Another one

So, is anybody still reading this? 

I hope so, but otherwise I guess I will keep writing for posterity´s sake.  Posterity always reads my blogs, but can be a little stingy with the comments.

I ended up spending two extra nights in Ljubljana.  I like that city a lot.  It is pronounced Le (as in french "the") Blee Onna.  There is a cool little part called Matelkova that used to be a Yugoslavian military and prison compound.  It has since been taken over by the youth counter-culture, whatever that means, and is now kind of a lawless nightlife spot, filled with graffiti, skateboard ramps, and a wide variety of punks, skins, hippies, rockabilly folks, and metalheads.  The beers are cheap and they blatantly flaunt the smoking ban.  It´s probably the only spot in the city where my beard doesn´t attract awkward stares.  I like it. 

Now I am in Vienna, Austria, home to some of the world´s most famous composers, Mozart, Haydn, Schubert, Strauss, and my man Ludwig Van B..  Not sure what I am going to do here, but I think I will start with a cup of coffee in one of Vienna´s famous cafes.    

Where are you?

That seems to be the question I keep getting, and I think it is proof that I have been negligent in my blogging duties.  I've been quite busy since I last wrote, and have covered a lot of ground.

Upon leaving Romania, I took the overnight train to Belgrade, Serbia.  For the first half of the train ride I shared a cabin with a Romanian autoparts smuggler (so I assume).  I watched bemused as he carefully scattered his assorted fan belts, light bulbs, and other parts around the cabin in attempt to make himself less conspicuous.  I thought maybe the customs agent's disbelief at my beardless passport photo might distract him from the smuggling, but he quickly stamped my passport and had the man gather his autoparts and follow him.  Based on his remaining on the train I guess he had to pay some sort of extra duties on the parts.  When the train emptied out I joined two Portguese travelers and a young Serb, all of whom spoke excellent English.  It was then that I learned that our train was following the tracks of the original Orient Express.  The Orient Express, as far back as 1882, has carried rich adventurers from Paris to Istanbul.

Belgrade welcomed me with a heat wave, and the gap-toothed smile of war-damaged buildings.  A friendly cab driver pointed at the ruins with a smile and simply said "NATO".  My two new friends from Portugal and I walked the tourist routes of Belgrade before spending the rest of the day cooling off in the man-made lake on the river Sava, a tributary of the storied Danube.  After a weekend in Belgrade I got back on the train and made my way to Zagreb, the capital of Croatia.  While in Zagreb I was busy visiting with an old classmate from the Coast Guard Academy, as well as meeting some previously-unknown family who are assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Zagreb.  Ivana and Nik, and Jen and Sam, thank you for all of your hospitality.

Since Zagreb I have spent the last two days in Ljubljiana, the capital of Slovenia.  I was planning on leaving tomorrow, but may stick around at least long enough to watch the Slovenia vs USA worldcup match tomorrow.  Things are going well, and I have been taking a bit of a holiday from my holiday.  The only thing I have spent money to see so far has been the Nikola Tesla museum in Belgrade.

So now my plans are not that exciting.  My original idea was to go to Verona, Italy tomorrow, followed by Innsbruck, Austria before meeting Aimee in Munich.  However, if I stay tomorrow for the soccer game I may just have time to go to Vienna before arrivng in Munich.  Either way, I am not too concerned.  I have had to make harder decisions in my life.  

Eastern Promises

Hello from Sofia (София) Bulgaria.  Today is my first day of solo travel.  Jerod left this morning for a week back in the states, and will be returning to Bulgaria in about ten days.  We are going to enjoy central and eastern Europe on our own terms before rendezvousing in Krakow, Poland on the 10th of July.  For those of you who don't know it yet, we also booked a flight from Warsaw to Buenos Aires on 15 July.  We will be spending a few weeks in Argentina taking a 40 hour Spanish class before heading back North over land.  


So what have we been doing since Turkey you ask?  I will tell you....lots of running around.  We had some time to kill before needing to be in Bulgaria for Jerod's flight so we decided to shoot up to Romania for a very brief stay.  After an overnight from Istanbul to Sofia we spent the day walking around Sofia in a daze, waiting for our next overnight bus to Bucharest.  We arrived in Bucharest in the AM and booked a train to Brasov.  Finally we arrived in Brasov and made our way to a hostel.  Brasov is very pretty town and is also the jumping-off point to go to Bran castle, home of the legend of Vlad the Impaler and Dracula.  We also arrived on the day of the annual electronic music festival/drinking event held in the ancient citadel of Brasov.  It was quite a scene, and we would have stayed longer but exhaustion was creeping in.


After exploring Dracula's Castle we grabbed a train back to Bucharest and got a hostel for the night, setting ourselves up for a train-ride back to Sofia the next day.  So now we are back in Sofia.  Well, I am back in Sofia.  Jerod is probably on his way to Amsterdam, where he catches his connecting flight to Detroit.  We also were able to meet up with our new friend Theodora who was introduced to us, digitally, by a mutual friend.  After two botched attempts at meeting (botched by Jerod and Me, and excacerbated by no telephone) we finally were able to meet in person.  We now have a much greater appreciation for the Cyrillic alphabet and the revolutionary Bulgarian poets Botev and Levski.  Note any similarities??

Full Circle

Greetings from Istanbul.  It has been about 40 days since we were here last and it feels good to be back.  We are staying in the same hostel in Sultanhamet and it was fun being greeted as returning friends.  They even noticed that I had lost weight on the Lycian Way and that my beard was longer.  They also wanted to know if I had heard any news about my bike, which I have not.  Hopefully it is still safe in the parents' basement.

Since the Lycian way we spent a few nights in Kemer, a coastal Russian tourist town.  We spent our days soaking up the sun and swimming in the Mediteranean and watching the annual Turkish wrestling championship.  From Kemer we travelled back to Fethiye, where we had started our hike from.  What took 29 days of trekking was undone in 7 hours of combined hitchhiking and bus trips.  It was really fun to pass through some of the sections of our trek again, though, and we even caught a few glimpses of the trail markers where the path crossed the major roads.  Back in Fethiye we checked into the same Hostel and ate at the same small local sandwich shop we had frequented a month prior.  Both were happy for the repeat business.  We spent our free day on a boat trip, which inclded several swim stops and a barbecue lunch.  Nice to swim off a boat given Turkey's rocky coast and beaches.

We took an overnight bus back to Istanbul and will spend another day here before taking the bus up to Romania and Bulgaria.  Our next big visit will be Bran, Romania, home of the Vlad the Impaler, the origin of the Dracula legend.  Lookng forward to leaving Tukey behind after about 48 days here.  It will most likely be our longest stay in any country, but we definitely picked a good one to make our cornerstone/ 

Until next time, keep reading......

Mission Accomplished (Act II Scene II)

After 29 days, approximately 300 miles, 3 walking sticks (for Me), and countless amounts of med tape (for Tony's feet), we've managed to finish the Lycian Way in total along Turkey's Mediterranean coast.  The one stat I'd like to give but honestly don't know is the amount of elevation change we covered throughout the month--But I will say that hiking East towards Antalya as the guidebook recommends is the best bet, since the last third of the trail is the most challenging in terms of elevation gains, length of hiking days, and relative scarcity of water.  On our final night, we actually used up the very last of the iodine tablets for water sterilization and boiled several extra liters of water on the campfire to stay on the safe side.  The scenery along the trail continued to astound, with the summit of Tahtalı Dağ (Mt. Olympos) arguably the highlight of the trip.  The Turkish Ministry of Tourism claims that Mt. Olympos is the 'highest mountain nearest to sea level'-an admittedly rather ambiguous claim-that said, it was a very challenging climb with absolutely stunning views in all directions, and with approximately 7,800 feet of elevation gain over the two day ascent we were quite satisfied to have made the summit.  All in all, this will undoubtedly be a part of our travels we look back on with a sense of accomplishment.

Along the trip, we had a chance to meet several other groups of through-hikers (intending to go the length of the trail as well).  The various nationalities included British, Australians, Dutch, Danish, Israeli, Austrian, and even one other American.  For their part, the Turks think anybody who wants to walk 300 miles for 'fun' is pretty much crazy--and there were certaiınly some times we had a tendency to agree with them.  That said, the Turkish hospitality all along the trail was absolutely amazing-especially in the more remote alpine sections.

We also understand that Mr. Frank's Social Studies Class at the Wattsburg Area Middle School has been following the blog and we would like to stay we appreciate the support and hope we have kept things entertaining and perhaps even educating.  Our time on the Lycian Way was certainly a stroll through history, as it was not uncommon to camp in an area that Alexander the Great had spent a winter, or walk past a statue of Marcus Aurelius still standing.

We're in a bit of shellshock here in Antalya--with a population just short of a million, it is quite the sight after 29 days seeing (many) more goats than people.  That said, we managed to find a hammam (Turkish Bath) this morning to ease those aches and pains and a day or two of gluttony is probably in order after the last month.  Thanks for following.

Dogs and Hospitality (Act II Scene I)

We rejoin our intrepid trekkers in Finike, Turkey......

Wow.  We just finished two of the hardest days of the Lycian Way (Lykia Yolu in Turkish, and pronounced lick-e-ya).  The guide book called for 3-4 days worth of food, but Jerod and I decided we could do it in two.  It was two long days, with about 22 hours of hiking and 1,600 meters of climbing.  We probably could have done it a little quicker but Turkish hospitality cannot be denied when it is offered.  About half an hour into day one of the the two-day section we were dragged into a house for breakfast.  We politely declined but were harangued until we acquiesced.  In comparison with other mid-East households where men rule domestic life, Turkish women seem to wear the pants at home.  We were sat down and fed huge mounds of Gozleme (a Turkish quesadilla), fresh vegatables, goat cheese, and honey.  This is followed with tea and group photos.  The next day we had lunch with some shephards, one of which was actually featured in the originally version of our guidebook.  She proudly showed us her copy of the book, as well as photos that other trekkers had sent to her after previous visits.

We have also had some fun dog interactions.  We decided to one section of the trail as a day hike and get a ride back to our campground in the afternoon.  It was cheaper than lodging in the next town and let us hike a day with no packs.  As we set out in the morning four stray dogs joined us for the walk across the long beach.  They ran circles around us and tackled each other on the sand as we went along.  As the trail left the beach, however, we lost two of our entourage, leaving only Nilla and Brownie to tag along.  At the base of a steep climb we took a break and discussed the possibilities of the dogs making it up the climb.  Turns out that they seemed to have an easier time than us.  As we cruised through a little village a female stray named Spot appeared and began an on-again/off-again relationship with Nilla.  Now there was five of us and we set out again.  We found it tough to carry enough water for five mammals on a hot day when there are no buckets to dip in the wells, but we shared what we had and kept on.  We narrowly averted disaster when Nilla was almost taken out by one of the aforementioned Kangal sheep dogs.  After Jerod and I got a few direct hits with some rocks it went after an easier target in mild-mannered Nilla.  Running at them with 15-pound rocks held above your head seems to scare them off, though, and Nilla survived with only one little puncture wound.  Spot, however, seemed enamoured by the physical prowess of the larger, more aggressive sheep dogs and hesitated a moment before rejoining the group.  We all made it safely to Demre and called for our ride back to camp.  Our host at the campsite knew Brownie from town and offered her a ride home too.  Spot and Nilla wouldn't get in the car and made a de facto move from Andriake to Demre.  We saw spot on the road the next day, but she seemed to have ditched Nilla.

So the hiking has been good enough, and my ankle is holding up.  I'm not enamoured with hiking, but it is a great way to really immerse yourself in a region and get a first-hand look at local life.  We are two-thirds through the hike and just passed our two and a half month milestone of traveling.  Spirits are high and blisters are healing.  The next blog and last installment of the blof will come from Antaliya at the end of the trail.  Until then..........

The Road Goes On Forever (Act I Scene II)

The Lycian Way continues for Tony and I (13 days in), staying tonight at a pension here in Kaş (pronounced lıke 'Kosh').  We have witnessed quite a few beautiful seaside Medıterranean towns, but in my humble opinion this one takes the cake (so far at least).  Quite a stunning scene involving sheer cliffs, several bay islands, and quaint whitewashed villas lining the hillsides during our somewhat harrowing descent into town today.  Not surprisingly, we have run into a few ex-pats here already, mostly British.

The trail itself has proven challenging and over quite varied terrain--everything from 'yaylas' (apline meadows) to class 3 rock scrambles (hands and feet required) to 2,500+ year old steep mule paths used for hauling supplies to the ancient people who lived ın these lands.  The author of the guidebook we're using for the trail describes an 'almost careless' relationship with history in this area, and that strikes me as apt.  Walking over ancient aqueducts or across Greco-Roman columns laying in the traıl (with distinct inscriptions still visible) come to mind.

The animals encountered have been of the mostly harmless kind-turtles, snakes, lots of goats and other domestic animals, etc.-with one notable exception-the Kangal dog--bred throughout Turkey as wolf-fighting sheepdogs, they are quite territorial and don't take kindly to strangers crossing their paths or getting near their sheep.  Maybe I forgot to mention they are also very large-close to a German Shepherd in sıze.   We have found that rock-throwing seems to work as the best deterrent.

And last but certainly not least--it's not lost on either of us from the other sıde of the world that today is Mother's Day, so on behalf of both Tony and I--happy Mother's Day Bea and Sue, we appreciate all the support over the years and love you.