After that quite very cold night that I had spent in the tent, in the morning I couldn’t leave quite early because all around of my tent was frozen. At the top of my sleeping bag, there was a layer of ice. It was like a frost. So I had to wait for the sun to rise. Likely it was a sunny day to dry up my tent and clean all the ice. Fortunately in the next night, I didn’t need to stay outside and I had a friend in Ulm. I just left around 11 o’clock. I arrived Ulm around 5 in the evening and directly cycled to my friend’s house. I had a warm place to stay. That night was quite nice after such very cold days. That night we just spent some time together. He invited two other friends. We just sat, talked, chatted and for a short time walked outside and had dinner outside. The next day was my last day of my cycling in Germany.
I had 2 days cycling to get Winterthur in Switzerland. In Winterthur I was supposed to stay with a friend. I met him 2 years ago. He had organized a school for me. He had just written me: Hey Mohammad if you pass Winterthur, you can stay here for a night. But for the last 2 days, I haven’t heard anything from my friend. The distance I had from Ulm to Winterthur was about 170kms. I was expecting to be able cycling 85kms each day for 2 days. But the first day was like a storm. It was a very strong head wind. I couldn’t cycle more than 70kms. It was a very hard day and quite cold.
The coldness was not a big deal but the strong big head wind was hard. It couldn’t let me cycle faster than I could do this. I was pushing myself but my speed could not go over 10 or 12. In that day I couldn’t cross the border. I had to camp and of course in the windy weather, camping somewhere is not easy at all. Actually I couldn’t find a proper shelter because of the snow in the last night. The snow was melt. Everywhere was full of mud and dirt. I had to find a clean and dry place to be a shelter in front of the wind which was kind of impossible to find. After almost 45 minutes searching, finally I could find somewhere to camp. It was quite difficult to put my tent because everything was frozen.
In that day, I was quite mass in my mind and made me lots of mistakes. I don’t know why! I lost my red light that I used from in the back of my bicycle.
Then I lost the cover of the packs from my tent.3 mistakes in one day were a lot! And I thought that: “hey Mohammad! You should be very careful. It was not ok to have 3 mistakes in one day. You are not allowed to make mistakes. Personally or technically mistakes are 2 different subjects for me.Technical mistakes must not be allowed to do because you lose something or equipment that you need in your trips so you should be careful about them but the personal mistakes are ok and I am welcome to them because I learn from my personal mistakes. I learn from my experiences and all of my experiences are not successful. Some of them go through a wrong way and you have to open to it. I don’t feel regret for this kind of my mistakes because I can learn from them.
In the next morning, I had quite time to pack my tent. Everything was blowing because of the wind finally I couldn’t cycle more than 70kms. Almost in the evening, I crossed the border to Switzerland.
Before that, when I was in Germany around noon, I went to a café to have a coffee and get warm a bit. I just got a sandwich and a coffee. When I wanted to pay, someone, an old man, who was sitting in the couple of tables away, he called me and said:” I paid for you, welcome to Germany”. It was kind of surprised! It was beautiful because I used to have this kind of things in Asia. I wasn’t expected to see this kind of treat in Germany. It helps me to take of my filter through my eyes and my view on the world to look at the people no in the same way in order to see the kindness everywhere in the world which is amazing and beautiful. It’s kind of confidence about humanity about people and human being. People who are around you take care of you. Don’t worry. It was really beautiful.
After crossing the border, I went to a café to sit and get warm a bit. I ordered coffee and when I went to pay I asked: how much isit? Nearly 4 euro!!!! I said: ok, now I am in Switzerland!!!. The same coffee in Germany was 1.5 or 1.6 or 1.8 euro. Ok I understand where I am now!!! Then I had to manage to get Winterthur. In the same day in the morning still I hadn’t heard anything from my host and he was quiet for 2 days. Another friend of mine called me from Germany. He said: Mohammad if you go to Winterthur, I have a friend and you can stay there. I said I would communicate with his friend. I was kind of almost planning to go to his place but my friend, Bale, called me and said he hadn’t accessed to the internet and because of that he was quiet. I said ok, I came over to Winterthur. Still I had 40kms, it was dark and cold and I couldn’t cycle anymore.
The other side it was too late to find a place to camp. It was the best way to take a train from that point to Winterthur. I stayed in the Bale’s house over that night and then the next day was the very nice and sunny dayafter cloudy days and lots of cold days. I had a very nice sunny day. I could cycle with the cycling short. It was the first day after 3 month I could cycle with the short. That was warm and beautiful day. I cycled to the city called Tubingen where I was going to stay with a friend named Rasha and her family. I met Rachelle 3 years ago in Montessori school. she was a teacher there. I was visiting her class and school. She is one of my very good friends. I stayed couple of days in Zurich. It was just about meeting friends around Zurich area and then for the last 2 days I moved from there to Zurich. I stayed in Zurich to meet friends then I cycled from Zurich to Bern.
I am in Bern now. Then I have to manage everything here in Bern. I have to fix my bike, find a solution for getting visa and…so much work to do now!
I am in Switzerland now and the next week I will tell about this weekend what have done in Switzerland.
Good luck and enjoy.
January 25 5015
