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World traveler
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| Klaus Kuras holds photographs of a few of the many places he has traveled so far including the Pacific Coast of China (from left), the Gobi Desert, Tiananmen Square and Beijing. JASON MATTHEW WALKER/Lake City Reporter |
German cyclist pedals through town on his around-the-world trip.
By MICHAEL MITSEFF
mmitseff@lakecityreporter.com
“Another trip. The dream is quite long in my head — to reach the Pacific Ocean from home,” wrote Klaus Kuras, just before he embarked on his 10,000 mile odyssey around the world — on a bicycle.
Home for the 43-year-old Kuras is Wiesbaden, a city in Southwest Germany situated on the northern bank of the Rhine — not many kilometers from Frankfurt.
Kuras, who is no stranger to months-long bicycle tours, embarked on his around the world odyssey in March. Wednesday he was in Lake City.
“I normally work as an IT project manager for banks in Germany,” Kuras said. “I hope they still exist when I come back.”
Kuras says he lived frugally throughout the year and used the money he saved to finance his year-long bicycle journey.
“Traveling in Asia and South America, for example, is quite cheap, but here in the U.S., it’s quite expensive, the same as in Europe,” he said.
From Wiesbaden, Kuras traveled east to the Atlantic Ocean, riding the River Main to Bayreuth and he then pedaled the bike into the Czech Republic, Poland and Belarus, followed by Russia.
One of the highlights of his trip — and a personal goal — was to reach Beijing, China, in time for the 2008 Olympics, which he did.
“The people in China, we don’t know them really as people,” Kuras said. “When you really see them, they have the same feelings, they are the same like we are and very nice people.”
Kuras noticed that people are pretty much the same everywhere, but he defines country people as friendly and welcoming. Cities, he said, are places
to be on your guard.
“People in — not the big cities — all over the world are, more or less, nice people,” Kuras said. “In the big cities it changes, it’s no difference between Moscow, Los Angeles or Paris, you have to look (out) for your stuff.”
Kuras said that in only one country did he have any real trouble.
“People, they warn you about theft in Mongolia and when I entered the Ulan Baator Post Office, I just felt some people getting close to me,” he said.
“Then someone stole my purse with my passport and all the documents,” Kuras said. Although he got three other people involved to help him, the thief managed to run away.
In a trip filled with surprises, Kuras said that Russia wasn’t what he had expected.
“Everybody told me of Russia when I was at home, everybody like me who doesn’t know anything about Russia tells you how bad it is and how dangerous it is,” Kuras said.
“If you go there, the people are incredibly friendly, you get invited all the time to food, to sleep there. They are poor people, but poor people have much to give,” he said.
This is not the first bicycle tour that Kuras has taken. He’s bicycled through South America up to Lima and bicycled around New Zealand.
“I did a big trip around Europe, it doesn’t sound much but it was an eight months trip — I traveled 9,000 miles,” Kuras said.
Kuras also traveled through Germany and through the east Baltic states, Russia, Finland, Norway, England, Scotland, Spain and Portugal.
“This was a very nice trip,” he said, noting that it only whetted his
appetite for more bicycle adventures.
Kuras said that he loves the traveling and especially loves the outdoors, camping in the woods, fields or wherever he finds a place to lay his head.
“It’s the best,” Kuras said, but with a caveat.
“If there is no alligators, bears, rattlesnakes or spiders with white lines, then it’s good,” he said.
Home for the 43-year-old Kuras is Wiesbaden, a city in Southwest Germany situated on the northern bank of the Rhine — not many kilometers from Frankfurt.
Kuras, who is no stranger to months-long bicycle tours, embarked on his around the world odyssey in March. Wednesday he was in Lake City.
“I normally work as an IT project manager for banks in Germany,” Kuras said. “I hope they still exist when I come back.”
Kuras says he lived frugally throughout the year and used the money he saved to finance his year-long bicycle journey.
“Traveling in Asia and South America, for example, is quite cheap, but here in the U.S., it’s quite expensive, the same as in Europe,” he said.
From Wiesbaden, Kuras traveled east to the Atlantic Ocean, riding the River Main to Bayreuth and he then pedaled the bike into the Czech Republic, Poland and Belarus, followed by Russia.
One of the highlights of his trip — and a personal goal — was to reach Beijing, China, in time for the 2008 Olympics, which he did.
“The people in China, we don’t know them really as people,” Kuras said. “When you really see them, they have the same feelings, they are the same like we are and very nice people.”
Kuras noticed that people are pretty much the same everywhere, but he defines country people as friendly and welcoming. Cities, he said, are places
to be on your guard.
“People in — not the big cities — all over the world are, more or less, nice people,” Kuras said. “In the big cities it changes, it’s no difference between Moscow, Los Angeles or Paris, you have to look (out) for your stuff.”
Kuras said that in only one country did he have any real trouble.
“People, they warn you about theft in Mongolia and when I entered the Ulan Baator Post Office, I just felt some people getting close to me,” he said.
“Then someone stole my purse with my passport and all the documents,” Kuras said. Although he got three other people involved to help him, the thief managed to run away.
In a trip filled with surprises, Kuras said that Russia wasn’t what he had expected.
“Everybody told me of Russia when I was at home, everybody like me who doesn’t know anything about Russia tells you how bad it is and how dangerous it is,” Kuras said.
“If you go there, the people are incredibly friendly, you get invited all the time to food, to sleep there. They are poor people, but poor people have much to give,” he said.
This is not the first bicycle tour that Kuras has taken. He’s bicycled through South America up to Lima and bicycled around New Zealand.
“I did a big trip around Europe, it doesn’t sound much but it was an eight months trip — I traveled 9,000 miles,” Kuras said.
Kuras also traveled through Germany and through the east Baltic states, Russia, Finland, Norway, England, Scotland, Spain and Portugal.
“This was a very nice trip,” he said, noting that it only whetted his
appetite for more bicycle adventures.
Kuras said that he loves the traveling and especially loves the outdoors, camping in the woods, fields or wherever he finds a place to lay his head.
“It’s the best,” Kuras said, but with a caveat.
“If there is no alligators, bears, rattlesnakes or spiders with white lines, then it’s good,” he said.
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