Made it to Split, Croatia via Portland, LAX, London!My bike and gear made it too!

Several months ago, when I decided to join some of my cycling friends in Romania for a supported trip on July 1, I thought it was a great idea to do a solo ride in advance of that. Now on day three of starting the trip including the air travel time (actually my second day in Croatia) I realize there is a vast difference between sitting behind a computer and thinking about a solo cycling trip, and actually doing it! First impressions:

– Split, Croatia is beautiful but overrun with tourist amenities and tourists even though it’s not busy season right now. My area is along the Dalmatian Coast in the heart of Old Town Split.

-Cycling solo is more challenging than you (I) think. I came across this quote recently, it is already so true. “There is a fine line between blissful solitude and loneliness.”

I’ve done solo before, but never started out a trip solo…

-In my planning, I picked a hotel that is great for the sights of the old town of Split, but very poor in terms of getting out to my intended route which is a portion of Euro Velo 8. To join that route is about 4.5 miles away from where I am staying through so far narrow and congested roads.

– In reassembling my bike today, the continuous bending over in awkward positions did my back in, and I tweaked it in a way that has been pretty painful all day, I’m hoping another sleep before I begin my track tomorrow will loosen it. A sore back colors every movement…

-At dinner last night, met a nice couple from Ireland who were doing a driving vacation for two weeks through the Balkans including Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and a chunk of Montenegro. I will be doing potentially seven countries during my tour here depending on my exact route. My plan is to pick it each day. (Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia, Bulgaria, and Romania.)

-On the plane, met one of two families traveling together from Denver, their idea of this vacation was to rent a boat that is large enough for all of them to stay on which will visit a bunch of the Croatian islands. It will be their floating hotel, and each day they will have an opportunity to visit another town or island. Sounds like a great idea for multi family vacations! I wonder if there is a Croatian version of Jairo! (That’s for Bridgette…)

– I plan to post periodically when I have good Wi-Fi. Probably just some short comments and photos of where I am. I had previously updated a map link set up to show my particular location, but I will probably just do that by screenshot this time. Much easier!

-Have only taken a few photos so far, representative of the area that I’m in which is old town, places that I walked by or to have breakfast or dinner.

-Tomorrow morning as long as my back is even remotely cooperative, I will pack up the bike and head out from here. About 100 lbs/45k fully loaded. My goal will be at least 40 miles tomorrow. My intent is to eventually get up to the second half of the Ciro trail, a rail to trail route on an abandoned narrow gauge rail line that was decommissioned in 1967. It starts in Mostar and terminates in Dubrovnik, so I would expect to be in Dubrovnik in two days, at least that is my best guess and hope at this point.

-Had a nice din last night of pizza, salad, and red wine. Yes, how uncreative of me! Good food; prices similar to US, but once out of this tourista area things should be lower.

-That’s it for now. Hoping all the mechanical, physical, spiritual and planning parts come together positively tomorrow. The weather looks good this next week!

Hugs and love to you all! (Sounds weird to say that, as no clue who’s gonna even read this! Funny the way social technology has changed things. Used to be you said hugs and love to a particular person, now you just sort of throw it out there to the ether… That’s kinda funny to me!)

My dinner spot last night

My porch

View from my room