micro adventure | fightgravitybymoto

June 7 Trip Odometer: 51163.5 Miles (2.05 times around the equator) 18,418 (or so) hours on the road

˝Links, links!˝ she shouts. Ahh, I think that means left. I don’t have much time to decide since I can just make out that the road ends at a junction and it is too dark to see which way she turned. My friend Beat and I are hurtling down rural Swiss roads on bicycles following his friend Donja (I guessed on the spelling, sorry) on our way to the Ski Club’s full moon party. The full moon is the only thing lighting our way there. Actually, it isn’t. It has not risen yet and there is not a street light this far out of town. Beat is laughing too hard to translate (Donja speaks perfect English, but frankly I would shout in my native tongue during high-speed-low-illumination bicycle maneuvers as well. I flip a mental coin and lean left towards what could possibly be the rear of Donja’a speeding bicycle…or a fence post. To be fair, I am being overly dramatic, links is obviously left because recht is right. See, now you speak German too. We arrive at the ski club’s barn after only one more snafu when Beat’s tire runs out of air and he must borrow a pump from a passerby. The drink of choice tonight is Lutz, a very Swiss mix of homemade schnapps and black tea kept warm at the bar. The perfect drink for the crisp May nights in the foothills of the Alps.

These are the micro-adventures I love and was missing following my departure from the African continent. I found myself almost suffering from separation anxiety and finding it difficult to adjust to a vastly different continent, cultures and people. It was my own fault, of course, and it took some time to make the adjustment in travel routines and my approach to exploration. I am very lucky to have many friends in Europe now (new and old) and they have been wonderfully helpful in getting me back to fighting gravity. And helping me sort Tania out as well. After leaving Africa she did something akin to your 4-year-old daughter sitting in a corner until you buy her that God damn pony.

So what does it all mean? I am staying small. The beach vacation is cancelled (again, dramatic, I plan on going in Albania), none of these castle visits, ‘traditional’ restaurants, or tour/dinner/drink combos! The bucket list is filled with ski club drink-ups, naps in fields, turning off the GPS, eating ćevapčići (say it ten times fast) and crisp apple strudels, and Serbian biker rallies. I am on the grandest of petites aventures.