The last little while has been an odd change of pace for us. With all the hostels and trains we’ve been using, we’ve felt more like backpackers than cycle tourists. It has been really fun to be among so many other like-minded people, making new friends and enjoying novelties like an indoor common area and […]
More rain tapped on our tent as we slept, keeping at it into the morning. We waved off our new friends and joined up in the common room, listening to everyone try to make their plans for the day. Despite the fact that lots of us were planning to move on to somewhere new, almost […]
Though adjusting to cycle touring has been so much easier this round, the last few days have still found me feeling reluctance about what we’re doing. I get tired of never being able to order anything or ask anyone a question without playing charades or looking like a complete idiot because I don’t speak the […]
We were among the first people awake at the hostel this morning, almost surely thanks to the fact that we were some of the first to bed (at 12:30, which is ridiculously late for us!) We ate breakfast and then headed back out for a bit more city touring. We’d been told that a street […]
Yet another Sunday and we woke up to no groceries, so we ate heartily at our guesthouse before heading back down the hill to the train station. We arrived by 10:45 to the wrong side of the station. A brief debate ensued, were we going to get fined for rolling our bikes over all the […]
We decided last night to stay in Melnik another day to give us time to actually see the town and to hike to the nearby Rozhen Monestary. Though the place is accessible by road, we decided to walk there on the canyon trail, giving us a change of activity and scenery. We ate a lovely […]
In this odd hot springs campground of ours, a big growling German shepherd guards the what was possibly the grossest bathroom I’ve ever used.. We packed up camp quickly this morning, but I stalled a long while, trying to delay getting my face bitten off just for the chance to use the icky facilities. In […]
The remnants of the storm dramatically lights the valley leading up to the border and we hardly get anywhere because we keep stopping to try to capture it all on camera. During one such stop, a car rolls by to ask us if we need any help and, once assured that we were ok, asks […]
At some point, not far into our ride, we pull over and park the bikes among the hay fields, taking pictures of the landscape and some people working their land. The pictures aren’t turning out that great and we pack up the camera, pulling back onto the road right alongside a tractor coming from a […]
I don’t know exactly what our problem was this morning, but our motivation to put our things in our bags and go again was pretty low. We’re sluggish and grouchy, and feel strange and out of place in this fancy hotel room. I hardly dare touch anything for fear of getting it dirty. A time […]
Breaking camp was a slow affair this morning, debating about what to put where and slowly deciding on our breakfast fare. Knowing we had a short day ahead of us (and a big climb) wasn’t very motivating and the morning was nice and cool, leading us to forget about our usual reasons for hitting the […]
Awaking early, the great debate about whether to stay another day began. We were both eager to get out of the city, but leaving Thessaloniki threatened to be a long slog of industrial suburbs and traffic, making for a long day on the road, not to mention that we didn’t want to wait for a […]