|||
09:30: I’m up, washed, dressed and breakfasted and I’m about to head into town. I made myself porridge because I’m sick of bready breakfasts. I also weighed myself for the first time on the trip; I’m a fraction over 70 kg, which is what I was before I left Ireland, so my weight’s actually stable.
Last night I got back to my accommodation at about six o’clock. I was exhausted so lay down on my bed ostensibly to read but I ended up dozing off. I wasn’t awake enough to consider going out again for food until 20:00 but I didn’t feel like dragging myself all the way back into town. I’d planned to eat an Indian meal but I just wasn’t hungry enough so I skipped dinner and instead watched a documentary on the rise of COMPAQ on Netflix, followed by an episode of Black Mirror Season 3. After that it was 23:00 so I put my head down and had a superb sleep.
When I’d first arrived back at my accommodation, I retrieved my basha from the balcony. It was undamaged but the lines were still damp because of the lack of sun. I’m planning to take my magic carpet and mat with me today so I can dry them in the sun. It’s going to be sunny all day today. I’m going to explore the town further, maybe visit the museum and hang out reading books.
I’ll eat the Indian meal for dinner today. Then tomorrow I hit the road for the first leg of the trip to Augsburg. Which reminds me, I need to transcribe the Augsburg trip onto my paper maps from MAPS.ME1 and find the youth hostel in Augsburg.
11:03: I’ve worked out my route to Augsburg. It’s a little meandering, but I will get there for the night of 11 June. I’ve booked two nights in the youth hostel, which is right in the city. Should be enough time to get some washing done, buy maps to get me to Munich and plan my route there. I’ll spend two nights in campsites on the way to Augsburg.
11:27: I’m on my way into the old town.
12:25:15
12:34: Sitting down to an Indian buffet in ‘Himalaya’ restaurant. The rest of Ulm’s Indian community is here.
13:47: That was far better than I had any right to expect. I chased it down with two pots of sweet chai. I had rice, naan, raita, dhal, aloo mutter, mixed veg and hot pickle.
I’m going to stroll over to MediaMarkt now to see if I can buy a Bluetooth keyboard.
15:37:35
16:52: Picked up a small and light Bluetooth keyboard and mouse for €63.00. I typed up a day-and-a -half’s worth of notes from 26 and 27 April. I actually have a chance of catching up with this setup. As it is, I was transcribing from photos of a notebook using my phone’s split-screen mode. It’s only usable with a physical keyboard and mouse. The keyboard produces duplicate key presses about 1% of the time, but that’s tolerable compared to using the on-screen keyboard for extended periods.
So, next I have to head home and charge my phone and do some shopping for food for the next two days journey. I think some bread and cheese will see me through.
19:03: I popped back into MediaMarkt to pick up a tripod and left my phone in to charge. Meanwhile I went and did some food shopping. When I got back, my phone had had a small boost.2 Now I’m back at Himalaya restaurant where I’ll type up some more notes until my phones dies, and then I’ll head back to my accommodation and carry on for as long as I can stand it.
My hostess <name redacted> tells me there’s a festival event happening in Friedrichsau, just across the river from where she lives, but I’m not pushed. We’ll see. That starts at 20:00, an hour from now.
20:26: Okay, so my Bluetooth keyboard has exhausted the factory charge. I’m having a chai now, then I’ll head home and charge the keyboard. It’ll be interesting to see if it’s usable while charging, or indeed if it can be used as a wired USB keyboard.
21:24:19
21:25:02
23:27: Getting into bed. I need to pack my bag in the morning but that’s OK. The weather is due to turn shit towards evening tomorrow. I have 30 km to walk so if I get out the door early enough and crack on, I could be at the camping at 18:00. I took my magic carpet and mat into town today and spent a few minutes sitting in a sunny spot by the river drying them out. Otherwise today was a lovely relaxing yet productive day. I spent a little while this evening writing up another day from the photographed notebook. It’s really tough going! I think the photographed pages go all the way to the 12th of May! The sooner they’re done, the better. The phone on the tripod works well as a mini laptop setup with keyboard and mouse.
Here’s the first indication that I’d settled into a routine which actually rendered the paper maps irrelevant. I kept buying and using paper maps all the way to Serbia, where the maps were so unusably bad, incomplete or unavailable that I dispensed with them. Paper maps are excellent for having an overview of a chunk of landscape which takes a few days to traverse, and when folded to show only that day’s walk, as a convenient reference in my pocket. Over time though, my reliance on them dwindled and I came to trust Open Street Map data as presented in MAPS.ME more.↩
I kidded with the store assistant by telling him with a straight face that I’d left an iPhone 8 in to charge. He took it really well and came back with some crazy response of his own. Much laughter all around.↩
