˝You'll come down from the Lurch
with an unpleasant bump.
And the chances are, then,
that you'll be in a Slump.

And when you're in a Slump,
you're not in for much fun.
Un-slumping yourself
is not easily done.

You will come to a place where the streets are not marked.
Some windows are lighted.  But mostly they're darked.
A place you could sprain both your elbow and chin!
Do you dare to stay out?  Do you dare to go in?
How much can you lose? How much can you win?

And IF you go in, should you turn left or right...
or right-and-three-quarters? Or, maybe, not quite?
Or go around back and sneak in from behind?
Simple it's not, I'm afraid you will find,
for a mind-maker-upper to make up his mind.

You can get so confused
that you'll start in to race
down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace
and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space,
headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.
The Waiting Place...˝


Well, fearless readers, it has now been about 2 weeks since that fateful night on the train.  When last we wrote, Will and I were gung-ho about hiking in Slovenia.  We hopped on a train with only the shoes on our feet and our lives in our packs and found ourselves in Ljubjlana, the capital of Slovenia.  This is when we realized that we know absolutely nothing about Slovenia.


Slovenia is a beautiful country.  Wonderful people; more mountains, trees, and crystal-clear lakes than you could ever want.  Slovenia is also extremely expensive when you are on a dirtbag cycle-tourists budget  (and yes, i do know there should be a possessive apostrophe right there, but these keyboards are a bit weird and I have not yet managed to find that particular punctuation mark).  The real killer for us?  You cannot camp in Europe.  Real camping, that is-- they have plenty of huge compounds with showers and restaurants and live music in the evening, with hundreds of your fellow travelers near and dear to your tent.


What followed was what I call our ˝sadding˝ period.  We went for a few day hikes, but we couldnt afford to stay in the mountain huts that were required for doing anything longer.  Essentially, we sat around and felt sorry for ourselves while we tried to figure out plan C.  We were in the waiting place... everything we thought of was impractical or expensive or just not possible.  We had no idea what to do, where to go, or how to stop the trip from continuing to unravel around us.


I know... poor, sad, travelers...


But we have recently found a wonderful new thing... maybe you have heard of it; a little thing called couchsurfing.  We met a wonderful Slovenian named Polona who took us in for a few days and took us hiking.  We are headed up to Italy tomorrow to stay with another woman up in Trento.  We are currently in Koper, on the coast of Slovenia.  We have now spent more time in Slovenia than any other country.  We are going swimming in the sea, hiking in the hills, and generally just running amok and having an actual vacation.  Will is trying to improve my swimming skills (not an easy task).  We found a dorm that rents to tourists for super cheap, so we came for an afternoon and decided to stay for four days.  


Next, we head to Trento.  After that, we are actually not sure.  We have been talking about possibly moving our flight up a week or two-- with what we are spending here since we cannot camp, we think it may actually save us money in the long run.  That, and we are tired.  We are, just a little bit, ready to head home.  But dont quote me on that-- we still need to make the change.

So, in sum:  We are still in Slovenia.  We have not hiked the Alps.  We have had a good time at the beach, and plan on continuing to do so until we head up north to enjoy some delcious Italian food.  After that... well, we will see.

The Bike-- scratch that, Walking-- Times (wait... what?)

So!  A few days have passed since our bikes were stolen, and what's the update?

Yesterday (was it really only yesterday?  it seems so long ago!), we were found by the local newspaper.  They printed an article (two now, actually) about us getting our bikes stolen... and now Will and I have become very recognizable.  It's a bit awkward.

The people here have been amazing.  We're staying at a hostel, Hostel  40, and the people here have made what has been a pretty difficult time a bit easier to pass.  We're still in Belgrade, and have had a few days to get used to the idea that we are no longer bicycle tourists.  The article and the publicity got our hopes up a bit that maybe (just maybe) the thieves would realize that they picked the wrong two bikes to sell anonymously and stick them somewhere they would be found.  Or do something stupid and get caught.  One or the other.

But we're still left with the fact that our bikes disappeared someplace between two major cities in Serbia.  There's a lot of distance to cover and while our bikes are unique, this would take a miracle.

So Will and I have come up with a pretty good Plan B.  Zach flies out later this week from Zagreb, Croatia, so he takes his leave from us tomorrow morning.

Will and I have recently (about two hours ago) re-outfitted ourselves for hiking.  This involved buying two relatively cheap packs, a pair of pants for me, and a pair of shoes for Will.  We're going to head to Slovenia, which we have recently found out is the lost gem of the Alps.  We're going to go and hike around for a week or two at a time, until it is time for us to head to Germany to catch our flight home in mid-September.


I've never done any long-distance hiking before-- my family has hiked, but nothing this involved or back-country.  I'm really excited for it-- while I was absolutely in love with traveling by bike, I'm also okay introducing myself to this new form of travel.  We'll get out of the city (awesome) and away from the crowds (even more awesome) and out of the 100-plus degree heat (the most awesome).  We got some good advice from a few other bikers we met here in Belgrade who have been to Slovenia, and they were able to give us some guidance on where to go and how to get there.

It's not the trip we set out on.  But, in reality, this trip has never been the trip I originally had in mind.  And it's been awesome-- more awesome than I could ever have imagined.  I have high hopes for the next couple of weeks, and I'm looking forward to this next branch of the adventure.

We're heading out of town, heading into the wide open air.  We're going.

We'll keep you posted.


"You'll look up and down streets.  Look 'em over with care.
About some you will say, "I don't choose to go there."
With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet,
you're too smart to go down any not-so-good street.

And you may not find any
you'll want to go down.
In that case, of course,
you'll head straight out of town.

It's opener there
in the wide open air.

Out there things can happen
and frequently do
to people as brainy
and footsy as you.

And when things start to happen,
don't worry.  Don't stew.
Just go right along.
You'll start happening too.

OH!
THE PLACES YOU'LL GO!"

The Lurch

"You won't lag behind, because you'll have the speed.
You'll pass the whole gang and you'll soon take the lead.
Wherever you fly, you'll be the best of the best.
Wherever you go, you will top all the rest.

Except when you don't
Because, sometimes, you won't.

I'm sorry to say so
but, sadly, it's true
and Hang-ups
can happen to you.

You can get all hung up
in a prickle-ly perch.
And your gang will fly on.
You'll be left in a Lurch."


The good Doc sure knew what he was talking about.  We've had our fair share of prickle-ly perches during our month of traveling-- between cancelled boats, hospital visits, and the occasional argument with train conductors, we've had to deal with some stressful situations.  But they've all just seemed to be a part of the trip:  we wanted an adventure, and we were certainly getting one.  After the fact, there was always the general attitude of "this will make a great story."

Saturday morning we hit our first real snag.  We got hung up in that prickle-ly perch and have been left in one hell of a lurch.

Don't worry-- we're all fine.  No broken bones, no more hospital visits. I promise.

We boarded our train to take us from Sofia, Bulgaria, to Novi Sad, Serbia.  It was an overnight train that left around 8:30 in the evening.  Sometime during the night, we fell asleep. And when we woke up the next morning, Will's bike and my bike were gone.  

That's a pretty big lurch.  

Zach's bike is fine-- apparently the thieves only wanted two bikes, and they liked mine and Will's.  We spent the morning with the police, filed a report... and while they say that they have recovered bikes in the past, we are not optimistic about getting either of the bikes back.  

We've already gone over and over everything we SHOULD have done, everything that in hindsight is so clear but in the middle of the night just glazed over.  It's no one's fault but our own, and we acknowledge that fully.  But.  We're all healthy.  None of us are injured.  No one ended up in jail or in a hospital bed.  We have all of our gear-- so we can still camp and have adventures.  We just can't do it by bike. 

We're not going to let this ruin our trip.  Will and I still have a month left to go here, and we'll be damned if we let the loss of our bikes ruin that month.  We're following the good doctor's advice, once again.  He hasn't let us down yet.

"But on you will go

though the weather be foul

On you will go

though your enemies prowl

On you will go

though the Hakken-Kraks howl

Onward up many

a frightening creek,

though your arms may get sore

and your sneakers may leak.

On and on you will hike

and I know you'll hike far

and face up to your problems

whatever they are."