Comment by Elise@beehaw.org on how's your week going Beehaw

closing in on my 40th book of the year; this should optimistically be read sometime next week

I’m starting my bicycle ride to turkey next week. Due to life I ended up coming short 1k on my budget, and so I’ll have to forgo the electronics for now, and only have my legs!! Luckily the nl is a flat country so I’ll be ok for the first month or so. I hope my depression fucks off so I can earn some cash, otherwise it’ll be hell getting through Belgium. Either that or it’ll get really cold this far north.

Otherwise prep has been going well. I’m practicing daily, as I’m excited, but also pulling a cart is a new and unique experience. Today I practiced hitting trash on the road with the cart wheels, as I could hear it get crushed behind me. Parking in reverse is a real headscratcher. Where is a guy when you need one, amirite?

Oh and Saturday was pride here. It was officially the first day of my journey!

Omg so cool that you’re doing this!!

Any particular reason for it or did you just want to prove to yourself that you could?

Is the pride flag coming on the trip with you? 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🇳🇱

Thank you for your support! It means a lot!

I’m planning to get my hair transplant operation done in Turkey. The Dutch healthcare system is like the nine circles of hell and at the end of it they’ll give you a cheap synthetic wig!

And the flag? I suppose I should!

Dutch healthcare system

Oef ja.

Succes 🙏

Very cool! Great trailer, I use one almost daily to get supplies for my restaurant. Make sure you know the weight limit!, and how to load so you don’t get the swaying motion.

Have fun and don’t worry about your depression, daily riding will keep that shit in check, for sure. Happy Pride & ride!

Hey banana. Hey tips on loading? I thought simply put the weight as low as possible and balance it.

I’ve got a bunch of stuff and will try out soon. I’m aiming for 60kg max rn. It’s steel so it can carry a lot more.

What kind of restaurant do you have?

Simply put, more weight to the front of the trailer

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=trailer loading safety&ko=-1&iax=videos&ia=videos&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DqEHD9Wjw3lk

I originally had a 40kg trailer I abused for 4+years and recently upgraded to one rated 80kg. The new one has a support on both sides of the tires like yours, you should be good to go.

If I was to take a long road trip I would invest in an orange flag on a long whip stick (placed on the left back corner of the trailer), and a red flashing light for the trailer (even for the day). But then again, I’m from the US and drivers in The EU tend to be more aware of pedestrians & bikes outside of the motorways.

I have an American BBQ joint, and we’re celebrating our 5th year next month, which is a miracle since we opened 4 months before the COVID lockdowns…lol.

Makes sense, because it leans on the ball below the seat into the rear wheel, and is less likely to flip up and potentially bend/break something and fall off. Thank you for the idea.

Oh and the video clearly shows it’s like a pendulum otherwise! Wow scary!

Yeah, about the flag, I’m planning to do that. In Germany the clearance is something like 1.2m (not sure), so a lot of people have something sticking out that far.

Currently I’m a bit worried about Spain and Turkey. I know in Barcelona I had to drive on the sidewalks, which was absurd and dangerous so I didn’t do it back then. Maybe you can say something about that?

And Turkey because it’s a carbrained country. I’ll probably upgrade with a motor so I can go significantly faster as to not block traffic too much, and I might get some more powerful bumpers welded on. It’s all steel.

But quite frankly the NL is a dangerous country too. I’ve had people drive straight at me several times. I know staying here only gives the illusion of safety.

Regarding your BBQ joint: wow! That must be a successful business now if you managed to start during corona. I heard restaurants are a hit or miss type of investment?

Have you ever seen the series The Bear?

Barcelona is laid out very well for pedestrians, very wide streets and some good bike lanes (the diagonal street for sure), but I’ve only been there to visit friends & fam. Drunk driving though, is a thing still.

I’ve been in the business (cooking) for 35+ years, and we just had to be very careful with finances, had some great neighborhood support, and good food with good prices and it just kept rolling along…not a smooth ride but we’re in a great place now, a lot of places had to keep thier personnel which absolutely sunk them…we hadn’t hired anyone yet and still only have a part time server in the summer high season.

I watched the Bear until I saw them cooking and only tasting the food after they completed the test plate up… ridiculousness.

The Menu, however, is a beautiful film.

OH, also, make sure you have tire liners, helps a lot saving you from flats.(Between the tube and inside of the tire)

I’ll check out the movie.

A bicycle freak of mine said that it might be better to go for tyre repair gel instead, as you don’t have the effect on rolling resistence. It’s like this spray that automatically fills the hole.

I remember cycling in Barcelona on one of those e bikes. I know I looked like a total tourist and I loved it. And the shop actually told me to drive only on the sidewalks. I actually tried it but it’s impossible!

Just started the movie. First of all that girl is unrefined. She’s also too pretty. And someone is definitely going to die. Maybe everyone except her.

What’s your plan? Route, expected timeline, countries you will visit, what you would like to see…

I’m traveling spontaneously. I imagine I’ll stay in southern Spain this winter and then continue through Italy and cross by boat to Greece and continue on to Istanbul. Beyond that I can’t really say much right now. I might have to adjust my plans based on safety and infrastructure. Right now I am thinking of circumventing eastern europe for those reasons, but I’ll look into it later and I still hope that it’s possible. Those places are gorgeous and I’d like to spread trans visibility.

Take it then through central Europe. CZ and SK take some routing skills but it is really nice to bike here, don’t worry about Austria the bike infrastructure is top quality. Hungary is good too but it is really boring (too flat). Don’t trust that Romania and Bulgaria are backwards in this regard, it is doable (I would say it is bit worse than CZ and SK).

I wasn’t in all countries I mentioned some of it is from friends who were there. Maybe mention it in bikepacking/touring community (it is on lemmy.world so you will need another account) someone will give you more hands on advice.

Thanks, I’ve saved it!

I’ve always dreamt of visiting Budapest, and even moving there, but unfortunately they have anti lgbtq stuff going on there for now, so I’ll need some experience before I take on that beast.

Yeah politic is messed right now in Hungary and Slovakia in this regard. But I don’t think that it sets general feelings towards lgbtq. As a tourist you should be fine, I had really weird encounters in really rural area in Romania but never felt like I was in danger. Just to be safe I would put the rainbow flag down but that’s all, lots of people are progressive, even in those countries, and assholes are everywhere.

Hit me up if you will ride through Czech Republic, I am not active much on this account so - @plactagonic@sopuli.xyz (my second lemmy account); @plactagonic@f.cz (mastodon)

Thanks, I just followed you with my Mastodon account.

And about weird encounters, tell me about it! To say I have them often would be an understatement. That’s also why I’m not so afraid, because I just don’t think it can get much worse than it is here. In fact that would impress me.

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