The French.. Honestly. From 5.30 in the morning, another buggered up room mate's alarm clock went off, so he pressed the snooze button. Five minutes later it went off again, so he pressed snooze again. Five minutes later it went off again, and this kept on happening until I left the hostel with a temper as foul as the weather. The wet and slippery streets in the centre had me cycling sideways more than once, but I was lucky not to fall. I bought a road map and pitched myself against the wind, on my way to Verdun. Again I found myself cycling on an express way, so I took a turn at some point, which according to the map should have gotten me to a town called Rombas. Except on the map it looked less of a distance than it turned out to be. I was still going headlong against the wind, in drizzle and with lots of lorries whooshing past. Lorries carrying sand, losing some of it in the wind, can be quite annoying to contact wearing cyclists already struggling against wind and traffic. By the time I got to the ugly mining town, my eyes hurt so much I couldn't open either of them. I parked my bike for a bit, screamed angrily – the place was deserted anyway – and turned back. Fuck Paris and the French, to hell with reaching England, I'd go back to Trier. When I got to Thionville again, the last direct train to Trier had left. Thanks again, you cheese eating surrender monkeys. I had to grab a slow train to Perl, on the French-German border, and then hopefully connect from there. I wasn't in the mood. So bugger it, I rode to Perl by bike. When I got there, I decided to push on along the Moselle and get to Trier cycling. I took a few wrong turns over the hilly fields and at Nettel my rear tire sprang a leak. Only then did I get onto a train. Luckily I had made a telephone reservation for the hostel before setting off, because I got there well after dinner time. I ate something, and just to shrug it all off I went back into town and visited the cinema. Ideally, Coyote Ugly was on, one of the most idiotic (yet strangely satisfying) films I could ever imagine. "Can't fight the moonlight.."

Labels: travel