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87km
Riding the shoulder of the Main Road from Bursa to Istanbul
Rock outcropping along Lake Iznik
Another Flat
Our Campsite at Notion
The first flat tire of our entire trip!! And What company to change it in!
Staring out to sea at Notion (no-T-own)
Approaching the beach at Pamulcak with caution!
Subset over the Greek Island Samos, at our campsite on the Pamulcak beach
We spent two nights on the Pamulcak Beach hanging out by the fire with Idel, the gracious owner of the beach cafe we camped next to!
Our Beach Home
Our Beach Friends
Oct 17 – 73km
Oct 18 – 72km
The roads from Mareda were pretty busy and and the surroundings were swallowed in the signs of the tourist economy now going into hibernation. We tried to buy some meat from the roadside pig roasts without asking the price first and the man tried to charge us something like 30 euros at the register. Naturally we balked and continued down the road, sure to find another one at a reasonable rate. The fresh roastted pork was a hungry vegabonds dream and we stuff ourselves only to have to ride into a hard climb, belching the whole way up. For most of the day we were trying to out run the dark clouds behind us but eventually got caught right as we needed to pitch our tents. It rained hard enough to soak our shoes through but not for long enough to keep us inside our tents. Yet again, we found a great seafront site.
The next morning, just as we were about to head out, Chad made a painful discovery. The prior evening he carelessly moved his bike from one tree to the other so that it could be closer to the tent. He forgot to check to make sure all of his bungee cords were properly stowed and this morning when he saw a small bungee that was missing a hook, he instantly feared the worst. And so it was. Broken spoke by the sea. This is exactly why we both left for this journey with extra spokes, but we never figured it would be human error but rather a cause of nature, the nature of constant riding a bike day in day out for months.
Chad kept calm for the most part and got busy repairing the wheel, and did a decent job for being his first. We headed to Pula, the next big town to find a bike shop to true the wheel only to discover that it was sunday. Nothing is open on sunday, so we took our chances and headed dead on into the wind up the Istrian coast to get us to a campsite near the Brestova Ferry to Island Cres.
Campsite near Fazana, croatia
Striping off the tire to replace broken spoke
Roman Ampitheater in pula, croatia
57 km
Chad woke early to try and beat the crowd at the US Embassy to obtain new documents that would allow him to continue forward through the border of slovenia into crotia in a few days time. Of course he arrived too early and had to come back only to wait in line with the other Americans who were experiencing similar problems. After the round –a-bout process of obtaining photos, passing out some cash, using internet while waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting to finally, four hours later, get a signature from the American consular, Chad had to return two hours later to receive his temporary passport.
Chad with ientity intact!
Fiinally, we could depart — 2:00pm and we had over 60km to ride to meet our Couchsurfing hosts, Sara and Gandalf. The ride was fast and with our new traveling companion, Tobias, a very new experience for us. It was a great relief to be riding as three for a change. Despite traveling as a couple, we had begun to feel the aches of loneliness before arriving to Ljubljana. It is a different type of loneliness than that of being by yourself, rather the type were we longed to share our experiences with, to share our thoughts, and to learn something new. We found it in Tobias, and how lucky we all are to have been placed in the same room of all the rooms.
It was a cold ride. The storm of lost passports brought a chill to the region and we saw our first piles of snow along the rode and we wore a couple extra layers. Retrospectively, the lost passport was the divine way of saying, ‘don’t ride in the rain today, instead make cake’, (which we did) and the delay found us riding under sunny skies to Postojna.
Our first site of snow!!
Tobias snatching some grapes
Sara and Gandalf found us in the main square, shrouded in the darkness of the young night. We played a game of follow the leader to their home and stuck our faces into Sara’s hot pot of Minestrone and ate like savages, or maybe pirates, and headed out for drinks in town.
Despite having to wait for nearly three hours for the consulate to arrive to put his signature on my passport application, Chad recieved a three month temporary passport to continue the journey in fast time. It even looks like a real passport,but the photos has Chad sporting his One Month old beard and greasy hat that had been under a stocking cap for a whole day…what a bum.
We got a late start but we managed to still put in 65 km to Postojna with Tobias riding along side. We arrived as it was nearly dark and met our hosts for the next two nights. Sara and Gandalf fed us an amazing minestrone that help bring warmth to even our cold toes. Today they led us through some of the really spectacular sights on this karst landscape. We visited The Predijama Castle and some caves that we were able to explore behind the locked gate with their friend, a physical geologist, who was taking samples deep in the cave. We cooked them a good meal of Crepes with a savory filling and a sweet cheese filling, and Tobias made brussell sprouts. It was a damn good meal.
Tomorrow, We will ride with Tobias to the Sea. Finally!! The Sea
In the last episode, we saw Chad lose his passport. Today, Chad waits in the U.S. Embassy to speak with the Consular after filling out an application for a new US Passport. In one weeks time the new passport should arrive to Ljubljana and we will have to return from whereever we are, most likely by train, To recieve the new passport. Luckily we are on a loose schedule, we only hope we will still be able to ride with our new friend for at least a few days. Slovenia is small enough that in a short period of time we will be able to get to the Capitol in a few hours. so should be no problem. We had hoped to be in Croatia be next week but it will have to be delayed.
Chad woke this morning and shared his dream with the roommates at the Hostel. He dreamt that we were in a car with our new friend, and cycling companion, Tobias, from germany. We all went to another town together in this dream and when we arrived Chad realized he left his passport at the Hostel.
The three of us loaded up our bicycles this morning and departed along the river through the city center. We were both so excited to be traveling as three now rather than the usual two. We were dancing around the crowds on the wet and glittery streets taking photos and feeling good as we began to notice the dark aggressive clouds coming fast over our heads. A clap of thunder and Chad suddenly paused. Where is Passport? Passport gone.
We returned to the hostel to see if it was there. We recieved it back from the hostel that morning for the key deposit. Not there. Not anywhere.
Ten Minutes, One Kilometer, Lost a passport. And freaking columbus day, Freakin columbus day. Embassy closed.
So what did we do? The three of us booked another night at the hostel, and baked a cake, Bread pudding to be more precise.
This is exactly why you carry photocopies of your documents right. We’ll see. We filed the police report and will visit the US Embassy Tomorrow Morning. This could not have happened in a more convienent location. Lose a passport in a capitol city….not as bad as a small town on the far end of the country.
This day has turned out as well as it could considering. We are very happy to have a new friend and hope to be back on the road tomorrow. This day marks one month of being on the road.
To be continued………….
We woke up, packed our bags and crossed the Mur into Slovenia, where once again we must adjust to saying good morning, please, and thank you in a different language. Chad is still tending to speak German but Jowita has just switched back to Polish as it seems to work the same here. We decided just before we hopped on our bicycles to head to Ptuj instead of staying in the larger Maribor. We are happy with the decision as the small size suits us well. Ptuj is the oldest town in all of Slovenia and the small apartment we rented for a couple days pre-dates 1690 but they aren’t exactly sure. We will depart tomorrow in the direction of Dravograd and the mountains. We changed our minds once again today and are going to give it a go after the urging by the gentleman we are renting from, that the route we were changing to was going to be a disappointment. He said we will not be disappointed going to the mountains. We hope he is right. Jowita took her bike into the shop around the corner and had her crank changed out to a mountain bike crank to take a little pressure off getting up the steep grades with a heavy load. The lower gears should help out tremendously. So here we go….hopefully the next photos you see will have some big mountains in them, but we’ll see.
