Category Archives: Europe

11/02/2013 – 121 days/12609 miles

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After my easy border cross into Serbia, I figured there would be no problem getting into Croatia.
Right away, the agent was asking quite a few more question, but no big deal. He took my passport, registration, and insurance/greencard and started entering something into his computer.
“We’ve got a problem,” (…fuck…what could be the problem?!) “This computer is old and slow” (WHEW!)
So I sat there for about 20 minutes, playing with a couple stray dogs while waiting for them to finish processing everything. And the whole time I was staring at the hillside…my first glimpse of Croatia…a massive landfill.

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10/31/2013 – 119 days/12177 miles

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Well folks, here’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for…another weird address…or directions more specifically.
I left Budapest in the morning and got into Novi Sad, Serbia last night with these instructions, from Google:
Exit route 7, go 4.6km (sounds good)
Turn left on Temerinska/Temepnhcka go 1.2km (will do, thanks for that Latin spelling as well!)
Turn left at Slovak Evangelist Church (uh, ok)
Turn left at Board Shop Novi Sad (really?!)
Turn right at Levi9 Global Sourcing (go to hell google maps!)
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10/27/2013 – 115 days/11827 miles

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Six years ago when I went to Glacier National Park, many people old me that I better be ready for the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen. It made me a bit nervous, as I felt that it wouldn’t be able to live up to my expectations. Fortunately, it far exceeded what I was expecting.
Coming to Budapest has been very similar…everyone had told me that it’s wonderful, so I’d braced myself to be a little unimpressed.
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10/20/2013 – 108 days/11472 miles

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At a glance, an address from another country can sometimes be a little bit confusing, but it’s really been interesting to see how different the addresses in small villages can be.  For example, in Nemčičky, where I’m staying now, street names apparently are not necessary.  It’s a small enough place that everything just has a number.  And on top of that, the numbers don’t seem to line up in any way that would make it possible for an outsider to predict where a given house is.
An example of the order of house numbers I saw while walking down the main street…all these are from the same side of the road:
206, 92, 180, 159, 162, 179

10/13/2013 – 101 days/11433 miles

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We met up on Sunday morning (5 bikes) to head up to Brno.  Being that it’s an opportunity for people to ride on a race track, there were obviously mostly sport bikes up there, so I (wearing cordura/goretex riding gear) looked a little bit out of place on an Enduro wearing panniers.  And the Colorado license plate didn’t lessen the surprised/confused looks that I seemed to get.
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10/11/2013 – 99 days/11333 miles

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The village I’m in is called Nemčičky, which is in the Moravia region of the Czech Republic.  This area has a really strong wine culture (To put into perspective how important wine is in this region…in Nemčičky, they produce 2000 liters of wine per resident annually), and the majority of the houses here (and in the nearby villages) have wine cellars in their backyards.  Although they are used a little less often today, it is still very common for the families in the area to make enough wine for their own consumption.
And if having a small wine cellar in your backyard isn’t enough, there’s a place in the nearby town of Vrbice where you can buy or rent a wine cellar.  These are built into the hillside, and there are 12 different levels of them as you go up or down the hill.
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