Tiny Montenegro
I admit that before getting to Montenegro, I had been thinking of it only as a stop on the way to Croatia. I didn’t know enough about it to have any must-sees, even. Despite my blasé attitude, Montenegro immediately impressed me. It had nicer roads, less garbage, and better facilities than Albania. I felt like … Continue reading
Albania
Once we passed the crazy construction, our ride in Albania was smooth sailing. Or not so smooth, really. Albania definitely had the worst roads (in terms of surface quality) of any country we biked in. It seems as though they’re working on that, however. There was construction everywhere. In the morning after our … Continue reading
“In One Hour, There Will Be Huge Explosion”
Albania is a country we knew very little about before our visit (though I guess that’s true for most of these countries). In the east, by FYROM, it is pretty mountainous, and we had trouble charting a clear path to take. We came up with a route and set off after our lovely camp stay … Continue reading
“Nice and Flat,” You Said, “Around the Lake.”
After our jaunt in Mavrovo, we headed south toward Macedonia’s number one tourist destination — Lake Ohrid. It was one of our best biking days. Though much of the route was uphill, it was a gentle grade with very little traffic and pretty views of the river throughout the day. When we stopped for … Continue reading
The Five Factors
I know many of you are not that interested in bicycle touring, but it really is a great way to see places. Everything is so intimate. You get to visit all the in-between places that tourists don’t usually see. You get to interact with locals in an entirely atypical way. It’s fun and interesting. You … Continue reading
Kosovo
Given their tumultuous history, it’s no surprise most people in Serbia warned us not to go to Kosovo. Although more than 100 countries (including the US) recognize its sovereignty, Serbia does not. That makes for a few border tensions, as you might imagine. Nonetheless, we decided to go, and I’m glad we did. … Continue reading
Budapest
After a longer-than-anticipated stay in Ljubljana, I was finally rejoined by Mike. We decided that since we’d lost about a week of travel time, we’d “fast-forward” to Budapest. This meant that we did not cycle through the northwest corner of Croatia or the southwest of Hungary. We’ll be going to the coast of Croatia toward … Continue reading
I Feel Slovenia
After our crazy night of camping, we woke up to a cold, rainy day. Nonetheless, we hopped on our bikes and started pedaling (uphill, on gravel, into the wind). There were a few grueling bike paths, but we eventually made it back to pavement. Mike found us a host in Nova Vas for the night, … Continue reading
The Laugavegur in the City
I just finished detailing our Laugarvegurinn Trek through the Icelandic interior in recent posts, but it turned out that our trekking days were not over. We returned to Reykjavik and our AirBnB host for about a day and a half of big city exploration after our hike. Our main goals were to see the sights, buy … Continue reading
Iceland by the Numbers
I still have a few more things to post about our time in Iceland, but now that we’re back home, we have crunched some numbers for those of you who have been following our adventure. Here’s an “Iceland by the numbers” summary that Mike put together: Kilometers biked: 1880 Kilometers bused: 0* Flat tires: 0 … Continue reading
Traveling Applejax 