From the Netherlands to Ukraine by bike – Liam, #141

Liam has cycled 1500 km from the Netherlands to Ukraine with a purpose of raising money for young people affected by the war.
TIMESTAMPS:
00:01 First couple of days in Lviv, daily cycling distance
02:50 Two wheeled chronicles (Володимир Муляр)
03:56 Passion for cycling
06:56 The host of this podcast can’t fix a bike
08:45 Planning of the journey
11:57 Caveats of visiting Ukraine
21:40 Bikes in the Netherlands, the psychology of preferring a bike
27:11 The madness of electric bikes
28:17 The insanity of monowheels
31:58 How much money Liam raised, traumatized children
34:57 Social media help in fund raising
40:31 The attitude to the war in Ukraine, why Liam supports Ukraine
41:31 putin’s injustice
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Liam links:
https://linktr.ee/Liamtolviv?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAacaZjYCqLnj8XLiFuJOwdkbd1hRZK_cx-93tlsrrDQxQPzrl-uqt9Ue_DhUkA_aem_T8Gcx_a9-Qqvoi4U_NqBaA

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My socials:
👉 Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/m1xomatosis/
👉 Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?…
👉YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@BohdanFproject
👉Spotify – https://open.spotify.com/show/2FdQ9uc…

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PODCASTS IN UKRAINIAN – • • • • • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRcN3mPv_9M&list=PLqJ6H6JAwqQqatukEQA122esNWJL_1lvN&pp=gAQB

PODCASTS IN ENGLISH – • • • • • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wd-dtDLwHmc&list=PLqJ6H6JAwqQoGkOfVBaPZPMLvmImDzIaf&pp=gAQB

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#cycling #fundraising #warinukraine

Good. Bam. And we are rolling. Uh man, where do I even begin? It’s quite a story, right? It’s hell of a So, is it my understanding that uh you’ve just arrived to be? Uh uh well, just I arrived on uh Thursday already. Yeah. Yeah. So, I’ve been here a couple of days now. That’s even better because then we’ll have something to discuss. It’s uh perhaps your first time visiting the city, right? Yes, it is. It’s my first great even. Yeah. Okay. Interesting. So yeah, uh it’s personally one of my favorite cities. Each time I’ve got the smallest opportunity, I immediately go there. For me, it’s not even an option to consider any other cities to be fair. It’s one of the best. Uh yeah. How’s the city treating you? What’s your initial impression? Uh it’s it’s amazing. I’m I’m really enjoying this city. Uh I I I really love the look of the city. Like it’s it’s such a pretty city to walk around. Like already every day I’ve just been walking around here looking at the the buildings, the architectures, the parks. Uh that just has been Does it resemble um the Netherlands at least remotely to you? It does not resemble the Netherlands. No, I I I think it maybe resembles some some other countries a bit more. Maybe some like Polish cities or Czech cities maybe. The impact is quite noticeable of uh of the Polish effect so to speak in the city. Yeah. Interesting. And it’s taken you nearly a month if I’m right. Nearly a month. Yeah. 29 days it has taken me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 29 days. What was your daily distance on average? Um it there was definitely quite some difference sometimes. Uh my initial goal was to bike 70 km every day. Yeah. Wow. And I ended up usually biking a bit more than that. Uh usually around the 80 90 km. And then like my my max like uh the the highest I biked was maybe 130 km. Yeah, that’s impressive. Yeah, for people who know what it’s like to bike for 100 km. Yeah, if those who know, they know, right? Yeah, it’s a bit of a challenge. How did you feel after 130? Oh, I felt so exhausted. I I I also think it wasn’t um the best thing to do because uh the days the two days after that my body couldn’t couldn’t handle for so long anymore. No, I get it. Yeah. Maximum I’ve ever hit is 100 and uh it made me question my entire essence to be fair. You know, I nearly forgot my own name to be honest. No, no, I would never. Because the thing is the reason both times why I hit 130 was not because I was like, I’m going to bike 130 today. It was more because um necessity, right? Not a choice. Yes, exactly. And at one point it was like, oh wait, but the next hotel is in like 30 km. I I don’t have any other option. I have to keep going. So, yeah. I was going to ask you whether you’ve ever come across this channel by a Ukrainian traveler. His name is W de Mar and he’s got this channel called uh uh Two W Chronicles and uh the guy is trying to I think he’s visited like how many continents are there on on Earth? Six. Uh seven if you include Yeah. Yeah. Last time I checked might have been seven, right? Or maybe they’re adding something, right? Yeah. So, he’s trying to visit all of those. And I think he’s been to all of those. All of those besides Antarctica on a bicycle. Yeah. But this guy’s been traveling for I I’m pretty sure well over 10 years, you know, and the only means he’s using is just his bicycle. Well, he tries to avoid uh planes as much as he can, but due to certain specifics of um you know, transporting yourself, sometimes it’s impossible. Yeah, I think you’ll enjoy his channel. This guy is crazy about bicycle. It’s a true passion of his. Yeah, I mean, I would love to check it out. It seems like uh you guys got to have a collaboration. You got to record the common podcast in common. Yeah. Yeah, travel the world too. So, where’s this uh when I had a podcast with him, it was I think one of the first thing that I was interested in where the passion for cycling comes from. What about you? Uh it it came from my passion uh for traveling. Uh I I really like traveling. I definitely haven’t seen all the continents yet, but um I I noticed that when you travel Europe, for example, you know, I once traveled Europe with a van. It’s it’s really nice, but you don’t really get to um properly experience the route you’re making when you’re in a car, right? Or when you’re on a plane. And I realized if I get myself a good bike and I I travel country with my bike, I will actually get to experience everything, you know, truly feel it, right? So completely. Yeah. I mean those guys who travel only we talked with about this. Do they even can we even say that they understand the culture and the specific and the people and the scenery and all of it you know cuz it’s like everything is quick everything’s fleeting when you and your bike and and alone it’s almost like intimate experience what I said to Vad of obtaining pursuing everything. Yeah. But what about the drawbacks? What about the disadvantages? Um, besides the physical aspect apparently, um, I mean, you know, things can go wrong. Things went wrong with me. My bike broke down probably like, uh, three times. Um, and that was definitely that that that sucked. Uh, uh, anything serious besides the flat tires? I’ve seen a video where you go to your first, I think, flat tire. Yeah. Uh, the flat tire was okay. Uh the the I think the the thing that sucked the most and and obviously it also has to do with the time I had is that a piece broke a small piece of my bike. I don’t know what you would call it and I had to order it from the from the internet right and I I tried to order it but it was going to take two weeks. So I didn’t know what to do because I had to be in Ukraine at one point. And um that’s when I actually had to which seemed like a very radical decision but I had no other choice. I actually bought a new bike. Wow. Really? Because I I didn’t know what else to do. That’s uh Yeah, it is a little bit drastic. Yeah, a bit red for sure. Well, good for you could afford it, you know. Yeah. Well, I mean, I I hope to be able to sell it because I have two bikes now, of course. But yeah. Have you sold the first one yet? Uh, no. My So, my first bike is now still in this Polish village. Oh, really? You just left it there? I I have to let Listen, man. I don’t want to disappoint you. It might not be there at this point. No, it’s it’s it’s in a in a storage. So, it’s okay. No, I’m going to pick it up and when I get home, I have the two bikes and my first bike is like really my bike to like So, I will keep that. And the one I bought on my way, I’m going to Oh, so you’re selling the second one? Yeah. Okay. The stranger one, right? That doesn’t you you do not really relate to each other, right? Cuz it went interesting. Interesting. Yeah. So, it’s pretty crazy if something like that happens to your bike when a detail kind of breaks down that cannot be replaced. Yeah, I’ve never thought about this. Like, honestly, I’ve got a bike. I’ve always my entire life I’ve had bicycles. I’m not very good at fixing those things. I used to try I used to cuz I thought at one point, well, you know, since you own a bike, you’ve got to be like really skillful with this thing. Whenever you go, you’ve got to be able to keep all the instruments, all the necessary, you know, stuff around you. Now I’m like, luckily we’ve got this little shop where the guy knows what he’s doing. So every time I have the smallest issue, I just get the bike to that guy and that’s it and it’s fixed. Yeah. I’m not even sure if I could fix a flat tire to be honest. You guys are good at that. Those guys I I I also had I had problems with fixing my tire. Not exactly fixing the tire itself, but uh I I stumbled upon a second problem after I did put back the tire. Everything was good. Everything was fixed. But then was bumping probably. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I remember feeling really bad about that. I remember sitting down at one point and being like, I can’t even fix my bike, you know? Why can’t I fix this? This is so stupid, you know? I got really mad at one point because of that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If that was the case, that was often the case with me. After you put everything onto the wheel and you start riding the bike and there is this little, you know, it’s not really, it’s like a little little bump really in the tire itself. And every time you roll in the wheel, it’s like, you know, you keep jumping up like that. And it’s kind of annoying, but then you understand that to undo that [ __ ] you have to let all the air out and probably put it one more time again. This time properly and correctly. Yeah, that’s a bummer. So, uh, the total distance is well over 1,000 km, right? Over over 1500 km. That’s crazy. Wow. What about what I’m always curious with travelers like that is the planning behind trips like that. Uh were you did you look at the map? How did you recharge your devices? Did you know where your next stop was going to be or was it a bit of a spontaneous you know? Yeah. Well, about the stops was definitely um I never when I woke up, I never knew where I was going to sleep because um I wanted to decide along the way how many kilometers I could bike, you know, because if I tell myself I’m going to uh sleep somewhere 100 km away uh and then after 70 I can’t do it anymore. Like I don’t I don’t want that. So usually halfway through the journey, I will go check on my maps where I can uh sleep. So you knew approximate direction and approximately remotely where the next stop could be, but mostly you relied on your tent that you picked with you. Uh yes, I mean yeah uh uh for the first half mostly I feel like when I got like into Poland at one point uh it started getting really hard to camp. Uh there is possibilities to wild camp but for me it was usually not along the route. Uh so then I had to uh stay in like hotels or something and whatever but uh yeah no so that was always just along the route and the route I used I used this uh app commote I think it’s called it’s like straa and I just followed the route it gave me the entire journey and I tried to find some from previous travelers right who said the path probably interesting yeah now what uh charging uh well I bought got a really nice power bank. Um, uh, it’s like this this brick of a power bank and it charge your phone like, uh, five times. Yeah, you can use it also as a self-defense mechanism. I bet goes wrong. Exactly. So, no, I had that in my I had a bag in the the frame and I put it in there and I could very conveniently just charge my phone while biking, right? Yeah. So, only the phone, right? No laptop, no cameras. Uh, yeah. Uh, yeah. the Oh, yeah. Same same for that. I also had my my laptop and my camera. You had a laptop? Yeah. I Yeah, I had to edit the videos every day. I posted videos. That’s exactly what Validimeter is doing. And it’s always surprising to me like picking a laptop, you know, in a bicycle. Wow. And you’ve got to recharge it. It was inconvenient. Definitely. Oh, yeah. At least. So, editing the video for the YouTube channel. I’m I’m aware that you’ve got a YouTube channel and probably Tik Tok, right? Mhm. Yeah. Yeah, I I I uh made videos every single day. So, I would film all day and then I would edit it at the end of the day and then upload it the next day. Uh and I really tried to do it every day. I did actually. And sometimes it was really inconvenient. Sometimes I didn’t have a lot of footage. Sometimes I didn’t have internet or or electricity to do, but I I usually managed. Yeah. Nice. Nice. How’s the feedback been? like the feedback to the journey. Yeah, it has been amazing. Yeah, quite inspiring I bet. Yeah, I’ve read a couple of comments on your Instagram predominantly positive. I don’t think I ever came across a negative comment which is I must confess slightly surprising to say the least because I’m pretty sure a couple of friends of yours must have given you, you know, a bit of caveats, warnings to say that you know what brother, you may never return from a country like that. you know, has anybody told you anything like that? Um, it wasn’t too bad. Uh, I think No. Yeah. Like the thing is, um, and I’ve been telling you because multiple people asked me this. I’ve been telling this one story about how when I was looking into this trip, I talked to some to a Ukrainian person and you know about the safety of going here. And this person told me like uh you know, imagine if you go to Leviv, right? uh the chances of you getting uh like as an example, the chances of you getting hit by a car is uh 10 times as big as you getting hurt by like a missile or something. Yeah. And Yeah. Yeah. You know, like and I feel like that really when he said that I was like, “Yeah, I don’t it’s really not that scary to go to this part of Ukraine.” And I kind of told that to all my family and friends and nobody. Yeah, I don’t know about this particular stats, you know, but uh clearly it’s arguably the safest probably in the entire country. It’s one of the safest for sure. Yeah. You know, the thing is that it doesn’t happen right up until the moment that it does happen. And when it does happen, Yeah. then you don’t think about get hit by a car and how probable that is. Yeah. How long are you staying there? Um, I think I’m staying for approximately one more week. Yeah. And what’s the plan for staying here? Um, well, so I just want to obviously see the city, uh, everything. And I also just have some people to meet. So, I work together with the Ritney Foundation. Um, that’s the where the money will go through and to and they will provide the money to the summer camps and the uh, uh, children in Denipo. And yeah, I have some some meetings with them. I’m going out to dinner with them. Like multiple people who want to talk with me and also people who follow me want to want to meet me. So it’s Oh yeah, that’s great. That’s great. Yeah. Interesting. How did the idea originally come to you uh of doing it on a bicycle and also of uh contributing financially to the uh the children of Neroet? That’s where what the organization is funding. Yeah. So how how what’s the origin of these ideas? Yeah. So it’s it’s kind of the combination. So the thing is obviously the the biking I already did that you know and I really wanted to do something like that like bike through Europe. So I already and yeah at one point um I realized that I wanted to do something for Ukrainian children because I read I read I read about a situation of of young people in Ukraine. Uh obviously there’s a lot of different stories about children being u abducted by by the Russians or or them losing loved ones or being displaced uh becoming orphans. Like there’s so many horrible stories. I read about it and I realized that I specifically wanted to do something for them. I I also work with younger people. I’m I’m a teacher studying to be a teacher and I realize like what catches people’s attention, right? because if you want to raise money, you want to catch people’s attention. And that’s how I came up suddenly when at one point when I was supposed to be studying with biking to Ukraine and just filming that and hoping that it inspires people to to to donate to this cause. Yeah. What had been your previous longest distance on a bicycle before this trip? Um well actually um I had never done a multiple day bicycle trip. Yeah. I saw only single days which is like 100 probably way less than 100 per day. Yeah. Like like 80 90. I don’t think I had hit 100 before this. That’s insane. Were you like how did you feel before embarking on a journey on the day when you woke up and you understood you’re about to depart into I don’t want that to sound unnecessarily dramatic but pretty much the unknown. Pretty much the unknown because there’s lots of element of chaos, right? A lot of things could go wrong. True. Yeah. No, I I I remember from the day that I did I I felt mostly a lot of excitement. Um and I you know there was a little voice in my head that said what if you don’t make it you know what if happens what if you can’t do but it’s exactly the premonition the beautiful pleasant excitement right. Mhm. Yeah. No, exactly. But uh No, yeah. Was there an ever a moment when you were the least excited and when you were almost on the verge of, you know, cancelling this entire adventure? Uh I was I was never on the verge of cancelling uh the adventure. Um but I have definitely had moments where I felt quite horrible. uh you know, but for example, when the the bike broke down and I real because when the bike broke down, uh I before that I already had to like uh not bike for like two days because another time my bike broke down and I was very happy to finally be biking again and then it broke down again. I was like, is it just going to be like this? You know, I can’t I can’t I can’t. So then you just go to the nearest bike shop and you grab the first fit in for your uh bicycle, right? Yeah. I Well, that that time I I first waited 4 days. 4 days, which was way too much for me, honestly, because I couldn’t do anything. Uh I it took 4 days until I realized that I wasn’t going to get the part and then I bought a new bike. Yeah. So, um And at that point, you’re somewhere in Poland, right? I’m somewhere in Poland. Yeah. I think like halfway through Poland. Yeah. But you were still lucky to have that bike shop somewhere near, right? You didn’t have to walk for a long distance or you know in extra case somebody could have probably given you a ride. You know some people would be willing to do it. I did have to buy I did have to walk a couple of kilometers because my bike broke down in a forest but not like a whole day or something. Okay. Okay. Interesting. What’s the bike’s model? The first one. The bike’s model. Yeah. Yeah. It’s a from the brand of cube. Uh, and it’s called a cube new road fe. But well, sounds mysterious, right? It’s Yeah. Right. Right. But I hope he doesn’t stop for whatever unpredictable breaking somewhere in the middle of the road. No, no, it was a good bike. The only problem was that it didn’t have any um suspension. I didn’t realize that I was going to be biking so much often. So, what about that suspension thing? People say like that could be the front suspension if I get it correctly on the front wheel and basically like the uh rear wheel, right? Which one is is better for your case having two of them or Yeah. Uh I mean two of them is always better. In this case when I got the new bike I got now I only got front suspension with it and that was already more than enough for the offro. Is it true that like if you’re not partaking in some extreme activities of cycling down the hills and some rocky surfaces that these double suspension is unnecessary? Is that true? I I think so. Yeah. From what I’ve experienced like the the front suspension was was more than enough and I just had some like some cobblestone, some sand paths and whatever and for that it was it was great. Yeah. Yeah, cuz I remember back in my childhood, all of a sudden there was this mountain bike uh boom, this explosion of mountain bikes, very questionable quality must be said. Yeah. But people, especially teenagers, kids, everybody lost their mind. And if you had a double suspension, you would be a god. You know, people look up to you. You must have your your father probably killed somebody to steal somebody’s money to get that bicycle. And I looked at that [ __ ] it resembled a a motorbike, and it just looked really fancy and amazing. But only recently, I think, man, do we even need it for flat roads? Like, what’s the point in this unnecessary flex, right? Yeah. But it depends on on on like the area you live in because I noticed in Poland that everybody had suspension like either mountain bikes or like like a trekking bikes with suspension. Wow. I remember when I was on my first bike already thinking like, hm, maybe I should have had more something like this because uh it’s not just road, it’s also a lot of forest. Yeah. No, I’m thinking sometimes about getting just a simple like a city bike, whatever those like road bikes, you know, my girlfriend’s got those that and sometimes I ride and I think, man, it’s like you don’t you’re not bent over all the time. My elbows kill me permanently for some reason because I always have to stretch my hands like that. Do you have elbows issues or is that only me? Is that only I did not have elbow issues, but I definitely I I had um what’s it called? On the wrist. Oh, yeah. Yeah, wrists. I feel like they’re still hurting. I actually tried to do two push-ups today and I couldn’t because my wrists still hurt from being in that position for a month. So, and on these like city bikes, you just don’t have that [ __ ] It’s it’s super comfortable. Uh it doesn’t have the gear though, the gear system, so you can’t switch it up and down. So, you got to have to put in some effort regardless of the condition. Classic city bike. Yeah, we have a lot of those in the Netherlands, too. Oh, yeah. I can imagine. I had this I don’t know if the guy was from the Netherlands I think uh an architecture some city architecture he might have been from the Netherlands I had him on a podcast like a year ago or something so we talked I believe about the Netherlands um structure you know the city structure yeah uh so what’s up with bikes in Netherlands how comfortable it is in terms of like getting around on a bike do people view bikes differently than you know definitely the Netherlands is is is so different from all other countries like our entire infrastructure is designed for bikes. You can get every like there’s there’s bike paths everywhere also within uh between cities. Uh but the infrastructure within cities is is very different because how does it happen? Like how how has it come this way maybe historically? Do you know? There is I’ve I’ve I’ve probably read about it but honestly I don’t exactly know. It just it just happened at one point. just decided to I do know it happened after World War II people had to reconsider their values probably like yeah [ __ ] development you know we’re not going yeah yeah yeah no it’s insane like we have uh you know when you bike around in in in the city of Netherlands there’s all everywhere there’s bike paths you have right of way everywhere um it’s yeah it’s harder to to drive around in a car than to bike around it’s yeah yeah definitely really a a dream place I’m pretty sure for any bike enjoyer. It’s so cool. What do you think about people’s now I’d like to approach that with a little less maybe not less visible aspect maybe a bit of a psychological perspective to this bike situation in the Netherlands. It does this shift require a certain like change in the mindset of a person because when talking to kind of conventional and kind of standard thinking dudes, they always would talk run their mouths for hours about the car necessity. You know those guys, I don’t know if you’re one of them. I’m clearly not one of them. Those guys who can’t can’t imagine their lives without a car. They always run their mouths about having different cars. How would how how cool would would be to have that car, to have this car. I’ve never been the one for cars particularly. So, do you notice if you’ve been to other countries any like mentality shift for guys who enjoy bicycles over you know a bit quick uh vehicles? Yeah, I think in a way that is necessary. I mean, you just have to realize maybe experience in, for example, in the Netherlands that it is actually more convenient to have a city that is more for bikes because in the end, if if if your city is designed for bikes, uh you get around quicker with bicycles than with cars because there’s no traffic. There’s much less traffic. Uh and also there’s a lot of other benefits, of course, right? It’s it’s it’s healthy. It’s it’s good for the environment. only transport that makes you better. You know, how the hell are you becoming healthier sitting on your ass in a car? Oh, well, my car is actually expensive. And who cares how expensive it is, but you’re still getting fat sitting there? No, because you know when I walk when I walk around here in Leviv, and it’s really not just Leviv, it’s a lot of European cities. Um, it’s there’s cars everywhere, right? There’s traffic jams everywhere. It’s really hard to get around on feet or by bike because you constantly have to wait for the cars. But the cars themselves also have to wait all the time because there’s just so many of them. It’s like it’s it’s chaos and everything is much slower. So it’s definitely it would be more convenient and and yeah, everybody says that Viv is a pretty unfit city for a car to be honest. I’m not entirely sure why they keep saying it. Maybe because of the surface on the road because the roads, if you’ve noticed, they always covered with this plates, stones, plates, you know. So, it’s not like a flat surface like asphalt. It’s covered with those plates in lots of places. And when you drive in a car, it’s like you’re always jumping up and down. And maybe the structure of of streets, lots of streets are pretty narrow. So, yeah, man. I mean, I wish I wish people change their attitude towards bicycles, but it requires from a person a bit more attention to their health and maybe a bit more willingness to compromise on a bit of a physical comfort. Cuz whether we like it or not, you jump in a car saloons, you you crush into this comfortable ladder chair, you know, you just spin the the wheel and that’s all you do. You know, with a bicycle, you got to you got to sweat sometimes a little bit. Oh, yeah. That’s true. No, that’s that’s definitely true. Yeah, it depends like when you got to decide when to use the car and when not. I mean, even I sometimes get lazy and use the car when I could have used the bike, you know. Uh um for example, my my mother actually at one point um sold her car because uh she got an electric bike which is obviously a little bit easier and when she had to go from city to city she just used the electric bike and when she had to go very far she just used the train you know so she didn’t even need she would take the bicycle with her right. Yeah. and then she would step on a train and that’s how she would get around or just without the electric bike. Well, the thing is like even uh for example the province she lives in I don’t know how to compare but uh within the province uh she could get get basically everywhere by bike because it would only take like two two hours or something max max uh to get to her to the place where I’m living 15 minutes I’m on the outskirts man 15 minutes I don’t know where the [ __ ] I am. No, no. Exactly. So, yeah. So, that place where your mom is living, it’s kind of big. Two hours if it takes her two hours to get around in town. Yeah. That’s like a metropolis for me or something. Mhm. Yeah. What do you think about these uh electric bikes? Um, have you tried any of them? I’ve I’ve I’ve I’ve tried Yeah, just like electric bikes in general. I don’t know. Um, they’re good if you I I think they’re good. They’re there for people who for example have maybe some uh like older people like mobility issues or whatever. It’s hard to bike normal bike or if you have to bike very far, right? Um but for example in the Netherlands, I don’t know about here, uh everybody is starting to bike electric and it’s Oh, they’re getting here as well for sure. Even in my town, I’m seeing more and more I don’t even know where they’re getting it from. The goddamn delivery services, you know, this delivery services getting out of hands. can deliver a person from one city to another sitting in a box. That’s crazy. Yeah. No, it’s it’s it’s really insane. It’s just people people who are fit enough to just bike on a normal bike and they will still get these electric bikes and they also go so fast sometimes like we we have bikes that can go like like 60 km an hour. That’s crazy. What about those remember I don’t know if I should say remember I don’t know the trends of your country but here like I’d say around maybe five six seven years ago this what what do you um you know this one wheel mono wheel I think that’s called a mono wheel you know what the [ __ ] that is a goddamn mono wheel you know oh like the the one you like stand on you’re standing on one wheel for [ __ ] sake you’re standing on that [ __ ] you’re praying to all gods that you don’t cry and those wrestlers go crazy fast I don’t know if it’s 60 clearly could be in the neighborhood Man, I swear some [ __ ] went probably 400, you know. I remember seeing that [ __ ] for the first time. I was inside a building in a room and there was a window and I see this guy just flying by like that and because of the window was slightly higher. I couldn’t see what’s going on down there and he looked like a goddamn dement from Harry Potter just flying by like how the [ __ ] did you run like that? That’s insane. You know, the entire idea, you know, go back to guys from previous centuries, like goddamn 19th century, tell them that modern bastards would be riding around on one wheel, you know, and it would be super [ __ ] quick. They would be Yeah, that’s so But you must like when you get one of those things, you must just fall off of them like multiple times for getting the hang of. Unfortunately, people don’t see it a lot of times, you know. They don’t see it a lot of times. So, they’re never discouraged. They don’t they don’t have the access to the real picture, real information. No, you know, I don’t even know how they climb on that wheel. Like, do you just jump and and hope that you keep the balance? So, the mono wheel and there is also this like a Jirro scooter, I think that’s called. I’m I’m not sure. You know what that is? It’s like two wheels and a platform in the middle. So, you kind of Yeah. You know what that is? What do you call them? They were like They used to be like a big thing back in like 2017 18 or something. Yeah. Everybody would have them. You know the dumbest thing about that? They had a Bluetooth connection. So you can plug your phone to that and you can bl stupid music when you ride around on those on those things. But you know I do I I have seen a good use for them because uh I for for children then uh I saw like um this thing you could uh like a little cart like you could put on the the board and you would be able to drive it if it’s as if it’s a little car. So you have two wheels, just normal wheels attached to like a little seat. Okay. Okay. And then you would attach that to like the Yeah, but you got to be inventive for that to come up with like that. You got It takes a couple of brains, you know? Takes a bit of a bit of Tesla right there. I mean, I I’m trying to stay away from from inventions like that. It’s I’m not going to invent anything on top of it. I’m not going to come up with a car idea. I’m standing right in my neck, you know, that would be it. No. Exactly. Uh the electric bikes are, you know, they there are lots of them. There are lots of them and they’re getting I I’ll be the first to admit they kind of look sexy. Sometimes Instagram just pump some of those videos in my recommends recommendations and I look at them and they’re affordable and they’re and they promise good capacity for battery. Like you can travel from country to country on one charging probably. You can pick up your power bank, you easily go to another country probably. It’s It’s definitely more environmentally friendly than getting like a mopad or something. Yeah. People would also maybe disagree with you on that because it matters on what you do to the battery afterwards, you know. True. Yeah. And these days, how is how is the battery produced? I don’t even know. I mean, if you want to be echofriendly, can I even breathe at at the end of the day? You know, there will always be people confronting you that whatever you’re doing is wrong. Mhm. Mhm. No. True. Interesting. So staying here for a couple of days exploring uh how’s the fundraising going or how has it gone so far? Are you finished raising money and how happy are you with what you’ve gained? Oh, I’m very happy. Uh so like right now uh people can still donate but it’s it’s basically over. Uh you know I don’t make videos anymore. There’s not but some people are still donating. Uh, basically I didn’t have a goal. Um, but I ended up raising well around €10,000 has been donated. A little bit more. That’s insane. That’s much more than I expected because uh I don’t know if you if you’ve read about it, but uh I have a sponsor, right? And the sponsor doubled the amount of money. So actually over €20,000 has been a lot of money. Yeah, that’s great. So much man. Uh we’re grateful for what you’re doing. I always feel the worst for children and for animals, you know. It’s just I think these two groups of being, they are the most innocent, you know. Yeah. Needless to say that generally there are perpetrators of violence and there are victims of violence. But Jesus, the [ __ ] children, they don’t even understand what the hell is going on. That’s the thing. They they definitely didn’t do anything. And also something that’s very important to me is that I know that uh it’s so important for children to have a normal childhood, right? Oh yeah. Yeah. We’re late with that. Listen, this generation, man, this generation that’s why we should do we should do everything to make their childhood as normal as possible. It’s of course you know there are live already living through but you know if we can make it as normal as possible make sure they just live kind of a normal childhood that will they will feel that the rest of their lives you know so that’s that’s very important. Yeah. Well, the good thing about children is that they are still kind of flexible in their psychology and their ability to overcome certain things is uh I think more capable even if something highly traumatizing like the war happens. So maybe their advantage is in the fact that they’re still young. But at the same time, you know, all that madness that took place in childhood, sooner or later it’s going to surface. Sooner or later it’s going to come out. And when it does, you know, I mean, you know, every that’s that’s basically the basis of all psychotherapy. You just dig up your past from your childhood. And that [ __ ] is never ending, you know. And imagine the modern kids. It’s like first they got Corona virus, nobody understood what the [ __ ] happened. Everybody wasn’t homeschooling. And now they’ve got the war. I I I don’t want to sound cynical, but man, we got a generation of geniuses growing up, you know? I don’t even know what the [ __ ] going to happen after that. No, I’m I’m curious what generation. Yeah. No, definitely. Yeah. Well, pretty pretty interesting. Okay. Yeah. So, so that donation has been raised. Uh how much do you owe to distributing content, promoting it? Do you think in other words, you would have gained notably less if not for social media? Yes, definitely. Um yeah know the the social media really uh really helped uh to to reach a lot of people um uh to donate uh obviously there’s also been a lot of donations from within my circle friends family whatever but uh obviously they were not able to raise€10,000 together so no a lot of people who I didn’t know who just followed me uh on on on Instagram donated so that yeah that definitely uh contributed to to cause and that’s yeah that’s great also a lot of Ukrainian people yeah I can imagine yeah I’ve been reading some comments most of them a lot of them come from from Ukrainian guys sometimes I can spot it by shitty grammar in English language but nonetheless those are good people clearly good people definitely yeah 50% of my followers were Ukrainian actually it’s interesting how the algorithms took took off quickly uh you know some people they they have to work. How do you how do you explain the fact that your videos would you say they go viral at one point? Yes, mostly mostly at the end they went viral. I really tried also before I left to really like I am not an influencer and I will also not be an influencer after this but I really tried to do all the social media tactics you know post love whatever and uh at the start I got you know I got a lot of already some people who were started to follow and then somewhere in the last week suddenly uh videos started getting a lot of views 10,000 views and almost almost unforeseenly unpredictably like you you didn’t do anything you had never done before, right? And then somehow mysteriously they just take off, right? Yeah. Oh, that’s a mystery of algorithms, right? It it is. It is. Yeah. I mean, I think it’s also I think some people also saw that it was getting closer to Ukraine. Maybe that was also like a factor. I think I think the video that was watched the most was the video when I entered Ukraine. Uh so I think that was also very interesting. Let me tell you why. Well, first of all, uh people are curious that that might sound right now as a slightly stupid and primitive reason, but lots of Ukrainian people are on this constant battle with learning English language. So, as soon as they see a foreigner now with a impressive English level, they just want to talk to, you know, people who learn English. Clearly, they respect your cause undeniably. That goes without saying. Yeah. And perhaps certain attention, maybe minimal percent of attention comes from Ukrainian men who just can’t wrap their mind around the fact that while lots of Ukrainian investors are actively plotting the schemes how to escape the country, there are guys who are coming in, you know, so that’s one thing that they can’t understand. Yeah. No, fair. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No. Yeah. So that’s that’s pretty cool. Cool. Yeah. No, it was it was great getting into Ukraine. Uh I had really been looking forward to that. Yeah. Do you live in a city or a town, a village? Yeah, I live in uh medium-sized city. It’s it’s it’s like um we we have all the big cities in the center of our country, Amsterdam, Roterdam, the H. And then there’s one big city in the north and that’s my city. It’s called Yeah. Wow. How’s the nature over there? The nature? Yeah. Um the it’s it’s the north of the city, it’s nothing. It’s just uh fields. there’s it’s very boring. And in the south, we have Dent, which still has some um like uh uh original forests and meadows and and nice places to to walk around. Uh uh but it’s still very flat like the entire country is. And that’s also where I biked to train for this journey. Okay. Interesting. You trained, right? Uh increasing the distances, I imagine, right? Checking how long you can go. What was the training like? Um, I got to admit, and I I didn’t I didn’t say this to anybody before I left, but um I did train. I biked multiple times a week, so that’s good. But I actually never biked very long um a lot of the times because I just didn’t have enough time. Um I told you that my uh my yeah I wanted to bike 70 km a day and in the entire training I think I only biked 70 km like two times. So mostly I only bike like 40 50 km and then I I went back home. It kind of gave you a taste, you know. It’s not like 7 kilometers, right? True. True. Yeah. No, it was I had to get used to it like a little bit the first days of my of my journey. Um, but you you just get used to it both for stamina and uh I think my biggest problem was that at the start everything really hurt like my my arms and my chest and my legs and my hands everything hurt uh for two two three days straight and then it just stopped and then I was just biking and everything was good. Yeah, your body get gets used to it. Definitely. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um doms delayed onset muscle soreness. You know, when when you are doing an activity that is not common to you, you you’re going to have this soreness in your muscles and then it prepares. Okay. Interesting. Interesting. Um on the final note, I’d like to raise the topic of uh the attitude to the war in Ukraine. when it comes to European countries predominantly luckily the attitude is objectively positive and people understand and people areware wellware aware of what’s going on truly here how about your personal story when you just find found out that the war had started uh in other words simply saying why are you in such a favor of Ukraine um well it’s a it’s I’ve been following the news uh in Ukraine since the day of the invasion. So, I’ve been really uh I don’t know what the word for it is, but just really in into the story about everything. So, uh, it’s it’s just something that kept me busy, uh, reading a lot about it, reading the stories, and I think I think it’s be I think it started off with me just, uh, there was an anger that really started developing um, because the injustice, right? The injustice. Yeah. the whole story when I started wrapping my mind around the story of Putin of the aggressor just I don’t know having this ideology just uh deciding what’s right deciding what is at one point it’s just sheer stupidity right how do you even having half a brain how do you even remotely justify whatever they’ve been doing exactly you know absorb and then just just the thought of this this this this this old man sitting there in Moscow being like yeah this this is what I should and just for four years, 5 years just murdering uh children, women, soldiers, his own people, too. Uh it’s it’s Yeah. I don’t know. And it was just frustrating and and from there, I don’t know. I I I I really feel for for this this conflict. Yeah. And that’s how it’s resulted, you know, and that’s how it’s resulted. And uh uh yeah to wrap it up uh the lovely conversation let me express the deepest gratitude to what you’ve done is unbelievably important and symbolically powerful to a lot of people. So thank you very much personally from myself and from the beautiful Ukrainian nation as well. uh you’ve got to clearly return perhaps if the war is ever to stop you might return on a bit more peaceful condition let’s say you know maybe slightly more comfortably and uh yeah to explore it uh the western part is clearly a place to explore I’d love for him to be in the Ukrainian carpathians you know that entire western region is um is my personally favorite part of the country yeah so lots of things to see and uh I mean yeah great great journey and thank you for doing that and also thank you so much. Thanks for having a conversation. Yeah, it was a great conversation. Thank you.