Waking up early enough to get to the supermarket just as it opened, I finally felt like I was over the jet-lag. I bought eggs, butter, cereal, lactose free milk, some fruit. It felt like a lot of money at 32 Euros but that’s what it takes to feed 6 hungry cyclists.
Returning to the apartment, we made and ate breakfast. Getting out our stowable day packs we put everything we needed in the packs – towels, water bottles, snacks for the day (though not too much --- we expected to be able to buy ice cream)
We walked down to the bus stop and when the bus showed up took it 2 stops by accident even though we only paid for one. No one called us out for it and we walked out towards the lake, hoping to be able to rent paddle boards on the lake rather than renting one near the bus stop and then having to cart it down to the lake and back.
We soon came across a swimming platform where you had to pay to get access to their changing rooms, showers, and swimming area. The price seemed high so we declined. Walking on, however, we discovered one after another paddle boarding rental business closed Another 10 minutes of walking revealed why: there was the world rowing competitions happening on the Lake and at least half of it was fenced off, disrupting normal businesses.
Disappointed, we walked on and found a boatman who would take us to the island in the middle of the lake He made us wait a long time while he tried to get more customers but finally we were in the middle of that island on the lake. The centerpiece turned out to be a church with an entry free. Mark thought it was a tourist trap and declined, but the rest of us walked in after paying the fee and found the special lucky bell ringer that if you did a good job and managed to ring the bell 3 times your wish would come true. This turned out to be quite hard as the inertial of the pulley system would tend to keep eell ringing. A huge arty of Indian tourists showed up and despite us being there first rudely shoved us aside and demanded that we line up behind them!
Rather than fight about it we left the church and walked up the bell tower, which had preserved the original geared mechanism that maintained the church clock. Then we walked around the island to find our boatman. One of the other tourists onboard asked to try rowing. Our boatman revealed that he was a former Olympian, representing the country in various rowing events. Indeed, while he made the rowing look easy, it wasn’t, as neither the other tourists nor Xiaoqin could even keep the oars in the designated brackets while applying power.
Back ashore, we bought a supermarket lunch of various local pastries known as “bureks” and ate them on the grass. Spotted a sign pointing to he Mala Osojnic trailhead Determining that it was a relatively short walk, we hiked up it to the first viewpoint despite the afternoon heat. The viewpoint was just as pretty as promised, and crowded with visitors, but we still managed to get photos.
Returning to the Lake, we finally came across a paddle board rental place that was open! We paid for an hour of rental paddle board. I took the first lap around the island, and after coming back, Boen hopped onboard and took it for a short hop. Having satisfied himself that he could still do it, he turned around and picked up his older brother and proceeded to paddle him all around the island!
In the mean time, Stephan had showed up on the tandem with Otto in tow, having ridden from their campgrond on their rest day. It turned out that the paddleboard rental place was just next to a long boardwalk that served as a swimming platform which was free. Bowen and Boen were skeptical of swimming in the lake, especially Bowen who was still concerned about his wound, but once Mark, myself, Stephan, and Otto were in the water he joined in the fun, as did Xiaoqin.
One the swimming was over, we started to look for a place for dinner On Google, there was a hotel with a restaurant with an almost perfect reviews. A call received an enthusiastic response from the resturant indicating that they would serve us. Indeed, when we arrived they had setup an outside table for us We all ordered one of the fixed menus except for Boen who ordered a single dish to save room for dessert. We would later all agree that this was one of the best meals of the trip.
By the time the meal was over it was past the bus’s scheduled stop, and it was just as fast to walk back to our apartment as to wait for the next bus. The walk itself was an adventure, but not in a scenic way, We made it back to the apartment and took turns doing showers and laundry. Arturo would later put “rest day” in quotes because we had all done so much!
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