friday, 18th of july - 31 km bikeride, marktredewitz - hof on train 50 km

paradeiser versus tomaten

as i went to hey early yesterday, the farmer still had to do some work. i don't know what it was, but it gave me the most amusing soundtrack to my dreams. 

when i had breakfast with mrs. and mr. weiß i mentioned the nice paradeiser in the garden. i immediately recognised that they didn't understand the word. nevertheless she later gave me one for the road. they are particularly nice!

today, cycling was hard from the start. the landscape was great as always, the path wasn't worse than any other day, but i felt more drained. 

as my mental me had promised my physical me to have something to eat every 20 km, i paused somewhere near a little village. i ate bread with the paradeiser, and the sound of the word with paradise in it, matched what i felt resting there. everyone understands tomatoe, but paradeiser tells it all.

then i decided to make it to marktredwitz and take the train to hof. so i made only 31 km by bike today (the runtastic tool somehow failed to save that today), rest will be on train. 

50 km on train took 34 minutes and eight stops at eight stations. that meant eight times falling asleep and waking up again. when i arrived at hof i was desperate. no idea where to go, the town looked menacing somehow.

ok, i'm a tourist, so tourist information can't be wrong. i made it there, very slowly, almost fell from my  bike.

'hello, how can i help?' a fair lady in a very good mood asked. i threw all my problems at her - where is berlin, how do i get there, where can i sleep, i can't pay - and she had an answer to everything. maps, addresses, ... 

the lady at the st. michelis parish was equally helpful and liked the project (that always makes me happy, cause i doubt so much), gave me the address of a pilgrim dwelling run by the diakonie and 5 emergency euro. always grateful for that.

people at the dwelling are all nice, room no problem, with shower and all - i'll have a good sleep tonight. 

last thing to organise for today: something to eat. went in the direction hof center, where i knew there were some cafés and restaurants. in the second restaurant that i approached, kafé kampschulte, a nice openminded guy was offering me some vegetarian soup, that he was cooking. i had read they had dumplings too, and he gave me one on top! that's going to strengthen me! 

i guess hof isn't evil at all.