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Current Progress

Year 3 - the final year - has begun!

I'll update this page whenever something of note happens, whether it's a new capital reached, a new student met, another course passed or whatever.

Capital Cities

Here are all the places that I'll be passing through, now with capital city ratings:

	Don't die without visiting it!
	Make a special trip to see it
	Add to your Cities I Really Should Visit list
	Worthy of a sizeable detour
	Only if you're passing
	Don't bother, even if you're passing

No.	Country	Capital	Date Visited	Comments	Order Visited	Rating
1	Åland Islands	Mariehamn	-	-	-
2	Albania	Tirana	24/08/2012	Potholes you could lose a man in.	29th
3	Andorra	Andorra la Vella	10/08/2011	Massive climb but great views.	14th
4	Austria	Vienna	12/06/2011	The exam's the thing.	11th
5	Belarus	Minsk	-	-	-
6	Belgium	Brussels	02/05/2011	A fun day nearly ruined by a fish festival.	6th
7	Bosnia & Herzegovina	Sarajevo	30/08/2012	Atmosphere and scary modern history in a couple of square miles.	31st
8	Bulgaria	Sofia	14/08/2012	Not spectacular but a lovely place to spend a day.	26th
9	Channel Islands	St. Helier	12/04/2011	I keep getting lost!	3rd
10	Croatia	Zagreb	08/09/2012	Go see The Museum of Broken Relationships.	33rd
11	Cyprus	Nicosia	13/07/2012	Not much on the Turkish side.	24th
12	Czech Republic	Prague	30/05/2011	What a beautifully atmospheric city!	9th
13	Denmark	Copenhagen	-	-	-
14	Estonia	Tallinn	-	-	-
15	Finland	Helsinki	-	-	-
16	France	Paris	20/04/2011	Beautiful, sunny ride in on cycle paths and relatively quiet roads.	4th
17	Germany	Berlin	18/05/2011	Possibly the best five days of my life.	8th
18	Gibraltar	Gibraltar	04/09/2011	Cycled up the Rock. A monkey attacked my tent.	16th
19	Greece	Athens	14/06/2012	Hot and windy, and cheese-pied to death. Long weekend in Athens was fun.	23rd
20	Hungary	Budapest	10/04/2013	Not as funky as I remember it from back in the 90s.	35th
21	Isle of Man	Douglas	31/03/2011	Not much of a surprise really.	1st
22	Italy	Rome	15/05/2012	Stunning city; even better pizza.	20th
23	Kosovo	Pristina	18/08/2012	Ugliness interestingly presented.	27th
24	Latvia	Riga	-	-	-
25	Liechtenstein	Vaduz	07/07/2011	Thoroughly pointless place.	12th
26	Lithuania	Vilnius	-	-	-
27	Luxembourg	Luxembourg City	28/04/2011	Minging weather improving as I entered this pretty, little city.	5th
28	Macedonia, The Former Yugoslav Republic of	Skopje	20/08/2012	A modern, little Rome.	28th
29	Malta	Valletta	02/06/2012	A surprisingly lovely few acres.	22nd
30	Moldova	Chisinau	-	-	-
31	Monaco	Monaco	24/04/2012	I even made it on to the telly.	18th
32	Montenegro	Podgorica	27/08/2012	Pleasant, cafe-filled town.	30th
33	Netherlands	Amsterdam	06/05/2011	It's all a bit mad!	7th
34	Norway	Oslo	-	-	-
35	Poland	Warsaw	-	-	-
36	Portugal	Lisbon	27/08/2011	Great city, terrible roads. Potholes or cobbles, take your pick.	15th
37	Republic of Ireland	Dublin	-	-	-
38	Romania	Bucharest	-	-	-
39	Russia	Moscow	-	-	-
40	San Marino	San Marino	07/05/2012	Slog up the hill but worth it for the views.	19th
41	Serbia	Belgrade	03/09/2012	A nice plateful of fried testicles.	32nd
42	Slovakia	Bratislava	10/06/2011	Sleeping on the river in a boatel.	10th
43	Slovenia	Ljubljana	11/09/2012	The final capital of 2012.	34th
44	Spain	Madrid	06/04/2012	Wonderful weekend with The Lovely Nina.	17th
45	Sweden	Stockholm	-	-	-
46	Switzerland	Bern	27/07/2011	Small, but nice.	13th
47	Turkey	Ankara	23/07/2012	It's no Istanbul but it's worth a look.	25th
48	Ukraine	Kiev	-	-	-
49	United Kingdom	London	06/04/2011	A thrilling ride into Trafalgar Square with a great bunch of people.	2nd
50	Vatican City	Vatican City	15/05/2012	Camels and eyes of needles spring to mind.	21st

...and now three additional capitals for 2013...

No.	Country	Capital	Date Visited	Comments	Order Visited	Rating
51	Wales	Cardiff	-	-	-
52	Northern Ireland	Belfast	-	-	-
53	Scotland	Edinburgh	-	-	-

OU Students Met

And here are all the nice people I met in strange places and who study or work with the OU:

Name	Location	Date Visited	Comments
Loads	Milton Keynes	06/04/2011	The launch of the bike ride to London
Fenella Fudge	Milton Keynes	06/04/2011	Co-rider to London and massive supporter
Annie Foy	Milton Keynes	06/04/2011	Co-rider to London
Georgie Wallis	Southsea	11/04/2011	Kindest host possible
Jo Potter	Brussels	02/05/2011	Lifesaver and expert beer knowledge
Mike Deverell	Brussels	03/05/2011	Nice guy and professional student
Jana Kocisova	Prague	31/05/2011	OU Prague employee and student
Lucka Kovalova	Prague	31/05/2011	OU Prague employee and (soon to be) student
Sasha Jirova	Prague	31/05/2011	A perfect city guide
Katarina Harantova	Bratislava	11/06/2011	OU Slovakia employee and an interesting chat
Alexandra Snydal	Vienna	14/06/2011	OU Austria employee and great co-breakfaster
Sarah Shaw	Vienna	14/06/2011	OU Austria employee and great co-breakfaster
Louise Ebenhöh	Kitzbuhel, Austria	01/07/2011	OU student and expert cake provider
Elli Broxham and Padi Stahl	Oberburen, Switzerland	09/07/2011	OU graduate/student couple, bike carers and marmot specialists
Adele, Chas, Chris, David, Don, Jamie, Matthew, Lisa, Sarah and Sonya (plus many more)	Nottingham, UK	16-23/07/2011	OU students at the utterly joyous MSXR209 residential
Kirsty	Andorra	09/07/2011	Friend of the magnificent Clare Allcard
Adam, Alaine, Damien, Francesca, Graham, Jenni, Kate, Mark, Mel, Peter, Roger and Yusuf (plus many more) + star tutors Hara, Ian, Maria and Vic	Majorca	10-17/09/2011	Fellow OU stargazers at the hard work but fun SXR208 residential
Silvia	Parma	02/05/2012	Wonderful Parma-style dinner
Giovanni, Christine and Elaine	Rome	16/05/2012	A procession of wonderful OU students in a friendly Irish-Italian pub
Francesco Albertoni	Latina	21/05/2012	A very impressive man and his lovely wife who fed me, housed me and gave me a fantastic tour of the area
Julian Bower	Sarajevo	30/08/2012	Soldier and peacekeeper and trainer of peacekeepers.
Fleur Vilsbol	Zagreb	08/09/2012	She's a clown!
Mojca Bandelj	Ljubljana	11/09/2012	Super famous ballerina!

OU Courses

Course Code	Course Title	Points	Status
MST121	Using mathematics	30	Passed 2009
S194	Introducing astronomy	10	Passed 2010
MS221	Exploring mathematics	30	Passed 2010
S282	Astronomy	30	Passed 2010
S283	Planetary science and the search for life	30	Passed 2011
MST209	Mathematical methods and models	60	Passed 2011
MSXR209	Mathematical modelling (residential)	10	Passed 2011
SXR208	Observing the universe (residential)	15	Passed 2012
M208	Pure maths	60	Passed 2012
MT365	Graphs, networks and design	30	Coursework done! Awaiting exam in Latvia.
-	Another one	30	Oct 2013
-	Another one	30	Oct 2013
-	Another one	30	Oct 2013

Bits of Languages Spoken on this Trip

And here are my attempts at being understood and probably failing miserably:

Language	Date	Comments
English	From about 1971	Thick, stupid-sounding Blackburn accent.
French	April 2011	Despite forgetting tons, O level French useful for ordering meals, sorting hotels, getting emergency sore lip treatment and other bits and pieces.
Spanish	April 2011	Conversation with French bloke who spoke no English, decided my French was too bad to be bothered with it and so we switched to Spanish. And then loads of Spanish in Spain.
Dutch	May 2011	Well, all I said was "very good" when the waitress asked me if I liked my meal, and then I asked for the bill. Not so impressive. Did a couple of hours of the Michel Thomas Dutch course and it seemed like it would be easy, but maybe that's just Michel Thomas for you.
German	May/June 2011	Tons all over Germany and Austria, but also to the few Dutch people who couldn't speak English.
Polish	May 2011	Tried out my handful of Polish phrases with a Polish-speaking German and - bugger me! - he understood me.
Czech	May/June 2011	Not very complicated sentences but I ordered at least one entire meal in Czech, and then just other pleasantries and stuff.
Slovak	June 2011	Basically repeated those Czech phrases ("jedno pivo!") that are the same in Slovak. It still counts.
Catalan	August 2011	Well, I said 'bon dia!' to a farmer.
Portuguese	August 2011	Managed to order a complete meal, and sort out a few rooms.
Italian	April 2012	Progressed further with Italian than any other language so far, but was there the longest.
Greek	June 2012	Not good with Greek. Most attempts ended with someone looking confused.
Turkish	July/August 2012	Rubbish except for 'excuse me' and 'thank you'.
Bulgarian	August 2012	A vocabulary of about three words.
Serbian, Croatian, Slovenian, etc.	August 2012	Just two words: 'beer' and 'thank you'. Sad. But all I needed.
Hungarian	April 2013	Useful cribsheet has helped me order beers and negotiate rooms. Oh, and 'cheese' sounds exactly like 'shite'. Oh ha ha!

Additional Challenges from You

And this is where the evil ones amongst you can test my mettle:

Challenge	From	Accepted	Cheap Excuse For Not Doing It	Date Completed	Comments
Eat or drink something you've never had before in each country.	Lin Cordoray	Yes	-	-	Wild boar and bison in Isle of Man, jellied eels in London, black butter in Jersey, andouillette in France, Basil Seed Drink in Luxembourg, raw mince in Brussels, Kroket in Netherlands, diced pigs snout in Germany, black-skinned but delicious miniature sausage in Prague...etc...etc...
Cycle a bit of the Tortour from Buchs to Oberbüren.	Elli Broxham	Yes	-	09/07/2011	Piece o' piss
Take a photo of an animal in every country.	Nina Cordoray Downes	Yes	-	-	Lambs in Isle of Man, Rita's Shitzu in UK, Jersey cattle in Jersey, Sarah's cat Earl Grey in France, full list (wth photos) to follow!

steven@unicycle50.com