Jinji Sadan

Crossing to France was really confusing for me, no check in the border and you are in a new country in a new language and new culture.

Everything is so different from Spain to France and I can’t believe that I got her and to start to understand the different way of life.

The truth is that I was sad to leave Spain I got many friends and good memories from there but I know that I will be back.

It weather now in Europe is really cold and the first days were something to talk about…

In the first night in France it was a snow storm and I wake up to see my tent in 20 cm of snow it took me 1 hour to pack everything and from the first minutes out from the tent I lost the sense in the fingers.

In this weather you don’t see people out in the streets or in the road, people look at me in a strange look from their car like saying:

“Who is this stupid guy that cycling outside in this freezing days?”

brrr...

Cycling in snow is always hard and dangers because of the ice on the roads.

In the city of Toulouse I was really happy to meet my friend Hugo (the French canal) that cycled with me in the magic mountains of Peru, we stayed with his amazing friends and talk about the crazy days in the past. When I am thinking about that I cycled with this guy more than one year ago and now I meet him in his country I think about the size of my journey sometimes it’s too big to understand it.

I also meet good people in the Jewish community in Toulouse and they were really warm and nice.

From Toulouse I had really crazy week to cross the Alps to Grenoble and I could see why people say that France is amazing place to cycle.

The small roads are really nice and in good conditions people are nice but don’t know English and the scenery is like cycling in paint…

The weather was ok (some times it wasn’t snowing) but the nights in the tent were really cold and I could not have good sleep.

The roads are full with nice little villages and each of them has a character of his own. I am cycling I think about that I will come her one day with my friends and cycle with them this roads because it’s pretty easy and in the season its really warm with the sun shining on your face (that’s what I heard…) every night I found I quit place to put the tent and start my day again in the morning.

In one of the climbs i was sorry to see (or to hear) that my rear wheel break but it was the time to die after crossing the mountains of south America and Africa so it was understanding after all this hard roads…

It wasn’t the first time that my wheel broke the first time was in Peru in a middle of nowhere and I took a 1000km ride to cross to Bolivia to buy a new one and got back to the same place the the rime broke, in Peru its took me time and money and her in Europe it only took me money because that I most of the small cities there is a normal bike store and rims that I can take for a short time until I will find a right one to cycle one it.

The last climb to the alps mountains was really nice ride but in the top of the pass a cloud came and told me:”Roei now the adventure is starting…” so the rest of the day I spend in the rain or snow on my face and I prefer to climb then to go down with the wind that make everything more cold.

Ice on the rocks and frozen lakes were in the view.

The climate really change when I had the descent from the mountains to the valley of Grenoble were I meet more friend, Ariel and Noa, that showing me around and we having good time and I need this rest to recovery mentally and physically.

To talk a little Hebrew with people and nice feelings after trying to make my way in French. We will meet again in Jerusalem when I will do my last kilometers in this journey it sound like a date….

Grenoble is nice city surrounded by mountains and good views.

Europe is easy cycling and I am happy to make it a little harder and to cycle in the winter and if I am her I want to cross the mountains also, I want to earn my pasta and my rest in my way.

In the next week I will cross the mountains to north Italy and I am excited of that.

Will dream and see what’s going to happen my friends.

Love you all

Roei “jinji” Sadan

Grenoble

French alps

Europe

The world

 The cold weeks that happen in Europe was good to me because I was surrounded by people that loved and care about me. I was happy to spend my b -day with Helena and we had good time together. There are situations that I didn’t think that I will be in my life… One of them was in Madrid, I had an interview with the biggest sport paper in Spain, The Marca, in a country there the people always eat and drink sport its normal that sport news papers are more popular than the normal news… I thought that it will be a short article like 4 sentence with a small photo but I was amazed that the reporter really asked good questions (one of them I never been asked before: “if you were in the land of oz what you will ask from the wizard?”)

 The day after I woke up and went to papers store and was amazed that the guy in the stand recognized me and say to everyone: “this is the guy on a bicycle!”

he gave me the newspapers as a gift and I was amazed to see me in the
middle page! “don qishot on wills ” they called me and a lot of really nice and important things on the our journey , the people in Spain didn’t understand how bicycle came for the middle page in Marca and it’s not the Spanish champion of the you’re the France Contador… I was in happy shock to see this. The time had come and I needed to go and break again from Helena and to the journey. It’s always hard to break up from someone that you love and to go to the unknown. It was important for me to be in this “normal” life for a month,to learn from my mistakes and to work on my disadvantages in the domestic life. I will not give too much words on the breakup but imagine you kissing good bye your love ones and get on the bicycle to the unknown journey. It’s not normal to let go from the one that you love but there is things that bigger then you and me. Life is bigger than us. Now I am in La Corunia on the Atlantice coast of Spain and ready to go to the unknown. This city is very nice and there is many things to see.

 Love you all
Jinji
La corunia Galicia
Spain
Europe
The world