and ended in June 2016 in Great Britain.
As expected there were certainly some noteworthy happenings, though reentering the western world was probably less of a homecoming than we might have imagined and the pull to return to the eastern world that captured our imaginations so unexpectedly would prove to open a new chapter in our lives.
*In case you are one of the "lucky ones" who is all too familiar with our tales you may want to skim or skip ahead all together...you have been warned.
After an amazing tour of the entire island of Cyprus, both the EU southern half and the Turkish occupied north, we entered Turkey...
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| Turks are a proud people |
After an overnight cargo ship ride across the Mediterranean, into the city of Mersin on the south central coast of Turkey, we were hosted by an amazing woman named Nuzet who was a PhD at the local university. She treated us like family and even took us on a weekend biking adventure into the mountains with her team of biking friends.
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| Grabbing a little lunch |
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| Festival atmosphere |
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| Us with Nuzet on the weekend adventure |
A few other spots we feel deserve at least a cursory mention (though we highly recommend you do a deeper dive) are Cappadocia
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| People actually live in these... |
and the plethora of ancient Roman ruins such as those at Hierapolis
and the gleaming white flows of travertine at Pamukkale!
We finished our time in Turkey in the university city of Izmir on the western coast.
Here we met an equally special, strong woman and her partner who were working toward furthering women's rights and the acceptance of women into areas of Turkish life that traditionally are considered to 'not be their place'. Amazingly for us, she was starting with cycling (obviously very close to our hearts) holding events like mass protest bike rides for women through the city streets! Her strength and will were to be admired in the face of Turkey's powerfully patriarchal society.
Turkey was an amazing place to make our exit from the East and begin the final leg of our journey by reentering the "western world". The place truly deserves its moniker as a cultural crossroads. We will truly never forget our time spent touring around Turkey with its endless cups of tea and welcoming warm smiles. Another addition in the ever growing list of spots we would love to revisit and get to explore a little more.
We departed the country with a short ferry ride through the island of Lesvoz where we entered Greece.
* Here we discovered for the first time, what it means to be part of a world where countries are in a perpetual state of "war" and "occupied lands" make for a sticky situation for those who try to navigate through the region. (For those who have no idea what I am talking about please feel free to do a quick reference on the history of the the island of Cyprus.) To make a long story short-ish, when we entered Greece the border patrol saw in our passports a stamp, that I thought nothing of at the time, from the northern, Turkish controlled region, of Cyprus. This region is claimed to be "stolen" from the Greeks by the Turks in 1974 and the stamp is not recognized as legal for passage outside of Turkey. Therefore, in Greece's eyes, we entered the EU (southern Cyprus) but never left, though we somehow also were in Turkey for a month. This little SNAFU left a gaping "hole" in our passports that could only be accounted for by a hand written note that the border guard gave us and told us to present at every border crossing going forward!!?? A somewhat antiquated "patch" to a nearly 5 decade old stand-off in which these two nations find themselves and into which we so clumsily interjected ourselves. Except for some funny second glances and extended perusing of our passports nothing else really came of this but it really drove the reality home for a few pampered Americans.
Now onto Greece - my second visit and Chiara's first time. I had told her so many wonderful things from my previous visit there, some 15 years prior. The reality of what we found was a real eye opener to the different world we inhabit today. The Syrian refugee situation in Greece, for instance, was untenable, to say it nicely. Tent cities covered Greek borders and Athens appeared depressed, unemployed, and littered with graffiti and disenfranchised youth due to high unemployment and a struggling economy which was due in part from the the refugee crisis but more the result of corruption and poor governmental leadership by the Greeks themselves (though those in power point the finger squarely at the refugees). *We regrettably have no useable pictures from this time
A stark contrast to the happy, vibrant tourist haven that I saw on my previous visit. As we discovered when we rode north and out of Greece, their neighbors (looking at you Macedonia) were preventing movement of any refugees out of Greece. They were literally erecting walls and fences to stop them at the border, which meant that it was Greece's problem.
Riding in the northern part of the country we did encounter many beautiful, peaceful sites and had some great interactions with local cycling enthusiasts and folks just wanting to know our story.
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| Meteora region of Greece |
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| Local bike shop owner in northern Greece |
Having written this somewhat sour depiction of our time in Greece I would be remiss to not encourage everyone to visit Greece, as well as Turkey, if they ever have the opportunity. They are both true cultural crossroads where east and west cultures collide, merge and, usually, coexist resulting in truly singular societies you won't find in many other places in the world. We also recommend learning more about the humanitarian crisis in Syria and other parts of the middle east that lead to the massive displacement human beings we saw. Though our experience was but a singular scenario, refugees are not and moving into the uncertain future of climate change and deep divisions fostered by power hungry leaders, they will undoubtedly continue and probably intensify, testing the resolve and compassion of people from all nations in dealing with the movements of human beings through and into their lands.
With Greece behind us we entered Albania, a beautiful country that is still caught somewhere between a Cold War Soviet outpost and the 1990s. Albania was one of the post-soviet era countries that got a raw deal at the end of communism with inept and strong arming dictatorial leadership running it for years that led to no real economic opportunities for the youth. In fact, we found out that a large portion of the young males left the country to work in, of all places, Greece - as if she didn't have enough to worry about (see last paragraph)?
Rusting hulks of the soviet era machine were scattered throughout the country as we rode-
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| These abandoned cement "bunkers" were all over the hillsides |
and the people in all the little villages were blaring terrible techno music from their homes, their phones and their cars- of which the washing of appeared to be the national past time. There was a lot of beauty in the country as well -
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| Riding into Lake Ohrid |
and the people we met seemed genuine and honest. In fact the capital city of Tirana was actually rather a pleasant place. It was hard to not feel bad for them and hope they have some fair and productive leadership moving forward.
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| Art finds a way... |
We continued north into Montenegro and met up with our friends, Scott and Jess, who flew over from the states to join our tour for a few weeks. This is where, even with a little hiccup (looking at you Croatia), the trip again filled us with wonder and joy almost every day.
Montenegro, though a small and often overlooked country on the Balkan peninsula, is beautiful on a whole other level and if you ever get to visit the old walled capital city Kotor don't pass up the opportunity!
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| Descending pass into Kotor |
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| Kotor |
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| Scott and Jess overlooking old walled capital, Kotor |
Sitting here now so many years later writing this I actually feel a bit guilty that I don't have much to else to impart about our time in Montenegro. It was relatively uneventful, though awe inspiring in its beauty. In fact other than a hillside hike above the old city in which we encountered a local farmer/herder who was selling his local cheese, meat and some potent "hooch" that made the hike down a bit dizzying we just had a peaceful and too quick ride through this wonderful little country.
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Wandering through the old walled city of Kotor
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We can't say the same for Croatia, a country for which I have very little love loss. Though renowned for its beautiful coast and old, walled cities, the people were some of the least friendly we met through our entire travels. And the weather was so bad, well let me put it this way, we rented a van, put our bikes in it and drove north as fast as we could! (For reference of previous riding conditions that we didn't bale on please see posts from Japan and Indonesia. Let's just say it took a lot to get us off our bikes) We did encounter some natural wonders and there is no way that I couldn't include them as they were ones seldom matched -
Krka National Park
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| Dubrovnik |
I don't want to dissuade others from traveling to and around Croatia in my writing of our time there, as it is well known as a sunny beach lovers paradise. I am just telling you our experience which was obviously tainted by the weather - cold, torrential rains, and flooding streets for days on end - and the locals who were less than interested in a bunch of dumb-asses (my words) trying to ride bikes on flooded roads. In fact Chiara had visited Croatia only months after the Bosnian war that brought much destruction and hardship to the country and she found it to be quite a pleasant, though timid, people and place. So everyone get out there and make your own opinions y'all!
Luckily our perseverance paid off and we entered Slovenia, the crown jewel of the Balkan states.
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| Start of the climb through the Julien Alps |
From the Julien Alps to its beautifully quaint canaled capital, Lublijana, Slovenia wowed us day after day.
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| Lublijana |
The people were wonderful and - I am gonna show my true colors here - they loved taking the piss out of Melania Trump as much as we did (she is Slovenian but they apparently don't want her back).
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| The happy couple at the top of the long climb through the Julien Alps |
In fact about the only thing that could be said to detract from Slovenia - though this goes for the entire Balkan peninsula - is the food was quite, let's say, disappointing (that being compared to some of the culinary gems we ate our way through in the first 6-7 months of our journey). Cured meats abounded and vegetables were in short supply. The meat in combination with the easily accessible and cheap local red table wine - which I did like a lot - made me finally understand those suffering indigestion, as the acid reflux I began having around this time made me actually wonder if I was actually experiencing a cardiac event every time I laid flat. Luckily this abated by simply removing the cured meats from my diet - I was luckily able to continue enjoying the abundant red wines...
All too soon, we crossed into Austria and said good-bye to our friends who left to head back to the States and Chiara and I hopped a train to Cologne, Germany where we stayed with a nice couple and their young daughter (thanks again Warm showers hosts everywhere!)
and then continued on up the Rhine valley region which made for a pleasant ride, though a tad mundane after what we had experienced in our first few months on the road.
We enjoyed our time riding through Germany though the spring weather was cold, rainy and less than desirable for two weary cyclists who were nearing the end of a long journey, both physically and mentally. After days of poaching campsites in farmers fields, pedaling through rain, wind and steel gray skies and eating expensive, mediocre meals in Germany, Luxembourg and southern Belgium we hopped another train to the northern Flemish part of Belgium. First to the beautiful university city of Ghent, where we were hosted by a nice young college student and then on to Bruges - the beauty of the old world architecture in these canaled cities has few comparisons -
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| The canals and buildings of Ghent and Bruge |
Finally we entered Brussels, a stop long on our list, in order to visit Chiaras' friends, Patrick and Ali and their young daughter Sylvia.
It was a pleasant stay but again the terrible spring cold and rain and the stark contrast of western to eastern cultures that we juxtaposed was weighing heavy on us and we were ready to be done. So after some hugs we made our way north to the French coast city of Dunkirk
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| A sobering stop at one of the many WWII cemeteries near Dunkirk, France |
and steamed across the channel to England to pedal our last miles prior to flying back to the States.
We had both spent time in England prior so our only real reason for the visit was to see my best mate Leigh, the man that I credit with starting me down this insatiable path of travel and exploration, and his new wife Emma. It was a great way to end an amazing year abroad and placed a nice bow tying it all together.
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| Myself, Leigh and Emma |
Once back in the states we visited family before returning to Portland and our home. We reentered our old lives relatively seamlessly, restarted our old jobs again, on August 8, 2016 we got married
and before we knew it, on June 11, 2017, became the parents of a little girl who we named Petra Ray.
Petra is a strong, stubborn, funny and beautiful little girl, like her mother, and I can truly say that I am the happiest and most content I have ever been in my life...
...but as things do, life in Portland changed and the city wasn't right for us any longer. In fact I often tell people that from the time we returned from our year away Portland never really felt like me to home and that I had mentally and emotionally moved on well before the physical separation occurred. Biding our time, I started pursuing a new avenue in the field of nursing and finally realized a long held aspiration to learn to weld and fabricate with metal.
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| Door latch step-up to reach roof racks on truck |
Chiara, also realizing that our time in Portland was limited, started looking at possible jobs teaching internationally. Though our first hope was to live and work in a Spanish speaking country, circumstances didn't allow it and an offer came along from a school in Mumbai, India that was almost too good to be true. For those of you that have read our previous posts, you know that we loved our time in India and were hoping to get another chance to visit and explore again. Also the school, The American School of Bombay or ASB, and the position were exactly what Chiara was looking for so we decided to take the leap!
You can probably guess what happened next...the Covid-19 pandemic! The year 2020 plans derailed, as it did for most everyone around the world, and we got "stuck" in Portland. That leads us to 2021 and our decision that no matter what, we were moving on with our lives. Petra would be 4 years old and we were chomping at the bit to explore again - impossible to believe that our adventures in the blog (and the ones I just retold) were over 5 years old?! Decision made, we sold sold our house to a good friend, packed our stuff, put it in storage and are now on the road. We will catch you up as soon as we know more but fingers crossed...India awaits!
and the plethora of ancient Roman ruins such as those at Hierapolis
and the gleaming white flows of travertine at Pamukkale!
