Audio Entries
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Off the Beaten Path
Tuesday, August 24th, 2010Our last adventure in the Siberian countryside left us feeling like it might be a good idea to stick to the highway for at least a few days. Though off-roading in our LRC is exciting, we want to be ...
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Russia's Golden Ring: Rostov
Friday, August 6th, 2010The cities on our Golden Ring tour are teeming with ancient architecture, including loads of Russia's iconic onion domes. Leaving Petroslavl-Zalessky, Tara read from a website I'd saved about our ne...
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Heat Wave
Monday, July 26th, 2010St. Petersburg is currently setting all-time records for heat. We're not enthusiastic about going out this morning, but we need to get our visas registered. Though we have three business days to co...
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Into Saint Petersburg
Sunday, July 25th, 2010Tyler: We've just crossed the Russian border, and are now driving towards St Petersburg. As we cruise through the familiar scenery of birch and pine forests, I flip on the radio. A crackly voice co...
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Christmas in July
Monday, July 19th, 2010Santa's Village in Roveniemi, Finland was our big attraction for the day. Apparently, it rests right on the line where the Arctic circle begins. At first we were pretty disappointed, it was most...
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Saami Museum
Thursday, July 15th, 2010We stayed at our hotel late into the morning, sleeping restfully in the novel darkness afforded by closed curtains. When we finally roused ourselves around 10AM, our overpriced, stingy hotel redeeme...
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Roadside Oddities
Tuesday, July 13th, 2010Here we are, just drivin' through Finland, when we come to an abrupt halt because we've officially reached reindeer territory. There are loads of them, just milling about on the highway. Here they ...
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Lake Hopping
Sunday, July 11th, 2010Today, we are making ourselves at home in Finland. We've ditched the itineraries we found online, and are simply winging it as we head north towards the Arctic Circle. Feeling as free as we did on ...
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Sandcastles and Lakes
Saturday, July 10th, 2010Today, we left Helsinki and headed into the Finnish countryside. It was a relief to leave the expensive city behind, watching metallic cityscapes transition into woods and forest. For our route, Ty...
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Into Estonia
Wednesday, July 7th, 2010Tyler: As I checked us out of our campsite this morning, I sheepishly handed a note to the woman working in the office. Before packing our tent, I had torn a piece of paper from one of our notebooks...
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Baltic Amber Road
Saturday, July 3rd, 2010I wake up at 7:00 AM to stifling sun, blaring techno, and a very grumpy Tyler. Hoo boy, is he cranky after a night of no sleep. We get to work packing immediately. Thankfully there is little but t...
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Up All Night
Saturday, July 3rd, 2010Normally, I can sleep through just about anything. For some reason, last night was a miserable exception to this rule. With Tara enviably dead to the world next to me, I tossed and turned, unable t...
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Over the River and Through the Woods
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010Tyler: Stopping to take photos is definitely easier when you're on a bicycle. But, we don't let that deter us. When there is no shoulder, we just hang our camera (or, if you are me, yourself) out o...
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In the Map
Tuesday, June 29th, 2010Tyler: We leave Janka's apartment this morning, supplied with two big boxes of Polish chocolates, ham and cheese sandwiches, heartfelt hugs, and enthusiastic well wishes. As we pull away, waving wil...
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Road Trip Begins!
Monday, June 21st, 2010We spent our last day with Nadine and Felix checking off the final items from our to-do list. These were mostly our shopping-related chores. Namely, finding them fun T-shirts, and finding us the th...
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Dresden Thunderstorm
Tuesday, June 8th, 2010It rained on and off all day. Nice, warm, summer rain. This evening, we enjoyed our most dramatic thunderstorm yet! this time last year Chez Pierre & Julien ...
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No Bikes Allowed: A Train Story, Part Two
Wednesday, May 19th, 201012:29 AM Four hours since our train left us behind, we're back on platform three, waiting. A train whistle sounds in the distance, and people start filing across the rails to join us. The station a...
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Sounds of Sibiu
Sunday, May 16th, 2010I was roused this morning around 7AM by a raucous, twittering racket just outside our tent. The early birds in the trees surrounding us were tweeting and chirping so loudly they may as well have bee...
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120 Kilometer Day
Saturday, May 15th, 2010As we were eating breakfast this morning (a heartier, double portion of yesterday's delicious sausage and egg feast), Lily informed us that today's weather was supposed to be "crazy". According to t...
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A Walk in Braşov
Friday, May 14th, 2010We started the morning off with a delicious breakfast cooked by Lily, the woman who owns Casa Timar. Along with her husband and grown son, she runs their family's cozy pensiune. This morning we exc...
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A Life Less Ordinary
Monday, April 26th, 2010The first day back on the road after a brief interlude of buffet breakfasts and silky sheets can be a little difficult, especially when it looks like rain. As we wheeled out of the Hotel Anna parkin...
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Into Romania
Friday, April 16th, 2010With a good attitude, relatively clean bikes, and the excitement that comes from approaching a new country, we breakfasted on our new staple of bread, butter, and honey, and set off towards a better ...
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Hello Serbia
Thursday, April 1st, 2010Three hundred and sixty five days of travel. Nine countries and fifteen thousand kilometers covered by bicycle, foot, ferry, train, mobylette and camel. More than four hundred journal entries. Fas...
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Springtime in Macedonia
Wednesday, March 31st, 2010Riding out of hilly Stip was a wonderful thing. Once we left the city limits, we were treated to a ever-so-slight downhill that lasted almost all day. A sky full of puffy clouds vacillated between ...
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Athens General Strike
Thursday, March 11th, 2010I had trouble getting to sleep last night. As rest eluded me, I lay awake for what seemed like hours, staring at the ceiling with anticipation. It was late when I finally drifted off, and quite ear...
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Athens Markets
Saturday, March 6th, 2010Apart from buying groceries and cooking, we've spent the majority of the last week cooped up in the apartment staring into our respective computer screens, working away. In a welcome change of pace,...
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Buskers of Athens: Part #2
Friday, March 5th, 2010One of the few things Tara and I really like about big cities are the buskers. We love going out for a walk here, if only in the hopes of stumbling upon a good musician. Athens doesn't disappoint! ...
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Buskers of Athens: Part #1
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010During our walk around Athens yesterday, we ran into lots of buskers. We only got recordings of two of them, but I think we'll capture a few more over the next week. There were numerous accordion...
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Climbing in Crete
Thursday, February 25th, 2010I drift in and out of sleep, in a very cozy morning haze. I think I hear a truck crunching over gravel... probably Pietro off to milk his sheep. Before I drift back into unconsciousness, the though...
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Pushing Through Paradise
Wednesday, February 24th, 2010We were thankful for the shelter of our tiki hut this morning when we discovered it had rained in the night. We really and truly no longer take having a roof over our heads for granted! Since the a...
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Lasithi Plateau and Dikteon Andron Cave
Monday, February 15th, 2010Last night when I downloaded our GPS tracks I was surprised to find that yesterday was our third biggest climbing day of the trip! The only two rides that topped it were Julierpass in Switzerland an...
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Celebrating Sunday
Sunday, February 14th, 2010I would never have imagined this to be true, but many of our favorite days involve slowly climbing mountains. As long as we bring copious amounts of food, start the day with a positive attitude, and...
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What Matters
Saturday, February 6th, 2010We awoke excited about our plans for the day. Last night I'd discovered that just ten kilometers away was a town with a rack and pinion railway leading into the mountains. Our guidebook said it was...
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Partying Patras
Thursday, February 4th, 2010The first five minutes of earth-shakingly loud techno music BLASTING into our Patras hotel room at 11:00 AM was kind of fun. (OOH DANCE PARTY!) After the five minute mark the novelty had worn off a...
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Ciao Bella!
Monday, February 1st, 2010Though the day dawned brilliantly, the sun wasn't providing much in the way of warmth. Amidst millions of shimmering dewdrops in our churchyard free-camp, we groggily blew into our chilly hands and ...
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Coasting
Sunday, January 31st, 2010According to our database, after ten months on the road we've ascended 108,469 meters and descended 108,215 more. Imperially speaking, that is nearly 70 miles in each direction. We have officially ...
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Just Right
Tuesday, January 26th, 2010We've only been here two nights and two days but Tara and I enthusiastically agree; we think we'd like to live here. The city of Potenza has a particular vibe, a quiet welcoming sort of quality abou...
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Climbing in the Cold
Friday, January 22nd, 2010The day didn't start out very cold. In fact, the first twenty five kilometers of our trek east were just beautiful; much flatter than I expected they would be too! We cruised through non-stop civil...
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Field Recording
Thursday, January 21st, 2010During yesterday's ride, we enjoyed the Amalfi scenery on our second trip through it's unforgettable coastline. Though it provided spectacular views once more, we'd forgotten how mountainous the are...