By Kirill Filimonov | 15.01.2012 | 23:28 ET in Europe

Jalte Norder, 20: How I cycled 2154 km from Netherlands to Czech Republic

Jalte Norder riding his bicycle

- Do you live here in Paris?
- No, I’m from Holland.
- Okay, when are you coming back home?
- In a couple of weeks. First I will cycle to the Czech Republic.

It was one of the August evenings of 2011. We were sitting in a Parisian pub at our mutual friend Angelina’s birthday party. I talked to a tall young Dutch guy that joined our company a couple of minutes ago. His name was Jalte Norder and he was absolutely serious: he was cycling from the French capital to the Czech Republic. Moreover, it was only a part of his way. Having started in Assen in the north of the Netherlands, he cycled through five European countries and eventually made a 20-day bicycle trip on his own.

I tried to reach him online after this adventure, but I failed: two days after arriving home Jalte went abroad again. Now he is finally back in the Netherlands, but his plans are getting increasingly ambitious: he is organising a world bicycle tour in 2012, and is seeking for travelling campaignions.

Fact File: Jalte Norder

Jalte was born in 1991. He studies mechanical engineering at Hanze University in Groningen, the Netherlands. Though he has only travelled around Europe and Western Russia, he has an impressive experience in cycling. His biggest bicycle trip was taking place from 6th to 26th August 2011. He cyclied via Almere, Amersfoort, Brussels, Paris, Verdun, Metz, Trier, Koblenz, Eisenach, Gera, Chemnitz, Prague, and Brno, having covered 2154 kilometres in all.

– Jalte, how did the idea to make such a trip come to your mind?

– I have been planning to make a big bicycle trip for the whole last year, though I decided on the final destination just one week before I left. I had no idea of what to do during my summer holidays. I knew that my Russian friend Angelina was going to have a birthday party in Paris, so I went there. I still had some time after arriving to the French capital, and I decided to cycle further. I also knew that one of my friends was going to be in Eisenach, Germany. I wanted to meet her there. Finally, my Czech friends asked me if I wanted to come to their place in Prague and Brno, and I said “yes”. That’s how my route was planned.

– You were riding through small cities on your way to Brno. Why did you choose those very small towns?

– I don’t really like big cities. I don’t go there, I just ride through them. I would build my tent somewhere in a campsite or in a forest, and the next day I’d just move on. For example, I was in Paris only for twelve hours. It is much easier to cycle in small cities. They are never overcrowded.

– What was the main challenge during your trip?

– I remember the hardest day of my whole trip. At first, the weather was really good, but at some point it started to rain badly. I could hardly find any shelter. Then I saw a small table. I went under it and waited for the rain to stop for an hour. I was all wet, but I went on cycling. My plan was to go to Lichtenstein, a small German town. I was awfully cold, and I dreamt of finding a hotel there. I took a train to complete the last part of my way. I came to Lichtenstein exhausted. I cycled 220 km that day. It was about 11 in the evening. There was nobody in the city. The hotels were all closed. I couldn’t build my tent, because the ground was too wet. Fortunately, I saw people partying in some house, so I just knocked at the door and asked, “Can I sleep at your place for a night?” They said, “Okay, no problem!”

– So you were like a character of those old fairytales?

– Yeah, something like this (laughs). I woke up the next day and kept moving. That was the toughest day of my trip. Another huge challenge was to cycle for 3 days in a row in 40-degrees heat in Czech Republic. When you’re cycling over the hills, you have to drink about 10 liters of water a day. Besides, Czech roads are extremely bad.

– I’m sure rain must have brought much trouble, too. How did you cope with it?

– All my bags are waterproof. The only big problem was my tent that frequently got wet, and I didn’t have time to dry it out. However, I usually kept on going when it rained. If I stopped cycling, I might have caught a cold. Although if my clothes were dry and it was starting to rain, I would try to find a shelter and wait until the rain is over. Normally, it was raining for two hours, so I didn’t lose much time.

Jalte's route is drawn with black

– I guess such pauses could be useful, at least you could catch your breath and have a snack. By the way, what did you eat?

– I always had my two or three-day food supply with me, like rice or instant macaroni. I just boiled water and then the dinner was ready. I either built a fire or used my transportable gas burner. In the morning, I would eat some bread. Sadly, it’s not really practical, for it gets stale too soon. So I had to go to the supermarkets once in two days.

I certainly needed much water. I bought cola and other sodas in shops and sometimes knocked at doors and asked for some water. There was practically no one who would refuse. Plus, there are many places in Czech forests where you can get water. This is some kind of small house one meter high where rain water is filtered. These houses are located next to walking routs close to the road.

– Where and how did you sleep?

– My tent was on the back of my bike. I slept either in a campsite or in a forest near the road. I prefer to sleep in the forest. It is cheaper, although it’s not always allowed in Europe.

– Did you see wild animals?

– I heard some noise outside my tent from time to time. I think it were dares and wild boars, but I never checked it out. I saw dares while cycling, too. There was no danger. They just ran away. It was amazing to see them so close!

– The next question I want to ask is pretty intimate, but it’s too hard to avoid it. How did you wash yourself?

– I didn’t wash (laughs). Just kidding. I did, of course. I took a shower, when I slept at my friends’ places in Brussels and in Prague. I took a shower in campsites. But once, when there was no chance to do that, I jumped into a lake. However, it did not go that smooth all the time. I washed myself after three days of cycling twice, which was amazingly uncomfortable. The lakes and rivers that I was passing were even dirtier than me.

– How did you rest?

– Usually I stopped cycling around seven in the evening. While the water for my dinner was boiling, I prepared my meal and built my tent. I was always tired in the end of the day, so I went to sleep right after the dinner. During the daytime, I followed my fifty-kilometer rule: after every 50th kilometer I had rest. So it was like two or three hours of cycling, half an hour of rest, and then 50 kilometers of cycling again.

– Did you have any problems with security?

– No. But keep in mind that I was cycling through small cities. Still, it was a bit frightening. For instance, when you go to a supermarket, you have to leave your bike and all your stuff outside. It’s almost all you have. You only take a wallet and a passport with you. Maybe you will be inside for twenty minutes or half an hour. I have a good locker, and my bicycle would hardly be stolen, but it’s risky anyway.

Jalte Norder at his final destination point in the Czech Republic

– How much money did you spend on the whole adventure? Was it expensive or you arranged some kind of low cost holidays?

– I didn’t calculate it exactly, but the whole amount was about 700 euro. This is quite much. It’s because the price of my train tickets. I used trains three times: going back home from Czech Republic and two times in France and Germany. It was an expensive fare, since I had to buy a special ticket for my bike. The unforeseen costs were high as always. In Germany I did something wrong when buying my ticket and I had to pay twenty extra euro. The train trips cost me 200 euro.

– Why did you have to use trains?

– It happened when I didn’t want to lose too much time, when I was cold and tired. I could have a rest while travelling. For example, I was supposed to be in Eisenach on August 18, visit the castle, and meet my friend there. But it was far away from me, so I decided to save the time and take train from Paris to Rheims. It would have been too hard to get out of Paris through all its suburbs. This is why I am speaking about drawbacks of big cities.

– You made such a huge trip on your own. Did you ever feel lonely?

- Yeah, I did feel really lonely once. I met my friend in Eisenach. We spent some time there. The moment when she was going back to her home city, I stood on the road with my bike, watching her bus moving away and waving my hand. It was the time when I realized: damn it, I’m alone again. It was a sad feeling. But then I went on cycling, enjoyed the views, the nature, and the cities. Soon enough, I was alright again.

– How did you stay connected with the world, did you use Facebook or something?

– No, I only used my mobile phone. I texted to my parents something like “Okay, I’m here now”.

– What did you parents say when you told them about your plan to go to Brno?

– When I was 15, my friends and I went to the Alps for a backpacking trip. When I was 16, I went canoeing in Sweden with a group of people. When I was 17, I cycled from Assen, a small city 25 km from Groningen, to Vianden, Luxembourg. Later I went from Assen to several other European cities, including Amsterdam and Hamburg, by bike. Thus, step by step, my parents got used to trips like that.

– What about your friends, what they say?

– At first they thought I was totally crazy. Then, when I came back and showed them the pictures, they were like “Oh, it’s so awesome! Respect!”

– How did you feel after arriving back home? What was the first thing you made?

– First of all, I went to see my parents in Assen. Speaking about the way I was feeling… I was a bit shocked. I’ll tell you the story. I had to be in Holland at 1 pm for my university meeting. But due to some problems with train, I didn’t make it on time. I came back at 3 pm. It was too late. Next morning I called my friend to ask him what the meeting was about. He said, “We’ll go to a summer school in Germany tomorrow”. I was like “Oh no, I’m just from there!” I had to pack my rucksack again and take train to Germany next day.

– It must have been a good continuation of your summer adventure! What are your plans for future?

– I am organizing a bike tour around the world next summer. I will start from Assen, go to the very north of Sweden, turn to St. Petersburg, then cycle to Moscow, Tallinn, and Vilnius. I guess Istanbul will be the next destination. But after that I have a problem. I will need to go to Shanghai, but the situation in the Middle East is far from stability. So I still need to think about that. Maybe I will go by plane or take Trans-Siberian express. I may later go to Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, India, Australia, and New Zealand. Then I might take a boat or a plane to South America, cross the United States, Canada, then probably turn to Africa, cross it from south to north, and go back to Holland via south Europe again.

– Sounds fantastic! But what about your studies in the university?

– I will graduate next year, so I think I can work it out. I am currently searching for people who can join me. I hope we can go in a group of five or six. I have recently found a website where people search for travelling companions. It’s a good opportunity for me.

– What would you do differently this time around?

– I’d buy new pedals for my bike. I would like to try the ones with click mechanism. You stick your feet there, and that gives you more speed. Besides, I would take more water. In Europe it doesn’t matter that much, but when I go to Australia next year, it would be a big problem. I will have to cycle 400 km without water, so I’ll need to take some 50 litres of water. That’s a problem.

– What would you recommend to the people who want to make a trip like that for the first time?

– Start small. Of course, you can cycle 150 km per day, but it can be quite tough at the first time. 70 or 80 km per day would be okay. Do not cycle more than two or three days. At the second time you can make the tour weeklong. It is a huge physical and mental challenge, but the result is worth the efforts. You will find yourself. Afterwards, you really know what you can and what you can’t do.

– Did this trip somehow change your personality?

– I don’t think so. I was straight and honest before, and I’m the same after. I just have a beard now, but I’m going to lose it soon (laughs).