Between Jacobsdorf and Pilgram, I walked along a bike lane and, a few times, I had to stop for a bike. Most of the time, I was completely alone with my music and it felt like I was right on time with my plan. When I got to Pilgram, I found the worst part of the trip.

When I decided to walk to Poland, I tried lots of different routes on Google Maps. My idea was to avoid big roads and the risk of being run over by some car. I didn’t want to have to deal with something going terribly wrong somewhere I didn’t know. Everything was kind of ok online but the road from Pilgram to Rosengarten didn’t have any place for me to walk on. This road was a small one, without a bike lane or anything. And I had to go on that if I wanted to reach Poland.

I know that the kilometers between those two towns were the worst for me. It was the only time I was really worried about something happening and when I reached Rosengarten safe and sound, I finally relaxed I realized that I just crossed the 25 kilometers mark and Slubice was almost there.

Those last kilometers were tempting since I could see some buses on the road and they could deliver me really close to where I wanted to go. It was kind of hard to watch them go by and think about what I could do but I just closed my eyes and kept going. When I got to Frankfurter am Oder, I decided to buy some ice cream and it made things even better.

This part of the walkthrough Frankfurt am Oder is really hard to explain. I knew I was close to Poland and I knew this would be over soon. I was walking faster, taking fewer pictures and, when I saw a sign pointing how close I was to Slubice I felt like screaming really loud.

When I saw the bridge that stands between Frankfurt am Oder and Slubice, I can easily say that almost cried. I had spent my last two days walking to Poland and it was amazing. I can hardly describe how I felt when I saw the Oder under me and I knew I was walking where Germany meets Poland.

When I reached where the immigration office used to be and I read Willkommen, I felt like the greatest man alive. That feeling of accomplishment, relieve and tiredness is really hard to put into words. Even writing this a year later is somewhat emotive to me.

But I was tired and I needed to rest for a while and think about what have I done. I sat next to the Oder on the polish side and stared at the buildings on the other side. There were some people fishing and there were some ducks. I don’t know how long I was there but, after a while, I decided to call my wife and say that I was in Poland and that everything was alright.