We miss you

Today is exactly one year since Isabelle is not here with us. I miss her dearly. She was a wonderful human being - incredibly good, strong and smart. She would never talk bad about others or complain much about life, even though she could have found many reasons to. She always looked at the best side of people and focused on it. She never blamed anybody for her misfortune or sadness, she only thought what could she do to make things work, to make things better. I never noticed even a little bit of vanity in her. She celebrated life, she lived to expressed not to impress. 

Visiting Włoszakowice, Isabelle's home town, was very emotional. Seeing her family home, her desk and books, her garden and swings brought tears to my eyes... Looking through photographs with her sister only reminded me of more examples how incredible she was.

 

Isabelle's sister showed be her books with marked words. I going to share this one with you:

"With every death of someone I loved deeply a part of me dies… however influence of those people on my happiness, straight and understanding gives me a new energy to carry on living." Helen Keller.

And here is the whole page, the chapter tilted "Love and Loss" (I am sorry it is only in Polish)

I miss you loads darling angle girl...

Ps. Przepraszam bardzo za brak polskiego tekstu.

Poznań

Day 4, Wednesday, 27 July, 330 km cycled and I am in Poznań now. It took me a while to get here as the alternative scenic route I chose turned out to be more challenging than I hoped to be.

 

 

But I am here now and it feels great being here.

Poznań is/was the most significant place to both me and Isabelle. It is where we met and spend 5 great years while studying. I love this city and even though I come from Bydgoszcz I feel more connected with it than my hometown. It is probably because it is where I have started my independent life away from home. 

I am not great at writing a long stories at the best of times and definitely it isn't easy to do it in short moments between cycling and sleeping so I will stick to photo-report.

Here is us at our graduation:

 

Here is me revisiting places  

Łeba

I arrived in Łeba today afternoon. I met with my parents who came to meet me. It took us a while to find a campsite, as the town is so crowded with tourists. 

Maybe you wondered why Łeba. All my university friends would know answer to this question. 

Based in sand dunes of Słowiński National Park there was Adam Mickiewicz University's meteorology station and it was where we had our first year placement.

Here are some photos from that time:

I didn't manage to visit dunes today but I am planning to get up very early tomorrow morning to be able to do that. This might add some kilometers to my route but hopefully I can fit it all in my day... eee ?? Well wish me good luck! I am starting my big bike journey tomorrow!

Here are few photos from today:

Gdańsk

Thank you very much for all your lovely words of support and happy travels.

Yes, Me and my bike arrived safely in Poland and I am much relaxed now. I know, there is still a whole big challenge in front of me but for now I am enjoying the first part being successful.

 

Yesterday I was enjoying the beautiful, amber famous, seaside city of Gdańsk. It wasn’t a sunny day as I was expecting but I still enjoyed it simply by being back in the country.

I didn’t get to visit old town as I hoped because of some practical reasons but I got up early this morning to do that, even though I could really do with two more hours of sleep. However it was totally worth it!

So that is today morning but what about the next few days? I don’t think I ever really said. So what is the plan?

After the early visit to Gdańsk’s Old Town, at 11:08 I am taking a train to Łeba. I am staying there one night and then on Sunday morning I will start cycling south -  strangely it still feels very surreal to me.

Here is an optimistic estimated itinerary for the next few days:

Sunday 24, Łeba to Swornegacie about 130km

Monday 25, Swornegacie to Szamocin about 125km

Tuesday 26, Szamocin to Poznań

Wednesday 27, Poznań to Boszkowo

Thursday 28, Włoszakowice 

I would really like to make Włoszakowice, Isabella's home town by Thursday however we will need to just see how things are going... 

I might find trouble doing longer post but I will try as much as I can to update you with short messages and photographs. 

Łeba Next stop :-)

here are just a few quick photos from Gdańsk I will add some more next time I get internet.