first difficulties
= Day 2 =
Night rides around Sochi smoothly turned into a search for a place to sleep. Around one in the morning I started looking for a suitable spot where I could settle in and wait for dawn. There was nowhere to pitch a tent in the middle of the city, so first I decided to try sleeping on one of the benches. But there were people around constantly, and I didn't want any of them to call the police or, worse, rob me. Still, I gave it a shot, laying a stun gun next to me just in case. After a while, some guy started circling around me — must've been a Dagestani. He was drunk, you could tell from his walk. And at one point, when no one else was around, he came up to me and started threatening me. I got up from the bench, gave him a withering look, and told him to leave, or he'd be sorry. He glanced aside at the bench, saw the stun gun lying there, looked at me from under his brow, and silently walked away. After he left, I realized staying there wasn't safe — what if he called his crew, and then I'd be the one in pain. So I decided to find a safer spot. Got on my bike, packed my bags, and headed toward Lazarevskoye…
As it turned out, for nothing. Until dawn I tried to find a suitable place, burned at least a million calories, but never found anything decent. Along the way I ran out of water and food supplies, and there wasn't a single store nearby. I didn't think finding a place to sleep would be this hard. You'd think — there's a beach, a forest — just set up wherever. In reality — it's all private, fenced-off beaches and impenetrable forest, thick enough that even a wild cat would struggle to get through. Setting up a tent right in the city wasn't an option either. I should've started getting ready for bed earlier. But I don't regret a thing — the evening turned out remarkably wonderful. It started getting light, and by about 6 AM I was back in the city. After breakfast at the station, I rode off to look at a room for daily rent in the northern part of town. I had a desperate urge to get some sleep and clean myself up. But even those 7 km to the supposed spot didn't go without trouble. Not even two days in, and I'd already managed to get my baptism by fire — my first injury, a huge scrape on my leg that's now going to need care. It happened in one of those narrow Sochi tunnels I had to cross. Turned out one of the drivers somehow decided it'd be a good idea to honk at me a little. Just… in case. In case I didn't know I wasn't the only one on the road and there were cars all around me. ))) And by inertia, I swerved into the curb, which scraped up my shin. I was incredibly angry at that moment. Tired, hungry, and angry… As it turned out later, I rode there for nothing, and my leg got hurt for no reason. The landlady of that house simply wouldn't let me in, taking me for some shady nonconformist. To be honest, my unusual appearance really didn't invite conversation — with a bike, two backpacks, a bandana, dirty, sweaty hippie, sleeping on the ground in the shade of a tree across from the house with an incredibly exhausted face, waiting for the room to finally be free… )) The landlady was right — I wouldn't have let me in either.
I have to admit, from the outside it all looked pretty comical. All of today's failures happened only because of my carelessness. In some places I should've double-checked everything properly so I wouldn't waste time shuttling from one end of the city to the other, and in others I should've taken it slow and just not done stupid things. But "what's done is done" — nothing to be done about it. One thing's for sure — the mind of a tired and hungry person stops being a good friend and advisor. I had less and less strength, wanted more and more sleep, and I desperately needed some kind of shelter. A little more and I was ready to lie down right on the sidewalk. Luckily, I managed to find a pretty decent hostel, where they took me in without any issues. Just like I said — "measure twice, cut once…" )) I had just the last 7 kilometers to go. And again the path went through that same ill-fated tunnel that had so neatly scraped my leg in the morning. And now, I've literally just gotten out of the shower, bandaged my bloody wound, and right now I plan to get a proper night's sleep…
Today taught (taught?) me not only to look at things slowly and soberly, but also to push through states of extreme exhaustion under stress and shock. Earlier in my life, of course, there were moments when I had to overcome myself in the wild, in the past I'd repeatedly endured extreme physical loads, but what happened today… — it's been a long time since I've been this wiped out. But despite that, fatigue is just a state, and it can be overcome if you really need to. In my case, the firmness of my bed tonight depended on it — cold asphalt or a warm soft mattress. Yeah, what won't you do for comfort. I'm staring at the ceiling now and realizing that I could've been inside these very walls this morning, if I hadn't jumped at the first housing option way out in the boonies. I was very thoughtless, and one day I'll definitely fix that. But right now something else matters — it's exactly 3:54 PM and it's finally time to crawl under the covers…