The Route

So, you may be asking:  where exactly do we plan to go?

Honestly, we’re still working on that.  But here’s the basics:

I officially finish my service on July 3, 2012.  Around the 27^th of June, Will and Zach will make their way towards Armenia.  My sisters will be visiting me until July 6^th, so the six of us (two sisters, two bikers, one sister’s friend, and I) will bum around Armenia for a few days, taking in the sites, drinking some vodka, and eating some khorovats and dolma.

On July 6, when my sisters and friend depart, Will, Zach and I will take a train up to Tbilisi, Georgia.  From there, we’ll take a train to Batumi, Georgia. 

From Batumi, we’ll bike across the Turkish border to Kars.  Because Turkey is ginormous, we’ll train to Istanbul and spend a few days there.

From Istanbul, we’ll take a train to Thessalonika, Greece, and it is from here that we will actually start biking.

We will bike from Thessalonika, along the northern border of Greece to Igoumentisa on the coast.  From there we will take a ferry to Brindisi, Italy, and bike around there for a bit, carb loading on delicious pasta and enjoying the south of Italy.  Eventually, depending on how much time we have, we’ll make our way to Bari, another sea port.  Sadly, this is where we’ll lose Zach, who will have to head home for various celebrations.  Fear not, for Will and I will continue on our merry way, heading to Croatia by boat.

This is where things start to get fuzzy, as far as the planning goes.  We want to bike up the coast of Croatia as far as we can before shooting over to Plitvice National Park, which has been dubbed as one of the most beautiful things on the surface of the planet.  We’ll play there for as long as we can before heading to the capital of Croatia (Zagreb), take a train from there to Munich, hang out in Munich for a few days before flying home on September 13^th. 

That’s the plan.  Or, what passes for a plan at this point.  We’ll keep you posted.

Hi. I'm Katrina.

As Will mentioned, I’m the instigator of this harebrained scheme of ours to bike across Europe… at least as far as Will and Zach are concerned.

Let me explain the REAL reason why we’re doing this.

I’m finishing up two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Armenia.  For those of you who don’t know where that is (trust me, I didn’t either until I found out I was going to be living there for two years), Armenia is located in the Caucuses region of Europe—meaning that it lies with one foot in Europe and one foot in Asia.  It’s a landlocked country and shares a border with Iran in the south (don’t worry, that’s actually one of our safe borders!), Georgia in the north, Turkey to the west (our first closed border), and Azerbaijan to the east (our second closed border).  For the last two years I’ve been teaching English at a high school in a small town, training teachers in new methodologies, learning how to speak Armenian, making Armenian friends, and just generally bumming about. 

I came over here with 58 of the most awesome people I have ever met—my fellow Volunteers, the 18^th group of PCVs to come to Armenia.  One of these wonderful people is my friend Meag.  Meag and I lived in the same village during our two months of training when we first got here, and quickly became friends when we realized that we both enjoyed being slightly crazy in the outdoors (she’s a biker who has climbed, I’m a climber who has biked).  Meag was placed in a town about three hours away from me—which is actually really close, in Peace Corps terms.  One day last winter Meag mentioned that she was planning a trip with a friend of hers from back home—a trip that would include biking across Europe after we had finished our work in Armenia.  I must have wistfully mentioned that taking a long-distance bike trip was a lifetime goal of mine, because she got very excited and invited me along.  I said yes.

However, as is wont to happen when one starts to plan two years in advance, things have changed.  First Meag’s friend dropped out, than my friend who was going to join us.  Somewhere in all this, Zach jumped on board.  Then the unbelievable happened:  Meag got a kick-ass job in Costa Rica… starting immediately. 

Like any sane person, she took it. 

So while Will credits (and, I’m sure, will blame when we’re in our third day of thundershowers or lost in the wilderness of Croatia) me with this trip… it’s not actually me.  But I’ll take the credit, as long as it’s awesome.  Meag can be sure that I’ll be blaming her when we’re in our third day of thundershowers or lost in the wilderness of Croatia.  But, as far as I’m concerned, that’s only fair.

Oh The Places We Will Go

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go...”

I have chosen Dr. Seuss's "Oh The Places You Will Go" as the theme of this blog, trip and while I'm at it my life. I have used what little brains I have in my head to embark on a trip of epic proportions with two High School friends. Lets meet my partners in crime:




Katrina Lefrancois-Hanson
Originator and instigator of this trip, she is finishing up a two year stint with the Peace Corps in Armenia. I met Katrina through Kira Helm (thank you Kira) in High School at the local Climbing wall.



Zach Hale
I met Zach in band at Lake Stevens High School, we were never close, probably because I was a snobby trumpet player, but Zach is apparently super-ridiculously-computer-savvy and works by laptop as he treks around the world. I'm pretty sure he is the James Bond of web design.





Then there's me...Will Trimble I just scored a sweet new gig with Kama'aina Kids on Oahu so the natural thing to do is to ask them for a 2 1/2 month vacation after working for one month, they naturally agreed...naturally.





So that's it, that's us. The group is a strange one but I think each of us fills a personality role and we will learn more about each other as we take this journey together. What journey is that you might ask?!

Starting approximately June 28th we will meet in Yerevan, Armenia then spend the next 2.5 months avoiding death (as best we can) riding bikes across Europe eventually departing from Munich, Germany. Why would we design a trip that is obviously going to be mentally and physically challenging? I'll give you three reasons:
1. It's cheap (we are but two poor post college students.....and one maybe marginally rich post college student....who wish to see something new)
2. To see more (I don't know if it's true but the rumor is "the slower you go the more you see". With us three on bikes I'm sure we will redefine slow)
3. To do something cool for someone else. (That's right, as if this trip wasn't complicated enough, we have decided to add just one more aspect to it. We will turn it into a benefit ride.)

This trip is an amazing opportunity for us three to see the world and it will be something that we will share with our families and friends. To include YOU we are asking for pledges. For every mile we ride we would like you to make a donation to the American Heart Association. We ask you to make a promise of at least a penny a mile we ride. Though our route is still in the planning stages I expect we will ride any where between 500 and 700 miles. So if you were to pledge a dime a mile and we rode 652 miles your contribution to The American Heart Association would be $65.20. I understand that many people are in financially rough times so we ask that you pledge what you can and help us support a worthy cause. If you would like to make a pledge send an email to your rider with the amount per mile you can afford. DO NOT SEND US MONEY (we are poor post college children and we will spend it....probably on something shiny or that will just rot our teeth). The donation you make at the end of our trip will be made directly to The American Heart Association.

As we plan I will bring you updates, I hope everyone is as excited as me!