August 14, 2015
Augustow to Sokolka
I enjoyed the concert last night. It was one guy playing acoustic guitar and singing in Polish. There were some sing-along portions, so maybe the songs were folk songs. I also met two fellow bike tourists there. They were two German women, headed north into Lithuania. They were not carrying tents or other camping equipment. We compared notes and plans and wished each other well.
The rest of the night didn't go so well. The other folks in tents were some young guys who arrived by kayak. They went out partying, and came back very drunk after the bars closed at 2 a.m. They were standing directly next to my tent having a loud discussion which my earplugs did not manage to block. After about 15 minutes of hearing it, I crawled out of my tent and asked them to be quiet. Yes, crazy foreigner. I don't know whether they understood my words, but I'm sure they understood my intent. They moved a little further away and continued. I never really got back to sleep.
In the morning, I had breakfast, minus coffee, at camp. The restaurant didn't open until 9, and I wanted to get started early to take advantage of the cool morning temperature. I thought it would be easy to get some coffee in town, but it seemed that everything opened at 9. So I hit the road, feeling grumpy, without my coffee.
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I rode 664 out of Augustow. The road winds through forest and passes some lakes.
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The traffic was light, but I was still feeling grumpy. I stopped at a clearing off the road and broke out my stove and made some coffee. I spent about 45 minutes there, with getting everything out, boiling water, then waiting for the coffee to cool enough to drink it. And of course, reading CGOAB journals on my phone. I felt much better afterward, but lost some of the advantage of my early departure.
664 took me to Lipsk, where I picked up 673 to Sokolka. I did stop in Lipsk and pick up some more water, as the day was hot hot, and also visited the church which had been visible from a distance.
673 went through a lot of small towns, quite a different ride from 664 preceding it. I was tired, and stopped a lot, but I didn't find the sort of small shops I had become accustomed to riding through the Baltics. Maybe I just haven't figured out what to look for.
I got into Sokolka with no plan for accommodation. I looked things up online, but eventually found the tourist office that I thought could help. They had closed about 15 minutes before I arrived, at 4 p.m. So I took a chance, and rode another 1.5 miles to the Verde Hotel. There was another hotel, in the center of town, but it had poor reviews where the Verde had good ones. There was no information online about the cost of either one, but I figured I would pay what it cost to be comfortable tonight.
When I got to the Verde Hotel, there was no one at reception. There was a phone number to call, and I called it, but no one answered. So I started walking around, found the restaurant upstairs, and the waitress/cook/hotel reception person set me up with a room. The room is big, although the bed is narrow, but everything is clean. There is shampoo and soap and 2 towels in the bathroom. It has a tv, which I haven't yet checked out, and......wait for it.....air conditioning! It's away from the center and should be quiet. All for the sum of 150 zlotys, including breakfast, which is roughly 40 USD.
Today's ride: 79 km (49 miles)
Total: 1,301 km (808 miles)
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