Investigating the Investigator

Brett Atkinson is updating the Czech Republic sections of Lonely Planet's “Eastern Europe” and “Europe on a Shoestring” guidebooks. He recently took the time to answer a few questions I had for him...

How long have you been going and how long do you expect your research to take? Is it purely a research trip, or are you also writing reviews as you go?

Olomouc is about halfway through my research and I’ll be in the Czech Republic for about a month.

Unlike some other Lonely Planet writers I don’t write up much text while I’m on the road. It’s all about maximising the research period, and I’d rather spend my time hunting down new bars and restaurants and investigating daytrips than be hunched over my laptop in a pension. I like to then get home and lock myself away surrounded by all my notes and information.

Having said that, my notes are usually a combination of details and observations, and virtually fully-formed reviews that I will have written in my notebook while I’ve actually been somewhere. You just can’t beat the value of writing a review in the actual bar, restaurant or museum.

Is it sometimes a struggle to describe places so concisely, or is it less work because there are fewer words?

That’s actually one of the biggest challenges of the job, to capture the essence of a place, while also making sure the salient details are included – all in around 70 or 80 words. None of my books have ever increased in word count from edition to edition, so the other challenge is to include all the new stuff or a great daytrip, while retaining and updating what’s already in there. Economical writers like Hemingway or Raymond Carver would have been great guidebook writers.

Bill Bryson said “being a travel writer is the best job in the world”, but he doesn’t write guidebooks. Does it apply to you too, and is it as glamorous as people think?

I reckon anyone that can combine two of their passions - travelling and writing - is pretty blessed. It sure beats talking about toilet cleaners and discount stores in an ad agency (my previous job). I love the independence, meeting lots of new people, (jeez, I sound like a Miss World contestant), and getting to know a destination’s culture and history in depth.

I’ve worked for LP in Europe, Asia and the Pacific, so I’m trying not to be pigeon-holed as a regional specialist. My next two gigs are in the tiny Pacific nation of Niue (population 1300) in late September, and then Sri Lanka just before Christmas. Between those trips I’m holidaying in Mozambique and Madagascar with my wife Carol. If I was working in a full-time job, I just wouldn’t have the flexibility to do that.

Is it as glamorous as it sounds? Not when you’re looking at the eighth hostel of the day, or you’re up early after a night of barhopping getting transport prices at the bus station. I’m lucky in that outside of LP work I get to write about other destinations for magazines and newspapers in New Zealand. In the last 9 months that’s also taken me to China twice, Bolivia, Chile, Australia and Borneo. These are the times when being a travel writer really is the best job in the world.

I’m certainly not earning what I used to in Ad-land, but the remuneration is adequate. I’m definitely not starving, and I’m getting paid to explore the world. Not a bad deal really.

How would a typical day progress?

There’s really no typical day. I guess the key thing is to research at the best time for different aspects of the book. In a lot of countries, bus stations and train stations are busiest in the morning. Similarly you don’t want to be investigating hotels when everyone is checking out or checking in, so I try and hit them early to mid-afternoon. Try and see restaurants and bars when they’re busy with locals. It’s not rocket science, but you do have to be very organised and disciplined.

In a big city, you need to break the research up into neighbourhoods. At the end of the day, I also make time to review and summarise my notes to make sure that I’ve captured everything. Once you leave somewhere you usually don’t have a chance to go back. You’ve also got to balance a planned daily schedule (eg. by July 18 I’ll be in Brno…) with the ability to be flexible, eg. if you hear about a new festival or you think a place actually deserves more coverage (and therefore research time) than what’s in the previous edition.

And do you visit every place? Once? Twice? How do you go about uncovering new places?

Every single accommodation, restaurant, bar or other point of interest in the previous edition is visited at least once. In the case of cafes, bars and restaurants I do try and visit some places twice. What’s a quiet café in the morning could morph into a raging bar later at night. Lots of places can be quite versatile and it’s important to experience them in their different guises. Often I have a starter, main and dessert in three different places to experience as many restaurants as I can.

Uncovering new places is really the most interesting part of writing guidebooks. Before I leave for the destination I’ll be reading up on current information. For the Czech Republic I get daily email updates from Radio Prague, which is a great site. Before I leave I’ll be in touch with all the local tourist offices and the national tourist board.

After several trips to the Czech Republic I now also know a few locals in key places. So before I leave New Zealand, I’ll already have a hit list of new places to investigate. To this I’ll add feedback, both negative and positive, from Lonely Planet readers. I make sure I read every readers’ letter which comes in on my destination. What readers have uncovered can be really valuable.

Once I’m on the ground I try and focus additional time to exploring up and coming neighourhoods. Where are the new bars and boutiques opening? What areas are being reclaimed by the artists and students? It’s also all about just getting out and exploring on two legs – going round the next corner, seeing what’s happening further up a lane.

What can we expect from the new edition?

Certain areas of the Czech Republic like Prague, Český Krumlov and Karlovy Vary have excellent information resources for travellers, and will already be included on most people’s itineraries. I’ll still be bringing coverage of those areas right up to date, but I want to also focus on a few detours for slightly more independent and adventurous travellers.

So I’m looking to include and increase coverage of a few of my favourite towns like Loket, Slavonice, Štramberk and Tábor where traditional Czech culture is more intact. This trip’s only for the regional European books, so it’s going to be a balancing act to include them as interesting detours while still maintaining coverage of more obvious destinations.

How has the country changed since last time you were here, and when will you be back?

What’s really struck me in the two years since I was last here, and I’m sorry for being slightly negative, is the amount of graffiti around the country. It’s not just in the cities – you’ll be in a country village and the local train station will have been tagged. I’m also noticing that there’s been a big influx of retailers from nearby countries like Austria or Germany. In the most everyday of Czech towns, there will be a Baumax or Lidl store on the outskirts.

I guess the bottom line is that the Czech Republic is becoming more homogenous with the rest of central Europe. It’s good for local consumers I guess, but a certain charm is being lost. That’s why it’s important for travellers to try and explore a few more off-the-beaten path parts of the country. I’m also noticing a lot more English-language information is available in tourist information offices, and unfortunately the Czech Republic, especially Prague, is no longer a travel bargain compared to nearby countries.

I hope to come back to the Czech Republic in spring 2009 to update the next edition of the Czech & Slovak Republics country guidebook.

Thanks for taking the time to talk to us, Brett. Hope to see you again next year...

Across Europe on two wheels

Meet Rob and Ruth. They’re currently cycling from Vienna to Düsseldorf via Olomouc, Prague, Berlin and Sweden and this is an edited version of a conversation I had with them about their trip.

What’s been the highlight of your trip so far?

It would have to be riding through those woods near Blansko and stopping for a drink at that little village of 120 people. And those bike track signs after we left Laa and crossed into Czech were extremely good.

The Austrian ones aren’t as good?

They were fine, but I have to say that once you cross the border it gets better. I thought that Austrian and German bike signs were good but the ones just south of Brno took it to a new level. The accommodation’s been good, but we’d recommend that if you’re carrying camping gear on your bike that you leave it until May when all the campgrounds are open.

As you’d expect the scenery’s been good. Particularly when you follow the bike paths, they take you to scenic places. If you get on a main road, which is something we try to avoid, you’re watching and thinking about the traffic all the time. The Greenways cycle trails very rarely take you on a main road, but we lost the track at the town where the spas are. Teplice. Don’t know what happened there.

You wouldn’t want to completely rely on the Greenways map. We have had experience in the past when the signs have been switched around for a prank. That can get a bit frustrating. Often the locals will show you how to get on to a bike track. We thought that Czech people would have little or no English, but it’s been quite good getting directions, even in quite small villages. You’ve got to know the words for right and left: Vpravo and Vlevo.

How far do you cover each cycling day on average, if there’s an average?

Well on this trip so far we’ve done 364Km. We did as little as 20km one day, and I think the first day we did about 56km. We did 75 one day. On an average day in average conditions we’re comfortable with 50 – 60. It gives you time to muck around and look at things.

Would most touring cyclists cover more or less than that, and do consider yourselves fast or slow or average cyclists?

We’re deadset plodders. We go at a casual pace, and never put ourselves in a position where we have to be in a hurry. We like to arrive at a town before 5pm or even earlier. We’re early starters; we’re on the road by 8am. We reckon five or six hours a day is a maximum; you don’t want to be cycling all day. You want to be able to stop for a cuppa or for a bite to eat.

With some of the long distance cyclists I’ve met, it seems to be a disadvantage of the way they travel that they’re just hell bent on covering 120km a day and go from dawn to dusk without ever stopping to look at anything.

On our last trip, from Gabianko in Slovakia to Vienna, we did 110km into a headwind in one day. That was no fun at all. We considered stopping and camping out because you ride through some beautiful woods in a national park. If we’d had fresh water with us we would have.

How long do you expect your whole trip to take?

After Poland we’re coming back here, down to Blansko again and we’re going to cut across to Prague then pick up the Elbe River to Dresden and Berlin. We’re being met at the border by a German friend of ours on his bike. From Berlin we’re going up to the island Rugen and getting the ferry to Sweden. We’ll cut across to Copenhagen, back into Sweden up to Stockholm, down to Gothenburg, across to Fredrickshaven, Jutland, the Danish mainland and then down to Düsseldorf.

And that’s the end of the trip?

Yep, we’re flying home from Düsseldorf in the first week of August. We’ve got four months for the whole trip, which should be plenty of time. We’re still in the first two weeks. We arrived in Vienna and had three nights there because we had to buy our bikes and get set up and we’ve been cycling now for ten days.

I wanted to ask you about the bikes and whether you bought them here or brought them with you from Tasmania.

No we bought them here; we went to the same bike shop as last year. We were very happy with last year’s bikes. One of them was an Austrian built KTM, which Ruth took home. So it’s Rob’s turn to get a KTM to take home this year. At the end of the trip we intend to sell one and take one home on the plane.

Is it difficult to organize getting them on the plane?

No it’s very easy. We stressed out about it for three months last year, but when we rode into Düsseldorf, we rode past a bike shop and said to this guy “Is it possible to get a bike box to fly home with our bike? He took me into a store room with 50 boxes, and said “How many do you want?” We snuck our bike up into our room in the youth hostel, dismantled it and boxed it all up.

With a handhold in the back and one in the front and our backpacks on, we just got on a tram and went out the airport. Took it to check in, the girl said “Here’s a docket; take it to number 27”. The guy said “fine” and put it on. Next thing we saw it in Melbourne, easy as that. We had to clean the bike carefully, because if it’s not clean Customs in Australia will clean it for you and charge you $500.

What other equipment did you arrange at the beginning of the trip?

From Australia we brought thermarests, sleeping bags and a good tent with a big vestibule. We also bring a little trangia stove so that we can boil up some porridge or pasta if we’re camping somewhere. We brought a basic repair kit and our helmets with us because they can be very expensive in Europe. We bought tubes here because they had to match the bikes, but basically you bring everything with you.

Have you used the repair kit yet?

Hahaha! Last year we went 3500kms without a puncture. This year we left the youth hostel in Vienna and said “let the journey begin”; we went about 100m and I had a flat tyre. We looked at each other in total disbelief. We took it back to the bike shop because I didn’t want to use my reserve tube so quickly. And then on day three we’re riding along on this lovely Sunday morning by the river and Ruth went over a bump and there was that clunking noise and you just know. Another flat tyre. And it’s always the back wheel.

How much do you think your luggage weighs?

We actually weighed it, and it came in just under 40kg, so there’s an extra 20kg each over the back wheels. In hindsight it would probably be good to have a rack on the front to spread the weight. We’ve actually slimmed it down a lot, we’re carrying very few clothes and we don’t buy souvenirs. 20kgs might sound a lot, but when you’ve got tools and spares and things, it’s not. Just the big D-lock weighs more than 2kgs.

Have you had any trouble with security?

Not yet. When we’re in a café, if it’s a nice day we’ll sit outside or just find somewhere we can glance out the window. If we go to a supermarket one of us goes in and the other minds the bikes. We’re aware that bikes get stolen a lot, but so far no problems.

Where did your trip last year take you?

Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest. Back to Bratislava on a slightly different route, then along the Danube to Passau and down the Inn river. We cut across to Munich, down to lake Constance, back up the Rhine to Basel, Freiburg, Heidelberg, Koblenz, Cologne and then it was getting very industrial, so we went across to Maastricht in the south of Holland and followed the Maas river up to Arnhem before cutting across to Amsterdam. That took about three months.

It’s quite hilly there in southern Germany…

Oh, south of Munich we were really pushing it.

Were you literally pushing the bikes at some point?

Oh yeah, sometimes you do. We’ve got no qualms about getting off and walking. In fact if you’re riding all day it’s nice because your body is doing a different activity.

Any pieces of advice for people who’d like to do what you’re doing?

Just get out there and do it.

Safety is the biggest thing. You’ve got to be able to change your plans and adapt and if it’s really raining hard or something, just pull in and spend the night. You’ve just got to accept bad weather and have the equipment to cope with it. And don’t stress.

Good advice from a couple of very experienced cyclists. Thanks Rob and Ruth! May your travels be filled with tailwinds and well-marked trails...