EV10: Day 18: Karwia to Władysławowo to Gdańsk

My unlucky streak continues… 😉 I only made 2.5 km before my bike carrier broke yesterday. To be precise, the screw broke off in the middle, and half of the screw remains in the bike frame. This meant my back wheel was locked in place and I couldn’t continue.
I tried a first fix with zip ties myself, but the wheel was still blocked. 😑

However, as a true German I am well insured and a member of the @adfc.de — think ADAC (Germany) or AAA (US) for bicycles.
I upgraded to a plus membership which gives me EU-wide coverage, and they claim to send a bike technician or to collect you if something breaks.

So I called them, and they told me to stay and DON’T MOVE so that the technician would find me. They later reconfirmed that a technician was on their way and would be with me shortly.
After 1.5 h I got a phone call from a Polish-speaking person… however, as I only speak English, they just hung up. After 2 h I called the insurance company again, and I was now told that nobody would be coming. Their Polish partner company hadn’t been able to find any bike shops, and I was now stuck on my own. That sucked big-time. #adfc #rolandassistance 😑

So I used my MacGyver skills, reopened the zip ties (the only ones I had left) to reuse them. This time I found a way to position them so that the wheel wasn’t locked anymore. I redistributed the weight to the other bags, and I was on my way again. Didn’t feel like a solid solution, and the road was mostly cobblestone.
So after another 14 km I made it to the Władysławowo train station (the lady at the ticket booth just shrugged when I tried to buy the ticket in English and then just closed the blinds so that I couldn’t talk to her anymore), and finally made it to Gdańsk. (You can buy tickets from the train conductor.)

I immediately fell in love with the city!! Lots and lots of old, beautiful buildings, great hostel (4-bed dorm for myself so far), great food, cool bars, and English-speaking Poles. 😊

Later at night I befriended some guys who were about to do some “urban exploring” at an abandoned shipyard, and they invited me to join.

So the day ended well and I was happy — though a little bit disappointed that I wasn’t able to cycle the last 62 km to Gdańsk.

#cycle2finland

I slept here.

Route

Download GPX track