Cycling to John O'Groats-5
21/04/17
I read two whole books through the night and I'm exactly sure why they say that "Books are one's best friends". The two ladies in the room can't speak English. They're Chinese and when I do try to speak in Chinese with them(all thanks to google translate) I realise that they're not interested to talk. Well, not the first time someone's saying this to me. I don't have that kind of self respect whatsoever so I'm not even offended. I laugh it out instead as I gear up for the day. At the breakfast table, there's a guy and he's checking my bike out. This makes me so nervous that I eat real fast. He asks me where I'm heading to and what are my plans. Wow, someone wants to talk? why not? I tell him that I'm cycling to John O Groats and he chuckles in disbelief. Without any introduction of himself, he informs me of the cold weather, strong winds and hilly terrain in Scotland. I thank him for the invaluable information and wish him luck for his train journey. Anyone who wants to tell me 'I can't' can bugger off. I need to stay positive and optimistic and that's the only way.
As I'm leaving the guest house and finding my direction, the owner is like, "Ermm... Veedaangie, Scotland is towards this direction, this is the North"
"Ah right! Thanks!", I flush.
Alright then, not a great start. I decide to play an audiobook and when bored with it, stop somewhere and write something. I have no option today but to spend more time during the breaks because it's a really short distance(I couldn't find a cheap place to stay anywhere else) and I know if I don't chill out in between I might as well reach there a bit too soon. I start off just at the check-out time and find my way out of the city. It's not very cold but it's hella windy. I'm fine with that though. It's fun cycling on the country roads onto which I have to take a detour in order to make the route longer and explore more of that side.
..
The wind is straight onto me and I can feel every muscle of my body working to fight it out. I've got this. In fact, this is fun now. But just as I criss cross some sort of roads, I look up and there's a huuuge board saying, "Welcome to Scotland" and I'm confused. Hadn't I taken the longer route? Shouldn't have this taken longer? How did this even happen so soon? I take the bike right under that board. Trust me, I'm extremely happy and all, but this broke my rhythm and I wasn't READY for this break. So I celebrate entering the new country by eating nutella sitting right underneath that board. I look gross eating it like that but who even cares? I'm having my time. I take pictures of the board and bike and try my hand at selfies(I suck at that!!). As soon as the sun is covered by those dark grey clouds it starts pouring rain which is some kind of grand Scottish welcome. I leave that place soon and start pedalling it out. I set another rhythm with the headwind and rain and the audiobook keeps me company.
..
I stop to check the address of the guest house. 3 people ask me if I'm looking for something and they can help. Whoa! I ask them and one of them is like, "Look up darlin', you see the pub there? The green board right across the road is where you need to go"
"Ah! Cheers"
The lady opens the door and I'm drenched in rain and sweat and probably dirt too as per what the drastic shade difference under my shorts and outside it suggests. She lets my bike in and is a chubbly bubbly personality. Oh how I love these kind of people! We talk about whatever I've been up to and I offer her help if she needs because I've reached only in the afternoon. She tells me she's kept loads of coffee and some Scottish white bread-like thing with jam and butter. First thing I ask her after seeing that is how do I eat it and she tells me right away. She's probably seen the wildest kind of food-eating today! That white thing, jam and butter, I've finished every piece and spot of it in no time. She offers me coffee and tells me where the closest pub is suggesting me to carry identification with me for obvious reasons. I am broke and I don't wanna drink the mood away. So I write. I have coffee and write shit loads of short write-ups in a notebook my friend randomly gave me. My stationery obsession knows no bounds after all!
..
I decide to dine a bit earlier and have an early night but basically everything is closed and I'm still hungry. I wander into an open shop to buy grapes and that guy offers me bananas and some mango energy bar right away seeing my hoodie. Next minute, we're discussing maps and stuff. I ask him about any open restaurants and he shows me a pub which is also a continental restaurant. I notice the slow romantic bollywood songs and ask if they're Indian too in an ever-excited tone. I also tell that I am one. The lady in burqa looks at me top to bottom- Shorts, hoodie, weird hairdo and bruised and tanned legs and then looks at the guy who probably owns this place and tells me that they're from Pakistan. Excitement unaffected, I ask whereabouts from Pakistan and turns out she's half from Lahore and half from Hyderabad. We only smile at each other then and I just feel like no one really is in a mood to make a conversation with me today so I take a seat and order the cheapest vegetable Paratha and Raita. She gives me a real weird look when I say a no to drinks. So I get the diet coke which is, again, the cheapest drink available.
..
I eat like a real hungry Indian with my bare hands and enjoy every piece of that Paratha. It's been ages since I last had some hot Indian food. The Scottish family sitting a couple of tables away from mine is staring right at me and I don't give a damn. Probably that lady is showing her daughter exactly what NOT to grow up to be like. No doubt, I look rowdy right now. A good shower can fix it probably.
22/04/17
After spending half the night, again, reading a book and another quarter of it thinking real weird stuff that's probably never gonna happen, I decide to force myself to sleep for the remaining quarter. I wake up for the breakfast feeling quite fresh. Maura, the owner of the guest house, gets me porridge, scrambled eggs with tomato and mushrooms and something that looks like a tiny version of paratha. I down three pints of orange juice before I gulp down the breakfast. I gear up and decide to leave right away. Maura hands me over some pasta in a bag. She's really sweet and polite, I should probably learn something from her. I laugh at the thought and head off. The road is beautiful. It's easy to lose myself somewhere like this. I climb for quite a while and it feels perfectly fine with me. Probably it's because of everything I see around me. It's quite scenic. It's all shades of all possible colours. The sky, the trees, the farms, houses, birds- it's all colourful. It's neither windy nor is it raining today. So I feel pretty cheered up. After the loooong climb ends, there's a few miles of pure downhill bliss until I reach Eskdalemuir. I take a break at the Samye Ling monastery. The first thing I do after parking my bike is sitting in the Tibetan Tea room and ordering tea and muffin. Thanks to everything I've been thinking of throughout my ride till here, I have a lot to pour out on paper. The Tibetan hymns are playing in the background and this feels like home. I spend quite a while there.
There's a consistent climb after I'm out of there and it's quite nice. It doesn't end soon and it's not steep. It's gradual and I can feel the rhythm I'm setting. There's a forest on my right, valley on my left with a small stream of water flowing by. I can't explain what I am feeling as I pass, what I might as well describe as, heaven! I feel extremely calmed down and quiet although I can hear the words of the audiobook that's playing. I feel like the anxiety and whatever self-doubt I had is pretty much dissolved in the air and I'm probably flying. The consistent climbing ends and what I see ahead is another literally huge hill covered completely with trees. The road doesn't take me through it but it takes me right past it and it's a downhill until destination. But after that turn, There's a hell lot of headwind which doesn't let me enjoy the downhill as much. I can't complain though, the view is mind-blowing. It takes me through the Ettrick valley offering me the landscapes of, what I imagine, Spiti valley looks like. Now I'm fantasising stuff and comparing the landscape to places I've been to before and things I've seen before. I need to stop this. This pretty much isn't what you call 'living in the moment'. Okay, stopped. But before I could think of anything else, I see the 'Tushielaw inn' board, which is where I am gonna spend the night. My bike is kept in the shed and the room which they upgraded into some bigger and nicer one has a bath and stuff. The wifi isn't working. I need to inform dad that I reached. I ask the guy to switch off his router and switch it on again because that's pretty much what you do when your wifi says 'no internet connection'. He replies with, "Your iPhone is shit. Switch that off and try switching it on again and maybe that'll get you a working wifi; I am not doing anything to my router"
Wow! I'm touched by his polite words and tone. I tell him in same tone that I need to inform my parents that I've reached before they get worried. He tells me to sit near some window and try another wifi which probably would work. He tells me the password and it works. Thank goodness!
I ask for Mozarella sticks with sweet chilly dip and have no patience to wait for someone to get a fork. I start eating with bare hands. After a bit the guy gets there again and tells me that his son thinks I'm cute. I have a huge doubt that he wants my food. I laugh at my own joke in my head and tell him, "I think I look so today haha! Thanks". I have no idea who's drunk- me, him or his son. I leave it at that. Not everyday someone calls me cute so that's a mood lift from the wifi scene.
..
I need to plan some weird adventure for tomorrow as I'm not covering much distance again, thanks to the hotel bookings which are a hard to find in cheap prices. There's so much I have written off already at the monastery that I feel empty while writing this.
I read two whole books through the night and I'm exactly sure why they say that "Books are one's best friends". The two ladies in the room can't speak English. They're Chinese and when I do try to speak in Chinese with them(all thanks to google translate) I realise that they're not interested to talk. Well, not the first time someone's saying this to me. I don't have that kind of self respect whatsoever so I'm not even offended. I laugh it out instead as I gear up for the day. At the breakfast table, there's a guy and he's checking my bike out. This makes me so nervous that I eat real fast. He asks me where I'm heading to and what are my plans. Wow, someone wants to talk? why not? I tell him that I'm cycling to John O Groats and he chuckles in disbelief. Without any introduction of himself, he informs me of the cold weather, strong winds and hilly terrain in Scotland. I thank him for the invaluable information and wish him luck for his train journey. Anyone who wants to tell me 'I can't' can bugger off. I need to stay positive and optimistic and that's the only way.
As I'm leaving the guest house and finding my direction, the owner is like, "Ermm... Veedaangie, Scotland is towards this direction, this is the North"
"Ah right! Thanks!", I flush.
Alright then, not a great start. I decide to play an audiobook and when bored with it, stop somewhere and write something. I have no option today but to spend more time during the breaks because it's a really short distance(I couldn't find a cheap place to stay anywhere else) and I know if I don't chill out in between I might as well reach there a bit too soon. I start off just at the check-out time and find my way out of the city. It's not very cold but it's hella windy. I'm fine with that though. It's fun cycling on the country roads onto which I have to take a detour in order to make the route longer and explore more of that side.
..
The wind is straight onto me and I can feel every muscle of my body working to fight it out. I've got this. In fact, this is fun now. But just as I criss cross some sort of roads, I look up and there's a huuuge board saying, "Welcome to Scotland" and I'm confused. Hadn't I taken the longer route? Shouldn't have this taken longer? How did this even happen so soon? I take the bike right under that board. Trust me, I'm extremely happy and all, but this broke my rhythm and I wasn't READY for this break. So I celebrate entering the new country by eating nutella sitting right underneath that board. I look gross eating it like that but who even cares? I'm having my time. I take pictures of the board and bike and try my hand at selfies(I suck at that!!). As soon as the sun is covered by those dark grey clouds it starts pouring rain which is some kind of grand Scottish welcome. I leave that place soon and start pedalling it out. I set another rhythm with the headwind and rain and the audiobook keeps me company.
..
I stop to check the address of the guest house. 3 people ask me if I'm looking for something and they can help. Whoa! I ask them and one of them is like, "Look up darlin', you see the pub there? The green board right across the road is where you need to go"
"Ah! Cheers"
The lady opens the door and I'm drenched in rain and sweat and probably dirt too as per what the drastic shade difference under my shorts and outside it suggests. She lets my bike in and is a chubbly bubbly personality. Oh how I love these kind of people! We talk about whatever I've been up to and I offer her help if she needs because I've reached only in the afternoon. She tells me she's kept loads of coffee and some Scottish white bread-like thing with jam and butter. First thing I ask her after seeing that is how do I eat it and she tells me right away. She's probably seen the wildest kind of food-eating today! That white thing, jam and butter, I've finished every piece and spot of it in no time. She offers me coffee and tells me where the closest pub is suggesting me to carry identification with me for obvious reasons. I am broke and I don't wanna drink the mood away. So I write. I have coffee and write shit loads of short write-ups in a notebook my friend randomly gave me. My stationery obsession knows no bounds after all!
..
I decide to dine a bit earlier and have an early night but basically everything is closed and I'm still hungry. I wander into an open shop to buy grapes and that guy offers me bananas and some mango energy bar right away seeing my hoodie. Next minute, we're discussing maps and stuff. I ask him about any open restaurants and he shows me a pub which is also a continental restaurant. I notice the slow romantic bollywood songs and ask if they're Indian too in an ever-excited tone. I also tell that I am one. The lady in burqa looks at me top to bottom- Shorts, hoodie, weird hairdo and bruised and tanned legs and then looks at the guy who probably owns this place and tells me that they're from Pakistan. Excitement unaffected, I ask whereabouts from Pakistan and turns out she's half from Lahore and half from Hyderabad. We only smile at each other then and I just feel like no one really is in a mood to make a conversation with me today so I take a seat and order the cheapest vegetable Paratha and Raita. She gives me a real weird look when I say a no to drinks. So I get the diet coke which is, again, the cheapest drink available.
..
I eat like a real hungry Indian with my bare hands and enjoy every piece of that Paratha. It's been ages since I last had some hot Indian food. The Scottish family sitting a couple of tables away from mine is staring right at me and I don't give a damn. Probably that lady is showing her daughter exactly what NOT to grow up to be like. No doubt, I look rowdy right now. A good shower can fix it probably.
22/04/17
After spending half the night, again, reading a book and another quarter of it thinking real weird stuff that's probably never gonna happen, I decide to force myself to sleep for the remaining quarter. I wake up for the breakfast feeling quite fresh. Maura, the owner of the guest house, gets me porridge, scrambled eggs with tomato and mushrooms and something that looks like a tiny version of paratha. I down three pints of orange juice before I gulp down the breakfast. I gear up and decide to leave right away. Maura hands me over some pasta in a bag. She's really sweet and polite, I should probably learn something from her. I laugh at the thought and head off. The road is beautiful. It's easy to lose myself somewhere like this. I climb for quite a while and it feels perfectly fine with me. Probably it's because of everything I see around me. It's quite scenic. It's all shades of all possible colours. The sky, the trees, the farms, houses, birds- it's all colourful. It's neither windy nor is it raining today. So I feel pretty cheered up. After the loooong climb ends, there's a few miles of pure downhill bliss until I reach Eskdalemuir. I take a break at the Samye Ling monastery. The first thing I do after parking my bike is sitting in the Tibetan Tea room and ordering tea and muffin. Thanks to everything I've been thinking of throughout my ride till here, I have a lot to pour out on paper. The Tibetan hymns are playing in the background and this feels like home. I spend quite a while there.
There's a consistent climb after I'm out of there and it's quite nice. It doesn't end soon and it's not steep. It's gradual and I can feel the rhythm I'm setting. There's a forest on my right, valley on my left with a small stream of water flowing by. I can't explain what I am feeling as I pass, what I might as well describe as, heaven! I feel extremely calmed down and quiet although I can hear the words of the audiobook that's playing. I feel like the anxiety and whatever self-doubt I had is pretty much dissolved in the air and I'm probably flying. The consistent climbing ends and what I see ahead is another literally huge hill covered completely with trees. The road doesn't take me through it but it takes me right past it and it's a downhill until destination. But after that turn, There's a hell lot of headwind which doesn't let me enjoy the downhill as much. I can't complain though, the view is mind-blowing. It takes me through the Ettrick valley offering me the landscapes of, what I imagine, Spiti valley looks like. Now I'm fantasising stuff and comparing the landscape to places I've been to before and things I've seen before. I need to stop this. This pretty much isn't what you call 'living in the moment'. Okay, stopped. But before I could think of anything else, I see the 'Tushielaw inn' board, which is where I am gonna spend the night. My bike is kept in the shed and the room which they upgraded into some bigger and nicer one has a bath and stuff. The wifi isn't working. I need to inform dad that I reached. I ask the guy to switch off his router and switch it on again because that's pretty much what you do when your wifi says 'no internet connection'. He replies with, "Your iPhone is shit. Switch that off and try switching it on again and maybe that'll get you a working wifi; I am not doing anything to my router"
Wow! I'm touched by his polite words and tone. I tell him in same tone that I need to inform my parents that I've reached before they get worried. He tells me to sit near some window and try another wifi which probably would work. He tells me the password and it works. Thank goodness!
I ask for Mozarella sticks with sweet chilly dip and have no patience to wait for someone to get a fork. I start eating with bare hands. After a bit the guy gets there again and tells me that his son thinks I'm cute. I have a huge doubt that he wants my food. I laugh at my own joke in my head and tell him, "I think I look so today haha! Thanks". I have no idea who's drunk- me, him or his son. I leave it at that. Not everyday someone calls me cute so that's a mood lift from the wifi scene.
..
I need to plan some weird adventure for tomorrow as I'm not covering much distance again, thanks to the hotel bookings which are a hard to find in cheap prices. There's so much I have written off already at the monastery that I feel empty while writing this.
Comments
Post a Comment