Bornholm Bike Trip

Well, my weekend begins last Thursday actually. I joined a fansy-smansy gym in Copenhagen and there are free exercise classes. Like really intense classes. As in last Tuesday, I did a spinning class for 75 minutes with an instructor who rode in the Tour (de France for those of you who are not fortunate enough to have a bike enthusiast as a father!). Back to Thursday. I did a class called “kettlebells” in which you essentially have a 16 lb weight and swing it up in the air while you’re doing lunges for an hour. My body was in PAIN.

Okay, so Friday at 10 pm, I loaded a bus with my friends Catherine and Katy (both from Georgetown) and Nat and Nick (Georgetown and Colby College, respectively) to board an overnight ferry to Bornholm, which is one of Denmark’s 406 islands. I was so excited to get to the island and have a weekend of fresh air, exercise, and a little change of pace.

Arrival to Bornholm (back when I still enjoyed the island)

The ferry that night was absolutely the Ritz Carlton of ferries. Great news. So we slept in cabins on the way over and arrived the next morning at 6am. Catherine, Katy, and I decided to do the “killer tour,” which involved a 65 km (41 miles for those of you that have not been forced to make the switch to the metric system). The first leg of the trip, we went about 100 mph the whole time. I was seriously peddling as fast as I could and still could not stay up with the group. And keep in mind Bornholm is the only place in Denmark with hills. And lots of them! I think we were probably going uphill about 85% of the time. Rough. But manageable. THEN, the wind kicked in. This was no slight breeze. This was monsoon strength wind. As in some ships didn’t even leave harbor that day because the wind was too strong. We would be peddling and literally not moving against the wind. Catherine even got blown off her bike (as in fell on the ground) because the wind was so strong and blew her over. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever ever ever ever everrrrr done in my life.

Catherine, myself, Max, Nat, and Katy still enjoying the day

I hope you haven’t forgotten the intro to this story. I went into the bike ride NOT BEING ABLE TO WALK NORMALLY FROM FREAKING KETTLEBELLS CLASS.

Biking.

Anyway, after the absolute worst bike ride of our life, we make it to the beach to see the beautiful island which is apparently the “largest exporter of sand” because they use it for hourglasses. It looked exactly like the sand in Alabama. And there was no food. So I had soft serve ice cream for lunch. So NOW, we are 20 miles away from our hostel and the only way to get back is to ride back. At this point, we were miserable.

We hop on our bikes and go. The wind refused to give us any slack. I cannot even count the times that I honestly did not know if I would be able to do one more peddle. All I could do was pray that I would be given the strength for one more push. I’m not sure if the tears were me crying or just the wind making my eyes water.

One girl face planted. One girl started cramping and fell off her bike. One girl was dehydrated. One girl hitch-hiked home. Many people paid hundreds of dollars for taxis back to the hostel. There were so many times I wanted to give up. But we made it.

Catherine, me, and Katy at the beach

The next morning, Catherine and Katy caught the first ferry home but the group was not scheduled to leave until Sunday night at 10. So now I was friendless. And in unimaginable pain. I made friends with some random girls who said they were not going to bike for the day so I decided to go with them because my guy friends were planning to bike. The girls lied. So on the bike I got. We went about 3 miles, stopped at a rocky beach and then… breakdown. As in hyperventilating crying to the point where I was coughing. With strangers. All strangers. I’m not sure whether it was a good thing I found Nat and Nick or not because now they think I’m a psycho but at least I knew someone to give me a hug. I was simply exhausted. What a joke.

So I sat by myself on the rocks for a while, thought about how much my body hurt, thought about how friendless I was, and then walked my bike back to the hostel. But I was locked out. So I just hung out with myself all morning. I found a beautiful church that overlooked the city and just sat there and had one of the best quiet times in my life because it was definitely one of my lowest points.

The rocks where I camped out for a while.

My church

Then we had to wait around until 10 to leave on the ferry.  We arrived back in Copenhagen this morning at 7:30 am. And I had class from 8:30-1 straight. Longest day ever.

I officially hate biking. And Bornholm. And for a while there, I hated life.

ROUGH WEEKEND.