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Entries made in November, 2009

Open School English Language Class

Monday, November 30th, 2009

After an uneventful day of working (Tyler) and grocery shopping, knitting, and reading (me) we decided to walk to Cafe Jazz for dinner. I had a cheeseburger and Tyler had a chicken pizza. We had finished our meal and were about to leave, when a g...

Youth Hostiles

Sunday, November 29th, 2009

Since our disturbing encounter with Mohammed, we've been slow to re-enter the free-camping world. Instead, we've been exploring other lodging options. Namely, the Youth Hostel. Neither of us has been to a youth hostel since we were single teenag...

Mixed Feelings

Saturday, November 28th, 2009

I've been thinking a lot lately about accepting the culture of the areas we travel through, both to better understand them, and at times, simply to stay sane. I was in high spirits as we rode this morning, happy we're adapting well to a myriad of ...

Eid al-Adh: Festival of Sacrifice

Friday, November 27th, 2009

The first thing we noticed about Monastir when we rolled in this morning were the numerous soccer games being played by all the local boys. As Tyler found out when he joined in on one of them, they are all on vacation from school because of the up...

Happy Thanksgiving

Thursday, November 26th, 2009

Tara Sometimes it seems odd that we should be out in the world going ever onwards, when my instincts tell me it is time to hole up for the season and hibernate. The coming winter and approaching holidays make me a little nostalgic and homesick. ...

Mahdia

Thursday, November 26th, 2009

We left our empty hostel around 10AM for a day of walking around Mahdia, hopeful that we'd witness some of the festivities of Eid al-Adh firsthand. It wasn't long before we found several trails of blood in the streets. They led to more ...

Sousse

Wednesday, November 25th, 2009

Last night we checked into a hostel, a first in many years for both of us. The simple room was relatively cheap and we both wanted some time to relax so we decided to spend another night. With a cycle-free day in front of us, we whiled away most ...

Kairouan

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

We left our hotel this morning after a very long, deep sleep, with a fresh positive attitude about being in Tunisia. Excited to see Kairouan, we spent this morning wandering around the medina. The streets were wider and brighter than other medina...

Out of the Orange Grove

Monday, November 23rd, 2009

I lay awake on "high alert" for most of the night, listening to the surprisingly busy traffic, and keeping my ears perked for any sounds of the gate creaking open. When the alarm went off at 5:00 AM, I immediately sat up and began rousing Tyler so...

No.

Sunday, November 22nd, 2009

It is good to be on the road again. Everything has quickly fallen into sync: we had crepes for breakfast before breaking from our secluded free-camp this morning, saw a giant spider and then made our way down the road. Par for the course! ...

Back in the Saddle

Saturday, November 21st, 2009

The man at the reception desk of our hotel wrote a note for us this morning before we ventured off for one last futile attempt at acquiring Libyan visas. The swirly, scribbly Arabic writing said (we hope) "Dear Libyan Embassy, this is our last day...

Touched

Saturday, November 21st, 2009

Most days the first thing Tyler does is check our email. This normally mundane task of ensuring that nothing has blown up at work has now become the highlight of our morning! As kind words pour in from around the world we've been taking turns rea...

Libyan Visa for Americans

Friday, November 20th, 2009

The Libyan Embassy has been stringing us along for two weeks. Each time we visit, they tell us to return in increasingly shorter time frames, saying everything is fine and that our visas will be ready soon. First it was five days, then three or f...

Computer Geeks

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

Last night I got to spend some time with Carla's 15 year old son Youssef working on the family computers. One of them no longer boots and they had several documents they needed to recover from it. Pleased to be able to do our generous hosts a fav...

Reaching Out

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

We had a look at our website traffic yesterday and were completely blown away by what we saw. In the last 30 days we've had over 15,000 hits from more than 50 countries, all coming to a website written on two tiny little laptops in a tent! Kee...

Laundry on the Road

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

At first it was pretty easy. In England and France we'd just use the washers and dryers present at most campsites. After a while though, especially upon entering Switzerland, we weren't willing to shell out the exorbitant sums campsites wanted si...

Libya Update

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

Thankfully, Tyler felt better this morning, and we headed off to the Libyan Embassy in Tunis for another round of trying to get our visas. The first time we visited, they said to come back in 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 days. When we returned on day five, they...

Sick in Tunisia

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

Two nights ago, Tyler came down with the flu (swine maybe, who knows). After one of at least twenty trips to the bathroom he weakly told me he felt like he'd been hit by a truck. Poor guy! We thought it might be the tap water, so I hauled out ou...

Cookware: GSI Outdoors Pinnacle vs Glacier

Monday, November 16th, 2009

There are a lot of options to choose from when considering what cook-set to bring on a world tour. Stainless steel for "expeditions", aluminum for pretty much everything, titanium for the weight weenies and various teflon coatings for all. Add to...

Sidi Bou Said

Sunday, November 15th, 2009

We walked to nearby Sidi Bou Said today and were surprised by how touristy it is compared with the shady little residential neighborhood where we are staying in La Marsa. Here are some photos from our afternoon excursion! Sidi Bou Said is lov...

Website Additions

Saturday, November 14th, 2009

I finally spent some time this weekend working on integrating our Bicycle Touring Database with our website. Most of the changes were to the google map on our home page. Each marker now shows photos and journal entries for the location when you c...

Tunis Medina

Friday, November 13th, 2009

Shortly after exiting the TGM station called "Tunis Marine", we walk by these flower markets on our way to the center of town. Our first major landmark is the Place du 7 Novembre, with its large clock-tower in the middle and a fountain just be...

Shipments Received

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

We've developed a pretty good system for getting things we need while on the road. First, we place orders online and have the items shipped to my parents house. Then, when we are planning to stay somewhere for awhile, they act as our support crew...

Easy Translation

Wednesday, November 11th, 2009

Last year for our anniversary we spent the day getting vaccinated for our trip. This year we spent it in Tunis! Rather than getting jabbed by needles, we used our time preparing as best as we could for our Libyan visa application. We'd read onli...

Researching

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

We spent the entire day researching route options for leaving Tunisia. Here are a few more photos of Tunis from yesterday: ...

Dear Libya

Monday, November 9th, 2009

When I was a kid, I loved adventure games. Growing up, I spent untold hours in front of my Dad's computer playing (and replaying and replaying again) LucasArts classics like Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Grim Fandango, The Secret of Monkey I...

Getting Acclimated

Sunday, November 8th, 2009

We spent most of the today researching visas, looking up embassies, and getting to know our hosts. They are fairly private people so we won't post much about them, but here are some photos we took today at their house. Here are two of their pet...

Welcome to Africa

Saturday, November 7th, 2009

We walk around Palermo this morning, absorbing our last bit of Italian culture before we leave. Our final stop is a pastry shop where we buy four cannoli for our future Tunisian hosts. The man behind the counter takes his time with gift wrapping ...

Time and Pressure

Friday, November 6th, 2009

Tyler It is hard to fathom that we're taking a ferry to Africa in less than 24 hours. Every now and then, one of us will turn to the other and say, "Hey guess what? We're going to Tunisia!" Outside of these moments, it hardly seems real. Even...

Safely Indoors

Thursday, November 5th, 2009

Thanks to a very generous donation from fellow touring cyclist we've been corresponding with, Fred Bouwman, we booked a hotel room in Palermo during our trip's worst free-camp last night. We were both giddy about the prospect of not stealth campin...

The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

Most of the day wasn't bad. We narrowly escaped some rain while packing our olive grove free-camp and then had a lovely uneventful ride along the coast. Cycling just feet from the crashing waves, we occasionally felt salty spray from particularly...

Autumn in the Mountains

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009

Our frosty free-camp at 1,400m (4,500ft) was so cold we blew off our 5:30am alarm this morning. Cuddled in our toasty warm tent we hoped the sun would come out sooner rather than later. It didn't. When we finally did summon the willpower to get ...

Serendipitous

Monday, November 2nd, 2009

It took a lot of willpower to leave our cozy sleeping bag this morning. Fall doesn't mess around in the mountains. It was cold! We both layered ourselves like onions in the tent before braving the day. Tara even tied one of our homemade bandana...

The Kindness of Strangers

Sunday, November 1st, 2009

Last night's campsite was just what we needed. Free camping is fun, but it comes with a slightly tiring set of challenges: lack of bathrooms, showers, sinks, garbage cans, and most importantly: the assurance that we belong there. Hotels are a lit...