UPDATED October 25th, 2019 — this is a dispatch from my cycle tour of Ukraine and surroundings this past Summer with my partner Nastia, an open project on an Autumn/Winter hiatus — check out the project page more information, and sign up for my newsletter if you would like to be notified when it resumes 馃檪
This note will be a short one — i already feel some spiritual unease for having missed a Tuesday, so i’ll do my best to at least honor the week!
Perhaps for the better, Internet access has been a challenge on this tour.
Our first host in Rzesz贸w didn’t allow us to connect my laptop to her network — she believes Apple devices cause it to misbehave, and i guess that’s her prerogative. Our second host had just moved in, so she didn’t have Internet at all — we had been duly warned, and were actually happy about it, thinking we’d still be able to score a couple of hours online at a library or commercial establishment nearby, and otherwise just relax hanging out with her, catch up with our cycle touring errands, read — i didn’t expect the two libraries i visited would require Rzesz贸w residency for Internet access, and that we wouldn’t be able to find an Internet caf茅 or restaurant with Wi-Fi in the student district!
I lost my smartphone in the mountains last month, and Nastia’s has been run over by a car — i wanted to make a video of her riding against the sunset over a bridge, it slipped off my hands, and the incoming car i was waiting to pass so i could pick it up went right over it — better than running right over us? This nevertheless ruled out the mobile Internet possibility we were already trying to avoid, so as not to be always connected.
If i were to believe the Universe has any purpose whatsoever, then it must be for me to stay offline on this tour :p
Anyway.
Nastia has a bicycle and panniers, the blur or which you can see on the featured photo, and we’re now on our way back to Ukraine — it’s officially on!
And i better cherish this offline opportunity, as it might be one of the last any of us will ever have.
Have you all a great weekend!
___
Featured photo: an afternoon “at work” playing with the camera while Nastia sold some postcards in Rzesz贸w, Poland (Summer ’19)
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