Two Days Left To Busan

Edo 0:00

We came all the way across South Korea. Six days on the road, hundreds of kilometers behind us, endless climbs, aching legs, long hours in the saddle, and moments when the finish line felt a very long way away. We've pushed through mountains, crossed valleys, and ridden through places we'd never imagined we'd see. We've met incredible people, shared the road with cyclists from all around the world, and made memories that will stay with us long after this journey is over. But this journey's not over yet. Two rides remain. Two more days of climbing, pushing, and finding the strength to keep going. And at the end of it all, Busan. The finish line we've been chasing since we first even thought about this trip. Six days of effort have brought us this far. But the hardest part may still be ahead. The legs are tired, the miles are adding up, there is no guarantee the road will get any easier. But we've come too far to stop now. Too much has gone into this journey. So two more rides, one destination, and everything we've worked for comes down to these final kilometers. Let's finish what we started. From

A Short Ride That Still Hurts

Edo 1:45

the last recording we did. We are in What was the name of this place? I have to look it up because it's very hard hard to pronounce. We cycled 66 kilometers today. It was a pretty uneventful day today compared to the 100 kilometers we did yesterday. But we can basically see the finish line. If you think about it, yesterday we cycled 100 kilometers, but today we cycled 66. We have 160 kilometers left that we're cycling over the next two days. So we're almost there, but that's all I'm gonna say about it because it's not over till it's over. So today, considering we had this shorter day, we took advantage of the very generous hotel breakfast at the Century Hotel in Gumi. They had breakfast burgers and breakfast spaghetti. I had a piece of breakfast burger. I wasn't crazy enough to have the steamed vegetables and the spaghetti, but they did have bread, so that was nice. So this morning we left at around 9:30, which is two and a half hours later than our usual starting time for the past few days. We took a few breaks, we took it easy. Today was almost like a recovery ride for us, and it's funny to think that 66 kilometers is a recovery ride. I think we put three stamps today, and today was more of a social day, so it was fun. What do you think?

Anna 3:29

We made the usual plan of stopping maybe at least 30 kilometers in where there happened to be a certification station, but we kept meeting old and new friends, so that was fun to get to chat to people, exchange stories, exchange information, contacts to maybe help each other out. Since we'll be leaving Busan before some of the people that we've met. So that was nice. And because

Cafes Friends And Small Town Korea

Anna 4:00

we were only doing 66 kilometers today, we didn't have to be rushing to get back on the bikes. We could stop for half an hour rather than 15 minutes, and it was okay, it didn't really change much. For example, we got our Canadian friends. They said, Oh, there's this little sanctuary just five minutes over there. Take a look at it. And so that was nice. And maybe yesterday we didn't do anything like extra cultural stops, very brief chats to people. So that was nice to exchange information and see a few more things. We sat down for lunch at Cafe Pascucci, which is supposedly an Italian cafe, like not in Italy or not in I don't know, where we've been, where we live.

Edo 4:50

Like the Rudy cycling brand, no?

Anna 4:53

Yeah, yeah, like this this brand, which we found is an Italian brand of cycling gear and clothing that's Italian that we have never heard of. And so we're thinking, oh, is it just like a fake Italian brand? But it is a real Italian brand, but it's just not really sold in Italy, or at least not in Rome. So we treated ourselves to a nice sit-down inside place overlooking the river, and it was a very nice place, and we had time to do that. Think, oh, we'll sit down here for another 15 minutes, have a dessert, have an espresso, and we had the freedom to do that today. So that was good. We're staying, so we arrived at the Elegance Motel, which is a very good thing because it's a very, I don't know if I'd say authentic. They have similar features, a lot of the hotels here, which are really great. And actually, it makes a really big difference when you're cycling. So there's always a little fridge in the room, a hot water heater, there is always shampoo, conditioner, and body wash, which is it's really great because if you have long hair, I can't wash my hair without conditioner. I can't get a brush through it without conditioner. So that's a nice thing. And the usual assortment of body lotion, and they give you bottles of water, a hairbrush in the room, which I have not been using. But if you forgot your hairbrush, I don't know. They're all everything's very clean, but I think you're supposed to disinfect hairbrushes. Anyway, the proprietor of the hotel did not speak English at all. And obviously, this was a hotel that we had to book through Sean. But it's in this little tiny town along the river, and it was actually nice because we got here so early. We had time to walk around and see the different shops and restaurants, and definitely this is not a place you would stay or see if you were a typical tourist coming to South Korea. So that's always something that we like to experience. And cycling is a real slow way of travel, and so you get to see these smaller towns in a much more intimate way. Again, really good, delicious, large portions for inexpensive meats, which we didn't exactly know. Again, it's always a little bit of an adventure. You don't know exactly what the food is gonna look like, but it was very delicious and plenty of convenience stores to stock up for breakfast and lunch tomorrow, just so we're ready.

Strategy For The Final 160 Kilometers

Edo 7:36

So our plan for tomorrow is to cycle around 70 kilometers. There's, as I said, 160 left, so there's gonna be 70 tomorrow and 90 for the last day. And we're starting bright and early tomorrow. We're gonna set an alarm for 6 a.m. and start cycling hopefully by 7 or 7:30. We'll be having breakfast here in our hotel room because there's no breakfast in the love motels usually. I'm not sure who we're gonna meet. So I did say this today as well. I said, Oh, I don't think we're gonna meet anyone today of the the Australian couple, Troy and Vivian, that we've met, or Ian and Haley, whom we had talked to yesterday, because we thought if they left before we did, then we're not gonna meet them. So definitely we're not gonna meet Ian and Haley unless they changed their plans because they said they were gonna spend two nights in Daegu and take a rest day. So they're behind us, technically, based on what they said. We don't know where Troy and Vivian are. They we exchanged some information about where we were staying, and they seem to be interesting in staying in our hotel, but their bikes are not parked outside at the rack where ours are, so I don't think they're here. It was interesting to talk to them about the differences between mechanical bikes and e-bikes. They said they had a range of 100 kilometers, so it would make sense since there is some accommodation between here and Namji, which is where we're stopping tomorrow, and not as many options after Namji and Tulbusan. So if I were them, honestly, I mean we could have gone 10 more kilometers if we wanted to. That would have made not much of a difference because even if we had cycled 70 kilometers today, we still would have cycled 60 tomorrow because we're almost forced to stop in Namji, because that's like the the last stop where you can find a place to stay, unless you do Cataline did and cycle all the way to Busan, which obviously we're not doing. So I don't know if we're gonna meet anyone tomorrow. So the point is that we might do it in just two breaks. So the first certification center is in 25 kilometers, so that's a little over one-third of the way. So I'm thinking maybe we could do 25 or 30 before we have second breakfast, and then perhaps 25 more, and have 20 left before lunch. The past the the days where we had longer rides yesterday and four days ago, I don't remember, before before the climb, before our rest day, we had done like 65 by 1 p.m. after having left like at 7 in the morning, including like two breaks or even one break. So it's we're planning to arrive in Namji by 4 or something, like three or four possibly, so that we have plenty of time to relax and recuperate and try to go fast the day that we have to get to Busan because we want to get to the certification center before 5:30, before it closes. We have options, as in we can also go the following morning because it's gonna be open, but we would like to do everything that day. Great news on that front. We've been in contact with Catalina, Romanian friend, who finished today. He made it, and in two days he's gonna catch the ferry to Japan. And he said they have the certification, the diplomas, and the medals. The medals are in stock, and that was something that we were really looking forward to. It's one less thing to worry about having a shipping company forward it to us, all of that. So we're hoping they're still gonna be in stock in two days when we get there. I was telling Anna today, like there should be. I think we're gonna get there before the Canadians. Uh we're not sure where the Australians are. I don't know. We saw some French people today, but then they went somewhere else. They didn't continue on the path, but I'm sure they probably just took a little detour. And I don't know, there might be a group of 30 people that we don't know about. What about all of the ooh, what about all of the like the 10 people, like the 15 people that we met up on the pass? Like the Australian couple, the other Australian couple, and the 10 people from Canada. I think today it's likely that they're here today. Because we saw them at the pass, and the pass was not yesterday, not the day before, three days ago. And there was like 300 kilometers left, so it's likely that they got here today. We'll see. Anyway, it's time for bed now. It's time for bed in 50 minutes, and yeah, another update will be coming in 24 hours tomorrow. Good night.

Snake Sighting And Relentless Rollers

Edo 12:40

Hello, it is currently what 9 34 p.m. of September 10th, and we are currently chilling in our hotel room in Namji at the Heights Hotel. This hotel is a massage chair, like a high-end one. It was amazing. It was an amazing thing to find after a day like today, which I have to admit was tough. I think today was our hardest day, but then we'll compare notes about it later. So what happened today was we woke up at six, as we said. We started off at around quarter past seven, I think. And we had planned 70 kilometers approximately today. At first the day was pretty uneventful. We saw a pretty big snake and then we researched it. It's an Amur rat snake, native to Korea, non-venomous, completely harmless, but huge. Must have been a meter and a half in length, like five feet. Yeah.

Anna 13:58

Oh my god, yeah.

Edo 13:59

Yeah.

Anna 13:59

Yeah.

Edo 14:00

Five feet. Very thick. Its tail was rattling, and then after the research we did, we found out that's just like posturing, even though they're not rattlesnakes. It's because if they're by leaves or grass, then it makes a noise and it can scare off predators. But he was just there in the middle of the path and we barely avoided it. So we took a little break 26 kilometers in at the certification center. We put our stamp and we met this very nice gentleman from Taiwan. His name was Leo, he was 72 years old. He said he had cycled over 35 countries, and I helped them fix his kickstand on his bike because one of the bolts fell off. Luckily he still had it with him, so I quickly fixed that for him and he gave us two bracelets. There's a QR code there, and he said, Oh, you can find me here, but I'm not sure. He had a cycling jersey with his name on it and like a piece dove, and he said it's it was like a cycling itinerary in Taiwan shaped like a dove. So it was very nice. And then today, as I said, was kind of tough because for the first I don't know, 30, 40 kilometers, there were so many little climbs. So many just going up and down those bridges and I don't know what it was, but it was relentless one after the other. And the climbs and the descents were so steep and short that you barely had time to gather momentum on the descent. First of all, because it was so steep and then the turns were tight, and it was just up and down and up and down, and that took a toll on the old legs. And then after I think fifty-ish kilometers, when we stopped for lunch at a little

Big Boy Little Boy And Pushing Up

Edo 16:08

bus stop on the side of the road, then we had to tackle two climbs, which we affectionately called the big boy and the little boy. The big boy was 1.7 kilometers in length and with 120 meters of ascent, but with gradients that went up to 15%. Little Boy was much shorter. It was like half as long and only 50 meters of ascent. But let me tell you, after 50 kilometers on loaded bikes and with all of the up and downs that we did, we had to walk up those hills, and it took us how long do you think it took us? Probably a good 20 minutes. No, way more than that. Maybe 25 minutes for the first one.

Anna 16:53

Yeah.

Edo 16:53

Yeah. But after those, it was just a breezy downhill to Namji where we are now. Tell us about your day, Anna.

Anna 17:05

It was a good day. There were straight parts on the path which were a nice break. There you could build up some speed. And it was again, it's interesting to see. It was very rural. We are going by rice patties, agricultural areas, and even a few places in the middle of nowhere. But as usual, the path was amazing. It's frustrating when you have to go up and you have to push. And it can be daunting because you want to prepare yourself mentally and physically. You don't want to push yourself too hard in the kilometers before going up a really steep path. But at the same time, it's like you don't want to obsess over it. You don't want to be scared of it. Because in the end, you just have to do it. So it's a really good mental exercise because there's no getting away around it. Both of our bikes are really heavy and you're awkwardly bending over, pushing it. It's really uncomfortable. But if it's not too steep, it can actually be a nice active recovery because you're using different muscles. But the day did go by pretty fast because we weren't traveling for that many hours. And then it was nice once we got to Namji to get to arrive really early. We got here at 2 15. So we had plenty of time to use the massage chair. We went to the laundromat, got treats and a nice cafe. I went to the bike mechanics. And so that was nice to get everything done, get all of our shopping done for breakfast and lunch tomorrow. And so yeah, so we're feeling good and prepared, excited for tomorrow. I'm already feeling a little bit sad that it's that it will soon be over, but I'm excited about tomorrow. And I felt like it was a good ride today. It felt pretty short despite the climbs at the end. It was okay, and then we coasted into Tanamji.

Edo 19:08

70 kilometers, just like yesterday when we rode 66. It feels like a short day at this point. Tomorrow's gonna be a good day. It's 90 kilometers. And our plan is to start earlier, like at 7 on the dot, if we can. And we've seen the distances between the certification centers. So there's one right outside town, like 10 kilometers away. Apparently, it's gonna be very similar to what we did today. Rolling farmlands, no little climbs. So it should be good. And the second certification point is around 60 kilometers in, which is where we're planning to be by lunchtime. Hopefully by 12, 12:30. So we can the plan, I think we can probably be in Busan by 3, but I'm happy if we're there by 4 or 4.30 anyway. So that's what we're gonna do tomorrow.

Cyclists Met On The Road

Edo 20:05

We had some interesting encounters today. We met Leo, the Taiwanese gentleman this morning, but then later on we were cycling and we were on one of those ramps that kind of stick out into the river. These wooden tall ramps that are just for cyclists. And in the distance, I don't know, 50-60 meters away, I see a person on a very bulky bike. And my first thought was either this is like a Korean with like a loaded bike carrying something and with a face covering and those hats with the cloth at the back and around to protect their neck, or that's a long-distance cyclist. And that's what he turned out to be. As I got closer and I saw him, the first thing I told him was, You look like somebody who's been around, and he said, Yeah. His name was Artis, and he came from Latvia. Literally, he cycled from Latvia. He said he'd been on the road for three years, and he'd been on from Latvia down to the Balkans, Hungary, then all of the stands, the Silk Road, China, then he was in Japan for a few months, and now he's just spending three months in Korea for however long the 90 days the visa lets him. He's just been cycling all around Korea, and then he said he was on the East Coast, and then he came here and there, and then he said he's doing the cross country now, going back north, because then he said once he gets to Incheon he's gonna take the ferry to China again and figure out the visa there and where to spend the winter. So that was a very interesting person to meet. We ended up talking for 20 minutes, I think. Something like that. So today was fun. Anna mentioned us going to the mechanic. Her bike was squeaking a little, and my front brake was making such a racket on the descents. Ooh, also coming down from the big boy, I hit 55-56 kilometers per hour. That was exhilarating, but my brakes were screaming. So we went to this little mechanic while Anna was at the laundromat, and I had my front brake pads replaced because they had all some gunk in them, and it was just better to replace them. And we got our chains greased because we thought we're so close, but like why risk it? So we it was better to do that because we thought, imagine if something breaks down 30 kilometers from the end. That would have sucked. And then while I was at the mechanic, Anna ran into the Australians, like the the Australian guy, Troy and Vivian, who's from Brazil and they're traveling together, but they're from Australia. And so we chatted with them. This was at around 4:30. They had just arrived and they were having some issues today trying to find the route this morning. They ended up cycling 80 kilometers. They went to our hotel yesterday because we gave them the name, but nobody was there at the reception. Because apparently the reception area is also where the owners live. You could see through that small window they had one low table, which is where they were eating at yesterday. But this morning, where they when we left, there was like a pillow and a blanket, so they probably sleep on that low table as well. And evidently when they arrived, they had gone to bed already. And tonight they came, they stopped at a hotel right next to ours, and we met them in the afternoon. They had arrived, I think maybe an hour and a half after we did, but they ended up cycling 80 kilometers instead of 70 because they took some detours and they skipped Little Boy because they went off the path because they saw it from on the map. And because even when like when we were having our lunch, we could see the bridge that we had to cross because we were at level with the river, but there was no way for us to stay on the level of the river. We had to go up big boy, like up and around the mountain, and then coming back down to cross the river. So that was unfortunate. There was a huge bridge that was under construction, and I'm pretty sure that maybe by next summer you can just cross that bridge and skip the mountain entirely and just reconnect with the path later on. So yeah, this was today, and as we said, we're looking forward to tomorrow. It's unreal to think that it was only nine days ago that we eight days ago that we started. Today's our eighth day on the road, our seventh day cycling, but it feels like a lifetime ago already. When you do these kind of trips, uh the days are long, but the weeks are short. So we've been in Korea now for ten days. We left Rome eleven days ago, but it somehow it feels like yesterday, but also it feels like it's been months. So we're more than ready to go to bed and tackle our last 90 kilometers tomorrow, and it will be unreal to go under the arch because there's an arch at the beginning and one at the end, so we're really looking forward to that. Getting our stamps, getting our stickers, our certification, and fingers crossed our medals. So it is now 10 minutes to ten. It slides out in ten minutes, and uh yeah. Hopefully we'll have good news tomorrow.

We Arrive In Busan

Edo 26:13

Hello from Bustel in Busan. It is now nine o' five PM. We just got back to our hotel in Busan after taking the subway there and back to Biff Street where we had dinner. But this is for later. Considering we're here, it means we officially completed the Korea cross-country bike tour. I'm tired. What do you think?

Anna 26:53

Yes, we have completed it. It was actually a really good day of riding. We left early around 7.20, which we've definitely established is the best time to ride. And also a little bit, we really wanted to make sure that we arrived, that we got to the end, and allowing ourselves time if any problems should arise. But anyway, it's a really good time to ride, and we made really good time.

Edo 27:23

Yeah. Sure.

Anna 27:27

So Eda will give you some of the details, the breakdown of the last days rides, and then we'll get into the what happened at the end.

Edo 27:42

Okay, so we left, as Anna said, from Namji this morning at around, yeah, a little after seven. And we decided to try to get to Busan as quickly as possible because we wanted to make sure that we had enough time to get the certifications and everything. So the first certification center, I think, was just a few kilometers outside of town. Yeah. And then the following one was for approximately where we wanted to have lunch. So we I think we cycled around 30 kilometers before we stopped at a little roadside cafe with this run by this elderly Korean lady, and we were the only ones there, and I had a strawberry juice and I had a nice Americano, and she also gave us these.

Anna 28:50

But yeah, they're like chips, but they're like rice chips. They're not even really that salty.

Edo 28:56

Yeah, that's sweet.

Anna 28:57

Yeah, like rice. I think it's yeah, it's rice. Yeah.

Edo 29:00

And a slice of and a slice of melon, which came from a box called Musk Melon, and so we just called it Melon Musk, which we thought was funny. Haha. So yeah, we the plan originally, and is actually what we did, was to take a lunch break at the second certification point. After a while, I want to say maybe after fi 40, 50 kilometers, I'm not sure, the Australians caught up with us, and uh they said, Oh, we're just gonna meet at the uh the booth where the stamp is, and we did. It made us proud to see that even though they were on e-bikes, they weren't that much f faster than we were. We rode alongside for a minute or two, and Troy was showing us how their bikes, like the the electrical assistance, just stops at 24 kilometers per hour, and we have some experience with e-bikes back home because we you can rent them like the line bikes, and you can tell as long as you get like as soon as you get to the top speed that it allows you to go at, then it just cuts off the motor, and then you just got this super heavy bike that won't go any faster. So, yeah, they arrived at the booth, they said, Oh, we just got here two minutes before you did, which was fun. So we just stopped to have a snack together, we exchanged phone numbers because we were supposed to meet tonight in Busan, and then we stayed to eat our food that we had bought while they went onwards to find a place to eat. So at lunchtime, I think we had done around 63 or 4 kilometers, and it was only 12 because our plan was to leave again at around 12:30, and we did, and we arrived, we cycled the last 30 kilometers in just over an hour and a half, so we were going really fast, and the last I want to say like 15 kilometers, maybe 20-ish, we were inside the outskirts of Busan. Most of the of the leg today was just like the past few days where it was just farmlands and easy cycling. There was like a hill right away at the beginning of today, and we ended up pushing, but it was fortunately it wasn't too long. So we managed, I think today was our fastest day because we managed to keep like a 17 kilometer per hour average throughout the whole day, including the pushing and stuff, so that was good. For reference, we were just checking what we did on the Danube, of which we should record an episode. We always say this, we still haven't written an episode on the Danube cycle path. Turned out the Danube cycle path was slightly shorter, like 20 kilometers short, 15-20 kilometers shorter than this one. And we did it in nine days, and it took us three hours more because we completed this. So let me just check the stats for today for the whole thing, actually. Let me just pull those up real quick. There we go, all of the stories that I posted today. So we ended up cycling a total of 617 kilometers in 37 hours, a little over 37 hours in eight days, 2600 meters of elevation, and 16 kilometers per hour on average. Again, on the Danube, our average was like 13, 13 and a half, so we're very happy. You might think that 2600 meters of elevation over more than 600 kilometers is not a whole lot for reference. I was just talking to my friend Thomas, who's an IVIT cyclist as well, and I was on his Strava page recently, like this afternoon, and I saw that he did a ride, it was 37 kilometers with like almost 900 meters of elevation. Wow. But that's in Switzerland. But the thing is that it's not like most of this elevation change was in very short and steep bursts, which on a loaded touring bike is quite difficult. Anyway, the last 15 kilometers, as I said, we were riding along greenways inside the huge metropolis of Busan. We

The Finish Center And Route Lessons

Edo 33:33

finally arrived to the certification center.

Anna 33:35

But in Busan, it was about 15 kilometers riding along these really nice, like a park. In it was the path was shaded. There was the park for pedestrians made out of that sort of rubbery material that they make, like tracks and like playgrounds out of, divided from the cycle path. So it was like really nice, and it was protected from the cars, it was in the shade, it was nice.

Edo 34:01

Yeah, because it was mostly in this park that was along the river. And we thought it was a nice touch that like the pedestrian area was cushioned, so it helps if you're running. And again, there were all of these gym machines all over, and all of these Koreans were stretching their hips and using those machines for like mobility mostly. It's not like weight stuff, it's mostly like body weight. But we saw a lot of like elderly Koreans using all of these machines that help you really open up your chest and stretch your hips. They're great for mobility, I think. And then when we arrived, we had a chat with this French guy whom we'd seen on the path, and he was on a very light road bike with a bike packing setup, where with a bike touring setup. The difference is subtle, but it's there. So he had one of those tail bags that are aerodynamic because they go behind your saddle, so they don't really expand horizontally like our bags, but they kind of go behind your, they're like a frame bag in the triangle in the middle of the bike. And he was flying, he said he was on certain sections just averaging 30 kilometers per hour, so almost like twice as much as we were going. But the problem is he cycled the whole thing in five days, but he was following a track that he said was probably made by somebody who just wanted to do it as fast as possible, and so he was disappointed to see that we got our certifications and stickers and medals. He was like, Oh, they give you this stuff. It's like, yep. So I wonder, we're gonna be having breakfast with Troy and Vivian tomorrow here because they're staying in our hotel, and I want to ask them if they managed to get it, because Cataline got it, but then again, Cataline did the four rivers. So he got like everything. It's funny because like our medals on the one side they say cross country, on the other side they say four rivers. The difference is if you do the cross country, you don't get the four rivers. But if you do the four rivers, you do get the cross country. Because there's just two waypoints that we didn't go to, namely the Chungju Dam and the Yangnong Dam, because they were farther away. So yeah, the French guy was a little disappointed. And overall, I have to say, this was an incredible adventure. The the infrastructure is out of this world. There were, to be honest, some sections that were with cars, but then again, the the roads were so quiet that it was never really a problem. Inevitably, as you cycle in or out of cities according to how big they are, there might be more traffic and these traffic lights that last forever when you have to cross. Like in Namji yesterday, or no, it wasn't Namji, it was the day before. To get to the other side of the road where our hotel was, we had to cross three different sidewalks. And so literally, I was joking, like, oh, this is gonna take 10 minutes, and it almost did. So, yeah, and the uh here, why don't you tell about the experience of getting the certification and the medals?

Passports Stickers Certificates Medals

Anna 37:24

So the you go into this very nice K Water center, and there's this woman behind the desk, and she asked for our cycling passports, then she asked for our regular passports, and she was studying them for five, 10 minutes for a while, and then she asked me to make sure the names were correct on the certificates.

Edo 37:50

She actually asked for our passports to make sure it was us that the name on the cycling passport and the name on our ID actually matched.

Anna 37:59

Yeah. And and and she showed she she showed me where she'd put the sticker in in our cycling passports and in the certificates, and then I asked for two medals, and so it was the equivalent of around 15 euro for two medals in these beautiful wooden display boxes with the ribbons that you can attach them to the metal. So really, really nice. And and so we got the because we completed a few of as each river is a different cycling path. So we path. So we actually completed a few of them, and then there's the sticker, so we got silver stickers for those, and then the the gold sticker for the cross-country cycle path. So it was really nice. The passports and the certificate, a really nice certificate with the official stamp, the gold sticker, our names, the translation in Korean and English. So really nice. The stickers and the certificate were free, included in the price of the passport, and then the medal was yeah, the equivalent around seven euro each. So it was a really but very official, and yeah, the poor French guy did not get his. And we met quite a few people who said that they couldn't find all of the waypoints, but we had Edo had been so precise with the GPX tracks, and then also in the passports, there's a list of all of them. And so we really had our eyes open for them, and then on multiple maps, we knew where they were. And yeah, and we didn't, I didn't think it was that difficult to get them all.

Edo 39:43

They were very visible because they were very well marked.

Anna 39:46

So it was if you were on the path and you stayed on the path, like even if we didn't have the waypoint on my GPX, we probably would have, we probably would have gotten all because as long as you as long as you're on the path, and then usually most of them about two kilometers before, they would start giving you like a countdown, and there's this very specific sort of brown sign that also said in English two kilometers to the waypoint, 1.5 kilometers to the waypoint to the certificate certification center. But and it was important for us too. The passport is so cool with all the different stamps, but it's nice to get the certificate too. It's nice to say that you completed it. And it's interesting that you don't have to the stamps you put them yourselves. You don't have to time it. It doesn't matter how long you do it, but it's a nice way to just make it official, and then you get this really nice souvenir of the trip. And so we cross through the arch at the end, and then came to our hotel, but it's at the end of a pilgrimage, and then you're no longer a pilgrim anymore, you're no longer a cyclist, you're just a tourist, and it's like you have this moment of kind of you lose your identity or your identity changes. And I'm like, oh, I'm not quite ready to just going back to being a tourist in Busan, which is a big Asian city, so lots of flashing lights, lots of you know, skyscrapers, tall buildings. After being in the countryside, just a few hours ago today. We were riding past fields, we were riding past these little rural areas, tiny towns, people working in their gardens, the in terms of civilization, the just the golf, the little golf courses. So it's a shock to be back in a big city, too.

Edo 41:51

Yeah. So the closing thoughts.

Why Cycling Shows A Country Differently

Edo 41:56

It was great to see how much the the path evolved, obviously, but this is such we always say this, it's such a great way to explore a country in depth. Because honestly, we did the first part the where we were cycling along the Han River in Seoul, and it was a big city, obviously, but we saw so many cyclists, and even before then, starting in Incheon, this little town, at least where we started from at the Ara Ara West Sea Lock, and us stopping at the mechanic there and spending some time there and trying to learn how to use the Google Translate and talking with Koreans there and our first experience with Korean food. By now, we're like experts. I don't even mind spicy food anymore, even though I did say I did ask my family, they're coming to pick us up on Tuesday with the plane. And I said, please let's just go eat pizza because I can't. Anyway, so the first part was inside Seoul, and then as we move towards the mountain stage, it becomes more like the woods and the forest and the mountains, so like a mountainous environment and the hot springs, the little city by the mountain, and the mist rolling in from the river, and then our two days in in Jinam, and it was so rural and beautiful, and nobody was around. It was such a contrast with Busan tonight. We were just saying it at dinner. I was like, oh, remember in Jinam we went out and everything was closed, and we were the only ones out at 7 30 at night. And then later on, we were in this area, it was flatter, and we they were growing all of these apples and peaches, and the gentleman on his scooter gave us three apples. Which were delicious, and then more like flatlands and riverlands. And then they what was it that they were growing recently? Oh, maybe rice. We saw a lot of like rice fields.

Anna 44:13

And that green leafy vegetable.

Edo 44:15

And the big green leafy vegetables.

Anna 44:17

The lotus, the huge lotus plants.

Edo 44:21

And then we saw water lilies. So you can really tell how like a country changes from the north to the south. And I'm not even that sure how South Korea is, like, morphologically, like geographically. Obviously, I can tell you that Italy has the Alps and the Dolomites in the north, so it's very mountainous. Then there's the Chinqueterre a little bit to the southwest of that. And then the Rolling Hills of Tuscany and the Apennines, which is more mountains, and then all of the different cities. And as you go further south, the seaside and all these things. So we did see a subtle change in Korea. And I think it was more interesting when you it's different, but it's still interesting because when we did the Danube, we crossed four different countries. And so as you go further east, you can actually tell how the architecture starts to change from like Western Europe to something in between to Eastern Europe, right? But in this case, we were going from north to south in the same country. But there are still lots of little subtle differences there if you take close attention and notice all of these little things. And again, the bicycle is the best way to notice this. Because honestly, if we were to have walked this, it would have taken us a month. It would have been way, way different. So again, I love traveling by bicycle. It's been seven years since we did a bike tour, which is a really long time. And in between, we've done lots of different camini, and we traveled by motorcycle, so completely different. And again, one final question for you long distance hiking or bicycle touring?

Anna 46:18

Oh my gosh. Definitely bicycle touring is more difficult on the body. I don't know. I found myself just like pushing myself more physically. It is, as Eda was saying, it's it's so interesting to see all of a country from such a slow, intimate portrayal, or in the case of the Danube, seeing several different countries and how they change. And even that in Italy too, as we've gone across. The the speed of bicycle touring is maybe a little bit more interesting because you're moving faster. So you're moving about three times as fast, three to four times as fast as you would walking. So it's definitely if you only have a week or two, you definitely get to see more, experience more. And it's not too fast. You're not taking a high-speed train or a plane from city to city. You can still stop whenever. So you definitely notice even in a day's cycling, how the food changes, how the landscape changes. We don't speak Korean. So I guess apparently they have dialects. So I'm sure they're like their language and the accent changes. So you can definitely see that cycling. You're not moving too fast, but you're moving a little bit faster to make it interesting. Whereas if you're walking for a week across Lazio region, you're not gonna see that much of a difference.

Edo 47:52

But there remember when we did uh a little part of the Franchigena, and obviously we speak the language and we speak the dialect, and we we know what the regional accent is. Even just over the course of 50 or 60 kilometers, you can hear subtle differences in the way that people speak.

Anna 48:09

No, definitely like in Italy, definitely language like it does change from town to town, and even like the food, too. Yeah. As you go from town to town, you find more of some dishes, you won't find others. But but I think the the speed of cycling is really great, especially if you're going across an entire country in only two weeks. If we wouldn't have been able to do this walking. So it was a really good speed to experience such such a vast part of the country. And sometimes I'm where I was thinking, like, oh, are we not seeing enough? We're not really spending any time in Busan, but it's we're seeing the country in a different way. We got to see these really interesting parts of the country that you just would not see if you were just hitting the major cities in Korea.

Edo 49:02

We stopped in some places where they barely had buses going through. So it would be really hard to get to these places, if not by bicycle or by car, obviously. So I'm glad that we did this and we we still get to see Seoul tomorrow for the next three days. So we still get to experience the metropolis. But I definitely enjoyed being in those very little towns that we saw. Yeah.

unknown 49:29

Yeah.

Anna 49:30

And people and being in in smaller towns, you also get a a really different impression of the of the people. I felt like we got to talk to more people, or even just even just the interactions with waiters and people at the hotels was a lot more personal than what you would get in in a big city. But I don't know, I like the I like the variety. I don't think it's I only want to want to give up walking and only do cycling tours. But also it's so the I loved this trip in particular because it's Asia's is a completely different world. Obviously, it's so different from Europe. And so that was like just nonstop excitement, apart from the incredible natural beauty, the incredible path, unlike any other cycle path in the world, it was just so well kept, so many amazing services. That's just such a joy. So that that part was amazing, but just being in a culture in a country that's so vastly different from where you live. It was just non-stop excitement, definitely.

Edo 50:46

Speaking of the path, real quick, we noticed lots of little detours, and the track that I was following wasn't a hundred percent accurate because this goes to show that they keep working on it and they keep improving on it, which I think is amazing. But just going back really quickly to the hiking versus cycling, as Anna said, I'm not gonna give up one for the other. There are pros and cons. The pros of hiking is that it's easier because all you have is a backpack and it's on your back all the time. Thinking about the logistics of moving a bicycle sometimes can be a little overwhelming. But then again, we've done some long stretches that you know on a bicycle you can just go past in 15 minutes or something, or even less if it's downhill. Whereas it doesn't really change much if you're walking and you're on a 2% negative grade, so it's a slight downhill, it's still gonna take you an hour to cross, I don't know, four or five kilometers. Whereas with the bike, it can take you maybe even 15 minutes or a little less. So, yeah, obviously there's pros and cons. And one final question for you how's your body feeling? How has your body adapted?

Anna 52:07

I felt actually really good today. I don't know if it was the massage chair, but I think I got stronger or my body got used to doing so many kilometers at this speed. So I was feeling good. Obviously, at the end of the day, my legs, I can feel my muscles just walking up the stairs. I'm like, I don't know. I hope I have time to recover in Seoul because in my daily life, it's like all stairs, like all the time. I'm constantly walking upstairs. I live in the fifth floor walk-up in the US. What you would say is called the fifth floor in the US. And yeah, I just do a lot of stairs in my daily life. So I hope I'm I've recovered by the time I get home. But I definitely felt like I got stronger slash used to cycling over 70 kilometers a day. How about you?

Stronger Legs Gratitude And Goodbyes

Edo 53:07

People always say, and we always say this too, maybe as an excuse not to train before going on these adventures, but like the training is the actual adventure. The first day was somewhat easy. It was only around 70 kilometers. The second day, if you remember what we recorded, I was already feeling a little down because I was all tired and I don't know, maybe homesick after five days in Korea, four days in Korea. But the ease with which we've done this second half of the trip, where we've had really long days because it was 100 the first day, I think 60 the second, 66 the second, 72 the third, and 93 today. And us thinking yesterday, oh, it's a short day, it's only 70 kilometers. It's insane to think about. And so yeah, I hope again, Anna and I train throughout the year with like weights and circuit training and stuff. This is a completely different beast, obviously, because we only use one set of muscles. You use your whole body by terms of like either cycling or lifting weights, but so I feel like on a cardiovascular level, like we're healthy, but our legs and our glutes have received quite a workout in the past two weeks. I'm glad that we managed to do the whole thing. We keep saying it's such a blessing to be healthy and capable of doing this stuff. But yeah, even I haven't gone on long rides in a really long time, especially because in in Rome it gets boring doing the same path over and over again. So you get mentally exhausted before you get physically exhausted. But we kept telling each other how great it is that we thought, oh, it's just a 93-kilometer day, we can get there before lunch, and we kinda did because we arrived at two. It's incredible. So yeah. Overall, we're incredibly grateful for this adventure. We're happy, we're tired, and I am ready to go home with uh a full heart, and again incredibly grateful and just so excited that we did this. This is something that we will cherish and remember for the rest of our lives. I can't wait to put my medal on display at home and tell all of our friends, and this is also a great moment for us to thank every single person that we've met: Sean, Michael, Milena, and Antonio, Kataline, who I was just talking to a few minutes ago. We would check in on each other every night, so Kataline was amazing. He's in Japan right now. And who else? Ian and Haley, Troy and Vivian, the gentleman that gave us the apples, all of the Korean people that worked at restaurants and were so nice to us, and all of the staff at the hotel, the family in Jinam, just everyone. We were so social this this trip. I tend not to speak much when I'm in Rome, but really, all of these people that we've met, oh artis, the crazy Latvian who's still cycling around Korea, who's gonna go back to China in a few weeks. Really, thank you to all of you. Should you ever listen to this, it's been a pleasure and an honor to meet all of you and to share the trail with you guys. Yeah. It's it's time to go home now. Good night.

Final Reflection And Closing Words

Edo 57:00

And just like that, we've made it. This journey has been a long time coming. It's been seven years since our last proper bike tour, and after all that time, we finally found ourselves back on the road, taking on another big adventure together. We'd started planning this adventure months in advance, and before we knew it, we were there, setting off across South Korea with a challenge ahead of us. Over 600 kilometers between Incheon and Busan. Dozens of hours in the saddle, thousands of meters of climbing, and countless moments that tested our legs, our minds, and our determination. And now we've reached the finish line. There were tough days, aching muscles, relentless climbs, and moments when the road seemed to go on forever, but we kept moving, one pedal stroke at a time, one stage at a time, until we finally arrived in Busan. And honestly, finishing this ride means so much more than collecting stamps, certificates, or medals. It's it's about coming back to something we love after so many years, taking on a challenge that seemed daunting at the beginning, and proving ourselves that we could see it through. Along the way, we discovered a country in a way that only traveling by bicycle allows. We passed through mountains, rivers, farmlands, tiny villages, and bustling cities. We met cyclists from all over the world, share stories, help each other along, and made memories that will stay with us long after the bikes are put away. But perhaps the most special part is simply knowing that we did it. We made this journey happen, we committed to it, and we finished what we started. Seven years between bike tours, eight days crossing South Korea, over 600 kilometers behind us. We came to South Korea with a dream, a goal. And we left with a story we'll be telling for years. And honestly, we couldn't be happier that we came back to the road. Thanks for being part of the adventure. This one truly has been unforgettable.