Biking Across Europe
Over the summer, I had an adventure. I traveled with my family,and I biked across Europe.
This was the route we took:

We started in Norway and ended with Slovakia.
We started off by calling ourselves the “Viking Vagabonds.”

The day before we went to Norway, we packed our bikes using a ton of duct tape, packaging tape, and three huge bike boxes. We should’ve done this before we left the house, but what’s better than throwing a bike into a box and taping it together in a Walmart parking lot? That’s gonna add on to the “List of things people seen at Walmart.”

When that was finished, we had an idea of parking cheap and taking a subway to the airport (The airport was in San Francisco). What we didn’t consider was how heavy the bike boxes were going to be. It started off with getting to the subway station. Then we had to lift the boxes over the small opening to the subway. We made it with a good thirty minutes to spare, and we were able to board the plane with no problem.

When we got to Norway, we had to put three bikes and a trailer back together. We also forgot to consider jet lag. Nothing like putting a bike together in a Norwegian airport… with people yelling at you in foreign languages… and jet lag.
My dad had to do most of the work since my mom and I were inexperienced bike.. er… people.
That was fun.

Ponchos and Borscht

It rained. Rained rained rained rained rained.
Rained.

We completely forgot about ponchos and rain gear, so instead we bought a box of plastic trash bags and wrapped them around our bodies. That was probably the most terrifying experience of my life. With no bike paths… mostly because nobody is crazy enough to bike uphill seven miles to the next town, we had to bike on the highway with our trash bag ponchos.
Left leg of the poncho TORN!
Other leg TORN!
Scary Truck HONK!
Then of course comes my dad’s love for foreign food. He was completely convinced that I had to try this “Borscht,” (He’s biked through Europe before). I didn’t oppose to this, but pickled beets look almost exactly the same as canned borscht.

So my dad bought a huge can of pickled beets and added mayo to make it look similar to borsch.
It was a nice 3/10 meal.
Along with a long stomach ache afterwards. Long live pickled beets and mayo.

Viking Museums
This is one of my favorite stories to tell. My dad has a long beard, so when we went to viking museums, there were people who asked him for pictures constantly.
He also got stopped in Prague twice so they could get pictures of “Interesting People.”
It was hilarious.

Vilnius
Vilnius was a big and interesting town. We hadn’t slept on a proper bed in a few days, so we planned to go to a hotel for the night. The hotel was out of rooms, so we camped in the front yard.

The hotel had a free music concert. We thought this would be an ideal chance to learn a bit more about the country’s culture, and how they worked, so we made sure to stop sightseeing before 7 pm.

I am sorry, and I do not want to offend anyone or anything,
but the music was terrible.

I’m not picky when it comes to music, but this was just too much. Each song lasted 20 minutes or more, and it was all electro sounds with no beat to it all. It gave you headaches, and was very… repetitive and boring. I left five minutes into the first song and hid in the kitchen for the remainder of the time.

We ended up having to stay an extra two days in Vilnius because we wanted to take a bus to the next country. This bus did not take bikes unless they were in bike boxes. (Which we had left at the airport back in Norway.)Vilnius wasn’t the worst place to be stuck in. Nobody really knows about the place, so it was pretty simple to get to sightseeing areas.

Sweden
Sweden was one of my favorite places. Although expensive and hilly, the people were friendly. It was awesome to be able to camp in someone’s yard when we couldn’t find a campsite.

We hadn’t eaten anything more than a ham sandwich for every meal for about a week, so when a Swedish family invited us for dinner, we couldn’t say no.
We had burritos and Swedish pancakes. (I got some lessons on how to cook them.) On top of that, we got to see a household from Sweden! Overall Sweden was amazing, humble, but amazing.

Prague
I was very excited for Prague. Multiple people had told me that I had to go to Czech Republic, mainly for Prague. I talked my dad into doing some roundabout trail just to go to Prague. When we arrived, we came on a bus. It was quite amazing stepping out into the old town Prague.
Of course getting around big cities on bikes isn’t a cinch. It’s almost like crossing the roads in the Dominican Republic just on bikes…So, of course, I got my bike tire stuck in the side of the road. I did a total flip, and got back up only to realise I had sprained my ankle.
A sprained ankle wasn’t going to stop me from going to Prague.

I went at night, in the morning, and saw the castle. It was probably some of the best sightseeing in my life. (Besides the tourists, but that can’t be helped.)

Switzerland

I was born in Switzerland, but I had never seen it before. We met up with some old friends, and stayed at their house for a week. I loved Switzerland. Everyone seemed to travel by train, and the bike trails were hilly. Hilly, but pretty. We went on a bunch of hikes with the family.

I can’t even begin to describe Switzerland. The people we met up with seemed to know more about me than I knew about them, but they were pretty friendly about it.
I became quite attached to Switzerland. I can’t wait to visit again. (Someday)

Thanks for reading!
Kali Herbst