Morning run on the Sea of Marmara

Running over the G'alata bridge packed with Turkish fishermen, fresh anchovies in plastic cups for sale. The seawater is churning and pale teal.  Goodbye Nate! Hello mom & dad! 

Lovebirds struck remembered

Plovdiv, Bulgardia – Garden art remembers two 19th century lovebirds who were struck and killed by lightening while kissing in the storm.

Serbia: more friendliness, pita and mud!

Biked to Backa Palanka, stayed with warm showers host Zoran and his visiting mother.  Have I mentioned how amazing warm showers is?  It has enriched our trip so so much!  And re-instilled in me a deep sense of gratitude and awareness of basic human kindness.  People have been so insanely generous with their beds and homes and food and energies.  It is really remarkable.  I highly recommend taking up cycle touring if only to feel the warmth of this insta-community.

Zoran had already been hosting our new cycle buddy, Fiona, so we merged there and were a trio for one night.  He had a long old-style house with an open courtyard, garage/shed, grape-vines, flower beds, garden (which had been full of cabbage, peppers, onions, cucumebers--all of which he had pickled and served to us with dinner).  He also served us a bean stew that had roasted over a fire in the back-yard for hours.  He also had turkeys and chickens roaming and gobbling about. He is younger, maybe ~ 35, and had grown up on Vukovar (see earlier post on war-torn town in Croatia) and after the war and some service (compulsory) in the Serbian army, had decided to get a fresh start in a new place where he could garden and cook and enjoy life again.

His darling mother, with the warmest hands and hand-knitted sweater-vests (that her mother had made her) greeted us as warmly as if we were her own long-lost children. She also made the home-kitchen delicacy of pita, paper-thin layers of dough splashed with cheese and lard, rolled up like a snail and roasted in the oven to a crispy cheesy doughy level of divinity. We were lovingly force-fed a bit before allowed to leave in the morning (and it started a two-day recovery period for me where I needed simply bread and water to re-set my digestion).

Onto Novi Sad, stayed again with Fiona and our second Serbian hosts, Nenad and Natasha.  Then the long-haul to Belgrade the next morning, our last day of cycling on this trip!  Finally got some rain and feel numerous times into the mud.  Esme (the bike) got caked then semi-washed in mud puddles many times.  We pushed hard to get to Belgrade to meet Nate and didn't really stop for proper lunch or rests...we were pretty tuckered upon our arrival.  That said, it was a great last ride, nice sunset while listening to Lucius and spent a lot of the ride reflecting on what has been a hard and amazing and intense and really special trip.

Soft landing last night with the wonderful Nate to welcome us to Belgrade.  Ate lots of dark chocolate, went out for meat and more meat, caught up on all the life gossip and Somerville scene.  Seems like life, as always, is marching on. It feels like we have been in a really splendid time-warp...biking slows everything down.  As Bobby (who arrived today at 2 pm today--yay!!!)  quoted Ross circa 2004 as saying:  Backpacking is so full of intensity and hardship and planning and logistics that is really focuses you and renders you incapable of fussing over/engaging with your life. (This might be a Betsy quote).  And I thought--how true!! As hard and intense and wonderful as all of this has been, I have had the sneaking suspicion that the really interesting part will begin when we try to come home and re-enter/re-create our "old selves" in our old home of Philadelphia.  I love the blank canvas of coming back from a long trip---having gotten some space from it all and getting to really selectively re-populate your life.  Like a very deep clean of the kitchen pantry.

It took us a full 3-4 weeks to settle into our bike-touring rhythm.  And when we finally did, it was so so good!  We are currently fantasizing about going on to Vietnam and Thailand in Jan-Feb.  But, in reality, I think we will probably be ready to head home for the holidays and begin re-settling/creating our life in Philly.  (After Wanakena of course:)

Now we have ~2 weeks of "normal" (non-biking) travel in Belgrade with Bobby and Nate, 2 weeks in Istanbul with my parents and then some much-anticipated time in Jordan with the lovely Alli Poirot who has promised us all sorts of Jordanian adventures.

If anyone from Mount Auburn has read this far:  I MISS YOU.  I am like that crazy person, who when someone casually asks me what I do, I can't stop talking about how amazing my last job was and how much I miss it and get misty-eyed.  Just so you know, you are in my heart so deeply and presently.

Croatia: Friendliness, Fish and War

Friendly people!  We were welcomed at customs (border between Hungary and Croatia) by a grumpy Hungarian officer who freaked out at Ross for snapping a photo (and a contrastingly friendly Croatian officer) who explained our customs "receipt" to us....it detailed our bikes as having bells, lamps and the like.  Totally bizarre and adorably un-serious information sprinkled into the seriously official border crossing.  We were welcomed no less than 6 times upon our arrival to Croatia:  to the county, the region, the state, the town and the area, and then the country again.  With signs boasting antlers, coasts, steer, grapes, cranes and the county crests we felt very well-received.  They just seemed so very excited we had arrived!  We also were happy to bike up and over our first hill (though only ~ 50 meters) since our long week in the great Hungarian plains (flat as an ironing board!)



Went through a really sad town the next day, with an intense history.  Vukovar, the last city completely destroyed by war since WW2.  Site of epic 3 month siege of the Serbian army on this city who population was ~ 40,000.  Some 2000 unarmed and locally organized Croatians held them off, but it was one of those "cut-off-your-nose-to-spite-your-face"/pyrric victories where the entire town was blown apart and horrible completely destroyed in the process (Serbs technically won, but the town remained in Croatia after things were re-settled in 1998).  Very tangible and eerie, crumbling fire-smudged structure adorned with bullet holes bombed craters abounded.  Apparently it has recovered well economically, but it lost 20,000 if it's barely 40,000 (once) inhabitants.  Many left with the onset on conflict, or I should say the intensification of a century-long existing conflict between Croats and Serbs, and moved to nearby towns/cities or into new countries entirely.



Also a very famous hospital remains, apparently patients, doctors and nurses holed up in the underground portion of it for  several months, and then towards the end were taken to a cornfield ~ 4 km away and tortured and massacred (while the UN was reported to have stood by outside the hospital, inactive).  Heavy stuff. Also there were Serbian concentration camps were 5,000+ Croatians were murdered.  We hear less about this in our history lessons, but seems similar (if on a smaller scale) to the terror and senseless brutality of the Holocaust if you ask me.



We also had a delightful and perfect fishy meal along the Danube to get into the spirit of the place (and feel good about supporting the local economy).  Smoked fish accompanied but fish stew followed by a grilled fish sampler plate with 3 different buttery filets fresh out of the river 10 feet away.

In Osijek (the night before), we stayed in a meh/over-priced hotel (our first hotel in months since we have been mostly warm-showering and camping) but since there are active land-mines in the area we decided to play it safe!



We did have a very exciting dinner that we were almost too tired to enjoy at a local tavern serving very traditional food.  Smoked prunes (cooked in the smoker with meat) and fresh radishes were on the table, along with home-made (very dense) white bread and some olive/cheese spreads.  We had (more) grilled perch with pickled vegetables and some almost-too-rich steak with wild mushrooms. And at the urging of our incredibly polite, bow-tie clad waitor, some local wines. Meal was too overwhelming for consideration of dessert (what?!) but we were serenaded by the very festive gypsy quintet (violin, accordion, bass, guitar) to sweeten the evening.



Crossed into Serbia the next day, stayed with a very lovely son & mother duo in Backa Palanka...learned a bit more about Serbs/Coatians.  We both so wished we had longer in Croatia (merely 36 hours, 12 of which was biking, 8 of sleeping, 3 -5 of eating...too little time to just feel the country's pulse) but we made the hard decision to come back when we can more properly address its awesomeness.

More on Serbia coming up. No idea if people are reading this far.  I am writing these posts more for my own memory and documentation of the trip. Anyways, much love to everyone at home.  We are about to merge with Nate and cousin Bobby!  Yay!

Day 51: into Croatia

Thursday 13/11: to Osijek (Croatia) via Mohacs (~75.5km)

ferry crossing at Mohacs

for some reason this scene seemed like a good subject for a genre painting - perhaps by Breugel?

the interior of the evidently out-of-service bike information kiosk across the river

 

our delightful little lunch spot

former house (presumably?) repurposed for silage

entering the charming city of Osijek

 

Camping joys

Spent the night at the most beautiful pristine wooded river-front site but dinner did not sit well. Spent the evening puking it up, burying it in the sand, then puking out the tent front door into our cooking pot. In case anyone was feeling jealous of us! Belgrade and indoor plumbing here we come!!

Hungarian country riding

We pass by a charmingly wild farmstead (with wandering chickens and their chicks pecking at the earth; sheep and their lambs nibbling at the grass;  ducks, geese and other fowl roosting and perching on various vertical structures; colorfully painted bee hives; some ponies hanging out...pretty much Noah's ark.  As rural and earthy and home-steady as can be. And I say, "awwww... This makes me want to farm!" And Ross says "this makes me want to play Agricola".  Sigh.  This is my urban board-game loving husband.

We also have been enjoying the parts of the Hungarian euro-velo path which are paved...only about 50-60% (and it seems newly so). The contrast of usage between locals and bikers strikes me. We are here decked out in elite and expensive gear (relatively speaking) enjoying the path for recreation and these local fishermen with calloused hands are riding along with poles and buckets and their lunches in plastic bags to "work" for the day.  There are also so many older folks on bikes...octogenarians with bundles of firewood or loaded with goods heades to/from market. I imagine the existence of this path makes things easier for many layers of people, travelers and locals alike. 

We also met a herd of the Hungarian horses that were aliens. They didn't like carrots! I tried to share some with theme by totally blew me off. I was sad to imagine that maybe these utilitiarian horses have not had much love or attention (or snacky treats) bestowed upon them...thus they didn't know what to do when a carrot came their way!

Hungary was full of little home/farm steads as described above. Everyone was doing their fields of peppers, corn, potatoes, cabbage, grapes or apples.  Wood stacks piled high. Wheelbarrows loaded with garden scraps.  Chickens wandering about pecking at little wrigglers.  I imagined they were all bartering eggs and pickles and paprika with each-other in an old-fashioned subsistence farming way.
After several nights of wild camping, the last of which was a gorgeous stay along the river (though sadly we got food poisoning, see "camping joys") we wrapped up the camping portion of our trip (tear!).  We were headed in Croatia, into an area that was in conflict as recently as 1991 and still had active land-mines in the forests and other un-paved areas.  So...understandably we planned hostels and warm showers to play it safe.