und restaurant at 8. However, efforts for an early start were thwarted when at 7:55, while inflating tires, the valve stem broke off on my front inner tube! Breakfast was eaten with hands smelling of rubber and chain-lubricant and I was pleased I remembered enough French to have a conversation with a couple from Provence over coffee and toast.A bike courier escorted me along the relevant bike paths to the river Danube and I was soon heading north towards Szentendre where I caught the ferry across a narrow river to Szigetmonostor. I was now on quiet, Hungarian back-roads and leisurely cycled back towards the Danube, before crossing it on another ferry to the city of Vac.
Follo
wing a hand-drawn map from two teenage-girls I found my way to Rad and enjoyed a ride to the Slovakian border on more gently rolling, quiet backroads. On cue, about an hour before arrival at the border crossing, the heavens opened. The sky had threatend rain most of the day and within minutes I was drenched and cold. I ducked into the first petrol garage on the Slovakian side of the border to change and put calories in my pie-hole. I then changed back into wet clothes once the storm caught up with me again before I had finished my sandwich and coke in the warm confines of the store.
wing a hand-drawn map from two teenage-girls I found my way to Rad and enjoyed a ride to the Slovakian border on more gently rolling, quiet backroads. On cue, about an hour before arrival at the border crossing, the heavens opened. The sky had threatend rain most of the day and within minutes I was drenched and cold. I ducked into the first petrol garage on the Slovakian side of the border to change and put calories in my pie-hole. I then changed back into wet clothes once the storm caught up with me again before I had finished my sandwich and coke in the warm confines of the store. 
I had made a potentially grave error: Lucenec was 30 km further than I thoght and I discovered this at 5:15 with 53 km to go. It would be a race against the setting sun - again. Off I charged off in the pouring rain. I arrived at 8:35 pm, very cold, wet and hungry. I met Pavel with the YMCA in Lucenec and was then hosted by an Albanian family for dinner - which was an unexpected opportunity to practice my Albanian. The oldest daughter (of 6 children) asked what was I getting from the trip personally? Contributing to a good cause and seeing Europe at at a pace powered by me. This was strange to her.The night was spent at Pavel's place.
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