Wednesday, August 12, 2009

addendum - too much time alone

Can anyone guess what this is supposed to be?

Put away that... tire lever

I arrived early this afternoon in Bucharest, the capitol city of Romania. As this is the land with no traffic laws, I rode into the city on one the main highways. I did think about taking secondary streets into the center, but in my experience, that wouldn't have been any safer, and would have been much slower.

Bucharest conveniently put a circle in the center of there city, so that foreigners like me know when they have reached it. From the center I wandered about until I found this internet cafe, a rather nice one in an old library. I have found several hostels that are options for this evening; it will be my first hostel since I stayed in one with Karl in Budapest!

Om Monday I rode from Abasfalva to Brasov, a city with a beautiful old downtown. The ride itself was uneventful. In fact, most of the day I followed roads I had been on previously with the high school group. It was odd to be in the same places again, but without the group.

Here are some pictures of Brasov. Despite the beautiful downtown, the central fountain was awful. I have yet to see a good fountain in Romania.

Fountain in the square. I don't know what to say; like good art it speaks for itself. But it is not good art.

City Center. I don't know what the building is.
City Center.

Yesterday I rode over the Carpathians. Despite taking a wrong turn, and ending up on the main road over the mountains instead of a back way, it was a beautiful ride. I passed a couple of ski areas and maybe a hundred hotels.


Today I rode into Bucharest - one problem: one flat tire. Bigger problem: got flat tire outside of "restricted area." When I pulled off the main road onto an unmarked side road, with no traffic, I was greeted by two guard dogs who emerged from behind a gate. Then came a man in black, with a sidearm, and a more professional demeanor than a rent-a-cop. I have no idea who he was, but he told me that I was in a restricted area, that a very important person would be arriving, and I needed to leave. I took my lame bike, grabbed my tire lever and pump, and left.

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Transilvania My Love

I am a bit discouraged, as I just erased a nice blog entry. :( Why doesn't blogger have an undo button?! Oh well, here goes again. I have been in Transilvania for three weeks now. For two weeks I was with a group of Unitarian high school students on a ride from Cluj-Napoca to the Danube Delta on the Black Sea and back. Now that that trip is over I am staying with our (UU Bedford, MA) partner village, Abasfalva. I am being hosted by the minister Aron, and his wife, Edit. I am served homemade and homegrown food and alcohol at every meal (including breakfast). I have seen where my milk comes from (two goats who leave in the morning and come in through the front gate in the evening). I have 910 km to go to Istanbul, according to my scientific tracing of roads on the maps of Romania, Bulgaria, and Turkey. Wish me luck, send me emails of encouragement, food airdrops, snickers bars, yogurt, bagels... I am pretty tired, but I see the end in sight. A few pictures, some with me (for my parents).

Partner Church in Abasfalva, Transilvania, Romania.
That's me in yellow, facing the camera. There is a gorge in the background. I rode there with a group of Serbian riders I met on the road. It was out of the way, but worth it.
View from the ruins of a 13 century castle.

Another view of the castle. This was taken at about 10 am. I was all alone except for the men cutting the grass with scythes far below.




Me in the Carpathians. I'm stylish as usual.

Me with a man who insisted on having his picture taken with me. This is my second time riding a buggy.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

From Kolozsvar (Cluj-Napoca) Romania

Wow, I don't know where to start; I have been seriously slacking on my blog writing. First a quick summary of where I have been, then an overview of what is next.

From Caen in France I rode to Paris, then up through Northern France, through Wallonia in Belgium, and into Flanders. From Flanders I rode along the coast of Holland until Amsterdam, where I turned inland and rode along the Rhine to Dusseldorf in Germany. From Dusseldorf I took a train to Frankfurt, rode from Frankfurt to Schweinfurt (mostly along the Rhine River) and from there to a train to the German border town of Passau. From Passau I rode along the Danube River, going through Austria, Slovakia and Hungary. In Budapest I departed the Danube and rode nearly due east across the Great Hungarian Plain into Romania. I am now in Cluj-Napoca, the unofficial capitol of Transylvania.

The Next Fourteen Days

For the next two weeks I will be riding with a group of students from the Janos Zsigmond Unitarius Kollegium (Unitarian High School). Every year the students embark on a long ride somewhere in Romania. This year we will ride to the Danube River Delta, spend four days exploring that region, and ride back. We will be in rural areas without landline internet access, but the group will use a laptop computer with a mobile data card to maintain a blog. If you want to follow the group's progress over the next few weeks, the blog is bicajzsuk.blogspot.com. The site is in Hungarian, but I have been asked to post a few entries in english! (English is widely spoken in Cluj-Napoca; today I was interviewed - in English - by the local TV station).

It is getting late, and I have to have my things packed by 7am tomorrow. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the past week.

Karl and I met up in Budapest. Here he is, looking dapper in his sports coat, contemplating.


The ride across the Great Hungarian Plain was stunningly beautiful, and hot. I got a late start from Budapest and found myself still riding at around 8pm, which is when I took this picture.



Riding in the evening: My body appears emaciated, my bike huge and heavy. That is pretty much how I feel after riding 100 km.

Transylvania.

Transylvania. From the top of one of the several long climbs necessary to reach Cluj-Napoca.




Cluj-Napoca has a world-famous botanical garden. This picture was taken in the tropical green house. The diameter of the plants is at least three feet.


My favorite tour guides: Anita and Emese. They are alums of the Kolozsvar Unitarian High School and will be joining this year's bicycle expedition.

Monday, June 8, 2009

2 pictures

I will explain later. In Caen now. Paris by Wed. I hope everyone is well!

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Hello, I am in Lannion and have 7 min to type entry on weird keyboard. More later.

Posh ferry from England to St. Roscoff. Then rode to Morlaix (sp) with David, who I met on ferry. Beautiful countryside with small villages and large artichoke fields.

Camped in abandoned campground overlooking ocean last night. Reminded me of my time in NY with Quyen. Huge tides; I could walk clear across the Bay.

Bought NYTimes int. ed for 2.5€.

All for now!

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Cornwall

I've had a four full days to recover since my adventure riding through Cornwall, and I am still not completely back up to speed. Cornwall is a beautiful place, and my ride in many ways was exactly what I wanted: a chance to test out my bike and gear in a place not too far from help and where people speak English. It turned out, however, to be quite a challenging ride. The hills were endless - there is not a bit of flat land until one walks into the ocean. It was windy - especially when riding in sight of the ocean. And it was rainy - the last day I rode through wind driven downpours that turned the edges of the roads into streams. The good news is I did survive, my bike held up well, my tent didn't leak, and my gear worked well. The only thing I will change when I leave for France in a couple of days is to double wrap my camping stove so that the gasoline fumes don't permeate my food and clothes.

Here are some pictures and a brief narration:


On Monday, I left Bere Alston and headed north to Gunnislake, the nearest crossing of the River Tamar. This picture was taken after I had climbed up out of the Tamar River Valley. It is a steep climb of several miles in which I had to stop several times. It was a cool and overcast day.



After stopping for a snack in Liskeard, I left the major roads and spent the rest of the day on narrow back roads like this. Nearly all smaller roads in Cornwall and Devon are lined with hedges. The hedges are made of stone, which one can see right after they have been trimmed. The impression is of riding through a green tunnel.


Even the smallest village has a church with a grave yard in front. This was taken at the end of the first day; I was about ready to lie down with the dead.


This is me and Will. We met outside a pub in Blisland, Cornwall. He was on the first day of a solo Land's End to John O' Groats ride. He is probably close to Scotland by now. Good luck Will!


Will and I set up our tents in a vacant sheep pasture near Blisland.


The sheep were next door and woke me up in the morning.


On Tuesday I rode through Bodmin Moor, a beautiful and barren land - except for the sheep and gorse plants.


Gorse: prickly with small yellow flowers.


Even rural areas are well signed.


In the afternoon I finally saw the ocean! This was my first glimpse. Next up: Tintagel. The legendary sea-side home of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.


Not so formidable anymore. This is all that remains of the castle. Tintagel is quite the tourist trap now, although the coast is stunningly beautiful there.


Another remnant of the castle.


That afternoon's ride from Tintagel to Bude was some of the most beautiful riding I have ever done. I took back roads that hugged the coast. It was also some of the most hilly riding I have done.






I rode through many small villages situated next to the outlets of streams. These are often the only areas that one can easily access the ocean without climbing down a cliff.





Can someone explain to me in geological terms what I am looking at?





Sunset near my campsite in Bude. The town of Bude has a canal that terminates on the main beach. It is an impressive site to see a lock right next to a surfing beach.


Wednesday's weather was not good. I walk up to rain and heavy winds. Instead of going north to Exmoore like I had originally planned, I decided to take the most direct route back to Bere Alston. I discovered my waterproof pants are not actually waterproof.

This is a shot of a bridge over the River Tamar. I am back in Devon!