Part I: The adventure begins (before I even leave)
Friday I had a soccer game in the evening, the game that Pernille and Søs went to. We went home afterwards and had pizza and some hygge, and then finally around 9, I started to pack, since I'd be leaving that night at 12:30 on an overnight ferry from Køge, a town a few train stops south of me on the water. I was planning on taking the train to the station, and then walking to the ferry. Luckily, after Søs went to bed, since she was leaving for Madrid really early the next morning with Henrik, my wonderful host sister Pernille insisted on driving me to the Ishøj train station so I wouldn't have to take the bus to get there. However, because of the crazy construction at the station, I ended up being in danger of missing the train, and since it's not safe to be at my train station alone at night to wait for the next one, so Pernille decided, that she would just drive me to Køge.
We got to the town, but actually had no idea where the ferry terminal was. Luckily, Pernille was able to remember/guess where the train station was, and from there, we navigated our way along the water to find the ferry, with a few laughs along the way. And let me just say, it's a good thing she drove me! I don't care what rejseplanen.dk said, it did NOT seem like it was a 9 minute walk. And in the dark along unfamiliar roads...it could have been the recipe for disaster. But that disaster was avoided, and I joined the group without problem to board the ferry. After finding cushioned seats to lie across with Kelly and Danielle, both from Bucknell, we attempted to get a decent night of sleep. Between the talking around me and the heat on the ferry, I struggled to stay asleep throughout the night. Bummer.
Part II: Arrival to Bornholm
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| sea in Gudhjem |
After a 6 hour ferry ride, we were awoken BRIGHT and EARLY to get off the ferry, and get on the bus that would take us from Rønne to Gudhjem, the town that would be our home for the weekend. We got a little history lesson from Anders Uhrskov,
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| our weekend home |
director of DIS, along the way, and arrived at our Danhostel, probably just as tired as when we got off the ferry. We got our rooms, had a little while to settle in, had a nice little Danish breakfast (complete with bread, cheese, and breakfast chocolate, of course), got our bikes, and headed out. I went with Kelly and Danielle- friends from Bucknell, Sarah, Katie, and Assiyah- friends from Czech Trek, and Geri, who I'd never met before. It was a great group. We were all very ambitious, and elected to do the "Killer Route", a 65 kilometer loop around the island that would take us to the most famous beach, Dueodde, where sand is so fine it is exported for hourglasses.
Part III: And we're off!
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| a great group :) |
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| view along the ride |
The ride started off along the water, which was beautiful, and we were all in good spirits. The bike paths along the roads were very well labeled, so we could just follow signs telling us which road to take (hint: foreshadowing). Of course, I would get the bike that squeaked and screeched with each pedal, so everyone could always hear me coming from a mile away, but it was laughable. We stopped a few times to take pictures, of the water on our left and big open fields on our right- it was all very picturesque. I definitely walked up a couple of the early hills, not having mastered the art of shifting gears, and not having enough mental toughness to just do it, but it all worked out. We followed the map in the booklet we got from DIS, and made it through the various towns it told us to...although, we often didn't even stop, because there wasn't much to see.
Part IV: The beach
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| found this in the sand :) |
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| beautiful beach! |
We finally arrived to Dueodde, after a wonderful stretch of the ride where the bike path veered away from the road and wound through the woods. You had to walk down a long wooden boardwalk to get to he beach, which was so beautiful, and the sand lived up to its fame. Some of the girls bought food or went to a restaurant for lunch, but Katie and I had packed ours, so we headed to the beach to eat. It was great, although extremely windy, so we had to sit between some of the sand dunes to give us a little shelter from the blowing sand, and the cold. The sun was hot, but the wind was extremely cold by the water, so the hour we spent eating lunch was a little chilly towards the end, when everyone else joined us. We lounged around for a little longer, took a few pictures, I put my foot in the water (of course), took a little sand (obviously), and we headed off once again.
Part V: Problems arise...
However, as we were leaving the beach, more or less beginning the stretch of our journey where we
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| Bucknell girls! (pre-getting lost) |
would cut through the middle of the island, the paths were notably less marked, and we were not sure if we were supposed to follow car road signs or bike road signs or what. We ended up doubling back a little bit, and taking some road through farm fields. The wind was RIDICULOUS, working against us so much, making it very hard to pedal, and my right knee was definitely feeling the strain. To top it off, we weren't even positive we were going the right way. But we continued navigating through the fields, and eventually wound up at a dead end, because the bike path seemed to disappear into fields down a hill. A couple informed us that we could get to the town we wanted by backtracking and going alll the way around, so we did that. We eventually, not sure how, made it to a town we thought we were supposed to pass through on the way home. Somewhere along the way, my knee started really bothering me, and slowed my pedaling, so our group got split up. I also trapped my finger in the kickstand- HUGE blood blister, ouch!
Part VI: And it gets worse...
We thought our problems were solved when we reached that town, and shortly after, reached the forest we were supposed to pass through. However, something went very wrong, either before or after this point, because many kilometers later, we emerged from the road through the forest with no idea where we were, having gone too far in one direction. Luckily, Assiyah flagged a car down, and the WONDERFUL couple inside gave us their big map of Bornholm (much more helpful than our little one), and sadly informed us how far off course we were. It was a straight shot home, but we were all already so tired, and slightly defeated, from the long ride, the getting lost, and being cold.
Part VII: We make it!
Finally, I don't know how, we began seeing signs for Gudhjem- 19, 15, 10, 9, 5... when I saw the 9 kilometer sign, I swear my heart skipped a beat. I got the biggest second wind, and ended up riding up all of the hills on this final stretch- what a change from the beginning! I was just so relieved at the prospect of getting OFF the bike- did I mention how much our butts hurt!??!?! I was NOT used to being on a bike at all, let alone for what turned out to be around 81 kilometers, with our detours. But we made it back in time for dinner, treated ourselves to ice cream (too much) afterwards, and called it an early night. I went to bed thinking that there was no way my butt would allow itself back on a bike the next day.
Part VIII: Day 2, back on the bike!
Over breakfast, the group of us decided that we could tough it up and go for a shorter, less intense bike
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| view from the ride |
ride on our last day in Bornholm. Other groups had opted not to go on the "Killer Route" the day before (which, as you can see, was a killer), and had instead seen some cool cliffs by the water in a town only 6 kilometers away. We mounted our bikes (I switched for a non-squeaky one), and headed off. It was a beautiful ride along the water the whole way, albeit with many hills, but we were pros by now. Luckily, this ride only had one turn, so getting lost would have been virtually impossible, so we made it to the cliffs without issue.
Part IX: Rocks and Sea
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| walking back from the rock-dock |
We parked our bikes at the art museum, and headed down towards the water. We hiked to a beach past
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| we climbed (some of) that rock! |
the cliffs, and had a nice little photoshoot on the rocks in the water. Then we headed back to the cliffs, which was so, so cool. There was a rocky pier out into the water where waves crashed up over it, so of course, I took off my shoes and socks and walked out, feeling the icy cold Baltic Sea on my feet. A few of us climbed the towering rock the stuck out into the water as well, which must have been made for climbing, with a stacked geological appearance and abundant hand and foot holds between the layers. We never found the cave, even when Geri and I explored all of the rocks on the other side as well, but I was okay with that. The whole place was so cool, and so beautiful!
Part X: The perfect way to end the weekend
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| we made it! (self timer pic, obvs) |
A few from the group headed back after the cliffs, but four of us
kept going. Partway into it, two more turned back (it had been a LONG two days already!), so it was just Kelly and I. We had decided to just make it to the next big town to have lunch; we were so close, we were determined to keep going. And we did make it! We had a great
lunch of random food items, sitting on a rock wall right on the sea. The town was so cute too! Afterwards, we prepared (mentally) for the 15 or so kilometer ride back, since our butts were not happy to be on a bike. But we did it, without problem! It was so fun riding with Kelly, and we talked pretty much the whole time, which made it so much easier and more enjoyable. We didn't walk up a SINGLE hill!! We were so proud of ourselves, and of course, bought a celebratory ice cream when we returned. Later that night, we headed back on an express ferry to Sweden, took a bus to Denmark, and arrived around 11:30pm. On the whole, it was a great weekend- and I rode over 110 kilometers!! CRAZY! Now, if only I could finish that paper... :)
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| view at lunch! |
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almost home! |
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