August 22, 2016
Front page news in Grindsted: Where Dea comes from
Arriving at the Danish border was something of a poignant moment. Here we were entering Dea's home country together. After meeting in Mongolia, cycling in Laos, and living in Australia, our relationship had thus far taken place far away from home. Now I was being invited to experience the place that had made Dea who she was. I was going to see where she came from. That was a great and exciting thing.
During the day and a half it took us to ride from the border up to Dea's home town of Grindsted I was reminded that Denmark was a nice little country that looked quite a bit like Germany, just without so many cycle paths. Instead we followed small country roads and I tried to prepare for the challenges that awaited me in Grindsted. First there was the small matter of meeting the parents of course. Nervousness about being introduced to the potential in-laws is normal, I'm sure, but tends to be multiplied when you're essentially a 30-year-old man who lives in a tent and has never had a proper job. Perhaps sensing this, Dea's father had arranged for me to give a talk about my trip in front of 500 students at Grindsted High School, where he'd worked for many years. This sounded suspiciously like a test to me.
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Nerves were soon eased when we cycled up Dea's old street and found her parents outside waving to us. A warm greeting and I was immediately made to feel incredibly welcome into the family. Having done a bit of travelling themselves Dea's parents were enthusiastic and impressed by what we'd achieved and what we still had planned. It was also really nice to see the house where Dea had grown up and to really understand for the first time where it was she came from. Watching Denmark win the men's handball at the Olympics, all of us together around the TV waving our little red and white flags, sealed the deal.
After a rest day gave me time to cobble something together, I found myself in the big hall at the school gulping as the rows of seats in front of me filled up with teenagers. 500 of them were there to sit and listen to me for an hour as I told them all about my journey around the world. Luckily I'd found a fun map to put up on the projector screen showing my route, and I was able to make a pretty good joke about a windmill from that, and they were on my side then. I did my best to condense three years into an hour (“I cycle, I camp, people are good, met a girl, got hit by a kangaroo, bear stole my food, took three cruises, didn't like China”) and then left them, obviously, with a quote by Bob Dylan. The quote was 'A man is a success if he gets up in the morning, and goes to bed at night, and in between he does what he wants.' I felt very fortunate to have been able to do that for three years, and I wanted to leave them with the thought that perhaps the 'normal' definition of success (good job, big house, lots of money) wasn't necessarily the one to strive for.
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Giving a talk to so many students was surprisingly enjoyable, and made me feel like I had actually cycled around the world now. This was compounded by immediately being whisked away by a journalist to give a two-hour interview along with Dea. The next day we were front page news, albeit the front page news of a newspaper with very limited circulation.
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I felt like this was the moment when I had made it, in a way that hadn't happened passing through England. I'd made it all the way around the world now and, just for a short while, it was being celebrated. I felt welcome in Dea's hometown. I felt welcome in Dea's family. Everything seemed to have come together and made perfect sense. It was a special time.
19/08/16 - 97km (19km in Denmark)
20/08/16 - 110km
22/08/16 - 8km
Today's ride: 137 km (85 miles)
Total: 57,228 km (35,539 miles)
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