Gray looks like a happy camper
We aborted our plans for an all day hike in the Tatras Mountains after reaching the tree line and realizing the swarm of flies had only gotten worse. It was awful! And some of them were biting flies. We pretty much sprinted back down.
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Upon entering Slovakia, we abandoned the open flatness of Hungary and quickly found ourselves with burning quads as we rode between small towns nestled in the valleys of the Tatras Mountains. It was worth it though– hills definitely make for beautiful scenery. We generally rode 50-60 km per day. While that may not sound like that much to those cyclists among you, I assure you, with fully loaded bikes and some hefty hills, we were beat by the end of the day and easily slept 10 hours per night. My quads are now HUGE! ; )
Esztergom, Hungary and the Danube from Štúrovo, Slovakia
A few noteworthy tidbits about Slovakia:
View from a Hilltop in Kremnica
In other news, we celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary in Slovakia, and to get mushy on you for just a sec, I have to say that I’m still so in love with Gray. This past year together has been so special and has really reinforced that we are great together. I feel truly fortunate that we have been able to travel together and experience such amazing things together over the past months.
More photos from Slovakia here.
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Bicycling across Europe has been on the top of our to-do list ever since a very good friend of ours made us incredibly jealous describing his week pedaling across the French countryside complete with frequent stops at cafes and wineries and nights spent in chateaus. Our yearlong budget doesn’t afford places like France and Italy, but we do have the luxury of a whole lot of time on our hands. We ended up budgeting a full two months of time to explore eastern Europe by bike – so exciting!
Aileen checks the maps
We picked Vienna as home base because that’s where Aileen’s super-supportive extended family lives. From there we were able to acquire bikes, paniers (luggage bags), a toolkit, extra inner tubes, maps, and the like for what turned out to be a real song. Aileen, who decided long ago that the only way to bicycle across Europe was wearing a dress, was prepared with three gorgeous dresses purchased back in Turkey. With a borrowed bike from Aileen’s aunt helping tremendously, our total equipment and dress outlay was way less than expected at under $300. And our stay with family had another added bonus: we were able to fuel up big time on delicious home cooking; we’re still burning those calories off weeks later!
On our first morning we headed east from Wöllersdorf and into Burgenland, a major wine and relaxation region of Austria over by the Hungarian border. These first days were across flat, green farmland and through picturesque little towns. Austria is etched in my mind as rows of cute houses trimmed with window boxes of blooming flowers. I’m still baffled by the fact that these flowers seem to be perpetually in bloom whenever I visit the country.
In general our route took us east across Austria and then north to the Danube river which we would follow all the way to Budapest. We saw a touch of Slovakia in its capital, Bratislava, before entering the Hungarian portion of the Danube.
Each day followed a very clear and rewarding pattern: wake up and eat breakfast (smuggle leftovers for a snack), bike through beautiful scenery, eat lunch in a cute, small town, bike some more, find a place to stay in another adorable town, eat dinner, and fall early into a deep, blissful sleep. It’s been great, but it doesn’t make for a compelling play-by-play: “Aileen pedals hard and, seeing a slight incline ahead, downshifts. Her cadence jumps to around 80. Gray follows close behind…” Instead, here are some highlights:
- Riding through parks of wind turbines. These things are huge and oddly beautiful and ugly at the same time. We got to ride right beneath them and stopped to stare straight up in awe for quite some time. We did learn an important lesson: windmills mean wind and, most importantly, you never want to find yourself riding a bicycle when you’re facing the same direction as the windmills.
- Győr: We rolled straight into the main square of this Hungarian town and didn’t leave for hours. The centerpiece was the fountain that was designed to be highly interactive. We watched scores of kids running around half-naked trying to predict just where the next jets of water would emerge. In the evening we watched the Germany / Australia world cup game along with what seemed like the entire town on an immense jumbo-tron set up on the opposite side of the river from our seats amongst the temporary stadium bleachers. Too bad I picked Australia to root for, ugh.
- We happened unexpectedly upon a super-crowded water park in the tiny, tiny town of “I don’t even remember the name” in rural Hungary. Who knows where all these people came from. We couldn’t pass up such an obvious gem and ended up spending the better part of a day lounging on shaded grass, swimming in the wave pool, and relaxing in the mineral pools.
One side of the world's best town square in Vac, Hungary
- One morning we passed by a you-pick strawberry patch. Not having a set agenda is great. We turned right around and picked to our hearts’ content. No joke: these were the best strawberries I’ve ever tasted.
- The recent flooding of the Danube was really interesting. Aileen’s family spent a lot of time warning us about it before we took off and luckily it’s now back down mostly within the banks. It was amazing to see just how high the water had been so recently. At some points we could see in the leaves of the trees that the water had been something like 10 feet over our heads as we rode down a cycle path. It must have been terrible for the folks who live here.
- Vác: This little town a days ride from Budapest has the very best town square in the entire world (you heard it here first!). Complete with delicious restaurants and seemingly endless dessert cafes, the square is both beautiful and functional. It even has a skateboard park. Full disclosure: Aileen thinks this is only the second-best town square in the world because Győr’s won her heart. We say move Győr’s fountain to Vác and end the debate.
After a brilliant trip, we spent several days recuperating in Budapest, exploring the beautiful historic castles of Buda and the restaurants and clubs of lively Pest (the two towns on opposing sides of the river were joined in 1873). And then it was time to head off again! But that will have to wait for the next post.
More photos from this leg of our journey are here.
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We have done some pretty amazing hikes on this trip, including several that frequently top lists of the most amazing hikes in the world and deservedly attract swarms of hikers. The Lycian Way in Turkey, on the other hand, receives very little such attention and was almost deserted while we were there. That being said, we found it to hold its own among these legendary trails and think it is truly a hidden gem. The fact that you don’t have to gamble with the alpine and sub-alpine weather of many of those other treks is an added bonus. This is the Mediterranean, after all!
Hiking the Lycian Coast
We only hiked a short part of the 509 km (316 mile) Lycian Way, a one-day hike from Oludeniz to Kabak Valley. (We know that at some point in our lives, we will have to hike the whole thing from end to end.) The entire challenging trail hugs the Mediterranean Coast, taking you along and over jagged cliffs overlooking the sea as you hike from small town to small town. Many nights you can lodge in and eat at tiny guest houses. You can stop by some of the many beaches along the way to cool off. If you can get past the frustrating paucity of information to be found about the Lycian Way, you will be rewarded. We cannot recommend it highly enough.
Our own journey ended at a little slice of heaven, the Shambala Resort in tiny Kabak Valley. We had planned to stay only one night in order to return to Fethiye for a 3-night boat trip, but we canceled our plans when we realized that we had stumbled upon paradise. (The screaming deal we negotiated– less than half the advertised price– didn’t hurt either.)
Shambala is a peaceful resort perched on the hillside of Kabak Valley overlooking Kabak Beach. It is very new age, billing itself as an 11:11 project. But somehow, chatting with the staff about their quests to attain a higher plane of consciousness just felt right at this place, even to these two skeptics. It’s hard to describe exactly what it is that makes it so amazing; the Lonely Planet describes it as “more than the sum of its parts”. I would say that it gets all of the details right, from the wooden sculptures to the cozy seating areas to the mind-bogglingly delicious organic food. It is also run with such attentiveness and efficiency that when we commented that the little seating area outside our bungalow could use some shade, within fifteen minutes there were five men putting a thatched roof over it. And the zen of the place and inner peace of the staff can’t help but infuse the atmosphere. A fellow guest quipped, “Peace, love, and dinner at eight,” and we couldn’t agree more.
Unfortunately, we have no pics from Kabak or our Lycian Way hike since we accidentally left our memory card behind in Fethiye… oops! Well, that’s just one more reason why we’ll have to go back. Pics from Fethiye and a day hike we did in the area here.
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One thing that has been really amazing on this trip is seeing landscapes that are completely different from anything we are familiar with, landscapes that feel other-worldly. The salt flats of Bolivia, the moonscape-like desert on the Tongariro Circuit (New Zealand), the moss forest on the Routeburn trail (New Zeland), and the huge glaciers in Patagonia: all of these were jaw-droppingly fantastical. Turkey has delivered one more: the fairy chimneys of Cappadocia.
Fairy chimneys in Cappadocia have been carved by both the elements and people
Fairy chimneys are these huge rock towers that were formed when the surrounding rock eroded. Chunks of harder rock cap the towers, protecting them from the elements. They are gorgeous and strange. The huge rock structures are sometimes golden, sometimes rose colored, and they positively glow when hit by evening or morning light. Persecuted early Christians (Byzantines) carved homes and churches into these structures, and the resulting labyrinths of interconnected rooms is mind-boggling. They also carved pigeon holes into walls so they could collect the droppings, which apparently make for excellent fertilizer. Who knew?
It is a wonderful area to just set off in a random direction and wander. There are a number of marked paths through the various valleys, but they are surprisingly difficult to follow since enterprising Turks are quick to supplement the trail markings with signs pointing you to their fine establishments. No matter, as all of it was beautiful and interesting, and scrambling into and through the twisting passageways of these ancient dwellings was tremendous fun.
Old cave dwellings in Çavuşin, Cappadocia
But what we loved most of all about Cappadocia was something we loved about all of Turkey: the relaxed pace epitomized by lounging on Turkish-rug-covered cushions around a low table playing backgammon. We spent a good number of hours doing just that.
More photos from Cappadocia here.
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