My Prose is Bit Lacking

This blog entry has been floating in my head for a few days,but it wasn't until Maria -my MOA (medical office assistant) of 20 years,office manager, 'older sister', dear friend,plus a large variety of other important roles- commented in a recent e-mail directed to Griffin...

"his prose is a bit lacking,though I certainly get the emotion"

this is the same woman who commented after seeing me jogging( running) and described it as 'plodding' or some similiar term.(and she still works with me-'for me' would be a total misnomer)

Now my lazy Gonzo 'style' of writing has some detractors I am sure.I felt it was necessary to reveal to others that there are high school prose skills still hiding in my grey matter....


We have been cycling for 46 days
We have had maybe 2 hours of rain!! great for us terrible for farmers

We were initially planning a one year vacation and would have cycled June -August.
But with our change to a ten month adventure the cycle portion changed to April -July
and inadvertently we have ended up in a most wonderous time of the year. Spring.

Certainly at home we all love spring and as spring is returning back home all of our friend's and family's e-mails comment on it happily. ( except maybe my family in Calgary and their 'freak= annual' April snow storms.

I suspect there is similar relief, excitement and joy when the weather warms and the snow melts here in the Balkans and Eastern Europe too.

There are two facets of this 'spring thaw' that we have witnessed so clearly from the seats of our bicycles as we we have ridden through rural Turkey, Greece( 1 day),Bulgaria,Romania ,Serbia,Croatia and now Hungary

First, the natural progression of spring.
Leah loves maps and reading them and has poured over our collection for hours before the trip and still daily to create a spectacular rural ride.This maximizes the cycling pleasure and minimizes risk of accident.

As an aside Leah and Griffin met a young French couple who are cycling around the world. They met them in Istanbul in front of the Blue Mosque. The thought of riding bikes through that megalopolis- 10-12 million people, terrible roads and worse drivers- is inconceivable.

Starting in Thrace on the second of April and throughout the early days we had radiantly sunny and warming weather and the plants were just starting to show signs of life.Generally bare ,on closer examination you could see the buds on trees, fruit trees, and vines, all considering the possibility of bursting.
Day by day we could see this botanical process unfold until by the time we were in Central Bulgaria there was a daily progression and procession of flowering trees unfolding before us.
Even our ignorance of which tree was which couldn't dampen the visual enjoyment.

When you are riding a bicycle the view is so important,it makes the ride interesting,it makes the ride pass,it makes you forget any aches or pains or leg fatigue.

Another aside-We were often asked before we left what the boys would do for school.I can go on and on about Geography,history,zoology, cutural studies... but here was Botany before their very eyes.Home schooling ,fitness and adventure every day.

While the tress were flowering and the leaves unfolding the lower plants also began to turn the shoulders of the road into weeds and wildflowers.Yes predominantly green but yellows, whites, blues and purples caught my eyes and I in fact starting to collect them and press them for my journal. Unidentified but colourful. Between flowers and picture taking and age I was always trailing our parade of bicycles.
To balance my flower collection Simon has started a thorn collection.It is surprising how many styles and shapes thorns come in.It is not surprising how difficult it is to transport thorns. But we will.
Beside wild flowers the daffodils and tulips couldn,t help but remind us of home

Then over Easter ( eastern Orhordox Easter was celebrated the week after Roman Catholic Easter this year)the lilacs, mainly violet, some white ,were all of a sudden everywhere.
It felt almost choreographed, as the lilacs seem to lose just a hint of vitality the bearded irises along the road were in bloom,purple my favourite are most common,yellow and white also in the mix and by the time we got to Croatia and Hungary a whole mix of colours and hybrids.

So it is May 15th and the roses and peonies are yelling

The second part of Spring and the botanical awakening is the cultural evidence.
This area is agrarian and besides the large communal farms still in Roamania there is farming on a large scale,market farming and home gardening that is the livelihood of everyone in these small towns.
Sadly ( my judgement) or naturally, these towns are changing. Populations leaving for bigger cities or in the case of EU members to other countries. Those who are making the move are predominantly the young,yet those left behind must still maintain these farms and gardens for income and subsistance.This activity is intense and meticulous. The garden plots, the lawns , the areas between house and road are all cultivated and nutured. In some towns this roadside area has vines trelessed high over the sidewalk. Grapes for homemade wine and rakia(eau de vie) a essential for every household.Great pride is taken in the growing and fermenting.



The large fields are full of winter grain still growing and the beginnings ,just in the last few days, of corn and potato.
Through Serbia and Croatia and now hungary the market farms ars are the latest area of family nad community activity. Medium size fields of beans, peas, carrots, radishes and in Hungary peppers ( for paprika-for goulash) , onions ,garlic and everything else that will make the summer and fall markets ( which we will sadly miss).
It was quite a change when this activity began, because instead of tractors now it was hands and bent backs doing the work.

So winter grains, spring grain planting and slowly germanating, fruit tress and vines flowering, market gardens, farm gardens planted, wild flowers and perennials flowering.
The markets full of early potatoes, last years cellar produce and annuals and tomato plants ready for this year.
We have followed the process and raced the plant's growth as we have headed north
Because of the spectacular weather we have had we are losing the race and now small cherries and minute bunchs of grapes can be seen and the wheat and barley is mature and green swaying with the wind ,which has also been favourable ( at our back).

This area is enormous and flat. we haven't climbed hills for 3 weeks and yet the size is still a fraction of our Canadian prairies.

Spring and maybe this one more than others has been a wonderous, delicious and entertaining time to cycle in this part of the world

our trip (so far)

3 emails now on the blog


not to replace e-mail and blog
but if you want to follow
our route
day 1 hayrabolu turkey the day of surviving adversity actually -1.1kms( minus although leah will debate this)
day2 havsa turkey 53 kms amazing first day
day 3 edirne turkey 40 kms a bit too much highway
day 4 svelingrad bulgaria 77kms through greece sunny no food in turkey
day 5 rest day in svelingrad sunny
day 6 topolovgrad 66kms cool overcast multiple hill climbs aprox 20-25 kms uphill WITH HEADWINDS
day 7 Nova Zagora overcast , less cold, not windy (until last 5 kms why is that) 69 kms

mileage debate between gps and cycle computer
leah found a bulgarian map leas detailed scale but the towns are written in bulgarian alphabet -VERY HELPFUL and more details of mileage between towns

route has been perfect -lightly travelled ( although vehicles are limited in this country) rural ride
roads vary from excellent to rutted and amazing potholes ( but these are tolerable
accomodation working out very well and inexpensive
lots of wondeful birds ( mainly LBJ little brown jobs-sy says BBB boring brown birds) all with wonderful songs
food fine
restaurant ordering a humerous endevour
tomorrow 40kms with a significant climb
then rest day
then another larger climb day
fitness and butts improving
us


2nd email

last e-mail re our route went to day 7 Nova Zagora
day 8 Tvardica ( can't do accents
no hotel initially but we were directed to a 'guest house that was so perfect we took a rest day for
day 9 rest day a fair bit of rakia ( home made brandy drunk by ambrose- Leah had a gall bladder attack scare
day 10 a climb and an amazing downhill to Veliko Tarnovo a pass route we had not predicted when we did our (leah's )map studying but we garner info as we travel
day 11we take a rest day in VT
day 12 stay in TVand celebrate catholic easter ( eastern orthodox palm sunday) by doing a local cycle without panniers to a historically important monastery (Dryanovski0 with accompanying caves
day 13 Pavlikeni via celebrated churches and monasteries at Arbanassi ( wonderous)
day 14 -our first hotel headache when our planned destination Pordim did not have a hotel so another 20 kms. to Pleven
day 15 rest day
day 16 griff's 14th BDay and our second hotel stress when the hotel in Nikopol existed but WAS CLOSED ( see blog) so we went on to
Belene 100 KMS !!!
day 17 svistov 50 kms from plevan ( read back)
day 18 ferry to romania to Turnu Magurele easter saturday and midnight eatser celebrations
day 19 ( today) our 3rd hotel stressful experience ( easter sunday) hotel in draganesti-olt existed but was closed and again we have to ride on for a total of 98.5 kms to slatina

tomorrow train to craiova we have headed furhter east and north than planned and will use train to get better positioned, save some energy and time, avoid big roads and experience romanian trains

next few days from romania to Vidin and on to serbia

there you go

hotel stress stressful but there are great positive stories on those days too and the boys are heroes with these challenges

3rd email

day 20 to craiova by train (we had lost days and got to far north east because of the hotel stress)
day 21 rest day in Craiova
day 22 trin to bailste and cycled to Vidin, bulgaria via Calafat
Day 23 into serbia and into negotin
day 24 over the carpathians to Donji Milanovac
Day 25 rest day short ride (50km) paniierless to narrowest part of danube
day 26 along danube gorge big tailwind and lots of tunnels sleep in golubac
day 27 croos danube meet nice german cyclists another tailwindy day sleep in bela cryka
day 28 80km day to pancevo great tail wind we were flying
day 29 rest day in belgrade (walked at least 20k
day30 north to ecka (thought to be 75km turned in to 107km after more hotel stres spen night in 4 star!!!
day 31 May Day tired legs and hypoglycemic ambrose into novi sad. hotel finiding a daily adventure. takes and hour of our time
rest day tommorow. croatia in 2 days. ed and paul in 16
a