So, when I got to Wroclaw, it was already dark. But luckily the hostel I had booked was literally across the road from the station.
The hostel was in a really weird place, three floors up in a residential building. They were kind enough to let me bring my bike up (I even got it into my dorm and hid it, yes hid it, between two bunk beds). It was here that I met my first fellow tourer, who also had his bike in the room. I imagined we would be up all night talking about our adventures and what things we found hard etc. But I didn't even get a hello from him. He was a right miserable bastard. Maybe its because I'm from Britain, but if you say hello (which is universal in any language I've found out) you expect to have a hello back..
Anyway, I had something to eat and then tried to get some sleep.
But I couldn't.
I think in the end I had about 4hrs sleep. Between my nerves/excitement of going into territories unknown and the old man in the room snoring I just really struggled to even nod off.
The next day I figured I wouldn't be able to cycle after such little sleep, I cod barely think straight let alone cycle straight. I booked myself in for another night and decided to get some bits and bobs.
I managed to get some food, ibuprofen gel and a new jacket. I needed a new coat that would also be warm. The cycle jackets are good but I don't think they are suited for colder climes.
The jacket I got had a detachable fleece and is extremely warm!
Walking around Wroclaw I realised that j was getting a little depressed but came to the conclusion that the lack of sleep didn't help. It was round about now that I really started missing home, with Nanna's anniversary already been and gone too I was missing her too. Coincidentally I happened across a catholic cathedral which was open and went and lit a candle for her. I even said a little prayer asking for some help and guidance. She would have liked that.
The straw that broke my emotional camel's back was when I went into a pet store to look at the animals (hoping to cheer myself up), there were a bunch of rabbits that looked like my two (Toffi and Tiffin). I'm not ashamed to say that I started sobbing. (I dread to think what the pet store owner thought of a 6ft2 bearded man coming into their store and crying over the fluffiest things in the shop. It must have looked hilarious. Or scary as hell)
Anyway, after that I just kept breaking into tears all day. I finally got a hold of myself enough to book a train ticket to the other side of Poland (as close to the Ukraine border as possible).
I had real difficulty trying to get a ticket because they wouldn't let me have my bike crossing the border. I explained (countless times) that I didn't want to actually cross the border just next to it, but they weren't having any of it. Luckily, some guy who spoke English came up to me and asked did I want to go to Przemysl?
Showing me a map, it was the town before the stop I thought I wanted to take. He turned to the ticket officers and after 5 seconds (if that). I had tickets for the bike and I to Przemysl via Krakow. I don't know what he said, but I'm glad he did!
I got back to the hostel, had food, and got my head down to finally sleep. Alarms were set beforehand though - the train was at 0700.
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