Cambrai

One of those fun "shortcuts"

Seems that I'm not that anxious to get on the road early these days. Usually having a long, lazy breakfast that extends into lunch before I drag myself away from my CS host and get on the road. This in spite of averaging ~120km per day. Guess when the wind is on your back, the days are long and the hills are gentle means that rolling up to the next destination in the evening, is the best way to maximise your time with your host.
However on reaching Cambrai, I panic when the street to which my GPS points only goes to number 10 and not the required number 44. I get that Harry Potter feeling when he first goes to Kings Cross station. My lovely host Aurelie saves the day by coming to meet me and escorting me by car a further 7km uphill to yet another "Rue du 4. Septembre".
 
The thing that stands out most about Aurelie is her obsession with Robert Downey Junior. She is just back from Paris, where she saw the premier of his latest movie and the next day will travel by bus to London to catch the same premiere there. She will queue up in London from 10am hoping to catch a glimpse of RDJ when he arrives in the late evening. There is an entire room bedecked with Ironman posters. I just hope that he's worth it. Since Chaplin his movies have all gone downhill in my opinion. 

Amiens

A late arrival in Amiens on a Saturday night does not deter Armauld from suggesting a night on the town. He shows me the main attractions - the cathedral is the biggest by area in all of France - and then we eat and have a beer in a trendy bar. He's an engineer, keen traveller and classically trained guitarist... he provides the soundtrack while in his apartment. 

Lalo from La Capelle

Again a detour from my intended path, but when one receives an invitation to sleep in a farm and is passionate about organic farming, who am I to refuse?
This detour means that today's journey is expected to be 135km. However, as the roads are overflowing with large trucks, my option for smaller roads and a technology breakdown - 2 dodgy is not better than one functional one -iPhones and means that in the end I make 160km.
Wearily I dismount my bike and meet Lalo in her farm courtyard in La Capelle. She has taken over her father's farm in January and tells me how she has completely transformed and organised it since then. She is a positive, energetic and thoughtful person, who believes that she is making a political action in everything she does, be it running a farm single handedly or hitch-hiking.   We talk late into the night and find that our attitudes in life are similar, maybe hewn from our similar travelling style. 

Visiting the farmers' market the next day, helping out with farming duties and eating locally produced organic produce makes it difficult to leave Lalo and her farm behind. I eventually drag myself away after 17:00. 

Lovin' Leuven

Although a detour of 50 km from my intended route, I simply had to drop in to the Laurent and his lovely family in Leuven.
They had hosted me twice before two years ago and I had felt like one of the family. The family is large in both senses - the older boys (Adam and Jan) are more than 2 metres tall and the younger two (Klara and Rik) steadily catching up.
After a 120km uneventful trip from Aachen, Laurent had promised me an evening of mountain biking. The first thing he showed me on entering his garage was a few of the bikes which could be suitable for this evening'a proceedings. I chose a bike worth more than 2000€ with a Rohloff hub. It was a glorious evening for a bike ride but my legs suffered to keep up with the large pack of 20. 35km of trails and asphalt later, with the sun having set, we retired to the pub.

 

Biking to Ireland starts with a bus ride

It's off to Ireland this time. Time to try my luck CouchSurfing Belgium, France and Ireland. 

The first leg to get to Ireland will be solo and joining up forces with Mylene when I reach Dublin. 

Availing of a cheap bus to Aachen, I avoid cycling the breath of Germany. An uneventful and entirely unsocial bus ride, demonstrates that, although convenient and cheap, there is little adventure to be had taking buses. Rather than the 'journey being the destination', one whittles away the hours on a bus in a frenzy of distraction. Wow, wifi, free movies, music.... a blur of insulated entertainment later and "you have reached your destination".

Cong (my CouchSurfing host in Aachen) epitomizes the spirit of generosity of CS. Despite an unexpected guest arriving on his travels from Liverpool and his limited space in the student dorms, we all get a comfortable place to lay our heads for the night. Cong is Chinese, studied in Singapore and is now in Aachen for one semester. He is newly converted to the cult of CS and asks for tips on bike trekking. 

The themes of conversation that unite our group centre around the surreal and mundane stories of travel, especially the our reliance on the kindness of strangers, be this hitch-hiking, accommodation or simply not being ripped off.
 

There is a certain ingenuity and spontaneity to travelling cheaply. It means that you do not have to spend time working saving for that dream holiday, but, more importantly, forces you to rely on others. It is both the giver and receiver of such small actions that benefit from these interactions - the central tenant of CS and one that is widely overlooked in today's insistence on paying for goods and services.