA!!!!!
This was easily the worst day of the entire trip, riding-wise. Nothing else comes close, and I've had a few not-so-fun days. It started harmlessly enough, with a nice jaunt along the beach of Sopot. But a few miles outside of Gdynia, all of the things I had gotten used to in Poland which made the riding great (multiple routes, shoulders on the main highways, respectful drivers etc) just did not exist. I was stuck in the middle of the largest industrial area I'd ever been in, with semis, trucks, sand, offramps, onramps all competing for the road against a tiny, fluorescent bicycle tourist named Ben. I got so lost and turned around that at one point I stopped a postman and just said "Please, please help". He immediately picked up on how distressed I was and spent a good 5 minutes trying to give me directions. That man is a saint.
At one point, I actually had the thought that there simply was not a way for me to get where I needed to go. I stopped at a random patch of horrible and had a gut check. I looked at my saddlebags, my dusty feet, my bicycle and my hands. I thought about the obstacles ahead of me: the heat, the hills, the loneliness, the isolation, the hunger. Bundling them all together into one big problem, you know what I did with all those chumps? What else? I STEAMROLLED THEM!!!!!!!
There were some other chumps along the way that needed steamrolling (construction detours, shoulder-high thorn bushes, wind storm, rain storm) but I arrived in Krokowa feeling like a tough guy. Hell, I am a tough guy. So there.
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