Our night in Utrecht will be hard to top I suspect, in terms of hosts and accommodation at least. As Chris mentioned in yesterday’s blog, we stayed in a converted industrial/office building, with a group that is paying a tiny amount of rent to basically ensure OTHER people don’t take over as squatters and destroy the building. In a building big enough for over 20 people to play hide and seek, we each had our own room, there was free laundry, a working kitchen, fun hosts…definitely off …

We have just arrived in Utrecht and we are staying in the coolest building ever. It is actually my dream place to live, a huge semi abandoned office space that has been reclaimed by 4 people to keep others from squatting. It is massive and spacious and likely going to get knocked down in a year. Seeing everyone’s expression after they walk in the door after doing our first 40km of the trip is awesome.

The first real ride of the trip was pretty picturesque. We …

well, if you don’t mind 4 flat tires on the 2nd day of orientation (yes, one was mine, from pumping my tires too much), getting lost, gene almost getting electricuited AND falling head over handlebars into a ditch while trying to take a photo riding fully loaded (he’s o.k.)… then it could be considered simple as 123, do-ray-mi, abc baby you and me girrrlll.

when we heard the news of MJs death, we briefly nicknamed this the michael jackson memorial tour. and some of us considered …

Written by Ben June 26, 2009

Well after a well deserved and enjoyed two day break in San Francisco we were back on our journey south. However, today was actually a fairly relaxing day miles wise. We only had to travel 28 miles down to Half Moon Bay (although me and Patrick managed to do a couple extra miles due to a slight detour).

We had our lunch in Pacifica, which was really cool cause it had a big beach with waves that broke really close to …

The trip is officially underway! Well, at the very least we are now midway through orienting ourselves to one another, the city on the other hand is still proving a little difficult to navigate for a few people. Day one was a nice mix of time to chat about our concerns and feelings towards the ride and practical riding tips. We also had a great picnic lunch with the local Bahi group who came to wish us well on our trip. I think they really …

Just finished washing some dishes, mainly a butter knife used to spread nutella on bread (staple diet at the moment) at Jan’s apartment here on the Noord side of Amsterdam. 63 ms. oslofjordweg, a former shipping container, since painted red and transformed into a narrow bedroom complete with kitchen and bath, has been my residence since hopping off the train from Paris on Wednesday. After setting up the bicycle, I was introduced to student life in Amsterdam with a traditional homemade ’suriname’ meal at a …

Hello! The Pacific Coast team has just passed San Francisco! Below are 3 accounts from Cody, Omid, and Sahriar from last week. Sorry for the lateness - internet access has been limited.
Enjoy!

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Written by Sahriar June 12th (Story Group Class)
The church that we stayed at treated us to an fabulous breakfast this morning that consisted of casserole and gingerbread pancakes. I was surprisingly the first person to have all my stuff packed this morning and I was in one of the first pods to set out, …

I’m currently hauled up in a room that I swear if it had a ceiling fan could be straight out of Apocalypse Now, although that could just be the heat or lack of sleep playing tricks on me. Holy crap I am in Amsterdam. How the hell did that happen? I think I had a minor panic attack on the plane – judging by the very worried expression of the kind British women next to me when I woke up – the gravity of this …

“Killer Mountain”. The day of the Legendary hill. Panniers tossed, abandoned, to the side. Cyclists’ corpses line the roadside. Built up anxiety and anticipation at the bottom of the every hill we came across. Is this the one? Procrastination: stops at every “world famous” attraction on the side of the highway. Every one a perfect photo opp! Unexpectedly, the final destination, the campsite for the night, came upon us, and the sudden joy that the past 2 1/2 wekks had stregthened and conditioned us so …

You’d think that on the evening of your departure for a 2 month long cycling trip through foreign countries… on the evening of your embarkment on a journey that one year ago you never could have imagined yourself doing… a journey that relies 100% on having your bicycle endure the entire 15 hour plane ride from Vancouver to Paris, and then another 4 hour train trip to Amsterdam, all inside a cardboard box… you’d think that as an amateur …