One month

I really liked the length of this trip.  Most of my other trips have been around a week - that's great, but you have to be pretty focused on getting to where you're going.  If you want to take a few days off or take a side trip it will take most of the time you have.
My big trip was 3 months, which is great for going anywhere and doing whatever you want, but the price is that it's too long to pretend you haven't dropped out of society.  I had to quit my job, that sort of thing.  Those aren't necessarily negatives, they're just big, significant things you have to get sorted out first.

For a month, I was able to put my career on hold but not sacrifice it.  I've stayed in touch with customers and suppliers for Sinewave Cycles.  And yet we've had the freedom to travel at whatever pace we want and let our route evolve along the way, all while getting to Dubrovnik, and farther to Albania, in plenty of time. 

So, it's interesting how each of those lengths comes with different advantages and sacrifices, both at home and on the road.  Most importantly, though, is that I know how lucky I have been to be able to do these trips for even a week, let alone a month or three.

I'm on a boat

We've made it on to the ferry from Albania to Italy.  We spend Wednesday in Bari then fly to Munich, Frankfort, and Boston, then take the T home.

Now that my own transportation is out of my hands for the first time in a month I suddenly can't wait to be home.

Bicycling Albania

I was going to title this something like "further thoughts on Albania", but I figured it would be more equitable to  narrow it to something like "thoughts on bicycle touring in northwestern Albania"

We had a terrific first day, as detailed in previous posts.  However, even ignoring the food poisoning, it's really not a great area to ride a bicycle.  There are three types of roads through the area - the unbikable freeway, the poorly paved secondary road, and dirt roads.  So, we bumped over potholes, gravel, and non-pavement for much of our time here.  There are less cars, but when they are there they are also weaving around potholes, making us nervous.  

The small villages and farm roads we passed the first day were great - happy waving people and friendly kids.  Now, we were in slightly larger, more decaying towns.  And there's lots and lots of trash here.  It's everywhere.  I'm sure there are socioeconomic reasons for it, but that doesn't mean it doesn't wear on you throughout the day.

I really want to like Albania.  I want it to be an undiscovered jewel that I was lucky enough to pass through.  I heard that the mountains are beautiful (although you'd need at least a mountain bike, and possibly a jeep) and also the south.  So it's entirely possible that we passed through a less attractive part of the country.  So, I won't judge the entire country or all the people, but I'll report that biking through the area we did was not great.

Sick day in Albania

On Sunday we left our campsite with the intention of biking to Tirana (the capital) and staying in a hotel.  We made slow progress over bad roads and reached Fushe-Kruje (Xhorxh W Bush square, to be exact) at around 4:00.  Alicia wasn't feeling well so we decided to stay at a campground that was just a mile down the road.  The campground also had a hotel and we actually moved into a room.

In summary, Alicia became sick and a few hours later I did too.  Not sure what did it - something that lived in the panniers for too long?  Some tainted water?  Who knows.  We woke up yesterday and still felt sick - not so stomach sick, more achy and tired.  We watched a lot of Albanian TV (lots of soccer highlights and American music videos) and slept.  We re-upped the room, committing to staying here another night.  Around 3:00 we started feeling better.  I biked back into Fushe to get some money to pay the hotel bill.  We got some food to eat and read by the pool.  We called it a night and hoped for a full recovery the next morning.

So now it's the next morning, and I'd say we're just about better, which is great.  We'll get some breakfast and bike the 25 miles to Durres (where we get our ferry), skipping Tirana.  So, the official diagnosis is 24 hours of food poisoning.  

It was nice that we were both sick rather than just one of us, allowing us to commiserate with each other.  I think it would be tough for the healthy one to be cooped up here all day.

The exact same thing happened to me and my brother last year in Michigan.  We got sick at the end of a day, and spent the next day feeling exactly like I did yesterday - tired and achy and barely able to move.  But by the afternoon we started to recover and even biked 20 miles that afternoon to the next town.  Since I felt so similar this time I hoped for a similar 24 hour recovery, and it looks like that has happened too.

So, we're 80% healthy and back on the road in a few hours!

Xhorxh W Bush

We had a long stretch today on really, really bad pavement - sometimes just dirt and rocks (and this is the second biggest road through the area).  That road finally ended in the small town of Fushe-Kruje, where we pulled into a small park to sit and rest for a moment.   There was a statue of a man smiling and waving - I assumed it was a monument to a friendly mayor or local farmers or something.  I looked at it and said, ha, that looks like George W Bush!  Looking closer...hey, that IS George W Bush!

What I was able to learn - the US has helped Albania over the years, from their overthrow of Communism to their recent membership in NATO.  Bush visited this small town in 2007.  In addition to the statue they named the square, a street and cafe for him, and several places he visited were declared national monuments.

I have to admit, it's nice to stumble upon something like this.  It's been a tough 10+ years for our international reputation but I guess we've done good in this region.

Albania-take 2 Alicia's perspective

I honestly cannot believe that we made it to Albania!
We have been here for about 8 hours and this country has already had quite an impact on me. To quote my mom, "it makes my heart feel full"

It is quite a juxtaposition from Croatia and Montenegro both in terms of biking and culturally. The scenery here is beautiful and mostly flat (my kind of biking!)  As soon as we crossed the border we had to stop to let someone lead his giant cattle across the road and then we stopped further up the road to let a horse pulling a wagon of hay get up a hill. When we wave to people as we pass, everyone has responded with a wave  accompanied by a huge smile!

As soon as we crossed the border, there were many Romani children and women asking for money. It is heart wrenching to watch these little kids knocking on car windows and walking through traffic. It is such a difficult situation.

As Dave mentioned, we found a wonderful campsite and have had a lovely evening. We have passed many mosques on the roads here and just heard the call to prayer broadcast from the minaret nearby, which is something I have never heard before!

Overall, I feel like Albania is a pretty special place and I definitely would like to return here again sometime to explore more! Maybe Albania wants to hire me for their tourism board :-)

Albania!

We made it out of Montenegro intact.  This morning we left the coast road and cut across some mountains (no big deal this far into a trip) and came out just short of the border.  Our other border crossings were two steps - stop at the end of Croatia, then again at the start of Montenegro.  Here they had just one building.  There was a window where we gave our passports to the Montenegrin official, and he tossed then across a desk to an Albanian official.  We shuffled over to his window, took our passports, and were on our way.

We stopped in the town of Schkoder.  A pretty sketchy approach, and then a nice city center.  Old men were playing chess in the park.  We made some lunch and gave our bananas to some kids.

We had planned to reach the town of Lezhe, but when we passed a campground in Barbullush we knew we'd have to stay.  They had an empty, grassy campground, a restaurant, and, OMG, a swimming pool.  A stunningly beautiful pool (or is every pool stunningly beautiful right now?  No, this is really nice).  It was 3:00 and we had about 40 miles done, so this wasn't getting off the road too too early.  We're within a day of Tirana, and that was the goal for tomorrow.  And there's not much we know about camping or lodging around Lezhe, so this is probably a good call.

So, ironically, here we are in the (I think) poorest country in Europe, enjoying our nicest lodging experience.  Mixed feelings about that but it feels mostly like an end-of-tour treat.

Safety First!

Turns out that much of the rest of Montenegro is not exactly a safety corridor.  So, we improvised these nifty, nerdy safety flags.  Some bamboo cut from the side of the road, Alicia's toxic orange socks - boom, traffic deterrent! 
They really worked well - cars slowed to pass us and stayed far away.  I don't really like these things in the city but on the highways of Montenegro I'll take what I can get! 

Montenegro!

Let me start by mentioning that I am writing this while sitting on a rooftop overlooking the city of Kotor and its eponymous bay.

We saw Dubrovnik yesterday.  Very pretty, but felt very much like an amusement park - it's a walled city and it felt like I should be wearing an admission bracelet on the inside.  Our guidebook strongly recommended walking the city walls, which we did - you can walk around the entire perimeter up on the walls.  It costs a bit, but it's totally worth it.

Afterwards we had a little crisis in planning, as I was suddenly concerned about the road into Montenegro.  We were told not to bike the road from Split to Dubrovnik, and this was just an extension of that road.  A few bloggers also mentioned taking a bus through Montenegro.  On the other hand, we did see a few touring cyclists on town, and several of them were on their way to Montenegro, or had just come through there, and had few concerns about the safety of the road.

So we went for it, and thank goodness for that.

Today may have been the nicest day of the trip so far.  There was an old side road that got us out of Dubrovnik with no traffic.  The highway itself wasn't great, but really not that bad - if you're accustomed to riding in traffic (say, Mass Ave in Cambridge), it's not so much worse than that.  I can certainly see it spooking you if you're not used to cars, perhaps that led the bloggers to their conclusions.  We were only on the highway for a few miles until we could turn off and take a tiny road through a quiet valley for a bunch of miles.  Once we rejoined the highway we were past the Dubrovnik airport and traffic was mostly gone (one blog did mention the drop-off after the airport).

We breezed through the Montenegro border and the descended down to the water.  The rest of our ride was a road along the shore of a huge bay that takes up much of this part of Montenegro - the Bay or Kotor (who will be opening for the Port of Ist on our upcoming tour, the Road to Pag).

The bay might be the most stunning thing I've ever seen.  Find it on the map - it's shaped like two wings and it surrounded on all sides by towering cliffs.  It feels like Lake Tahoe, but much smaller so everything feels closer and more imposing.  We took a ferry across the narrow point and cycled a quiet road along the shore to Kotor.

Kotor is like a mini Dubrovnik (well, lots of these towns are like mini Dubrovniks).  They have walls here, but they go right up the sides of the mountains - I guess that's where the invaders would come from.

The campground is 7km back the way we came (we passed it near the ferry).  Rather than go there, we thought it was time to find a room for rent.  All these towns have tons of rooms for rent in private houses - it's a legitimate business here and how many people spend the night.  Leaving town I saw an "apartments" sign.  They were full but he called his friend who we met down the street.  We have a room at his house, a short walk from the old city and with the aforementioned rooftop where I now sit. 

It's funny how things work out sometimes.  We were perilously close to skipping this by heading directly to the ferry to Bari or taking a bus across Montenegro (we even made the decision to do that but the bus last night was sold out).  So we ventured on with trepidation, ready to turn around as soon as we were enveloped by crazy speeding Montenegrins.  Instead we find moderate traffic, a delightful side road, and stumble upon this spectacular bay - Alicia and I were joking about how devastated I would be to instead have seen this through the window of bus. 

So, tell your friends - be smart and be careful, but do ride your bike in Montenegro.

Ferry logistics

When we were done with Split we had planned to take ferries between a lot of the islands from there to Dubrovnik.  You may need to pull up a map for this, but we had dreams of Split to Brac to Hvar to Korcula to Miljet to Dubrovnik.  The ferries in the San Juan Islands worked that way - they travel between the islands in all different directions, so when you're done with one you can move on to the next.  Better yet, you pay your fare in Victoria, and then can take them forever between islands until you finally finish and reach Anacortes.  If you lived on the islands I think you could take inter-island ferries for free forever.
  Not so much here.  First we learned that there aren't too many inter-island ferries, mostly we'd have to go back in to Split and then back out to switch islands.  Much worse, however, is that  many of the ferries are fast ferries, and take no cars, and apparently no bicycles either.  So, now we might even have trouble reaching Dubrovnik with the bikes!
  Tourist info staff has generally been unhelpful and often wrong.  We were told that there was no way to get the bikes from Split to Dubrovnik by ferry, and we should take a bus (sometimes we've been told that you can't bring bikes on the bus, other times that you can).  Between looking at two ferry maps and talking to many different ferry people, we found a solution (open your map again) - we would take a ferry from Split to Vela Luka, on Korcula, and camp there.  Monday we would bike across Korcula and camp on the eastern side.  There is a ferry that runs just twice a week from Korcula to Dubrovnik, and we would take that on Tuesday.  Problem solved!
  One reason we kind of had to find a ferry route was that it's nearly impossible to bike from Split to Dubrovnik.  The only road is the coast road, and the one piece of consistent advice we heard was to avoid the coast road from Split to Dubrovnik.  Any other route would take us far inland, up and over mountains into Bosnia and Herzegovina.  That, and we really wanted to see the islands - we'd heard that they were really beautiful, so I'm glad we found a way!

Empty plate club

I've been eating a surprisingly little amount of meat this trip.  Alicia is a veggie and we haven't eaten at restaurants much, so it's been mostly food that we're both happy to eat (Nutella, mostly).  I had cold cuts at breakfast in Venice (what's with the breakfast cold cuts,  Europe?) and a hamburger at Plitvice, just because we were there further past lunch than expected.  But tonight in Split I went out for dinner, and ordered a mixed grill plate.  Check out the before and after pictures!  Even more impressive, those two pictures were taken only 50 seconds apart!

(not really)

(but it was delicious)

Eastern European Languages

So, I speak English (spoiler alert!).  I know enough Spanish to pick it out when I hear it, unless it's actually Portuguese.  French is unmistakable and Italian is recognizable.  German, especially at sufficient volume, makes me break into a cold sweat.  But once you get beyond those, I must admit I have no ability to tell them apart.  The table next to me at dinner, what language is that?  Just Croatian, maybe?  Or Montenegran?  Hungarian?  Russian?  You lose all the loopy vowel sounds of the Romance languages and replace them with hard consonants and it all just sounds like everyone is speaking Russian.   I blame too much Red Dawn as a child.

Splitsville

No relationship problems here - we've reached the city of Split (well, a campground just outside in Kastela).
  It's been a beautiful couple of days.  We headed inland after Zadar, getting away from the crowded coast.  Just a few miles makes all the difference - there's almost no one here, in population or traffic.  We've been following valleys and climbing Hills with no one bothering us. 
  Once we were done with out inland interlude and ready to head to Split we did have to climb over the coastal range, which was a huge, twisty climb full of switchbacks.  The switchbacks are great - They make for easier climbing while providing a constantly  changing view of the valley receiving below you.
  From the top we had an expansive view of Split, the bay area, and the islands.  We had an awesome descent, found a campground, and now here we are!
  Fun question - name some other foreign cities that just happen to also be a common word in English.  I've got none so far (with minimal effort).

Plitvice Lakes Waterfall Park

So, between Zagreb and Zadar is Plitvice Park.  Here a river runs through a canyon.  But there is something strange about the interaction of water, rock and flora - plant life grows on rocks in the river, and is eventually calcified itself, and grown upon by new plants.  The result is that the canyon is chopped up into tiny lakes, with plant-filled waterfalls and cascades between them all.  There are tall waterfalls and short waterfalls.  There are spots where you around surrounded by waterfalls.  The path is built as a walkway over the water, so sometimes the waterfalls are under you.  Alicia likes this description - imagine a rich guy owns a river valley and hires a landscaping crew, telling them "I like waterfalls, and I want them everywhere.  Wherever I look, I want to see at least three of them.  If you get to the point where you think you've added an impossible, comical number of waterfalls, you're about halfway there".
  Anyway, we took the bus from Zadar to Plitvice.  We spent that evening in the park, then a day then next day (yesterday).  That's about the right amount of time, as it's not THAT big and the total of about 10 hours in the park was enough to see it all.  Enjoy some pictures!

*update* having trouble sending pictures.. Enjoy thinking about being surrounded by waterfalls! 

The Port of Ist

After biking down the length of the islands of Cres and Losinj, we have taken a ferry from Mali Losinj that will take us to the city of Zadar, with stops along the way at the islands of Silba, Olib, and Ist, among others (6 pre-Zadar stops, I think). 

These are great names, right?  Alicia and I are going to use "The Port of Ist"  as the name of our children's book.  Or possibly our Tolkien-inspired band.

Laundry

I did laundry tonight!  Well, not so much laundry as bringing my clothes into the campground shower with me.  Either way they'll be cleaner tomorrow! 

PS - an Alicia guest post is in the works! 

Apparently I like grappa

Who knew?  They sell it here in roadside stands like lobsters in Maine or, I don't know, corn in Iowa.  We stopped at one (overlooking the top of the fjord outside Rovinj, but never mind that) and I asked for a taste and, to my surprise, was offered samples.  I really liked standard grape grappa, plum grappa had a bit too much bite, and fig-infused grappa was too sweet - maybe a few sips after dinner, but no more than that. 

Later after lunch I went into a bar to ask for water, and the bartender insisted that I also have some grappa before I go.  A decent sized pour of standard grappa over ice.  Yum!  About an hour later in Bale I had a huge Croatian beer (Karlovacko, I prefer Ozujsko).  I'm a drinking tourer with a biking problem!  Ha!

Two valleys and the island of Cres

We biked today from Pula to Labin, and then on to the ferry to Cres.  We followed the main road (the only way, unfortunately) but it went through two  ridiculous valleys.  More like canyons, really.  The first followed miles and miles of gradual climbing from Pula.  We dropped way down (from maybe 1000 feet) to sea level, then followed a river for a few miles before climbing back up to the top, where we reached the town of Labin.  Shortly after Labin we dropped down into another valley, not quite to the bottom this time.  We circled 270 degrees around a power plant down at the bottom of the valley.  The plant had a massively tall smokestack - well above where we were.   An effective way to keep pollution out of the valley, I guess.  It had to be at least 500 feet tall, maybe much taller.  I'd be it ranks on the list of the tallest structures in Croatia - if that's not already a Wikipedia page then I will start it.

After leaving the valley we followed the coast for a few miles before dropping down to the coast for the ferry to Cres in Brestova.  I simply cannot believe how beautiful the coast is here - like California but with bluer water and islands.  I'll post pictures when I have Wi-Fi.  They'll do no justice.

Cres is sparsely populated but has a few small villages.  Other than that it's a long ridge sticking out of the water.  We got off the ferry around 6:30 with vague advice that we could easily stealth camp on the beach or head uphill into the woods.  Well, there was no beach and "uphill" was a 10 km climb before the land flattened out at all.  After some initial stress we decided to head to the campground in Beli - up and over the ridge and down to a small village on the opposite coast.  It ended up taking over 2 hours and we arrived with the last of the light of the day.  Beli has an old medieval center and approaching from the mountain the whole situation seemed impossibly fictional.  Here we are, on bicycles, riding across an island that was once a Venetian ship building stronghold, dropping into an ancient city, complete with walls, steeple and Roman ruins.  And lit up at night.

We got to town but it was another 1 km or so down an 18% grade (barely rideable with panniers) to the beach.  And what is here?  Basically, a party.  There is a dive shop and people are going scuba diving with flashlights.  A large table of people are singing (and singing well) in an unidentified European language.  People in boats are entertaining guests in the tiny harbor.  The bar on the shore is open (where I am now) with no sign of closing.  And the towns across the water, including Rijeka, Croatia's third largest city, are glimmering in the night.  This, dear reader, is what, at least for me, it is all about.

Apparently I like grappa

Who knew?  They sell it here in roadside stands like lobsters in Maine or, I don't know, corn in Iowa.  We stopped at one (overlooking the top of the fjord outside Rovinj, but never mind that) and I asked for a taste and, to my surprise, was offered samples.  I really liked standard grape grappa, plum grappa had a bit too much bite, and fig-infused grappa was too sweet - maybe a few sips after dinner, but no more than that. 

Later after lunch I went into a bar to ask for water, and the bartender insisted that I also have some grappa before I go.  A decent sized pour of standard grappa over ice.  Yum!  About an hour later in Bale I had a huge Croatian beer (Karlovacko, I prefer Ozujsko).  I'm a drinking tourer with a biking problem!  Ha!

Slovenia and Croatia awesomeness

Despite the rainy forecast, we left Trieste with overcast but dry skies.  The bicycle paths of Slovenia are amazing - almost every road has a separate bike path (not just bike lane), including inter-city roads.   We followed the main route, the D8.  At one point I mentioned to Alicia that Slovenia may have the best bike infrastructure I've ever seen.  She said, ummm, what about the Netherlands?  Well, it's hard to beat the Dutch, but it's good enough that it made me forget about them.

We camped in Slovenia, just short of the Croatian border.  We had stopped to buy a small camp stove so we finally made a hot meal - pasta and veggies for dinner, eggs for breakfast.  Yum!

In Croatia the bike path continued but unfortunately without pavement.   We followed it anyway for a few slow, bone ratting miles, then left it for paved roads.  The area did have a nice map of bike friendly routes, so we followed those - they went through a bunch of villages inland from the coast, and it was lovely.  We camped in Porec, which was nothing exciting.  No offense, Porec!

Today we continued down the coast to Pula, at the southern tip of Istria.  It was sunny and hot and we had a beautiful day.  We went up and around a fjord, which was a lot of climbing.  We dropped back to the coast at Rovinj which houses the sarcophagus of a saint martyred in 300.  Yes, 1700 years ago.  Wow!  If I had WiFi I'd post a picture of where I went swimming - there is only craggy rocks around the edge of the old town, but that is where everyone swims.  I swam out a way and could see a lot of town and the big church.  The water is this crazy blue and super clear. 

We left town towards Pula but discovered a small road along the coast that was really special.  Almost no traffic, and little dirt paths every so often heading out to the shore.  I went swimming a second time.

Tonight we are put up by a Warm Showers host.  Actually, his friend who lives out of town, and we are camping on his yard.

So overall things have made a turn for the better.  The weather had been nice and I hope it continues.  While Slovenia and their D8 takes the cake, Croatia has been lovely, especially when we get off the main road.  Tomorrow we should reach the island of Cres (pronounced 'Tres'. The have a 'T'  here, don't ask me why they don't use it), which begins our island-hopping portion of the trip!