March 28, 2014
Simon's song: Okay, I'll stop and talk if you're Belgian
In the morning I passed through the town of Gori, birthplace of the one and only Josef Stalin. I thought I might as well pop in. I mean, I'd already been to Hitler's hometown, I may as well go for the full set. Anyone know where Pol Pot was born? In Gori there is even a museum dedicated to Stalin but I decided against finding out what makes an egomaniac mass murderer tick and settled for looking briefly at some of the other sites of the town. Very briefly, I was in a rush.
I was in a rush to get to Tbilisi because I had arranged to meet with my couchsurfing host at 6.30 and, as usual, I'd left myself with a long distance to get there. But someone must have been smiling on me for not only was the road I took smooth, flat, and quiet, there was also a phenomenal tailwind blowing me along in the sunshine, giving me a great chance to make it on time.
The only thing that could have made this day even better would have been a little company. I was aware that Kieran and Natasha had been staying in Gori and were likely to be cycling this way into Tbilisi this day. But as I had no idea when they were planning to leave Gori, I once again could not be sure whether they were ahead or behind. I considered writing them a note on the road, but decided against it because I was in a hurry and because I'd probably get run over. But then up ahead in the distance I saw something that looked like it might possibly be two touring cyclists. Kieran and Natasha! I was very pleased. As I drew closer I saw that Kieran had shaved his beard, cut his hair, and put a sock down his pants, and that his girlfriend had turned into a Korean man.
After several minutes of confused conversation I discovered that it wasn't Kieran and Natasha at all, but in fact two completely different touring cyclists. The Korean man was named Kim and had cycled from his home country, albeit with a little bit of flying, over the previous 14 months. He was therefore cycling into the wind which we all had a good laugh about. The man with the sock was from Belgium and went by the name of Simon. He was heading my way, having also cycled from his home country with the destination of India, and we naturally decided to cycle together.
Cycling with Simon was BRILLIANT! I mean, BRILLIANT! And not only because of the tailwind and the sun and the smooth, flat road but also because Simon was BRILLIANT! He reminded me of Cherno, the German that I'd cycled with in Sweden, in the sense that he was hilarious, and because he had a rather makeshift bike that he had built himself. His front rack was particularly impressive, being entirely self made out of a caravan awning pole and a few bits of metal and wood. It was very inspiring to know that if my front rack capitulates again that there might be a way around it for me too. If I can get hold of a caravan awning pole that is.
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Simon was such a positive and inspiring person, only 20 years old and just decided to cycle to India. He was not exactly fluent in English, but he tried so hard, and made me laugh so often with his attempts. He would often use the French word in an English accent, which quite often worked, but quite often didn't. "Immatriculation!" he declared at one point. "Nope, not a word, sorry buddy."
I could tell you many things about the fun it was to cycle with Simon, but probably the easiest, and most entertaining way is just to play this video that I made. It is a song, written and performed by Simon, that captures his wonderful personality perfectly.
Looking at the sky, following our dreams and with the wind at our backs the distance flew by as we progressed through open fields and on towards Tbilisi. As we came into the city we had to join the main road, which was absolutely not pleasant in the least. Not for me at least, Simon seemed less affected as he carried on ahead in the road while I darted in and out of the shoulder/sidewalk/grass/anywhere-but-the-road. The traffic was horrible and, as we were following the river into town, it would have been really nice to cycle on the path next to the river. Unfortunately, because we were on the side of the road opposite the river, we couldn't get to it. There was actually no physical way to get across this street anywhere, it was unbelievable, can you imagine? In four kilometres I only saw one guy on the path. He was fishing. His car was parked next to him. I know I complain about car-dominated cities all the time, but this was really something else.
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One way or another we both made it through to the centre and the cafe where I was due to meet my host Cristina. I was wondering how I was going to explain the smelly Belgian man sitting next to me, and decided to mail her a quick message before she arrived, explaining the situation and asking if she could possibly also host Simon. I told her he was very nice and, though a bit strange he hadn't killed me yet, so he'd probably make a great guest. Fortunately she turned out to be the nicest person in the world, and gladly agreed. Unfortunately as we walked back to her apartment Simon went into super-weird mode. "He wasn't like this before" I explained to Cristina as Simon started talking to himself and then almost rode his bike into a police officer.
Today's ride: 109 km (68 miles)
Total: 15,517 km (9,636 miles)
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