My adventure to the Canadian Rockies was planned on a whim. Actually, it was more so ‘booked’ + not really all that ‘planned’ at all. When I saw my work schedule at the ER offered up a 5-day work-free stretch I plugged ‘Denver’ + ‘everywhere’ into SkyScanner + picked the […]
Oh hai + welcome to the oversharing! I live in the Rocky Mountains in a little tourist town surrounded by bustling ski resorts, rugged mountain peaks + endless miles of dirt ribbon trails. My winters are spent working at a resorts’ emergency room while my summers are spent roaming trails […]
In the days before leaving on my first extended trip to Europe, I had no idea how I was going to sustain a nomadic lifestyle for 3+ months without putting myself into serious debt. When I boarded the plane that flew me over the ocean + into Switzerland I only […]
My first bout of nomadic living came as a bit of a surprise, to everyone. Myself included. I didn’t spend years saving up for travel. This meant my bank account was far from prepared for my voluntary stint of unemployment. However, everything else in my life was screaming “go, go, go”. So I went. I didn’t want to turn down the opportunity to see the world because it came unexpectedly. I decided I would just get really creative with my budgeting + travel plans.
Yesterday I made the hilly, sweaty bike ride from the Camping Kate campground in Mlini to the main bus station in Dubrovnik. In an attempt to avoid the relentless, baking heat I left camp before 7am + arrived at the bus station approximately 3.5 hours before my bus.
When I booked my flight to Switzerland “alpine huts” were high on my to-do list. I wanted to go back + soak up a few more sunsets [+ rises] from the stone stoop of Swiss Alpine Club huts. In 2015 I had visited about 10 SAC huts + I wanted more. More, more, more. I even purchased a membership at the Swiss Alpine Club to get dibs on some great overnight discounts.
Guess how many SAC huts I stayed at?!
I am currently sitting in an open air home at the kitchen table of strangers wearing nothing by my sandals. Surprisingly [or not?], it doesn’t feel weird at all. That’s probably because I’m at a “naturalist” camp in the hills of Montenegro + no one is wearing more than their sandals. I’ve never been the world’s biggest fan of clothes + the 80-90+ heat has convinced me these naturalists are onto something!
I am a bit of a stubborn optimist, which leads me to believe in my ability to persevere even when the odds are against me. Because of this fateful personality trait, I considered this cycling trip to Croatia to be just another challenge. I haven’t ridden a bike for more than 15 miles in the last…three years? Not to mention, I knew/know little to nothing about bike touring. I went into this the quest to cycle to the coast of Croatia grossly under trained + somewhat under-prepared.
In a few hours, I’ll be hopping on a bus to Croatia. I’ll be leaving behind my life of comfort + ease in the Swiss Alps for a month of sitting in a bike saddle as I tour the coast of Croatia on a newly acquired bicycle. Everything is in order [I think] + somehow all of the details have fallen into place [hopefully]. The trip to Croatia was planned out of necessity [visa requirements + such], the idea to cycle the coast was born by insanity + the details were hammered out courtesy of many creative, enabling + determined minds.
There’s a peak near here that I’ve fallen in love with. Legit love. Probably? Like the sort of love you have for fluffy kittens you can’t keep for yourself so you’re going to love them even more, on principle. Whatever sort of love that is…that’s how I feel about Les Chaux. It’s basically perfect in every way I want it to be + it’s the gateway to one of my favorite trails in all of Switzerland. Maybe I need to explore more to find a better trail…but until I find that, this is my favoritest trail evers. #fact