At The Moment

We spent about a month very happily in Istanbul. Tom started his contract and spent most of each day working, but managed to join me in the late afternoons/evenings for outings and on his days off.  I bought a museum card and proceeded to work…

We entered Turkey at Edirne and there were a few things that were notable about it: (i) we had left our final “European” country (even if we had not left the European continent quite yet); and (ii) it felt like a bit of a homecoming…

Or, where COVID caught up with us. We had been hearing for the last couple of months that Europe was experiencing a second wave of COVID infections and that various countries were locking down again on the arrival of winter. Thus far, however, we had…

We decided to head to Kosovo for a couple of reasons: (i) it had always interested us given that the NATO operations here had been one of the major news events of our high school years; and (ii) it was the shortest (and flattest) route…

On entering Serbia, it certainly felt like we were leaving Europe behind. However, on reflection, this was really a case of a gradual move away from the West and towards the East. While we had been travelling through ex-Yugoslav countries for a while (probably 3…

Towards the end of our tour in Croatia we spent a fair bit of time considering what we would do next – the days were starting to get shorter and the temperatures suspiciously more brisk (to quote Thomas: “Well, it’s certainly not tropical!”). Suffice to…

Or, a back injury, backpacking, three Belgians, a boat and some bicycles. As a foreword on this section of the trip, our activities were largely influenced by the fact that Tom had suffered a back injury at the end of the last leg while swimming…

Or… Heat, hills and an in depth analysis of Croatian road planning. Our entrance into Croatia was somewhat comical. After enjoying the privilege of entering Europe and travelling freely for three months, on entering Croatia and leaving the Schengen zone, we once again needed to…

As we were getting pretty close to the end of my 90 days in the Schengen zone, we spent a bit of time considering whether we really should go to Slovenia or if we should just cycle through on the fastest route (translation: we got…

It is difficult to pick only a few things that summarize our time in Italy – but, if I had to choose something, “Mostly Just Negronis” probably sums it up relatively effectively. While obviously not an accurate summation of this incredible country at all, it…