DAY 96 | Ukraine| How To Move The Stars | A bicycle ride around the world

How To Move The Stars is the day by day retelling of a bicycle ride around the world. Start from the beginning to get the whole story. 

My adventure was a modern day epic, a solo, self-supported bicycle ride spanning 38,000 miles across six continents. There were moments I barely survived, and times I cried tears of joy, but mostly, this is a story about the thousands of people I met along the way.  I moved through their cultures, and dramatic landscapes. I ate their food and slept on their land. I was constantly arriving to the open arms of strangers who were excited to help me achieve a feat that few could imagine. I did this for years, immersing myself in the world and meeting the people who live here. The story I returned with is a snapshot of humanity, captured in a lived experience. Thank you for joining me on my journey.

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
May 20th, 2013 Some Farapol Eugene, our tour guide for the
week, arrived this morning to take us around Some Farapol.
Eugene is an interesting man, Thoughtful, energetic and quick
to laugh. He has lived in this area for
much of his life. In the past he worked as an
engineer and then a professor. He looked like a professor.

(00:24):
Square framed glasses rested lowon his nose, he wore collared
shirts and khakis, and his graying beard was neatly
trimmed. Currently, the weak economy has
led him to be an English speaking tour guide.
My first priority was to go to abike shop and Eugene led the
way. I had my parents bring me a new
top of the line bottom bracket to replace the loose bearings

(00:46):
and have been bothering me for the past month.
With the right tools, the bike shop was easily able to swap the
parts. A couple guys were there hanging
out with the shop owner and theyenjoyed hearing about my
journey. As we waited for my bike to be
done, I did a short test ride and I could tell right away the
bit of play that had been bothering me was gone.
With that chore out of the way, I was able to relax into the

(01:08):
break with my parents. We walked through some Farrah
Pole, visiting a War Memorial along the way.
German troops occupied the city from late 1941 until 1944.
Shortly after arriving, the Nazis massacred 22,000 of the
citizens, including 14,000 people, in a single day.
The memorial was in a sunny parkwith an old green tank mounted

(01:32):
on a marble stand. Given what happened, I felt the
scene needed to be sadder. I wanted the memorial to push
people to contend with the cruelty that humanity is capable
of, forcing us to face that partof our nature with the hope that
reminding us what happened will prevent history from repeating.
That's what I was feeling. So maybe the memorial was

(01:52):
working. Another stop was to a winery,
where Eugene ordered us a flightto four different wines, then
expertly explained to us the flavor profiles and wine making
methods. The wine with the most unusual
flavor, he said, was originally shipped on the deck of a sailing
boat. The daily heating in the sun and
cooling at night created a unique flavor that I've never

(02:14):
tasted in the wine. This happy accident was captured
in a process that they now do entirely at the winery.
No need for an old wooden ship. This evening we went out for a
nice dinner with Eugene, his wife, and his two adult
daughters, all of whom were lovely people.
My dad ordered pierogies and outof respect to the women at the

(02:35):
table, Eugene pulled my dad aside to privately tell him a
joke, which my dad later shared with me.
Eugene started. Two men sat eating an enormous
plate of pierogies, eating and eating until one man finally
said to the other, I cannot eat even one more bite.
The last pierogi I ate is here. Eugene indicated the top of the

(02:56):
stack with a flat hand placed atthe bridge of his nose and the
first pierogi the man said I'm sitting on.