update

Posted by: Peter

Lindsey and I crossed into Turkey from Bulgaria two days ago in Edirne. Our route from Plovdiv Bulgaria to Edirne is the only part of this trip that overlapped the first trip. We connected with Durukan in Edirne, who was a key connection on our first trip our first night, who introduced us to Volkan and his family (now living in a different part of Turkey), who wound up hosting us for a week while we waited for Nakia’s Bulgarian visa that us Americans didn’t have to worry about. Durukan graciously came through again, this time finding us an amazing and generous host, Ahmed, who is a chief on a container ship and is only home for one month in four. Lucky us, this is his time home! Thank You Ahmed and Durukan!

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Posted by: Peter

As Drew and Kallie mentioned, we are alive and well in northern Greece! In the interest of time and cutting down on cold rainy weather, we took a ferry from Ancona, Italy to Igoumenista, Greece. Greece has been very mountainous and sparcely populated, but very beautiful. The Greek people have been more smiley than the Italians and very welcoming.

We stayed with a kind couchsurfing host in Igoumenista, Ozan, a 20 year old foriegn student from Turkey who was brave to take us on after only moving in himself 1 month before.

And tonight, a Godsend, Jason, approached us in the street after a hard day of mountains, rain, and cool weather, to invite us in for coffee, that turned into hot showers, that turned into staying the night. He and his roommate, both young Americans, hosted a Lord of the Rings 3 viewing tonight with about ten other people. As movie nights for us are quite rare, this was perfect and well appreciated. Oh, and did I mention they bought us dinner? Huge Gyros the size of my head. Most Excellent. Thanks, Jason, for being our 2nd spontaneous host!

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Posted by: Peter

Imagine sitting inside a gourmet Italian chef’s home with the chef himself greeting and welcoming you into his home. Imagine slowly savoring the first of over 10 courses (counting drinks)in a set meal, which is beautifully and simply local olives soaked in herbs and olive oil, while sipping on local wine that has no lable with enough for nearly one bottle per person by the end of the meal. Then, Liquors following the meal that you pour yourself. Finally, imagine on top of all of this, taking in a breath-taking view down a beautiful valley of olive tree groves and medieval churches to the Mediterranen Sea, where on a clear day, one can see the island of Corsica in the distance. Price for everything: only 30 Euro a person.

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Posted by: Peter

We are safe and sound in another gracious host’s home near Romans, France!  Thank you Miguel and family!

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Rain

Posted by: Tori

In my last post I believe I mentioned something about “being a human sponge” and I really had no idea how accurate that statement was. I have been a sponge in the past 18 days of this trip in every sense of the word. To start, I soaked up the adventure and hospitality in Worms with Claudia and her family. I enjoyed meals and laughter, new friendships and sun in the garden working on bikes. I was overwhelmed with the changes in setting and culture traveling from Michigan, to New York with family, to NYC, to Germany, then Paris, then back to Worms. I tried to remain open and absorb the ambiance and soul of each and every place and person I encountered. This was both exhilarating and exhausting- or so I thought…

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