Romanian Elections

We reached Brasov today. There was a many switchbacked climb to a 1263m pass in the Carpathians. The Carpathians fon't get much love. The Alps gather all the respect and girlfriends as Europes most famous range, while the Carpathians hang out in the corner being nice to everybody including us. The ride today was blue skies all the way, which highlighted dense beech forests climbing vertically up to rocky summits.  The road was betrucked but little betraveled so we did quite well.

The Romanian national elections are on June 1, so I get a chance to see deseprate campaigning in action. There are banners and posters and stickers everywhere, and yesterday I saw a dirtbike convoy supporting the PSD. This evening in Brazov, we ate down the way from the central square. As the evening lit up the spire of the age old church and saxon buildings, the sqaure was awash with Romanians enjoying their friday night by going to a political rally. This wasn't any rally either. This was an open air disco to benefit the PS-L,  for which I know nothing more than their orange color. This muct be a very liberal party, because the main act was a Romanian queen of House techno who was dancing in a way that would make Democrats blush and Dick Cheney die. Daft Punk for Prez! The citizens seemed to eat it up though. I saw plenty of orange shirts walking away afterward. 

Now into the heart of Transylvania. I watched Werner Herzog's Nosferatu while in China, so I know what to do if our next hostel is in a ruined castle.

Bergama-Akçay-Trojan Plain-Çanakkale

And so it goes: all of a sudden we are deep in the bike trip... even though I'm sıttıng here ın an Internet Cafe ın İstanbul's Sultanahmet quater. We have more than 300km behind us now and each k (well 10k) has a story. I'll stick to highlights, like American coverage of LeTour.

There was the Akropolis at Bergama. We rode up there in the morning wıthout our bags and I found it was so steep I could accelerate away from cars who were trying to sell me rugs. The top was breathtaking where the views' the ruıns and the red red poppys knocked me out individually and en suite. Riding gives one the ability to apprecıate wildflowers on the side of the road. İts very nice.

There was the uneven road that became a cobbled road that became a dirt road as we moved farther into the small roads on the map as we attempted to cut off a large lobe into the aegean. Prepared Dad had gotten us Armadillo tires so that punctures were never a problem. The road wound up and down through towns that are never mentioned ina guide book. It was just after mahgrib so the cafes were full with people who fell silent as we went passed.

There was lunch on Sat. where we were mobbed by 3rd graders after one got over the shyness to ask us our names. This mass of excited field tripping kids engulfed Thomas and eventually we had to beat a quıck retreat down the road.

There was the Trojan Plain in the soft evening light. We had made it out towards the end of the day because of a headwind and we had ridden off the map so we were just guessing. Positive Dad believed we could find a room or make it to Troy, but ıt was not to be. We camped in an olıve grove and feasted on a tomato Ekmek bread and some goat cheese which we surprisingly couldnt finish. There were three of us and my two person tent and my (Sophie's) sleeping pad, so I slept outside on the fly. İt was too cold for bugs so İ was fine. We rode into Troy the next morning at sunrise.

We enquired in the last town before camping for directions and a man said he had seen us riding that morning 80km ago. We do stick out.

The three has become two. We dropped Thomas off in Çanakkale and we took the bus up to İstanbul. Today we took a long walk around the city that was highlighted by inadvertantly stuffing ourselves at a Bürek shop. One of the ways this city is remarkable is because of the thousand or so minarets that pierce the skyline. İt makes you look up and that makes you notice the birds. İts very nice. We will take the train to Bucareşt tomorrow night to begin biking again. I cant wait.

1ere Etage: Izmir a Bergama

99km 18.7 km/hr

And we are off. The rıde today started off nasty. The road to Çanakkale was full of semıs that passed wıthın feet of us. Also Dad needed to pee a lot as a result of hıs hydratıon efforts. Luckıly, most of the traffıc ended after we passed an oil refınery. Then our fırst stage went from stressful to ıdyllıc. We rolled smoothly through the ınland plaıns, wıth pleasant lorry-drıvers gıvıng us a genıal honk as they passed ın the far lane.

There were many fears held by many people at the begınnıng thıs trıp. Blogs have been renowned for swayıng public opınıon, and I would lıke to channel that power and let the world know that after one day, we are tıred but happy and feel great about the whole thıng. In fact, I am only worrıed that today gave us an unrealıstıc vıew of thıngs (we had a taılwınd the whole way and a beautıful turkısh woman gave us dırectıons to a perfect lıttle B&B ın Bergama). It does not get better than ıt was today. We wıll see what tomorrow holds.

at kast

hello all! I am kıssıng the gound breathıng huge gulps of censorshıp free ınternet aır-- ın Turkeyö where all the ı,s seem to have lost theır dots to another place on the keyboardç I am sorry about my apparent lack of ınterest ın bloggıng recently. It ırks me because there have been so many bloggable moments ın the past weeks. So many wıttıcısms that my audıence would have found so clever.

So, I am summıng up some of the last week ın Kunmıng, weekend ın Beijing, flıght to Düsseldorf, and touchdown ın Izmir in a serıes of haıkus.

Went to embassy
"pass sewn with new pages please"
"need word from DC"

Chinas where people cross
the street when ever they want
here we wait- so lame

I eat müslıx
ten bowls- stıll not satısfıed
need rıce ın the morn

If you dont thınk that haıkus are buılt lıke that, youll have to revıew. They just changed the standardsç

We depart on the bıkıng adventure tomorrow. the shakedown run today was encouragıng. Ill be checkıng ın as much as possıble as we roll up the Aegean.

Prologue

I got a tune up ride in this weekend with the gregarious Ruud Batta, a Dutchman dating another Shansi fellow. Having brought his bike to Kunming over a year ago he is one of the most knowedgeable cyclists I can talk to in these here parts. I rented a quality mountain bike for a pittance and we shoved off late on Saturday morning. The ride out of the city was hectic, because I haven't mastered the no-rules flavor of asian driving. The idea of biking directly in front of a moving semi-truck is something I'm still not comfortable with. Ruud jumped ahead of me about 50 meters at every intersection.

Once we got out of the city, cars got scarce and hills got frequent. We passed farmers covering the road with hay in order for car's tires to thresh it. It was a cloudy day so we couldn't see for ever, but the endless green ridges soldiering off to oblivion was image enough. It was a good ride.

Side note, we were supposed to pass a house with ferocious and unchained dogs. I steeled myself for it, and all Ruud could tell me is to bike for my life. The dogs never appeared, but the terror was definately there. I plan on having a three foot smackin' stick at easy access on my bike and to take mounted combat lessons over the next week.

The ride was about 60 k. All above 2000 meters. I'm excited.

OK, this is pretty ridiculous. I think that China is trying to censor my
blog. At first I blamed internet explorer for not directing me to the
Shawdyssey, but now I am beginning to truely think that the problem runs
deeper. I can't read any of my favorite blogs [Rough Draft and The APB]
or search craigslist. Very sinister. I'm going underground by having my
daddy post this from 'mrrica.

China has been great though, as you can see. The May holidays made for a 5
day weekend for Sophie. We got oput of Kunming and up into one of my most
romanticized parts of the globe, where the Yangtze, Mekong and another river
bunch up and run parallel out of the himalaya. We had a fantastic two day
hike through the Tiger Leaping Gorge where the Yangze basically undercuts
frosty peakes two and a half miles above it.

Another highlight of the trip was Dali, a medieval feeling city made of
marble with mountains on one side and a large lake on the other. We took a
bateau mouche out to the middle of the lake to a picturesque monastery.
After that, we were ferried to a small fishing town where before we knew it
a man had smacked two wriggling green fish on the pavement and begun to gut
them for us. After other dishes were agreed upon (by them), we had just
enough time to walk through a small cave with some pretty stalactites before
our midday feast was prepared. The shock came at the end of the delicious
meal that also included tiny squids and lettucy fungi when the bill read 250
yuan or about $40 (10x a reagular meal). Gram, your gracious contribution to
our travels covered it. An unforgetable experience.

As for those who think that I'm not training up here, just know that I'm
living at an elevation somewhat above Denver. I'M TRAINING ALL THE TIME MUAH
HA HA HA HA.