FEATURE STORY
Biking for Breath Around the World
 by Paula Holmes-Eber
|
Part II: Pedaling along the Baltic Sea from Germany to Russia -- A creaky wooden horse
drawn cart, piled high with hay, bounces along ahead of our family's two tandems as we pedal through a sleepy crooked
wooden-housed village in Lithuania. In Tallin, Estonia towering trucks filled with oil, gas and toxic chemicals roar past our bicycles as
we gaze open-mouthed at the mile upon mile of glass and steel buildings housing such familiar high tech companies as Nokia, Saab, and
Siemens. In eastern Germany the perfectly paved roads and well marked bicycle trails of the country's western counterpart give way abruptly
to a bumpy ride as we swerve to avoid potholes on cobblestoned lanes while catching rare glimpses of former communist times: a silent
watchtower, a dilapidated guard house.
 | | |
The streets of Siberia. | |
Further east, the pungent smell of Polish town houses, heating the fall mornings with coal, hangs over brightly kerchiefed women collecting
mushrooms in the nearby forest. And while the hundreds of gleaming gold fountains spouting water in front of the Peterhof Palace in St.
Petersburg delight our eleven- and thirteen-year-old daughters, Yvonne and Anya, our Russian homestay hostess, Katerina, has searched in
vain for over half a year to find simple parts to repair her bathroom shower.
Cycling around the Baltic Sea for the past two months -- from Germany to Russia -- has led our family into a strange and often contradictory
world of communism, consumerism, colorful peasant life and contemporary pop culture. Although the miles have been easy, with the prevailing
westerly winds pushing us over gently rolling farmland and along quiet windswept coastlines, intellectually Eastern Europe has been an
intense challenge. We have entered a bizarre world in which we peel all fruits and vegetables and iodize our water (to avoid numerous
dysenteric maladies) and then stop at gleaming highway gas stations with sparkling bathrooms and cappuccino bars to buy our bottled water.
Each mile brings a new and totally unexpected turn; each day another surprise.
| |
 | | |
Paula, her two daughters, and a
stranger on the train. |
In Riga, Latvia our family spent a memorable day wandering around the re-created seventeenth and eighteenth century farm and seaside
villages of the outdoor ethnographic museum. In the distance, mile upon mile of Soviet-era red and white brick housing complexes towered
over the skyline. In Kaunas, Lithuania our hotel provided a fabulous breakfast buffet with ten different meats, twenty cheeses, lox and
pickled fish, blini, eggs, sausages, kiwi fruit, and numerous juices. The next day we camped in a farmer's field where our only water
source was the well in front. We were invited into his ramshackled home to prepare our meal on his propane fueled burner, only to discover
the cupboard was completely bare. And while our greeting at the border of Russia was far from friendly -- two corrupt border guards throwing
all of the contents of our panniers to the ground in order to extort a four hundred ruble bribe -- the next day, our homestay hostess
trustingly loaned us eight hundred rubles until we could get to a cash machine. Four days later she sent us off with gifts and warm tears
of friendship.
 | | |
Paula and Anya rest in front of a colorful farm. | |
After cycling over three thousand miles from Greece to Russia, we are now enjoying a well-earned rest on the Trans-Siberian Railway from
Moscow to Beijing. As mile after mile of vast snow covered Siberian forests roll by, punctuated by ramshackle snow-bleached wooden houses
and silent peeling Soviet-era towns, I try to make sense of the juxtaposition of poverty and wealth, tradition and modernity, communism and
capitalism. But looking into the faces of the plump colorfully-shawled Russian woman in the compartment next to us and our smartly dressed
uniformed providnitsaa (conductor), I think I am not the only confused one.
The Eber family departed on their sixteen-month cycling tour around the world for asthma on May 6, 2003, World Asthma Day.
To read the more recent installments or the beginning of the story, check out Part I,
Part III, Part IV, and Part V.
To follow their progress or to make a donation for asthma research and programs, you can visit them at
www.bikeforbreath.org, send them mail at: World Bike for Breath,
P.O. Box 11581, Bainbridge Island, WA 98110, call their headquarters at: (206) 855-2907, or email them at
bikeforbreath@hotmail.com.
Photos courtesy of the Eber Family
|
|
