closing in on my 40th book of the year; this should optimistically be read sometime next week

    •  Elise   ( @xilliah@beehaw.org ) 
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      617 days ago

      I’m traveling spontaneously. I imagine I’ll stay in southern Spain this winter and then continue through Italy and cross by boat to Greece and continue on to Istanbul. Beyond that I can’t really say much right now. I might have to adjust my plans based on safety and infrastructure. Right now I am thinking of circumventing eastern europe for those reasons, but I’ll look into it later and I still hope that it’s possible. Those places are gorgeous and I’d like to spread trans visibility.

      • Take it then through central Europe. CZ and SK take some routing skills but it is really nice to bike here, don’t worry about Austria the bike infrastructure is top quality. Hungary is good too but it is really boring (too flat). Don’t trust that Romania and Bulgaria are backwards in this regard, it is doable (I would say it is bit worse than CZ and SK).

        I wasn’t in all countries I mentioned some of it is from friends who were there. Maybe mention it in bikepacking/touring community (it is on lemmy.world so you will need another account) someone will give you more hands on advice.

        •  Elise   ( @xilliah@beehaw.org ) 
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          417 days ago

          Thanks, I’ve saved it!

          I’ve always dreamt of visiting Budapest, and even moving there, but unfortunately they have anti lgbtq stuff going on there for now, so I’ll need some experience before I take on that beast.

          • Yeah politic is messed right now in Hungary and Slovakia in this regard. But I don’t think that it sets general feelings towards lgbtq. As a tourist you should be fine, I had really weird encounters in really rural area in Romania but never felt like I was in danger. Just to be safe I would put the rainbow flag down but that’s all, lots of people are progressive, even in those countries, and assholes are everywhere.

            Hit me up if you will ride through Czech Republic, I am not active much on this account so - @plactagonic@sopuli.xyz (my second lemmy account); @plactagonic@f.cz (mastodon)

            •  Elise   ( @xilliah@beehaw.org ) 
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              417 days ago

              Thanks, I just followed you with my Mastodon account.

              And about weird encounters, tell me about it! To say I have them often would be an understatement. That’s also why I’m not so afraid, because I just don’t think it can get much worse than it is here. In fact that would impress me.