“But…Why?!” In an age where almost everybody travels (or has at least has fantasized about doing so), the question of why we travel is almost never asked. When you announce that you go backpacking in Southeast Asia, or following the Inca Trail, or do a year of backbreaking work in Australia everybody just yells “That’s great!” while silently judging you for running away from something or being the cliche that wants to ‘find herself’ by screwing…
I am glad to report that we are on the move again. Antonio’s neck is un-stuck, and after taking a bus and train from Mostar (Bosnia) to Ljubljana (Slovenia) to make up for the week we didn’t cycle, we are now in France. I was going to write that how, after nearly five months of touring and 6000km, we are really getting this whole cycling thing. But then I remembered how we left both our front wheels…
For the past three days we have been stuck in Blagaj, a tiny little town in Bosnia. Three days ago Antonio woke up and couldn’t move his back, neck or shoulders so I helped him get up while he yelped in pain. Then we rode 45km to the nearest campsite (where we had planned to go anyway). We have been there since. Well, no, we also visited Mostar to look at the old bridge and…
A week ago I got harassed by a man here in Albania. What happened was that I walked to the river we were (wild)camping at to wash myself and there was a man who beckoned me over, so I went to say hello. Like, you know, a polite person. After the usual awkward attempt of saying good morning without having a common language I told him I didn’t understand what he was saying, with a…
As you might have gathered, I am more of a cat person. Dogs are not to be trusted. I like them best when they are not barking, not drooling, not moving and not stinking. Basically when they’re sleeping. Unfortunately, that’s not the kind of dog that you meet as a cyclist. I don’t know what it is, but there’s something about bicycles that sends dogs into a wild, frenzied, blinding rage that literally makes them jump in front…
Before our departure I spend hours and hours researching packing lists of other cyclists and composing my own. At one point there were six different drafts saved on my computer, including a “PackList v3.6finalFINAL” which of course wasn’t the final one at all. From the ultralight to the ultraheavy, I compared them all. How many pairs of socks were they bringing? How many USB cables? Which spare parts? What brand was their sleeping bag? And what about…
If there is one thing we learned from cycling along Turkey’s Mediterranean coast is that hard work is rewarded. With hard work I mean climbing a accumulated ascent of several Everest equivalents (a measurement I just made up but I think should be a thing). With reward I mean beautiful scenery, delicious food, hospitable people and just plain fun despite our protesting legs. We joined an international Mediterranean cleanup event (Let’s do it Mediterranean!) near Mersin, watched…
Fascinating what a trip like this does to your personal standards of hygiene. We (I) have turned into completely disgusting human beings. We regularly go without shower for five days in a row while cycling several hours a day. I am happy to wash my face & pits in the sink of a petrol station. Roadside peeing is a daily event. And the question “Does a cyclist shit in the woods?” needn’t even be asked.…
Flashback to Iran. Everyone is great. The most hospitable people I have met in my life. Unexpected invitations to people`s homes and peeks into their family lives are sometimes so overwhelming that we are at a loss for words. But of course there is the one idiotic exception that leaves us speechless in a slightly different way. “My son is a big fan of Hitler”, said our couchsufing host. Antonio and I looked uncomfortably at…
Since we took the train from Tabriz (Iran) to Turkey, we have been here two weeks already. Time for an update! Cappadocia After arriving in Kayseri in the wee hours of the morning, we decided to head straight for Avanos, one of the main towns in the area of Cappadocia, about 70km away. As we got closer the landscape slowly changed from flat to rolling hills to odder and odder mountain formations, until we could…