Kai

Haha, seems I’m getting quite good at this socialising thing. Again after a few kilometres I ran into another biker and decided to strike a conversation. 10 day trip, sleeping outside and mostly cooking on a gas stove made me really appreciate how easy my cream-butt camping (as we call it in Finland) indoors had been the whole week. But also feel I knew from the forecasts that the nights had been quite cold lately, but hearing it from someone who’d experienced it first hand puts a bit more detail to the mental image. We decided to ride together to Helsingborg, where we had lunch. The Skåne people seem quite talkative and forthcoming, and this was now proven when a woman stopped and offered help when we were trying to figure out where to eat. She apparently worked in the business, and was really surprised to know about some new restaurant I’d just found on google maps. New restaurant or not, she recommended us to her favourite place, and have to say the recommendation was solid. 10/10 for the lunch. I’ve read somewhere that sharing a meal is one of the best ways to build mutual trust and some form of bonding, and have to say I’d agree with this. Of course, if both are bikers (as was the case both today and yesterday) the table is quite well set to start with. But happy to have shared some contact details, and interested to see where your travels will take you. Have a safe trip home, and likewise for all of the upcoming ones 👋👋 After lunch we split up to go our separate ways. We had a bit different paces on our mind, and I felt compelled to get to Malmö roughly on the promised time to meet my friend around here. Not sure if it was the pace, the wind or the first few drops of rain but the day felt much harder than the ones before (and also corroborated by the power meter, now that I checked the stats). As usual, when you’re on the proverbial final stretch, you focus more on that than the surroundings, and thus the camera didn’t really get that much airtime as on the earlier days. 
Funny enough, coming from the North, you start seeing the bridge and the turning torso already 50km out! I couldn’t really believe my eyes, since as far as I know you’re not supposed to see that far. Of course, it was much much less as the crow flies, and I was going downhill, but it still got me a bit stressed that I’m just not getting something here. The 2+h remaining felt all that much worse when you kind of already had seen the finish line. I have a very strong feeling, though, that Malmö doesn’t like me visiting. This was the second time coming here, now from the opposite direction, and again the head wind was not all too pleasant. But finally, after some 760km and 38h of biking I reached my destination, which means: Coast of Sweden: Completed 🇸🇪: ✅ Let’s see what’s up next. I have yet to touch the ground in Denmark or Iceland, and honestly, I’ve barely started with Norway, even if I’m already probably 1Mm into the Northern coast. But more adventures will follow! Thanks to everyone who was part of the trip. Both bikers, yoga instructors, fellow Airbnb guests and all!

... so I decided I'm really into this biking, and went on a ride just for fun. I’m supposed to go by the coast line, and tomorrow I’ll already have other plans, so checking out the peninsula was best done tonight. I left the bigger bags and headed out right away. It was of course more of the same, but the sunset really made it quite spectacular. At this point it occurred to me that there’s really nothing next to the B&B, so after a bit of cruising I ended up at the local ICA, filling any remaining space I had to brim with bananas, some buns, yogurt and such to take back to the lodging. By the time I got back it was already pitch dark, so those lights came in handy yet again. Tomorrow’s likely the last day, and with the few extra km in the evening the remaining distance should pose too big a challenge. Let’s hope I don’t end up regretting these words 😂 But with strong legs, pockets full of stuff to eat and a splendid forecast for tomorrow, I’m up for the final stretch!

Serendipity strikes again I slept at the most wonderful Airbnb in Halmstad, and woke up refreshed and full of energy. It’s fun when biking is enjoyable! Even found the place for the next night while eating the breakfast that was served (almost) to the room. So this was looking good to start with. To celebrate the weekend I set out maybe an hour earlier than usual. My only worry was that I’ve managed to rip my bibs, very inconveniently I would like to add, and this opened up the possibility of social awkwardness, but worse, proper saddle sore. I do have a spare, but maybe it’s time to retire this generation of gear, as they’ve seen most of Scandinavia at this point. Riding and pondering this, I caught up with another bike traveller on the way. He was clearly heading in the same direction, and packed the gear to not just be on a short weekend trip. Maybe a bit atypical for me, but I rode up and struck a conversation, as bikers have been few and far between on this trip. Turns out, he was not only heading in the same direction and more or less the same route, but was from Helsinki to start with. Small world, one could say 😄 We decided to hang together at least until Båstad where he had done some reconnaissance and scoped out a restaurant. Turns out he was heading much further as he was planning eventually to end up in Portugal, with a few hops here and there on the way. Hit it off quite well, I’d say, but it might just be me having been silent for a few days now already. I had a lot to say at this point 😅 No, it was actually a nice leg, and probably the first time on this trip that some 40km went by without giving any thought to the all-too-slow churn of remaining km’s for the day. I’m so used to riding alone, that this was really something new and exotic! But, another really lucky coincidence on this trip! Have a safe trip, if you happen to read this 👋👋 After Båstad we went our separate ways. Feeling somewhat enthusiastic and fresh in the legs I’d decided to take the coastal route to the max by setting my sight on Torekov. Nobody had told me about Hallandsåsen at this point, albeit it was of course visible on the height curve in the plan. I missed a critical turn, and ended up on a small sand road going up the hill, and boy oh boy did it hit hard. Komoot shows 15% incline but I stopped looking at the meter after it turned red on the meter. Finally lost the grip and had to push the bike up a stretch. Maybe those grippier tires would’ve had their place here. Apparently, the bigger paved road is not quite as bad, as it’s not straight up, but at least I got what I came here for. And, have to say, riding down the other side was sublime. The scenery. The fluency of just coasting down towards the sea. Farms, cows and sheep. And yet, with all this beauty, the people are still the best part about these trips. The sensation was so strong I almost fell into tears, which is not a good thing when going somewhere between 40 and 50. I might of course just be losing my mind here, but if it’s like this and that’s the case, I’ll gladly accept it. Where there’s downhill, uphill is always bound to follow. After Torekov I had to pedal back, and while there wasn’t any great uphill, this was the worst of the wind. With the spirits this high it didn’t feel too bad. I had a relatively short day (110ish km) to the B&B I was heading, and you could almost see the place over the water. Stopped for quick dinner at Ängelholmen, and arrived in good strength and with ample time to sundown (well, at least an hour or so) …

Even though there’s population here everywhere, I’m always struggling to find something suitable at a suitable distance. Now I messed things up replanning the route on account of the recommendations yesterday. Some 70+ added kilometers! Oops, I did it again 😬 The somewhat hefty 180 on the table would’ve been a tad too far, so I needed to cut some corners. Unfortunately, in my frenzy I also booked a place in Halmstad, which was just slightly further away than the route said. 180+ 😂 So, some more corner cutting was clearly needed. The day started nice enough. 11ish degrees and a surprisingly brisk wind from, yes you guessed it, SSE. It wasn’t exactly a storm, but I would’ve preferred it in my back instead. However, even with the wind, the going felt way too tough. I was starting to doubt my plan for the day. But then it struck. A stone in the rim, that is. The side of the tire had been cut, and was slowly leaking. Until it wasn’t. I tried pumping up a few times if the sealant would work, but with the hole in the side it was a fools gamble. So I toppled the bike over and got it fixed in record time. But the cut in the side might still get its vengeance if it gets worse 😬 After losing way too much time on this, I needed again to get rid of a few corners. This was getting a bit repetitive. But boy, oh boy were the corners I took nice. The sea is ever present, and there’s snasy beaches and dunes all along the way. They’ve built waterfront paths to walk or ride, and given it was probably one of the last warm weekends of the year, there were a lot of people out and about. All my shenanigans caused me to spend so much time on the road, that I got proper use for my new lamp gear. This was blessing in disguise, though, as the sunset was even more spectacular. At this point I was out there mostly alone, so just stopped tonöisten to the sound of the waves, the sunset and the sense of freedom. This is exactly what travelling on bike is and should be!

I noticed my posts have been slightly moody so far. So, I’ll start this one with the negative as well: the wind was worse today, both direction and strength. There. But that’s all I can muster, as today was genuinely a really good day of biking. Could ride in shorts all the day, and actually comfortably reached the handlebars, unlike yesterday, I’d like to add. Can’t even be bothered to complain about the traffic in Göteborg. It was *that good* a day today! The seed to the success was sown by just going normal. Had a good meal and a proper nights sleep. The sleep was a bit in jeopardy, as the neighbors in the hotel were trying to hold a conversation from different ends of the hallway, with two closed doors in between. At around midnight 😂 Didn’t understand the convo, but didn’t miss a single syllable, I can assure you. They sounded angry. My biggest worry for today was finding a place to stay, but that turned out to be the perfect case of serendipity. The first place never answered any of my calls, and the luxury spa was my last expensive resort. I ended up on airbnb talking to a guy hosting a yoga retreat. He seemed nice, the price was right, so I booked it. Ended up sending a message or two during the way, and turns out he was cooking dinner, entirely from ingredients from his own garden, for us guests (only me at this point). When I reached the place he said we should wait for the other guest, ”You might have passed her on your way here”. Funny, since I actually pondered how funny it’d be if the rider would be going to the same place (on account of there being so few people out on the road). Never got full certainty, but sure looks like this was the same person. So, here we sat, having the home cooked dinner and discussing differences in schools between Finland and Sweden (turns out she was a teacher), AI, traveling by bike and the world in general. Completely and a 100% random encounter, but really had a blast. Also got a few tips for the rest of the trip, which was a nice bonus. This really is up there with the beers in the outdoor jacuzzi up in Honningsvåg. It really seems this just-in-time planning is paying some hefty dividends!

After a slow start yesterday I figured the problem had to be the somewhat poor eating during yesterday. So, I juiced up properly, trying to get a better start, middle and end to this day. And did it work out? Most certainly not. I mostly felt like I had ingested a bag of stones and hot just as much energy out of it. The situation was bad enough that I hardly managed to eat lunch, and finished probably less than half of the small portion. Unheard of any trip before! So, I just had to trudge through it. But I sure was happy for the fact that I’d planned a shorter day. Fortunately, after some 50ish km the situation started getting better, so I was able to at least drink some water again. Let’s just say that there was not auite so much awe of the nature and svenery during the day. It’s a bit puzzling how they take to biking in Sweden. They don’t seem too fond of it. In Finland you can tale your bike on the train and all long distance busses. In Norway it seems the local traffic also allows you to travel with a bike. But on the Swedish border: ❌. All of a sudden bikes are forbidden and almost dangerous it seems, with very few exceptions. The same goes for bike paths. I mean they’re not nearly perfect back home, but here they feel somewhat random. You might need to know several km before to change sides to take the turn at the next intersection or roundabout. The path is usually blocked off with a fence or at least a mega-curb, so there’s very little second guessing at that point. Finally, there are signs eg. to Uddevalla,. but the path might still just suddenly end in the pointed direction. Or a construction blocks it all and no signage to guide you through. At least the bike path will criss-cross on both side of the street enough to make you dizzy, given you actually manage to stay on it. I might just be half blind and maybe miss 90% of the signs, but I really don’t see the logic here. From my recollection a year ago I would claim the situation was better back on the East coast. I would’ve thought the proximity of Denmark would play a role here, but maybe it’s just an inverse proportion 🤷

Yesterday was literally high flying, but today never really took off in the first place. Started by procuring myself a new battery. It came with a complimentary additional light, but it was a bit of a gamble. I used my skills as a sleuth to figure out a potentially suitable battery, and 🥁 it worked out! At that point I’d spent the better part of an hour meandering around some ”commercial area” to find that darned store. Tried to go for lunch there but there was a serious elderly gathering in the queue (I mean a dozen in the queue, 2-3x that waiting for food!) so I conceded my defeat and took my hard earned cash somewhere else. More meandering ensued. When I *finally* got on my way with high hopes the legs weren’t really there. Can’t blame the conditions; they were more or less perfect. Can’t blame the scenery, because likewise. This is after all one of the most affluent countries in the world, and it really got the looks! When crossing the border in the North there’s usually some indication that you left one and entered another country. Here there was really nothing. The biggest difference was probably the ø:s becoming ö:s instead. And here I was looking for a photo opportunity with flags and stuff.. Now that I think about it, I’ve never crossed the border unless one of the countries was Finland 🤔 Maybe it’s us finns actually are more keen on these national insignia! But it really does not meet my expectations, given eg. how Norway looks on their national day.

The good: * The tubeless setup held during the flight. There was potential for a big mess, and non-inflatable tires, at least with the small pump I’m carrying * The flight itself went smooth, and the packing held up in general. Might consider doing this again. * I was probably a sight to behold when I assembled the bike on the sidewalk right next to the train station. A man’s gotta do … * The riding was good while you. see, but somehow didn’t have time to properly ingest the views. Maybe tomorrow’s better in this regard. The Bad: * Bought a new light yesterday. Competes with the sun in brightness 🔆 . But alas, one must not put batteries in checked luggage, so the battery is now in Helsinki. Maybe. It’s quite dark here after 19:30 or so 😬 * The disc brakes were not centered after the reassembly. Quick fixes didn’t solve it and I was really annoyed so … * After all the delays with the luggage and the brakes I missed the reservation for the affordable yet highly appreciated hotel and instead got a more expensive but very crappy hotel instead. OK, it’s only 90€ (and the next in the list was 220€ or so 🥵) but doubtgul whether there’s even hot water, and there’s certainly no breakfast. Expensive country! The ugly: * The hotel. Norman Bates would like it here. I mean 90’s nostalgia *is* currently a thing, but one would probably expect any improvements to have happened here since then 😂