The Italian Dream/ Le reve Italien

Italy is a dream. It s the joy of the people, the style of the cities, the food, the language and much much more.

L Italie est un reve. C est la joie de son peuple, le style de ses villes, la nourriture, la langue, et plus encore.

Venise!

Fire boats; Rubbish boats; Mail boats… everything comes and goes through the canals

Bateaux pompier; Bateaux poubelle; Bateau poste… tout va et vient part canaux

and… less than 30 minutes later…

Et… moins de 30 minutes plus tard…

Appart from our day in Venise we had some rain everyday and we managed to sleep in someone s garage pretty much each night

Hormis notre journee a Venise nous avons eu de la pluie chaque jour  et avons trouve quelques garages pour y passer les nuits

It s the end of the trip with Olivier. He goes South and we head West: direction the Alps!

C est la fin du voyage en compagnie d Olivier. Il part pour le Sud nous tirons vers l Ouest: direction les Alpes!

Is this blog ever updated? Ce blog est-il parfois mi a jour?

Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia, Italy and now France… hum, hum… Yes this blog is out of date so lets catch up!

Macedoine, Albanie, Montenegro, Croatie, Slovenie, Italie et maintenant de retour en France… hum, hum… Oui ce blog n est pas a jour donc rattrapons le coup! 

Begining of October: we enter Albania; The change from Macedonia is radical.

Debut octobre: entree en Albanie; le changement avec la Macedoine est radical.

We stopped in the first town we found to buy some food. Kids came around asking for bike rides. We let them do until Manu’s bike didn t come back. Kids are stoked, adults shout at them not to borrow our bicycles. We pay twice the price on the food: welcome to Albania!

Nous nous arretons dans la premiere ville que nous trouvons pour y acheter de la nourriture. Aussitot des enfants approchent nous demandant s ils peuvent essayer nos velos. Nous les laissons faire jusqu a ce que le velo de Manu ne revienne pas. Les enfants sont super contents, les adultes leurs cri apres pour qu ils nous laissent tranquil, on paie 2 fois le prix des courses: bienvenue en Albanie!

We keep on cycling, I get food poisoned once again, and we stop at a petrol station, a honest one for once.

Nous continuons notre route, je tombe malade une nouvelle fois, et nous nous arretons a une station service, une station service honete pour une fois.

 

We decide to rest on a beach for a few days. The road to get there is muddy but was worth it; Fanny fell many times and we spent 2 days fishing with locals, drinking coffees and telling our story. The last night, as we were chating around the fire, a biker came around with a big sticker saying “Policia”. The guy who looked like a Russian mafioso more than a policeman asked for our papers, called his boss and sat around the fire with us. When he left we went to bed and loud voices woked us up a few hours later. 2 men were arguing over something; there was a tractor on the beach, facing the sea. The driver did a flash of light and we saw, coming from the sea, another flash of light coming this time from a boat. Then the boat approched and filled up the tractor. We assisted at a contraband, just like in movies, on a durty Albanian beach.

Nous decidons de passer quelques jours a la plage. La route pour y acceder est vaseuse mais valait le coup; Fanny est tombee de nombreuses fois et nous avons passes 2 jours a pecher avec les locaux, a boire des cafes et a conter notre histoire. Notre derniere, alors que nous discutions autour d un feu de camp, un motard nous approche, “police” est ecrit en grand sur les sacoches arrieres de sa becanne. L homme qui resemblait plus a un mafioso russe qu a un policier a regarder nos passeports, puis a telephone a son patron et est reste un instant pres du feu avec nous. Quand il est reparti nous sommes alles nous couche mais des voix nous ont reveillees quelques heures plus tard. 2 hommes s enguellaient; il y avait un tracteur sur la plage, face a la mer; ce dernier a fait des appels de phare en direction de la mer, un bateau y a repondu puis c est approche pour vider son contenu dans le tracteur. Nous avons assiste a de la vraie contrebande, exactement comme dans les films, sur une plage polluee et tranquille d Albanie.

We spent our last night by a lake, near Shkoder. In the suburb of Shkoder we got through the gypsie quater where kids tried to stop us and ran after us to grab whatever they could from our bags. Albania is the poorest country we ve gone through over the last months; Wars have left their marks on people.

Nous passons notre derniere nuit au bord d un lac, dans les environs de Shkoder. Pour y acceder nous avons du traverser le quartier gypsie ou des enfants ont essayes de nous arreter et de courrir apres nous pour attraper ce qu ils pouvaient sur nos velos. L Albanie est le pays le plus pauvre que nous aillons traverse les mois derniers; les gens sont toujours marques par les annes de guerre.

Once again the changement between Albania and Montenegro is big; Montenegro is the new destination for Russian tourists. The weather is still good and we spend 2 days on a beach of Bars. Manu, who caught malaria in Madagascar more than 10years ago, starts a crisis.

Une fois de plus le changement rentre l Albanie et le Montenegro est grande; le Montenegro est la nouvelle destinations des touristes russes. La meteo est toujours aussii bonne et nous passons 2jours sur unn plage de Bars. Manu, qui a attrape le paludisme a Madagascar il y a plus de 10 ans, commence une longue crise.

2 days later we re in the beautiful but touristy city of Dubrovnik(Croatia). Walls of the city still have the impacts of the war. Manu can t cycle anymore he catches a bus for France.

2 jours plus tard  et nous sommes dans la belle mais touristique ville de Dubrovnik(Croatie). Certains murs de la ville ont toujours les impactes de balles de la guerre. Manu n a pas l energie pour continuer, il prend un bus pour la France.

Ston, artistic village of Croatia where the world 2nd longest great wall is: it s 7kms long.

Ston, village artistique de Croatie ou se trouve la 2eme plus longue muraille au monde: elle fait 7km de long.

We cycle from island to island, swim everyday, speak around a camp fire each night, and cycle under blue sky each day.

Nous passons d ile en ile, nageons tous les jours, discutons autour d un feu de camp chaque soir, et roulons sous une ciel bleu chaque jour.

Sometimes we see some funny things

Parfois on voit des choses rigolottes

Malibu Ice Cream, in Trogir, gives half price ice creams to cycles. Yoghurt and rasberry jam being the tastiest one.

Malibu Ice Cream, a Trogir, lieu ou les glaces sont a moitie prix pour les cyclistes. Yaourt et confiture de framboise etant la meilleure.

From Greece to Macedonia – de Grece en Macedoine

Nice and wet; a bunch of immatures happy to be at the top. Trempes, un groupe d immatures est heureu d etre arrive au sommet.

Still pushing hard we are finally in Macedonia and out of Greece! Pedalant a donf nous sommes finalement en Macedoine et hors de Grece!

Peppers; vines; almond and apple trees. Macedonia is beautifulllll Poivrons/piments; vignes; amandiers(?) et pommiers. La Macedoine est magnifique.

L’intrigue; toujours l intrigue

It took us some male brain power to finaly make this cooker work; now it s rocking each night at full heat. Il nous a fallu une touche d intelligence masculine pour faire marcher notre rechaud. Maintenant il tourne a fond tous les soirs.

Greek landscapes. Paysages grecs.

Fanny, new on board since Istanbul and also a good friend from back in France who s got the courage to join me for the last 3months. Fanny qui est entree en jeu a Istanbul et egalement une bonne amie d enfance qui a le courrage de m accompagner pour les 3 derniers mois.

Olivier, “le Chti’” of the team; our photographer and an endless joke. Olivier, le Chti de l equipe. Notre photographe et une boite a blague infatiguable.

Emmanuel, “the Grandfather”, is a 49 year old traveler who left France 2 years ago by feet and bought a bike in Bulgarie a month ago. He also is riding back to France. He is the singer, the hippy, the Chi Qon master and endless speaking machine of the team. Emmanuel dit “Papi”, est une francais de 49 ans qui a quitte le pays a pied il y a maintenant 2 ans. Le mois dernier il a achete un velo en Bulgarie pour rentrer en France un peu plus rapidement. C est le chanteur, le hippy, le prof de Chi Qon et le grand piplet de l equipe.

Turkey/Turquie

Great sense of hospitality, great people, nice landscapes which unfortunately are degraded by rubbish that lay everywhere, good quality roads and the steepest hills we ve climbed so far. We followed the Black Sea and made our way to Istanbul. My father is flying back to France in a few weeks and Fanny, a French friend, is taking over. The last 3 months have been intense. It s been moraly and physicaly difficult at times but it also is where we ve met unforgetable people and shared some big moments between father and daughter. Grand sens de l hospitalite, des gens supers, de beaux paysages malheureusement degrades par des dechets qui trainent partout, des routes de bonnes qualites et les cotes les plus raident que nous n aillons encore jamais grimpes. Nous avons longes la Mer Noire pour rejoindre Istanbul. Mon pere rentre en France dans quelques semaines et Fanny, une amie francaise, va prendre le relais. Les 3 derniers mois ont ete intenses. Ca a ete moralement et physiquement difficile par moment mais ca a egalement ete de grandes rencontres avec des gens inoubliables et de forts moments passes entre pere et fille.

Hazelnuts drying on the side of the road. Des noisettes qui sechent le long des routes.

Tradional dance practised in a music store where we met local artists. Turks love their country, their culture and their traditions. Mise en pratique des dances traditionnelles turques dans un magasin de musique ou nous avons rencontre des artistes locaux. Les Turques adorent leurs pays, leurs culture et leurs traditions.

Last days before the start of the fishing season. Big ships are getting ready for a season of 6 months. Nets are put on board and repared. Derniers jours avant le debut de la saison de peche pour les bateaux  les plus grands. Les filets sont repares puis mis a bord.

Finaly we make it into a newspaper! Enfin dans le journal!

When it gets steep and we turn sweety, smelly and go so slow that flies can land on us. It s also when i go crazy and ask myself why I m doing it… Quand ca commence a grimper et que nous devenons collant, sentons mauvais et allons tellement doucement que les mouches peuvent atterir sur nous. C est egalement quand je deviens folle et me demande pourquoi je fais ca…

September the 1st_ 5 rounds to mark the start of the Ramadan. Apparently only 50% of the population now do the Ramadan. In the smallest villages a free diner is served to everyone at the end of the day once the sun is set. 1er septembre_ 5 cartouches pour marquer le debut du Ramadan. Apparement seulement 50% de la population fait le Ramadan. Dans les villages les plus petits un diner gratuit est servi pour tous en fin de journee, une fois le soleil couche.

Truck stories: Georgia in 48hours/ Histoires de camions: la Georgie en 48heures

We hitched a ride with a Turk truck driver to Tbilissi. A few ks before the border many drivers were waiting for better news to enter Georgia. As we got closer to the capital more and more army trucks and tanks were spread at the edges of the city. We quickly got stopped by the police which told us that a bomb had explosed further north and that the road was closed. Our driver, while on his way to Azerbaijan, 3 days earlier got stopped in Gori by some “Apaza”, a rebel group that robs anyone who comes on its way. The group was waiting for trucks and civilians with guns and he had to pay a laissez passer of US$600, still a cheap price in comparaison to the majority.

We spent our 1st night in Georgia in a carpark, among many drivers and their trucks, the majority of them being Turks. All these men had been waiting a few days for the situation in Gori to mellow down but things were getting worst and they were then fearing to take the central road and get robbed by the “Apaza” or bombed by the Russians. Visibly none of them were willing to make a moove and the only option we had was to cycle the southern road that was going through the mountains. “Problem, problem” was all that was coming out of the drivers’ mouths as the cigarettes were chain smoked. We woke up early the following day and we found our men: 4 Turkish drivers who’s slogan was “Problem Niet!” had decided to drive through the mountains. We dropped our bikes on board, a taxi showed us the way out of town and we started the long ride across the mountain. We drove non stop for 13hours on steep rocky roads. The strongest truck had to pull up one of the truck which had burned all the gum that was on its tyres at the first hill. The expedition took 18hours, when we finaly arrived in Batumi we slept at the back of the truck and Yusuf, our amazing driver, got on the booze to celebrate.

Georgia s got some stunning landscapes, probably the best so far. The Turkish truck drivers took us along on an unforgetable journey. Yusuf blew my mind; even if communication stays limited some people will stay in our minds and hearts for ever.  

Azerbaijan: Fire Land/Terre de Feu

We started by drinking a bottle of Moldovian wine with the Cap’tain of the boat and by getting the full support of the passengers after getting searched: Azerbaijan, we love you already!!!

Nous avons commences en descendant une bouteille de vin Moldave avec le Capitaine du bateau et en recevant le support des passagers apres nous etre fait fouille: Azerbaijan, nous t aimons deja!!!

Baku, capital city of the country. City full of history and old architecture.

Baku, capitale du pays. Ville pleine d histoire et d architecture ancienne. 

The photo is crap, it was 4pm and the photographer was drank at that time of the day (an old Soviet tradition). Anyway it s an entire city on the sea that pumps oil 24/7. oooiiillll

La photo est mauvaise, il etait 16h et le photographe etait deja pompete a cette heure de la journee (une vieille tradition Sovietique). Bref, au loin il y a une veritable ville sur l eau qui pompe du petrole 24/24.

Oil

OIL!

Kazakhstan

Trains are great ways of travelling in Kazakhstan. Because the country is mainly step and the temperatures can get as high as 50 degrees we smoked it by train. We quickly turned out to be the main attraction of the trains and thus did some amazing meetings.

Les trains sont de bons moyens de transport pour traverser le Kazakhstan. Puisque le pays est majoritairement de la steppe et les temperatures peuvent atteindre 50 degres nous avons decides de tout faire en train. Nous sommes rapidement devenus l attraction du train et avons donc fait de nombreuses rencontres.

We all sleep in the same wagon, which normally is 60 persons but always get overloaded.

Nous dormons tous dans le meme wagon, ce qui normalement represente 60 personnes mais est toujours surcharge.

Buying a train ticket with a bicycle works this way (prendre le train avec un velo marche de la facon suivante):

price of a ticket for a distance of 1000km (prix d un ticket pour  une distance de 1000km): 3000Tt

price to put a bicycle in the luggage wagon (prix du velo dans le compartiment pour bagages): 750 Tt

price of the guy who ll put the bike on board (prix du garc qui va mettre le velo a bord): 300Tt

extra money for the bike to take the same train as the one you re in or not next week’s one (extra pour que le velo prenne le meme que toi et non pas celui de la semaine prochaine): 500Tt

Baksheesh for the man who speaks a little of English and helped you out but pretends that the money goes somewhere else (Baksheesh pour le garc qui parle un peu d anglais et nous a bien depane mais pretend que l argent va autre part que dans sa poche): 250Tt

Aral’sk, old fishing harbour of the Aral sea, now located 60km from the sea. Kids play around the shipwrecks while men dig up the ones that are under the sand with hope for the future. Over the past 2 years the sea has been rising and the population of Aral’sk has hope to start fishing within the next 10 years.

Aral’sk, ancien port de peche de la mer d Aral, aujourd hui situe a 60km de la mer. Les enfants jouent sur les epaves des bateaux alors que les hommes deterrent ceux qui sont sous le sable dans l espoir de pouvoir, un jour, vivre de la peche de nouveau (Depuis les 2 dernieres annees la mer d Aral remonte).

Besh Barmaq (5 fingers), traditional Kazakh dish that we shared with Abdurazak and his family. Abdurazak taught us lots about Kazakhstan. Here are a few Kazakh traditions:

Besh Barmaq (5 doigts), plat Kazakh traditional que nous avons partage avec Abdurazak et sa famille. Abdurazak nous a enseigne plein de chose sur son pays. Voila quelques traditions Kazakhs.

-When you are a kid you have to fight boys who don t come from your region to show them who is the boss. Quand tu est un garcon tu dois te battre avec les garcons venant d une autre region que la tienne pour leurs montrer qui est le chef.

After the wedding ceremony the bride has to live with her parent-in-law for 2 months, for them to make sure she knows how to cook and do the house work. Apres la ceremonie de marriage la mariee va vivre chez ses beaux-parents pendant 2 mois, pour verifier qu elle sait cuisiner et faire les differentes taches menageres.

Beat your wife and children if they make a mistake. Bat ta femme et tes enfants lorsqu ils font une erreur.

Your first boy child is the man’s parents one. Le premier enfant garcon est celui des parents du mari.

Trucks loaded with old metals get on board of the ferry to cross the Caspien Sea. They then travel down to Iran where they ll be recycled. Des camions remplis de vieux metaux embarquent a bord du ferry pour traverser la Mer Caspienne. Ils voyegent ensuite pour l Iran ou ils seront recycles.

Cyclists in force at Aktau’s harbour. Matt, far left, a British cyclist who just arrived from Baku with some bad impressions on the country; and Roi, far right, an Isreali cyclist who wanted to cross but got rejected at the last minute for not having registered at the immigration police. We got searched in front of all the passenger 30 minutes before to go on board. When we asked why they told us that ”for religious reasons they had to check our books and notebooks” It drove me crazy. After traveling 3 weeks through Kazakhstan with everyone claiming that there was full freedom of speech and religious tolerance in the country we got searched for religious reasons. The woman had nothing more to say than that it was for “what is going on in the world”.

Cyclistes en force au port d Aktau. Matt, a gauche, un cycliste anglais revenant de l Azerbaijan avec de tres mauvaises impressions sur le pays; et Roi, a droite toute, un cycliste Israelien qui voulait, comme nous, rejoindre Baku en ferry mais qui s est fait ejecter pour ne pas s etre enregistrer aupres de la police d immigration du pays a son arrivee. 30 minutes avant d embarquer nous nous sommes fait chercher devant tous les passagers. Quand nous avons demande la raison on nous a dit que “pour raisons religieuses ils devaient regarder tous nos livres et cahier sd ecriture”; ca m a rendue folle. Apres 3 semaines a travers le Kazakhstan avec tout le monde affirmant qu il y avait une liberte d expression et une tolerance totale dans le pays voila que nous nous faisons chercher pour raisons religieuses. La dame n a rien trouvee de plus a dire hormis que c etait pour “ce qui se passe dans le monde aujourd hui”.

Last days in China

Western end of the Great Wall of China (Jiayuguan), a little steep hey Margot?

Debut Ouest de la Grande Muraille de Chine (Jiayuguan), ca tire sur les jambes hein Margot?

Dunhuang- Every nice spot is a business opportunity that Chineses don t miss. The only way to get to the sand dunes for free is through a cemetry.

Dunhuang- Chaque endroit un peu joli est une opportunite de business que les Chinois ne loupent pas. Le seul spot gratuit pour atteindre les dunes de sable est a travers un cimetiere.

Santai, little spot of paradis where we stayed with a Ouighour family after a terrible 50km hill.

Santai, petit coin de paradi ou nous avons passes la nuit chez une famille Ouighour apres 50bornes de cote.

“Want some water? Go and get it yourself! “

“Tu veux d’l'eau? Va la cherche toi meme!”

Chairman Mao

 

 

Despite the bad reputation Chairman Mao has in the West, he is still a big thing here. We see plenty of communist style posters, including this one of Joe Stalin, in restaurants and shops. Mao’s face is on almost every bank note. The communist grip on China is still very present in everyday life, whether it be the overly bias interviews on TV or the restriction of access to certain websites, its still very obvious who is in charge. On the flip side this central control has allowed China to experience massive amounts of growth and ambitious projects such as their roads.

The censorship should not be viewed as a reflection of the people who are massively generous and overly friendly. We have received amazing hospitality from the Chinese people.

Roads, roads, roads

Well, if there is one thing the Chinese know how to do its build a road. Their roads are a testament to engineering. When the Chinese come to a hill they dont go over it, they go through it. This photo is one of many tunnels, some several kilometres long.

A testament to my intelligence is that I tried to cycle through one of these yet to be completed tunnels that had no lights. About 1km into the tunnel my sense of direction started to fade, and I slowed drifted into the side wall of the tunnel. Crashing in complete darkness caused fits of laughter from Marie, and only minor grumbling from me. The damage to myself was minimal luckily.

Another tunnel was completely shut, meaning we had to go over the mountain. This resulted in a four hour detour, pushing our bikes up dirt roads and getting only mildly lost in the backwaters of China. As you can tell from the expression on Marie’s face, it was a character building experience. We probably easily pushed our bikes up over 500m of vertical climb – gutted. Some other cyclists about 20 minutes behind us were simply allowed to ride through the tunnel.