Wrocław, Poland: 2 Days

June 03, 2026

Wrocław, Poland: 2 Days

Yesterday around noon, I landed in Wrocław, Poland. For some reason, the public transit feature in Google Maps couldn’t show the bus routes from the airport. Luckily, I got on the 106 bus that took me to Magda’s neighborhood. I ended up getting some lunch and relaxed at the local library and the nearby playground before meeting Magda around 5 PM.

Magda stored my bicycle and the panniers in the basement of her apartment building since late September of last year. I’m very grateful for that.

The tires on the bicycles were flat from storage and I injected the rest of my Orange Endurance sealant into them. The valve on the front tire had a leak, but somehow I was able to fix it. I hope both tires will hold the air.

An hour later and after getting everything ready, I bid farewell to Magda. She was having a get-together with her friends later in the evening so she couldn’t host me. I rode about 3.5 miles into the city. It felt weird riding my bike again. I felt I was riding an elephant and not a bicycle since I haven’t ridden a bike in a long time.

I booked two nights at Hostel Mleczarnia, where I had stayed last year. It’s a homey hostel and I was able to store my bicycle inside as well.

Today, I tried to buy the same brand of sealant just in case I get a puncture on the road. I went to three bike shops, but none of them carried the Orange brand sealant. I bought another brand called Trezado. It’s made in Poland and I hope it’ll work well if the time comes.

I also bought some snacks for the road and a bag of ramen in case I need to camp. There are fewer Warmshowers hosts in Eastern Europe. I will most likely stay in hotels and wild camp. It’ll be best if I can stagger the camping and the hotel stays since I dislike too much camping.

Tomorrow will be my first riding day. I’ll be heading south from Wrocław for about 30 miles. I feel that’s a good distance to start. If I feel I can ride more then I will. I might have to wild camp unless I pedal farther to another town that has a hotel. I’ll have to see based on my physical condition.

To be honest, I don’t think I’m completely mentally prepared for this bike ride. For some reason, I’m apprehensive. I guess that’s just fear taunting me.

As for my route, I’ll mainly follow the EuroVelo routes to Athens, Greece, via the coast of the Balkans. I’m aiming for Bratislava, Slovakia, first since I have plans to stay at Henryk’s place. I had chatted with Henryk when he was planning his bicycle tour in South America early last year. I was going to join him but chickened out. He’s kind enough to host me if I can get to his house before June 16. I think I will reach Bratislava in less than ten days. After that I’m aiming for Albania. I might stay for more than a month there since as an American I can stay a maximum of 360 days without a visa. Then depending how many days I have left in the Schengen Area, I will cycle to Athens in August or September to catch a flight back home. That’s the plan so far.

Lastly, for some riding statistics from last year. I cycled a total of 4339 miles from King of Prussia, PA, USA, to Wrocław, Poland, in 147 days, including rest days. So my average is 29.5 miles per day. If I don’t include the rest days I’m guessing my average is about 40 miles per day.