slovenia is sweet!!!! if anyone out there wants do discover an entire country in 3 weeks come here!! my route? from the 'thernal' springs i went west to historic ptuj (pronounced patooey, like spitting:) and i spit off the nearest bridge. duh, had to do it. then through some sweet valleys and hilly wine country, 14% grades!!, then north to a mountian bike camp where i spent two days off biking up and over the slovenian alps and through an old iron mine-straight thru the damn mountian!!! that was wild. then up and over the alps again to historik kamnik and over to lake bled and the famous bled island and church. its a cool church on a tiny island in a lake tucked into the triglav julian alps national park. nice. then the big one, a huge mountian pass topping off at 1611meters and with 50 switchbacks...never climbed anything like it. ( 24 switches up at a 14% grade and 2400 vertical feet in 8 miles ) as far as slovenians are concerned its the top of slovenia and the mountian of triglav, which comes into view from the pass is the symbol of the country...or some thing. then i drained out to the slightly italian coast for a splash in a polluted port, swimming with oil rigs...and now im in postonja, one of the best caves in the country and off to the capitol tomorrow. the best town i went through?? radovna...i challenge you to find it on a map!! the guy at the mountian bike hostel gave me a earload of information about where to go and what to see in the country, and 9 times out of 10 he was right on. i did plenty of dirt roads, which they call mecadum out here, and the steepest grade yet...18% ouch.
the bike trip run down...
turkey: 6/6 - 7/1 547miles
bulgaria 7/1 - 7/14 399miles
romania 7/14 - 7/31 472miles
hungary 7/31 - 8/6 176miles
slovakia 8/6 - 8/17 285miles
czech republik 8/17 - 8/31 297miles
austria 8/31 - 9/5 202miles
hungary (again) 9/5 - 9/16 390miles
slovenia 9/16 - 10/7 570miles
woah...
slovenia-the smallest country and the most miles...ive also figured out how much altitude ive ascended and descended in this country ( this is what i do when i dont have a book or pipers ear to blab off to ) up 16,591feet and down 16,820feet...i think. but im not bored enough to recheck...this will have to do:)
peace-
timo
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Friday, September 22, 2006
gettin lost-
so ive calculated since piper left, 17 days ago, ive had 16 descent blunders...i wont go into all of them but i have gotten lost 14 times and i just recently bought what i thought was butter and poridge, turned out to be yeast and flour...hhhmmmmm.
I NEED THE DUTCHES OF SPICE!!!!!!!!!!!!! ( pipers dinner time nick name )
so i got to slovenia and here i am now. the final country. only another 10 days or so. feel like i will be landing from outer space soon.
eastern slovenia has lots to offer if your full of crazy human ailments and physical disorders. i arrived and quickly found the first camp which is at the largest and newest thermal spa in the country. people from all over flock to these thermal pools to cure all sorts of ailments. i didnt really want to go here but it was the only camp ground that i was sure existed and since it was raining i decided to go for it. when i checked in the receptionist told me that becaus ethe use of the thermal pools is included in the price they charge per day, not per night. so i said i wanted to stay for one day at 3400 SIT, about 20$ usd. he informed me that since i was checking in on one day and then leaving on the next day it is technically 2 days. "WHAT THE #&@#!!!!" i couldnt believe my ears. so we struck a deal, i would pay for one and a half days and need to leave by 9am. what a scam...i was pissed. and this "thermal" is more like camping at the six flags great adventure than a relaxing spa. pool slide, wave pool, twisty slide...so i spent the rainy afternoon on the twisty slide trying to get my self sick. i just ended up with a bruised back and pruny fingers...
timo-
total miles: 3330miles
total ass time: 336:46hrs
thats a lot of ass time!!!!
I NEED THE DUTCHES OF SPICE!!!!!!!!!!!!! ( pipers dinner time nick name )
so i got to slovenia and here i am now. the final country. only another 10 days or so. feel like i will be landing from outer space soon.
eastern slovenia has lots to offer if your full of crazy human ailments and physical disorders. i arrived and quickly found the first camp which is at the largest and newest thermal spa in the country. people from all over flock to these thermal pools to cure all sorts of ailments. i didnt really want to go here but it was the only camp ground that i was sure existed and since it was raining i decided to go for it. when i checked in the receptionist told me that becaus ethe use of the thermal pools is included in the price they charge per day, not per night. so i said i wanted to stay for one day at 3400 SIT, about 20$ usd. he informed me that since i was checking in on one day and then leaving on the next day it is technically 2 days. "WHAT THE #&@#!!!!" i couldnt believe my ears. so we struck a deal, i would pay for one and a half days and need to leave by 9am. what a scam...i was pissed. and this "thermal" is more like camping at the six flags great adventure than a relaxing spa. pool slide, wave pool, twisty slide...so i spent the rainy afternoon on the twisty slide trying to get my self sick. i just ended up with a bruised back and pruny fingers...
timo-
total miles: 3330miles
total ass time: 336:46hrs
thats a lot of ass time!!!!
Sunday, September 17, 2006
oh where, oh where, could my biking tim be??
I have to say I (piper) was a little blogging-bitter after the digi went MIA, and we could no longer post pictures. But now that I've been home on US soil for a little over a week, I'm feeling extra bloggy, as if I could somehow live vicariously through Timo; still biking from one adventure to the next in Central Europe...
Touching the tarmac at the Baltimore airport with soles that have taken me nearly 3000 miles, I felt I had finally 'arrived.' A funny feeling, "arriving;" the bike trip being a series of mini-arrivals, but never the grand finale... and my life up to this point also being a series of mini-arrivals and revelations, but never before have i felt such an enormous feeling of accomplishment and joy at truly being humbled by the world in which we live.
... and where is Tim?
That valiant man 'o mine biked 10 miles (in the snow up a hill with nothing but a tshirt on ;D)... with a giNORmous bike box, back to our campground, packed up my bike and put me in a cab to the airport in Vienna... The cab driver (a balding, overweight, chain smoking Austrian man of 50, with bad dandruff, a black shirt, and a love for the Austrian equivolant to Celine Dion) graciously kept the conversation going to the airport, so that it wasn't until I boarded my flight that I got a bit teary thinking of Tim packing up the tent by himself for the very first time...
....he must be cursing the extra weight... muuuuuuuuuaaaaaahahahahahahh!!!
... but where is Tim?
Last I heard he had reached Budapest- about 3/4 days from Vienna, and he was heading to the Lake Balaton region (get out your maps kiddies...) about 2 days... but that was 3 almost 4 days ago... am I worried? Not really... I kind of feel like it's a game of "Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego.." trying to guess when/where he'll pop up on the radar again... crap... I feel like my mom.
Touching the tarmac at the Baltimore airport with soles that have taken me nearly 3000 miles, I felt I had finally 'arrived.' A funny feeling, "arriving;" the bike trip being a series of mini-arrivals, but never the grand finale... and my life up to this point also being a series of mini-arrivals and revelations, but never before have i felt such an enormous feeling of accomplishment and joy at truly being humbled by the world in which we live.
... and where is Tim?
That valiant man 'o mine biked 10 miles (in the snow up a hill with nothing but a tshirt on ;D)... with a giNORmous bike box, back to our campground, packed up my bike and put me in a cab to the airport in Vienna... The cab driver (a balding, overweight, chain smoking Austrian man of 50, with bad dandruff, a black shirt, and a love for the Austrian equivolant to Celine Dion) graciously kept the conversation going to the airport, so that it wasn't until I boarded my flight that I got a bit teary thinking of Tim packing up the tent by himself for the very first time...
....he must be cursing the extra weight... muuuuuuuuuaaaaaahahahahahahh!!!
... but where is Tim?
Last I heard he had reached Budapest- about 3/4 days from Vienna, and he was heading to the Lake Balaton region (get out your maps kiddies...) about 2 days... but that was 3 almost 4 days ago... am I worried? Not really... I kind of feel like it's a game of "Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego.." trying to guess when/where he'll pop up on the radar again... crap... I feel like my mom.
Monday, September 11, 2006
tim and piper an der donau, wanderlost in Hungary and other stories...
biking the Danube is for old people, and pipe and tim realized that as soon as they stepped rubber to pavement. but we weren't complaining. bike shops, ice cream shops, bars, restaurants, campgrounds...all on the bike trail. it was like a bike super highway and pipe and timo were in hi gear dingin our bells gettin granny to pull to one side so that we could steam past like a mad truck driver, trailer and all. you felt as is you just biked along a river, saw nothing but the river and some fields and then a camp ground appeared and you camped. kinda surreal. the bike trail avoids the center of towns, probably because of the massive amount of people who bike the trail, and there for you lose any sense of where you are and why your biking. we need towns!! we need to see locals doing their thing. we need to see chickens running across the street...we need architecture!!! all we got was the back side of all the slow bikers...oh well, now we know. also, everytown in the area is some name followed by "an der donau". like no one knew that these towns were on the Danube?? any way we had lunch an der danau. and pitched the tent an der donau and we even crashed into each other and fell down an der donau. it was good times an der donau. drank a beer an der donau in a tiny pub in the middle of nowhere an der donau, like a field an der donau , and there was this massive power plant behind it an der donau. and im talking stones throw behind it an der donau. but the powerplant an der danau wasn't spewing any funk or making any noise...it was dead quiet an der donau . eerie. when we left a guy informed us that the plant was meant to be nuclear but greanpeace stopped it and they never finished building it an der donau...huh. kinda cool, i'll drink a beer ( organic i hope ) to green peace!! ( an der donau )
passing into slovakia and Hungary an der donau was a bit of a mess. as soon as you pass into these countries the bike signs stop pointing you in the right direction and finding the right way is near impossible. i even managed to pass into Slovakia on a bike trail only to be stopped by a gate, so i turned around for Austria to figure things out and there was an irate border guard asking me for my passport and why i was in this forbidden area!!! " NO BIKING" he is teling me. "but this is a bike trail..." i though, go figure. many times while in Hungary the Danube trail would spit you out on some back road with no signs of where to go and a big sign that indicated "no biking". why the hell would there be a no biking sign on a bike trail??!! any way, i found my way to Budapest and here i am. tomorrow i leave for lake balaton and eventually into Slovenia...
one thing that pipes and timers got into was doing nite rides around sweet towns. we did athens, rhodos, nesebar bulg, chesky krumlov czech...and so in the past few days ive racked em up...a nite ride in bratislava slovakia ( where i got horribly lost...another story ) , the donau island (an der donau? ) -that was sweet, 20 miles from the heart of the city and a tiny quiet island with sand roads and people having camp fires and the moon was full and all the tourists left to go back to work...mmmmm:) and finally budapest. nite rides are the best, you get to see a lot of the cityand all te cool stuff is lit up...
talky soon!!
email us !!!!!!!!!
ok bye-
passing into slovakia and Hungary an der donau was a bit of a mess. as soon as you pass into these countries the bike signs stop pointing you in the right direction and finding the right way is near impossible. i even managed to pass into Slovakia on a bike trail only to be stopped by a gate, so i turned around for Austria to figure things out and there was an irate border guard asking me for my passport and why i was in this forbidden area!!! " NO BIKING" he is teling me. "but this is a bike trail..." i though, go figure. many times while in Hungary the Danube trail would spit you out on some back road with no signs of where to go and a big sign that indicated "no biking". why the hell would there be a no biking sign on a bike trail??!! any way, i found my way to Budapest and here i am. tomorrow i leave for lake balaton and eventually into Slovenia...
one thing that pipes and timers got into was doing nite rides around sweet towns. we did athens, rhodos, nesebar bulg, chesky krumlov czech...and so in the past few days ive racked em up...a nite ride in bratislava slovakia ( where i got horribly lost...another story ) , the donau island (an der donau? ) -that was sweet, 20 miles from the heart of the city and a tiny quiet island with sand roads and people having camp fires and the moon was full and all the tourists left to go back to work...mmmmm:) and finally budapest. nite rides are the best, you get to see a lot of the cityand all te cool stuff is lit up...
talky soon!!
email us !!!!!!!!!
ok bye-
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
the long and winding road...
because of the lack of digital photögraphing and the funny keey boards, like this one, we have been bolg negligent and we apologise. so let me fill you in on the last month:
romania: one of the most beautifull countries that we have been to that is contrasted with lush green mountians and hillsides and impoverished peoples that will beg for anything that you might have in any way that they seem fit. like a mom holding her crying and starving baby over the edge of a railing seperating a food court and a street so that the baby is hovering over you and your food pointing, drooling, screaming. the mom...indiferent, vacant stare, giving you the "its not my fault that you wont share" look.
we cycled close to 500 miles in this country and we did so pretty quickly so that we could get out and into "more civilised" land. we did happen to mee a french guy who was finishing his around the world bike adventure and that was sweet. we also met the nicest romanian brothers in the country. they let us sleep in their yard becasue the campground down the road was booked solid and piper gave the tear jerker burts to get us in. they instsied that we try some romanian moonshine, bystrika. powerfull enough to burn. when we left romania the rain began...
hungary: as soon as you cross the hungarian romanian border many things become apparent. romania is very poor, hungary is not. the roads were the first major difference. they were smooth!! wow, what a novelty. the first town that we came to had bike paths!! and people used them!! more noveltys. as we approached our first major hungarian city a mountian biker cycled up to us and befriended piper. if we were in romani or bulgaria or even turkey and someone biked up to you to talk they were surely crazy, or drunk, or going to try to steal or beg. but this guy offered to buy us poweraid and insisted on taking us into the city to buy us a beer¨!! where the hell are we?!?! so Zoltau became our first hungarian friend.
we ventured on following cÿcle paths to a wine region where you can get your bottles filled from the keg for pennies and then to the hungarian hills of svlvasvarad. we tried to mountian bike here but got rained out and discovered that most of the mountian bike trails are paved...hhmmm. from here we trudged through more rain to slovakia...
slovakia: amazing for cyclists. signed cycleways, quiet roads, long valleys, mountians...were going back!! we cycled the 3 major national parks in the country: the slovensky raj, the tatrys and the mala fatras. all amazing and very different. and people actually recreate in this country. no where else have we seen people taking time to recreate in the outdoors. maybe this is what a little money brings...vacation time. we cycled for about 2 weeks through the rain and decided that it was time to escape into czech...
czech republic: this coiuld very well be the most amazing country in the world. its fairytale land out here. rolling green hills dotted with thick dark green pine forests, cut by babbling brooks with jumping trout and spangled with old churches, castles and chateux. did you know that the ploural of chateux is chatimo?? its gross but true. weve been following lazy bike trails that drip allong the landscape and drop you in painted cities and mideavel squares with mounstrous fountians. camping along lakes and rivers and barelÿ using the roads. its all bike infrastructure out here, truely puts the US to shame. cz has been developing their long distance bike trails and hiking trails since the seventies and they are all well signed to the point where we dont we dont even need a bike map to figure them out. so here we are in chesky krumlov taking a few days off and its still raining, for a month straight now, and tomorrow we head south for austria and the danube river where we will let the tail winds and gentle down stream grade push us into vienna where piper will be flying home and the timo will continue solo. hope to hear from you all soon...
romania: one of the most beautifull countries that we have been to that is contrasted with lush green mountians and hillsides and impoverished peoples that will beg for anything that you might have in any way that they seem fit. like a mom holding her crying and starving baby over the edge of a railing seperating a food court and a street so that the baby is hovering over you and your food pointing, drooling, screaming. the mom...indiferent, vacant stare, giving you the "its not my fault that you wont share" look.
we cycled close to 500 miles in this country and we did so pretty quickly so that we could get out and into "more civilised" land. we did happen to mee a french guy who was finishing his around the world bike adventure and that was sweet. we also met the nicest romanian brothers in the country. they let us sleep in their yard becasue the campground down the road was booked solid and piper gave the tear jerker burts to get us in. they instsied that we try some romanian moonshine, bystrika. powerfull enough to burn. when we left romania the rain began...
hungary: as soon as you cross the hungarian romanian border many things become apparent. romania is very poor, hungary is not. the roads were the first major difference. they were smooth!! wow, what a novelty. the first town that we came to had bike paths!! and people used them!! more noveltys. as we approached our first major hungarian city a mountian biker cycled up to us and befriended piper. if we were in romani or bulgaria or even turkey and someone biked up to you to talk they were surely crazy, or drunk, or going to try to steal or beg. but this guy offered to buy us poweraid and insisted on taking us into the city to buy us a beer¨!! where the hell are we?!?! so Zoltau became our first hungarian friend.
we ventured on following cÿcle paths to a wine region where you can get your bottles filled from the keg for pennies and then to the hungarian hills of svlvasvarad. we tried to mountian bike here but got rained out and discovered that most of the mountian bike trails are paved...hhmmm. from here we trudged through more rain to slovakia...
slovakia: amazing for cyclists. signed cycleways, quiet roads, long valleys, mountians...were going back!! we cycled the 3 major national parks in the country: the slovensky raj, the tatrys and the mala fatras. all amazing and very different. and people actually recreate in this country. no where else have we seen people taking time to recreate in the outdoors. maybe this is what a little money brings...vacation time. we cycled for about 2 weeks through the rain and decided that it was time to escape into czech...
czech republic: this coiuld very well be the most amazing country in the world. its fairytale land out here. rolling green hills dotted with thick dark green pine forests, cut by babbling brooks with jumping trout and spangled with old churches, castles and chateux. did you know that the ploural of chateux is chatimo?? its gross but true. weve been following lazy bike trails that drip allong the landscape and drop you in painted cities and mideavel squares with mounstrous fountians. camping along lakes and rivers and barelÿ using the roads. its all bike infrastructure out here, truely puts the US to shame. cz has been developing their long distance bike trails and hiking trails since the seventies and they are all well signed to the point where we dont we dont even need a bike map to figure them out. so here we are in chesky krumlov taking a few days off and its still raining, for a month straight now, and tomorrow we head south for austria and the danube river where we will let the tail winds and gentle down stream grade push us into vienna where piper will be flying home and the timo will continue solo. hope to hear from you all soon...
Saturday, July 22, 2006
Agro-Tourism with Romaniacs!!!
Alrighty... last left ya in Bucharest... cool city! Too bad my digital camera was stolen right out from beneath my nose; literally! It was in my handlebar bag, covered in a rain sack, under my cookie bag... good god they were stealth! So, no more pics for the blog... oh well... I've shed my tears.. moving on...
So, Agro (not in a bad way) tourism in Romania- pretty cool... you can camp on people's farms/ villas... very nice... and listen to them tell you all night to be careful of gypsies in the next town... WHO, by the way, really do wear long flowery skirts, gold jewelry, and head scarves... and are really really poor..... and loud.... and scary.
...and Romanian drivers....ROMANIACS! by far the scariest drivers we have encountered yet.... Tim, wear your helmet for chrissakes...
BUT the terrain/mountains are stunning... swiss alps meets gypsy ville.... it's breathtaking... and we've been blessed with good cycling days... watch it dump rain tomorrow...
So, Agro (not in a bad way) tourism in Romania- pretty cool... you can camp on people's farms/ villas... very nice... and listen to them tell you all night to be careful of gypsies in the next town... WHO, by the way, really do wear long flowery skirts, gold jewelry, and head scarves... and are really really poor..... and loud.... and scary.
...and Romanian drivers....ROMANIACS! by far the scariest drivers we have encountered yet.... Tim, wear your helmet for chrissakes...
BUT the terrain/mountains are stunning... swiss alps meets gypsy ville.... it's breathtaking... and we've been blessed with good cycling days... watch it dump rain tomorrow...
Sunday, July 16, 2006
a few photos from the road:
piper about to head to the bulg...otherwise known as bulgaristan, in turkey,
tims betterhalf, his shadow and piper and tim enjoying a kebab nearthe blue mosqu, istanbul. tim near the town of bulgari and piper filling water at a road side spring.
a top ten list of commando camp spots.
1) Xanthos, turkey. camped within eyeshot of a lycian ruin in a golden brown feild atop a hill on a saturday night. belw us was a small town bursting with turkish music and the shouts of young club goers!! oh and all this under a full moon.
2) a heli pad nead egridir, turkey. after our hitch hike ride ended at about 8pm we found ourselves scrambling for a camp spot. we found a secluded hill and what would you know, there was a helicopter landing pad on top!!! so civilised to live on concrete huh?? so we camped on it! no helicopters landed that night.
3) antalya, turkey. the day that we biked with skot! we camped on the coast of the med. with city lights reflecting off the sea and the sound of the lapping sea lulling us to sleep:)
4) a vineyard in bulgaria. that night we drank wine and the next morning we ate oats with rasins. ode to the grape in the vinyard!!
5) in a sunflower farn in the bulg. so many sunflowers you couldnt imagine!! we camped in the shadow of an endless field as the sunniest sunflowers. they look to the east and they were all facing us. like a thousand brown eyes with yellow eyelashes starring at you...kind creepy, kinda cool!
ok, thats only 5, buts it good enough!!
more photos and stories-
here is the lovely couple in the aya sophia in istanbul. probably the biggest, uglyest building ever!!! ha just kidding. it was awesome, kinda makes you gasp and then shut up because it is so amazing on the inside. we make it better though:)
so pipers camera broke after the big rain storm in kitten bulgaria so we can bring you up to date on photos until that point, and from there on words will just have to do:)
after the storm of the century( which didnt break our big agnes tent!! ) we set off for burgas, the third largest city in bulgaria ( better know as the "bulg" ) we had a great time biking through historic sozopol to get there and in the morning we were craving coffee!! we needed a little american coffee shop but none could be found. but do you know what the bulg has?? tiny little esspresso vending machines!! how perfect. 0.30 leva, about 20cents american you can get a piping hot perfectly brewed vending machine espresso!! we were in heaven!! "piper, quick, how much change do you have? espresso is only 30 cents!!" and now we come to our interactive part of the blog. the bulg has named their coins "stotinki" so we leave it up to you guys to make up the best rhyme/poem and you need to make sure you rhyme with the word stotinki...such as stinky or pinky:)...have fun and be clean!!
so biking from nesebar bulgaria to shipka was great. a flat gently inclined road with a great road surface. definatly beat all the roads in turkey!! we passed through a mini city called sliven that had an interesting landscape. a nuclear power plant in the distance and farmers on horse and wagon in the foreground. quite the dichotomy, quite the contrast. we climbed up and over shipka pass ( pipers story ) which was pretty easy. 8 miles up and 3000 ft climb. we topped out at 1300meters and a sweet view with a huge communist shrine at the top to commerate a huge battle between the russians and the turks where the russians won. russian shrines are very blocky, very rough.
we descended the pass and found our selves in an akwardlittle city called gabrova where we got a little "missplaced" but this guy riding a bike pointed us in the right direction and then asked us where we were from. when we told him "america" he bust out in joy, reached for tims hand, pulled it to his lips and kissed it!! he then rode away screaming "VIVA LA AMERICA!!" woah. most people roll their eyes after we tell them where we are from. this was a nice supprise:)
we stayed at a little creek side monastary tucked into dramatic canyon country that night. there was a qurious little drain under our window thatpointed to the creek. tim noticed that when you took a shower the drain proceded to dribble. hhhmmm...quriousity. what happens when you flush the toilet?? yup you guessed it! no bathing in this creek!! here is a gross image for you: watching out of a second story window your toilet flush quickly draining, falling 2 stories, splashing and your poo floating down a bulgarian stream into the unknown. bon voyage little poo!! be safe and godspeed!!
from the monostary i think pipe has filled you in with the bulg's president and the highway ho's, so enjoy, and until next time!!
timo-
total miles: 1206.3miles
total ride time: 132.23hrs
oops- this image came up somehow...it is a fresco from the aya sophia. piper and I a completely bored with frescos now... we've seen too many, now they all look the same...
photos
hey everyone!!!finally got to some photos-
this is a turkish kid wearing tims hat:) above is the piper on the turkish coast, and in olympos.
below is cappadocia withthe baloon. tim after a long day ready to eat a pound of pasta and timo once again near egridir turkey after a brutifull hill climb!!
Back to the Bread-land, Grande Senor, and Road Ho's
Well, we've made it back to the land of good bread with every meal... Bulgaria was a little lacking in that dept. We did, however, enjoy everything else about "the Bulge"- as we've lovingly termed the country. From Shipka, we rode to a cool little monastery town Dryvanovo (or something like that,) where they clone monks. Then to Veliko Tarnovo- the old capital of Bulgaria, built on the hillsides of a crazy river gorge.
Our passing, from there, into Romania, was interesting to say the least. Starting off early, we left our campsite in a sunflower field, and hit the town of Ivanovo.. lots of people were gathered at some important looking building, with camera's and such, and according to a Columbian woman who spoke spanish with us, the "Grande Senor" was about to arrive.."el Presidente Bulgarie".. so we got to see (and photograph) the President of "the Bulge" up close and personal, in a po-dunk border town- GO FIGURE!
Entering the *real* border town- nasty nasty Ruse.. we encountered a cultural phenomenon enmasse, that we had been suspecting all along- the "Highway Ho", or roadside prostitute.. about every 100 meters... they *loved* Tim.
Crossing into Romania, alas, another nasty border town where we got charged double the price for lunch (aka Stupid Rich American Tax,) we happily discovered that we had returned to the land of good bread- yaay! And *that* my friends, makes a happy biker!
miles to date- over 1200!!!!
Our passing, from there, into Romania, was interesting to say the least. Starting off early, we left our campsite in a sunflower field, and hit the town of Ivanovo.. lots of people were gathered at some important looking building, with camera's and such, and according to a Columbian woman who spoke spanish with us, the "Grande Senor" was about to arrive.."el Presidente Bulgarie".. so we got to see (and photograph) the President of "the Bulge" up close and personal, in a po-dunk border town- GO FIGURE!
Entering the *real* border town- nasty nasty Ruse.. we encountered a cultural phenomenon enmasse, that we had been suspecting all along- the "Highway Ho", or roadside prostitute.. about every 100 meters... they *loved* Tim.
Crossing into Romania, alas, another nasty border town where we got charged double the price for lunch (aka Stupid Rich American Tax,) we happily discovered that we had returned to the land of good bread- yaay! And *that* my friends, makes a happy biker!
miles to date- over 1200!!!!
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Right up the Shipka!!!
Heheh... biked across Bulgaria in about 3 days... Nessebar-Kazanlak-to the infamous Shipka pass... you go from about 400m to 1100m in 13km... not horrendous, actually it was quite nice!! The pass has some historical value- this was a decisive battle in securing Bulgarian freedom from the Turks in 1877..so it's pretty cool in that respect...
We haven't encountered any gratuitous honkers in Bulgaria's driving populace until today though- This guy in a brand new VW SUV comes racing up this steep pass... gets right up my shipka and LAYS on his horn... does the same thing to Tim (come to find out) 1 mile up the road...
.. so, me being the Texas girl that I am, I spot his SUV by a restaurant at the top of the pass... park my little shipka right next to his table, and give him the "RIGHT UP *YOUR* SHIPKA PAL" stare-down..
..hope I didn't embarrass Tim too much ;D off to Romania tomorrow...
We haven't encountered any gratuitous honkers in Bulgaria's driving populace until today though- This guy in a brand new VW SUV comes racing up this steep pass... gets right up my shipka and LAYS on his horn... does the same thing to Tim (come to find out) 1 mile up the road...
.. so, me being the Texas girl that I am, I spot his SUV by a restaurant at the top of the pass... park my little shipka right next to his table, and give him the "RIGHT UP *YOUR* SHIPKA PAL" stare-down..
..hope I didn't embarrass Tim too much ;D off to Romania tomorrow...
Monday, July 03, 2006
takin' turkey and bulgaria by storm...literally!!
so we last left of with a quick note about istanbul carpet sales men, but i didnt have time to write about the rest of turkey and the stories that went to those 4 random photos didnt post with the photos. so real quickly- that "smelly" looking guy is another bike tourer who is on his way to vietnam via "stanlandia". we took that photo before a tearful departure. we mat skot! in olimpos and rode for about 90km with him to antalya where he kepr on the coast and pipe and tim went north for egridir. we shared one of the best camp spots ever. a quiet nook 10meters above the sea overlooking crystal blue waters and the city lights. we even had our own private mediteranian beach. awesome. good luck skot!!
so from the historic down town of antalya we shot north towards egridir, a tiny lake town that the tourists seem to over look. we peddled for about 40 miles into a head wind before this random turkish guy pulled over and offered us a ride. we must have looked pretty desperate because we didnt even have to thumb for this ride. so we accepted and this nice guy who spoke absolutly no english took us about 25 miles up the road to our turn off. after showing us photos of his entire family, twice, and reviewing the maps with us, twice we parted ways. tim can still hear his voice in his head "blah blah blah blah, o.k. timmy?" thats about all tim could get from this guy, and boy did he like to talk. it was as if he thought that the more he spoke, the more we understood...not the case.
on our ways to egridir we climbed and climbed and climbed...we coined a new term: brutifull. beautifull and brutal combined. let me explain. everywhere in turkey is beautifull, but on the way to egridir we climbed for 5 miles at a 10% grade and then descended for 2 miles at a 5% grade...thats brutal!!! but all together the day was brutifull:)
when in egridir we decided to change all of our turkey plans and take a bus to cappadocia for a few nights. cappadocia is one of the tourist highlights of turkey-surreal cone like rock formations, homes built into the walls of the hills and underground cities. so we went, checked it out, took some photos, and then jumped the bus back to egridir and then to istanbul. with puffy ankles ( from all the bussing ) we hopped off the bus in istanbul and began biking into the city.
istanbul was great. pipe and I are already planning to go back. with the exception of pushy sales men it was awesome. clean, old, new, exotic. the Aya sophia nd blue mosqe were definatly not let downs and in taksim square we found some turkish hiphop:) i'll mail it to you soon bert. slip it in the mix.
from istanbul we rode some 156 miles along some of the most beautifull rolling country hillsides we have ever seen to the bulgarian border. we realized that turkey and turkish hospitality would soon be behind us and so we decided that we would not say no to any offers for tea or lunch, which has pretty much been a daily occurence. in one day we shared lunch with a family of bread makers and coffee with a town drunk and his female companions, one of which did an impression of a whirling dirvish. bravo!! we met 2 bike tourers along the way as well: one going to istanbul and another going to india!! we wish them good luck. we crossed the border on tims moms birthday. (happy 21st mom!!) and were introduced to bulgarian roads. bumpy as hell!!! more pot holes than nyc!! up and down we trundled through a bird reserve, very scenic. so now we are spending bulgarian leva and stotinki instead of turkish lera. and the fashion has gone from consertive turks to flashy east bloks.
through the reserve there were many slow uphills where the fly's feasted on pipe and tim. they were going fro our eyes, nose and ears, as if they were looking for a new home. pipe and i both agreed that we wished that we had a pet frog to sit on our shoulder to eat up the flies. but Tim wished that he had a pirate frog. kinda like a pirates parot. this frog would be dressed as a pirate nas well. pegleg and all. Tim dosent want him hopping away!!
we also rode through and lunched at the tiny village of bulgari where every june there is a "fire dancing festival" where the locals, dipping into their ancient bulgarian history, throw a huge party and walk on hot coals. we didnt see that, but we saw a picture, and when we were eating lunch this nice old lady came to sit with us and made some weird gesturing of fire and walking. so we are pretty sure that she was a fire dancer. of course:)
we finally made it to the bulgarian black sea coast and shared a huge plastic bottle of beer ( for 2.50 lv!! ) on the peacefull serene beach at our camp. and in the middle of the night, whats this? gale force winds? bullets of rain comming down in buckets?? and wait... BOOM!!!!!!!...thunder as loud as i can hear right over head?? yup. it rained and stormed all night. at one point we had a pond under the tent. watching the lights turn on and off with the flickering of lightning was pretty sweet and luckily by morning we were still relativly dry and ready for the day, but the storm wasnt ready to let go yet. we eventually jumped ship for a ratty little bungalow that was a warm welcome for our soaked bones. the tent eventually buckled under the pressure of the wind and we decided that trying to keep the walls up all day was not how we wanted to spend our day off. once in the bungalow life got much better:)
and we are off for more of the coast tomorrow. hopefully the wind stops soon, its still blowing like mad outside. we did laundry and the clothes "blew dry". seriously.
so from the historic down town of antalya we shot north towards egridir, a tiny lake town that the tourists seem to over look. we peddled for about 40 miles into a head wind before this random turkish guy pulled over and offered us a ride. we must have looked pretty desperate because we didnt even have to thumb for this ride. so we accepted and this nice guy who spoke absolutly no english took us about 25 miles up the road to our turn off. after showing us photos of his entire family, twice, and reviewing the maps with us, twice we parted ways. tim can still hear his voice in his head "blah blah blah blah, o.k. timmy?" thats about all tim could get from this guy, and boy did he like to talk. it was as if he thought that the more he spoke, the more we understood...not the case.
on our ways to egridir we climbed and climbed and climbed...we coined a new term: brutifull. beautifull and brutal combined. let me explain. everywhere in turkey is beautifull, but on the way to egridir we climbed for 5 miles at a 10% grade and then descended for 2 miles at a 5% grade...thats brutal!!! but all together the day was brutifull:)
when in egridir we decided to change all of our turkey plans and take a bus to cappadocia for a few nights. cappadocia is one of the tourist highlights of turkey-surreal cone like rock formations, homes built into the walls of the hills and underground cities. so we went, checked it out, took some photos, and then jumped the bus back to egridir and then to istanbul. with puffy ankles ( from all the bussing ) we hopped off the bus in istanbul and began biking into the city.
istanbul was great. pipe and I are already planning to go back. with the exception of pushy sales men it was awesome. clean, old, new, exotic. the Aya sophia nd blue mosqe were definatly not let downs and in taksim square we found some turkish hiphop:) i'll mail it to you soon bert. slip it in the mix.
from istanbul we rode some 156 miles along some of the most beautifull rolling country hillsides we have ever seen to the bulgarian border. we realized that turkey and turkish hospitality would soon be behind us and so we decided that we would not say no to any offers for tea or lunch, which has pretty much been a daily occurence. in one day we shared lunch with a family of bread makers and coffee with a town drunk and his female companions, one of which did an impression of a whirling dirvish. bravo!! we met 2 bike tourers along the way as well: one going to istanbul and another going to india!! we wish them good luck. we crossed the border on tims moms birthday. (happy 21st mom!!) and were introduced to bulgarian roads. bumpy as hell!!! more pot holes than nyc!! up and down we trundled through a bird reserve, very scenic. so now we are spending bulgarian leva and stotinki instead of turkish lera. and the fashion has gone from consertive turks to flashy east bloks.
through the reserve there were many slow uphills where the fly's feasted on pipe and tim. they were going fro our eyes, nose and ears, as if they were looking for a new home. pipe and i both agreed that we wished that we had a pet frog to sit on our shoulder to eat up the flies. but Tim wished that he had a pirate frog. kinda like a pirates parot. this frog would be dressed as a pirate nas well. pegleg and all. Tim dosent want him hopping away!!
we also rode through and lunched at the tiny village of bulgari where every june there is a "fire dancing festival" where the locals, dipping into their ancient bulgarian history, throw a huge party and walk on hot coals. we didnt see that, but we saw a picture, and when we were eating lunch this nice old lady came to sit with us and made some weird gesturing of fire and walking. so we are pretty sure that she was a fire dancer. of course:)
we finally made it to the bulgarian black sea coast and shared a huge plastic bottle of beer ( for 2.50 lv!! ) on the peacefull serene beach at our camp. and in the middle of the night, whats this? gale force winds? bullets of rain comming down in buckets?? and wait... BOOM!!!!!!!...thunder as loud as i can hear right over head?? yup. it rained and stormed all night. at one point we had a pond under the tent. watching the lights turn on and off with the flickering of lightning was pretty sweet and luckily by morning we were still relativly dry and ready for the day, but the storm wasnt ready to let go yet. we eventually jumped ship for a ratty little bungalow that was a warm welcome for our soaked bones. the tent eventually buckled under the pressure of the wind and we decided that trying to keep the walls up all day was not how we wanted to spend our day off. once in the bungalow life got much better:)
and we are off for more of the coast tomorrow. hopefully the wind stops soon, its still blowing like mad outside. we did laundry and the clothes "blew dry". seriously.
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
istanbul carpet sales men...
ok, one quick blog about an interaction that piper and i had in istanbul with a carpet sales man. if any of you have been here you know how the story goes, for those that have not been to istanbul about half of the turkish people walking the streets are carpet sales men and they will walk with you trying to engage you in conversation to lure you into their "brothers" or "uncles" shop. the usual question is "where are you from"? piper and i grew tired of the usual answer and decided to be creative. this is an actual conversation that we had with a guy named musul. (do any of you watch ali g?? if so you might find this hilarious.
m: hello my friend. where are you from?
t: the punany.
m: dapunani??
t: yes. the punany.
m: oh. i have not heard of this "dapunani". where is it?
t: its in america.
m: oh yes america. my name is musul.
t: hi musul, nice to meet you. are you a carpet sales man?
m: YES!! ( he says this with extreme exuberation as if no one has ever asked him this or as if it isnt obvious and we blindly guessed.)
t: oh yeah, thats what i thought.
m: my uncle owns a very nice carpet shop, maybe you would like to buy something for your mother??
t: no thanks musul, bye.
hope that you enjoyed that. we are leaving istanbul today and will be heading for the bulgarian coast. no pictures today because this free computer has no usb port. the guy at the hostel says that it is the "first computer in turkey"
snots and kisses-
timo-piper...
m: hello my friend. where are you from?
t: the punany.
m: dapunani??
t: yes. the punany.
m: oh. i have not heard of this "dapunani". where is it?
t: its in america.
m: oh yes america. my name is musul.
t: hi musul, nice to meet you. are you a carpet sales man?
m: YES!! ( he says this with extreme exuberation as if no one has ever asked him this or as if it isnt obvious and we blindly guessed.)
t: oh yeah, thats what i thought.
m: my uncle owns a very nice carpet shop, maybe you would like to buy something for your mother??
t: no thanks musul, bye.
hope that you enjoyed that. we are leaving istanbul today and will be heading for the bulgarian coast. no pictures today because this free computer has no usb port. the guy at the hostel says that it is the "first computer in turkey"
snots and kisses-
timo-piper...
Monday, June 19, 2006
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Yes please you to paraglide??
For Tims birthday i wanted to take him paragliding in this town that Lonely Planet quotes is the best place in the world to fly! OluDeniz is this wonderful little cove.. at the base of the BabaDags (big daddy mountains- rough translation) We camped at a lagoon and enjoyed the most beautiful clear blue water and white sand beach... The next day we found ourselves in the company of Hector- a dark and husky Turkish paraglide pilot with a sandal tan that some would kill for and a lovely sister named Sonja, who practiced her english with us over fanta and cookies while we waited to leave town for the take off point.
Trundling up the BabaDag with three Brits and a slew of pilots and random people jumping on board our rugged jeep bus of sorts...the views just kept getting more dramatic..as did the knots in my stomach... Passing by makeshift shepherds huts and rocky cliffs, we continued up for quite some time...finally, the top! 900 meters up was a turnaround for the jeep buses, bags and gear were being flung to the ground and 10 yards off, a paragliding sail caught the wind and a lone body scurried down the rocky take off and sailed straight out from the cliffs edge and up up and away...
'yes yes..you to paraglide... please.. here your pilot...suit for you?? yes yes... (latch latch clip clip) start run now and no stop...GO!' I didnt even have time to think 'hey wait, dont i need to sign a waiver for this or something? i dont even know my pilots name!' I was first, and I was off! Thermals kept pulling our sail higher and higher...over the butterfly valley and out over the Med... it was the most peaceful experience ive ever had.... Tim didn't have such a smooth ride, but luckily he wasn't the one to puke... poor old brıt guy!
Fruit is like friendship,s currency
On our ride to our pension in Koycegiz we stopped for some shade under a tiny tree. Soon after a truck driver (who had already passed us twice and double backed) stopped to hand us some of the freshest oranges that we have ever eaten.
Riding up a pretty big climb to Gocek.. we pulled over at some springs to cool off and buy some fruit at the conveniently located stand 2 ft. from the faucet.. the wind picked up and took with it this poor guys whole fruit stand... so we dropped our bikes and began helping him pick up fruit..dusting it off... set his stand back up... went to pay for our cherries and he refused to take our money for helping him.
In OluDeniz..we befriended a 'spice boy' who just loved our bikes...evidently not many americans came to this town.. and he was a ski instructor in Turkiye! He had us try these traditional fruity sugar patties... and i immediately piped in that we would have to come back the next day and buy some for our ride- sensing that thats why he wanted us to try them 'no no..' he said 'friendship means more to me than your money...' grasping our hands earnestly...
Riding up (yet another big climb) on some back roads to Olympos... to farming women stopped us and literally forced into our handlebar bags loads of these tiny peach-like fruits... we felt compelled to stop and practice our limited Turkish with them... but they were content just sitting and watching us enjoy the 'fruits' of their labor...to feed our labor.
Turkish people are fantastically kind
Mr Rhodes Wild Ride
So we jump off the ferry in Rhodos, dark, late, groggy and walking in the wrong dırection. We must have looked a bit confused because this tiny Greek man ran past us with thıs makeshift hostel sign and asked simply but suggestivly, "Youth Hostel?". Oh yeah, this is our man!! So with bikes and BOBs all geared up we began to follow thıs guy in his rediculously tiny mini bus through the narrow and cobbled streets of medevial Rhodos- the oldest continuously inhabited medevial city in all of Europe (an acid trip for history buffs!) It was one of the craziest chases of my life. We snaked our way through the labrinth of streets that is Rhodos, on a saturday night, making turns down streets that were lit up and resonated with jumpy techno music and night owls dressed to kill *girls in heels and cobblestone is the funniest thing ive ever seen ... then we make a sudden turn down a dark and eerie alley way and all would go silent again. Feeling slightly creepy and dungenous...you truly felt like you had just entered a time warp. What a crazy way to enter the city.
A few days later we took a sweet ride through the moat of the medevial city...now a park path. On one side of us was the city walls with barraks and turret holes and on the other sıde was the moat wall, no frills, just lots of greenery. The moat wall seems to hold back the modern city of Rhodos, keeping cars and modern buildings at bay, leaving the old city to exist in its massive bubble. How many wars have been fought here? How many people have died in this moat that we are biking through?? (well, the little signs tell you, but we were riding too fast to read them!)
So our last ferry ride through the mediterranian, and the most expencıve and shortest, took us to the Turkish port town of Marmaris. We quickly unloaded our bikes, coated in salt, purchased Turkish flags for the trailers and began on our overland journey. It all feels like it begins today.
total mıles: 454
Beatles and Beetles...Drafts and Draughts
ok, so the saga contınues...
On an all day ferry from Crete to Rhodos, we came to realize two very crucial ironies-
People (especially bikers- who are not unlike beetles scurrying over various continents and terrain) are all united by The Beatles: this guy who was hanging out on the deck of our ferry, with his acoustic guitar, played the whole Beatles songbook and people from all over the world up on that deck were singing along. Its amazing how certian types of music (like beetles) can span thousands of miles and cross so many borders and even bring people together.
Our second realization was that one word, meaning a few different things, brings much happiness to bikers- drafts (biking in someones wake requires less exertion on your own part- yaay!) and draughts- beer and biking good! ** side note, leaving Crete, our ride to port was quite a climb...we celebrated at the top with a brew...neither of us even realizing until much later in the day that it was Timmys birthday!
Monday, June 05, 2006
Sunday, June 04, 2006
Megasoarass ain't just a dino....
Sad to leave our cute little hut of a camping spot in Southern Crete.... we packed the units and started riding east on the rolling winding coastal highway. Tiny towns with turquoise waves crashing below... the serenity of the Greek islands was starting to get a bit ridiculous! No sooner did those thoughts cross my mind, that our route turned north, and we began an 8 mile 10% grade (steep as all get out) climb, no breeze, no shade...just hammering away at the peddals...
...brutal saddle sores in my gluteaus region... I should've gotten a cream for that. I have acquired a cream for everything else on this trip thus far; sun rash, bug allergies, why not butt cream? silly me... and Tim??? He's doing just fine, no soars, no rash, no bug bites...just a huge craving for Greek Coffee.
So we climbed and climbed. 8 miles, one beer, one coffee, and lunch by a roadside shrine later... we reach the top of our mountain pass ride and fly down nearly 16 miles to our final destination- through vineyards, wind farms, monasteries, cool little towns of 50... I kept screaming 'Ahhh!! the fruits of my labor!!' like an idiot, and was glad Tim was too far ahead to hear me! Coasting down hill at 38 miles per hour makes you feel pretty good, and makes you forget all the pain and discomfort that it too to get you there. And the views were great as well. its is amazing to be on top of a mountian on a small island and see the North coast and the South coast. woah!!
Once in Sitia... we got our act together to get to Rhodos (next island stop) and found a great little pension to stay for the night... Did one short coastal ride without the trailers, the next morning, and hopped on our ferry (just barely) to our next destination.... an 11 hour ferry ride... I have exactly 26 bug bites on my left leg, and 16 on my right....
...brutal saddle sores in my gluteaus region... I should've gotten a cream for that. I have acquired a cream for everything else on this trip thus far; sun rash, bug allergies, why not butt cream? silly me... and Tim??? He's doing just fine, no soars, no rash, no bug bites...just a huge craving for Greek Coffee.
So we climbed and climbed. 8 miles, one beer, one coffee, and lunch by a roadside shrine later... we reach the top of our mountain pass ride and fly down nearly 16 miles to our final destination- through vineyards, wind farms, monasteries, cool little towns of 50... I kept screaming 'Ahhh!! the fruits of my labor!!' like an idiot, and was glad Tim was too far ahead to hear me! Coasting down hill at 38 miles per hour makes you feel pretty good, and makes you forget all the pain and discomfort that it too to get you there. And the views were great as well. its is amazing to be on top of a mountian on a small island and see the North coast and the South coast. woah!!
Once in Sitia... we got our act together to get to Rhodos (next island stop) and found a great little pension to stay for the night... Did one short coastal ride without the trailers, the next morning, and hopped on our ferry (just barely) to our next destination.... an 11 hour ferry ride... I have exactly 26 bug bites on my left leg, and 16 on my right....
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Our first full day's ride...
Landing in Agios Nicholaos (Crete,) we begin our first full day's ride- 26 hilly, beautiful coastal miles... ending in an awesome little camping ground east of Ierapetra. We took a side road through a tinsy town, Vasiliki- try and find that one on the map!, that probably hadn't seen 1985, let alone 2 bike tourists.... one man peered at me with a hand at his brow, as if looking out to sea at a foreign object..I was 3 feet away! ha! Wild morning glories, vineyards, and horned sheep... what a great ride!
A $2 bottle of wine, and a huge dinner topped off the day and we slept like rocks...
Today we are in Ierapetra, futsing around... interneting and being little photographers... the old town is a dream! Narrow cobbled streets, old houses, and plants and flowers hanging everywhere.. we even found where rotary telephones go to die....
The Sacrificial Shoe
.. Next morning, packing up our *units ( pipers new name for our bike/trailer/body combo,) I didn't deem it necessary to strap down my hiking sandals properly, and of course didn't realize one was missing until 8 miles (uphill) and three hours later- DOH! I can feel all the dad's in the world reading this, shaking their heads at my improper strappage.... And you better believe I went looking for that sucker (sans BOB of course) NO DICE! But if I had to sacrafice my Chaco so that the biking Gods would be satiated- so be it! $2.50 thongs work just fine. The bike ride was great though, we passed through the ancient town of Megalohori, passed countless wineries and had a sweet descent into town.
Next stop, Fira- idyllic Greek island town with white washed buildings and colorful accents, built on the side of a cliff, overlooking the Med. From Fira the view of the volcanos caldera is epic and you are pretty much standing on the edge of volcanos mouth. Fira has a sweet open-air theater, but we had a bit of trouble finding it, so no DaVinci Code for us! Our ferry to Crete (Kriti) departed at 4:40 am, so we decided to treat ourselves to an adventurous midnight ride back down the crazy switchback to the port. It was a "white knuckling" experience (for me) to say the very least, and Tim had a poop-eatin' grin, "best ride of my life". A 90lb unit plus body weight, travels really freakin' fast downhill!! But, maybe it just seemed fast because it was pitch black- gotta fix that headlight! The hair pin turns wouldnt come into view until about 20 feet before hand, and since tour travelling at about 20 miles an hour ( at least Tim was ) the turns came up fast!! The farther down the hill that you got the more the Port came into view, and out the side of your tearring eyes you could see the reflections of the boats lights in the water down below. Truely unique.
After riding around so much looking for my shoe earlier, sleeping on the concrete (waiting for the ferry) never felt so good!! (insert shameless Big Agnes sleeping bag plug here) The ferry to Crete was .... interesting; crying Gypsy babies, diesel fumes, and sticky carpet to sleep on- thank god for our... you guessed it, Big Agnes sleep-systems!!
Next stop, Fira- idyllic Greek island town with white washed buildings and colorful accents, built on the side of a cliff, overlooking the Med. From Fira the view of the volcanos caldera is epic and you are pretty much standing on the edge of volcanos mouth. Fira has a sweet open-air theater, but we had a bit of trouble finding it, so no DaVinci Code for us! Our ferry to Crete (Kriti) departed at 4:40 am, so we decided to treat ourselves to an adventurous midnight ride back down the crazy switchback to the port. It was a "white knuckling" experience (for me) to say the very least, and Tim had a poop-eatin' grin, "best ride of my life". A 90lb unit plus body weight, travels really freakin' fast downhill!! But, maybe it just seemed fast because it was pitch black- gotta fix that headlight! The hair pin turns wouldnt come into view until about 20 feet before hand, and since tour travelling at about 20 miles an hour ( at least Tim was ) the turns came up fast!! The farther down the hill that you got the more the Port came into view, and out the side of your tearring eyes you could see the reflections of the boats lights in the water down below. Truely unique.
After riding around so much looking for my shoe earlier, sleeping on the concrete (waiting for the ferry) never felt so good!! (insert shameless Big Agnes sleeping bag plug here) The ferry to Crete was .... interesting; crying Gypsy babies, diesel fumes, and sticky carpet to sleep on- thank god for our... you guessed it, Big Agnes sleep-systems!!
Shaky Beginnings
We last left you in Athens- a rocky start and it still took 4 days to recover my lost bag! Starting out at the hostel with our Greece flags flying and with a nice big send off crew, I fall over on my bike, can't even pedal the damn thing it's so heavy!! "Great, how am I going to get through 2000 miles, let alone, down the block?!?? Tim, could we please not start off going on the super busy, super scary Athens thoughroughfare???" Okay, feeling more confident after some side-street practice, now off to the port of Pireaus!
Greek drivers are crazy. There are no rules. The lines on the road are only suggestions as are the traffic lights. But because of the popularity of motor scooters the drivers out here are constantly on the lookout for slow moving objects...like Tim and Piper!!
Once on the ferry to Santorini, we tucked our bikes next to a big truck, and set up camp on deck. We got some funny looks blowing up our sleeping pads and sliding them into the sleeves of our SUPER AWESOME BIG AGNES SLEEPING BAGS (shameless plug) but we slept like babies on the, otherwise, brutally uncomfy benches, AND awoke to sun rising over the island of Ios.
Rolling off the ferry on Santorini, we look straight up at the swithcback we must climb to get out of the port, at the calderas edge. **Santorini is a volcanic island- it erupted, supposedly burying the lost city of Atlantis- cool** The climb up was actually pretty easy, and we cruised down to a posh little beach town- Kamari... hung out on the charcoal-pebbled beach in sweet (free) loungers and napped..AH...the Mediterranean! Unfortunately, we found out that the camp ground there had been closed for years and had turned into a shady squatters camp, so we had to trudge up a hellish switchback to the nearest town with camping...oops. Our first ridiculously steep climb- 1.5 miles took us about an hour!! The locals were laughing at us, one guy even passed us twice on his moped to see if we were for real!!
But, Perissa (where we did eventually camp) was much more our style- cool backpacker haunt, cheap, lazy-beach atmosphere, surrounded by staggering peaks and turquoise water. That's when it happened.....
Greek drivers are crazy. There are no rules. The lines on the road are only suggestions as are the traffic lights. But because of the popularity of motor scooters the drivers out here are constantly on the lookout for slow moving objects...like Tim and Piper!!
Once on the ferry to Santorini, we tucked our bikes next to a big truck, and set up camp on deck. We got some funny looks blowing up our sleeping pads and sliding them into the sleeves of our SUPER AWESOME BIG AGNES SLEEPING BAGS (shameless plug) but we slept like babies on the, otherwise, brutally uncomfy benches, AND awoke to sun rising over the island of Ios.
Rolling off the ferry on Santorini, we look straight up at the swithcback we must climb to get out of the port, at the calderas edge. **Santorini is a volcanic island- it erupted, supposedly burying the lost city of Atlantis- cool** The climb up was actually pretty easy, and we cruised down to a posh little beach town- Kamari... hung out on the charcoal-pebbled beach in sweet (free) loungers and napped..AH...the Mediterranean! Unfortunately, we found out that the camp ground there had been closed for years and had turned into a shady squatters camp, so we had to trudge up a hellish switchback to the nearest town with camping...oops. Our first ridiculously steep climb- 1.5 miles took us about an hour!! The locals were laughing at us, one guy even passed us twice on his moped to see if we were for real!!
But, Perissa (where we did eventually camp) was much more our style- cool backpacker haunt, cheap, lazy-beach atmosphere, surrounded by staggering peaks and turquoise water. That's when it happened.....
Friday, May 26, 2006
Day 2 in Athens
Day 2:
We started the day by trying some Grecian pastries to get us fueled up for touring the Acropolis and ancient ruins. We learned that what looks like a donut is not necessarily a donut, but a honey syrup soaked piece of bread!! Oh Well.
The Acropolis is old. It is old and falling down. It is old and falling down and being rebuilt all at the same time!! The Acropolis is also on the top of a huge limestone hill ( not easy walking when your luggage is still missing and your wearing crocs! ) that must be at least 100 degrees in the sun. Because of this and after we toured the ruins, we walked very slowly through the air conditioned museum that is located at the top of the hill. After a quick lunch under the cyprus trees ( at the bottom of the Acropolis ) we set off for the Temple of Zeus via the historic Plaka District. The Plaka was gorgeous, it sure beat the walk that we took the day we arrived - bums, junkies, homeless dogs, shoe sales men. The Plaka is what you may think of when thinking of Athens. Narrow, colorful streets lined with flowering shrubs and trees, cafes in tight alley ways, small balconies made of rock and twisted metal.
The Temple of Zeus was 104 massive pillars of which only 10 stand and one that blew over in a gale force wind. The ruins were great but we need to brush up on our Greek history because we have no idea how the Ancients built these things because they are ridiculously massive, even by current standards. At the Temple of Zeus you can take photos and sit on benches. What you Cannot do is just about everything else. We witnessed a couple being scolded for taking photos with their hands raised to the sky, and we were scolded twice. Once for sitting with our shoes off and a second time for lying down in the shade of an orange tree. No rest near Zeus!!
After three days Mediterranean fashion still does not cease to amaze us. Men: tight pants in 90 degrees, tight flashy shirts and ( get ready for this ) mullets!!!! Yes, the Mullet has made a comeback in the Mediterranean. Spiked on top and long and greasy in the back. Woah. Women from Greece have breasts and they want you to know about it. They REALLY want you to know about it! And that is about all I noticed about Greek women. Piper noticed the crazy shoe fetishes and designer sunglasses, but I was too distracted by what was in between the glasses and the shoes to notice them.
We started the day by trying some Grecian pastries to get us fueled up for touring the Acropolis and ancient ruins. We learned that what looks like a donut is not necessarily a donut, but a honey syrup soaked piece of bread!! Oh Well.
The Acropolis is old. It is old and falling down. It is old and falling down and being rebuilt all at the same time!! The Acropolis is also on the top of a huge limestone hill ( not easy walking when your luggage is still missing and your wearing crocs! ) that must be at least 100 degrees in the sun. Because of this and after we toured the ruins, we walked very slowly through the air conditioned museum that is located at the top of the hill. After a quick lunch under the cyprus trees ( at the bottom of the Acropolis ) we set off for the Temple of Zeus via the historic Plaka District. The Plaka was gorgeous, it sure beat the walk that we took the day we arrived - bums, junkies, homeless dogs, shoe sales men. The Plaka is what you may think of when thinking of Athens. Narrow, colorful streets lined with flowering shrubs and trees, cafes in tight alley ways, small balconies made of rock and twisted metal.
The Temple of Zeus was 104 massive pillars of which only 10 stand and one that blew over in a gale force wind. The ruins were great but we need to brush up on our Greek history because we have no idea how the Ancients built these things because they are ridiculously massive, even by current standards. At the Temple of Zeus you can take photos and sit on benches. What you Cannot do is just about everything else. We witnessed a couple being scolded for taking photos with their hands raised to the sky, and we were scolded twice. Once for sitting with our shoes off and a second time for lying down in the shade of an orange tree. No rest near Zeus!!
After three days Mediterranean fashion still does not cease to amaze us. Men: tight pants in 90 degrees, tight flashy shirts and ( get ready for this ) mullets!!!! Yes, the Mullet has made a comeback in the Mediterranean. Spiked on top and long and greasy in the back. Woah. Women from Greece have breasts and they want you to know about it. They REALLY want you to know about it! And that is about all I noticed about Greek women. Piper noticed the crazy shoe fetishes and designer sunglasses, but I was too distracted by what was in between the glasses and the shoes to notice them.
US- Athens
First part of the trip... adventurous at best...
*Tip- don't fly standby unless you have a change of undies, a toothbrush, and comfy clothes.
Why, you ask? Because flying standby means you have to be flexible enough to fly by the seat of your pants, and change your plans on a whim. In our case, that meant flying to London instead of Frankfurt (couldn't get on the flight,) and then getting a cheap ticket to Athens- scrapping our full price tickets from Frankfurt... That one flight a day thing to Frankfurt can really get ya! BUT, we did get to fly business to Heathrow- ate a four course meal (with champagne,) and slept like babies in the super lux recliners... the flight to Athens was a different story, somewhere between riding a Greek bus and witnessing the decline of fallen Greek beauty queens (the flight attendants.)
Once in Athens, we quickly learned (the hard way) two things: a. that our luggage was still in Chicago (malakas!) and b. that Greek taxi drivers will indeed rip you off (the books weren't lying! malakas!) But, onward we trudged to our hostel- not the fanciest of places, but the staff is the best!
Three days later, here we sit... Tim in clean clothes, bikes put together, and Piper in Tim's clothes... oh yeah, my bag is still in transit!!! Will we ever get out of Athens?!? Piper wasn't feeling too positive, so she cried (break down #1 on day 2- but understandably so.. probably from lack of different undies...malakas!)
Hopefully we'll be able to leave for Santorini tonight!
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