Solitude, Strength, and Connection

Jerry Kopack [00:00:02]:
Welcome to Bike Life, a podcast from the Warmshowers Foundation. Here we celebrate our global community of touring cyclists and hosts who make life on the road unforgettable. Through stories, insights, and shared experiences, we explore the connections that fuel every journey. Whether you're pedaling across countries or welcoming travelers into your home, you're part of a movement rooted in generosity and adventure. Discover more and join the community@warmshowers.org now let's hit the road together. Hey, everyone, this is Jerry Kopeck, the host of Bike Life, coming to you from the Rocky Mountains of Breckenridge, Colorado. Today I'm talking to Calliope Giraguzi, who solo cycled across 12 countries in Europe, from Brighton, UK, all the way down to Thessaloniki, Greece. Through solitude on the road and the kindness of strangers, she discovered not only the strength to ride alone, but the joy of sharing moments and stories along the way.

Jerry Kopack [00:01:04]:
Hey there, Calliope. Welcome to Bike Life.

Calliope Georgousi [00:01:07]:
Hello there, Jerry. Thank you very much for having me.

Jerry Kopack [00:01:10]:
Now, where am I finding you today?

Calliope Georgousi [00:01:13]:
I am in Grenoble, France.

Jerry Kopack [00:01:16]:
Grenoble, France. And that's where you live? Yeah, yeah.

Calliope Georgousi [00:01:19]:
For the moment, yeah.

Jerry Kopack [00:01:20]:
You're not on tour at the moment?

Calliope Georgousi [00:01:23]:
Not yet.

Jerry Kopack [00:01:24]:
Okay. So I've had the opportunity to interview several solo female cyclists who've set off on these big adventures. And I'm curious, what was your motivation?

Calliope Georgousi [00:01:35]:
I think it was an opportunity for me to do something different, to travel. It was right after separation and was right after Covid. So I really needed to get out of the country and go towards my other home in Greece. My research question was, where is home?

Jerry Kopack [00:02:01]:
So you are Greek, then?

Calliope Georgousi [00:02:03]:
Yes, I am indeed. Yeah.

Jerry Kopack [00:02:05]:
Okay. I mean, as you know, it takes a ton of courage to go out solo. And I remember going out on my first solo trip. Did you have any reservations or concerns about going out by yourself?

Calliope Georgousi [00:02:16]:
Absolutely. My reservation was what to take, what not to take. Where should I sleep? How long will I be doing this for? I didn't set out actually to go to Thessaloniki. At the beginning, I was thinking, I'm just gonna go to Czech Republic to collect my Festa bike. But then my father was saying, okay, when are you gonna come down here?

Jerry Kopack [00:02:42]:
And where did you turn for resources or support or to learn more about bike touring? Like, were you always a cyclist?

Calliope Georgousi [00:02:48]:
I was lucky because I met. Sorry. I met Sam and Becky, who are an amazing, legendary couple who has cycled Thailand and New Zealand. Sam is English or British, and Becky is from. Yeah, she's a New Zealander. And, yeah, they met in England and they started cycling together a lot. And I met them at the time after I was separated, they were staying with me. And then I asked them about their journeys and asked them how would it be if I did that and what would I need? And indeed, Sam and Becky had been amazing.

Calliope Georgousi [00:03:34]:
Yeah, they were like my. They gave me a lot of inspiration. Yeah. And. And a lot of helped me a lot with my preparation as well.

Jerry Kopack [00:03:44]:
Were you always a cyclist or was this something that was new to you?

Calliope Georgousi [00:03:48]:
No, that was the type of cyclist I did was new. But I was a cyclist before I. I purchased my Brompton back in 2015. And at the time I was thinking, I want a foldable bike to go from, to go to work, which was about 45 minutes away. And I thought, well, I'll just take the bus. If it's raining, I'll fold the bike and I'll take the bus. But that never happened. And when I moved to Brighton, I had to get myself a proper bike with gears because nobody else had a Brompton and I wanted to meet people.

Calliope Georgousi [00:04:27]:
And one thing brought another. Somebody said, well, there is this group called Odax and if you like endurance cycling and you like solo cycling because you're not very, very, very good with, with, with groups and following groups. And then I, yeah, they told me about Odax and I started riding with Odax. I did my first 50 kilometers, then 100, then 200, then 300. So that was a completely different type of cycling where you do a lot of kilometers in a day but you don't pack a lot. Whereas this was a multi day trip where I had to pack more, but I still did about 100km a day or so.

Jerry Kopack [00:05:11]:
That's incredible. So talk to me about your route because I'm looking at a map and I've written through several parts of Europe and some of these countries you probably went to, but it's a big trip. How did you decide on your route and which places to go through? Were there places that you kind of had on your list that you wanted to see?

Calliope Georgousi [00:05:29]:
Yeah, so I knew that I wanted to go to France and I had to go through the ferry. And then after that I went to Belgium. I was going to go to Amsterdam and my plan was to actually see friends on the way. So I knew I had a friend in Utrecht, in Holland. I also knew I had a friend in Amsterdam, I had a friend in Vienna. So I visited this friend. So it was a great opportunity for me to meet friends whom I haven't seen in decades even. That was fantastic.

Calliope Georgousi [00:06:05]:
And so, yeah, times like these were. Were such. And then I was aiming towards Prague. So I then followed much of the Eurobello route.

Jerry Kopack [00:06:20]:
Good.

Calliope Georgousi [00:06:21]:
And this was much of my guide, to be honest with you, because I wanted to be on a safe cycling road and to experience a Eurobello route. It's a great, great project that, that we have here in Europe. So. Yes. And then I also followed Warmshowers and I stayed with Warmshowers, guests, and I met cyclists on the way. It's so funny because I. Even though I was solo or it's a solo cycling, I hardly stayed alone.

Jerry Kopack [00:06:52]:
Tell me more about that. What does that mean?

Calliope Georgousi [00:06:55]:
Well, the thing is that whenever I was camping, because they saw me, that, you know, I was just a single person, it's easier for people to get, to get a chance to talk to you. And because of my. My bicycle setup was so different than anybody else in Europe. I was carrying not a lot of stuff and I was on a Festica carbon bike.

Jerry Kopack [00:07:15]:
Oh, I know that bike.

Calliope Georgousi [00:07:17]:
Yeah. A lot of people were like, okay, raising an eyebrow. Go like, how. How come you're doing this? Why are you doing this? You know, what's your setup? What are you carrying with you? So, yeah, people were curious and they would talk to me. They would come and talk to me, asking questions about the bike, the setup, and this is how we, we would get talking. And the Warmshowers. Yeah. Well, it was a great opportunity to stay somewhere if it was raining or if it wasn't a good day.

Calliope Georgousi [00:07:52]:
And then I'd get a chance to meet people and we'd have, like, really interesting conversations about our setups, about life, about our cycling trips.

Jerry Kopack [00:08:01]:
Isn't that amazing about Warmshowers? Like the people you meet along the way, it's obviously a great support network. But think about the experiences, the local connections that you meet. It's so much different than saying staying at the local guest house or the hostel. Like, you get this local experience with people and they can tell you, like, hey, if you want to go here, you should cycle on this road. Or just learning and hearing their stories about their culture.

Calliope Georgousi [00:08:25]:
It's.

Jerry Kopack [00:08:25]:
It's wonderful.

Calliope Georgousi [00:08:27]:
Absolutely. It's actually, now that we're talking about it, I'm going to go to Prague to repair my bike. And I've just been in touch with three different hosts. One of them came back to me saying that they'll be happy to have me for a couple of days. And I have a feeling that I met Julian before when I was in Prague. Two years ago and we went for a beer but I didn't have a chance to stay at his place because he was busy with other things at that moment in time. So it would be amazing to meet him again.

Jerry Kopack [00:09:02]:
Interesting.

Calliope Georgousi [00:09:03]:
It's such a lovely connection just to feel that I'm going to Prague and I'm. I'm already going to go at a friend's place. Isn't this amazing?

Jerry Kopack [00:09:11]:
Yeah. Like it's a, it's a big world but at the same time sometimes it feels so small. Right. These little intimate connections.

Calliope Georgousi [00:09:18]:
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Jerry Kopack [00:09:20]:
So you mentioned your setup. What kind of step do you have? Do you have panniers? No panniers. Are you trying to go super light?

Calliope Georgousi [00:09:28]:
I'm trying to go as light as possible because after a certain amount of kilos the bike starts to misbehave. Meaning that it's not as stable.

Jerry Kopack [00:09:38]:
Sure.

Calliope Georgousi [00:09:40]:
So yeah, I do have tail fin panniers with a, the carbon setup of the tail fin panniers. I have the mini panniers at the, at the back. And I have a one person tent which is an msr. It used to be the carbon fiber poles but now I have the, the newest one which doesn't have carbon fibers, but it's still quite a light tent. It's about 800 grams. And yeah, I, I still have my mat. I still have my sleeping bag. I also have my stove, my MSR stove.

Calliope Georgousi [00:10:26]:
One person MSR stove. I didn't get a chance to have a frying pan because it's an odd shape.

Jerry Kopack [00:10:33]:
Okay.

Calliope Georgousi [00:10:34]:
But yeah, but I still have one, one change of civil clothes, if I may say. And I didn't have a change of cycling clothes so I'd have to wash them every time that I would stop and dry them for the next day.

Jerry Kopack [00:10:56]:
Right. Sounds like you've done a lot of research on your gear. You got some really good quality items.

Calliope Georgousi [00:11:02]:
Yeah. And then I also for the triangle for the, I've got a frame sock as well. So where I would keep my pantry at the top. So most of the heavy stuff and my, my gas would be at the bottom. My, my gears also would be at the bottom of the frame. And then I love my aero bars. I love my arrow bars. So I would have an aero pack for the error bars.

Calliope Georgousi [00:11:35]:
These are all made from Apidura. So Apidura makes the aeropack as well as the, the other bags which I'm using. And I really support them as a company. They're amazing in terms of how they care about the climate change in the environment, how easy it is for. For us to repair them as well.

Jerry Kopack [00:12:00]:
So, yeah, I know the founder of Epidural, so, yeah, it's a good. It's a great organization indeed.

Calliope Georgousi [00:12:07]:
Yeah. So, yeah, I use that a lot, and this was my setup.

Jerry Kopack [00:12:16]:
So when you first started out, did you realize there are things that maybe you needed or wish you had? Or did you realize I don't really need this? And things that you got rid of? Like, what were some of those items?

Calliope Georgousi [00:12:28]:
That's a very good question, because it was the first list I made when I came back home. The things that I didn't need. I tried not to have a pair of jeans.

Jerry Kopack [00:12:40]:
They're heavy and they take up space.

Calliope Georgousi [00:12:44]:
But in the end, I decided to purchase the lightest pair of jeans because I just really needed to have one pair where I could go and sit in the bar if I was in town. Or. Or I could just. Yeah, I just needed that. That's something I definitely needed. I didn't. I definitely needed my Patagonia jacket. That was.

Calliope Georgousi [00:13:16]:
Yeah, mostly. Actually, I used it during the September. The months of September. October.

Jerry Kopack [00:13:24]:
Rain jacket or puffy jacket?

Calliope Georgousi [00:13:26]:
Puffy jacket. Insulation.

Jerry Kopack [00:13:28]:
Got it.

Calliope Georgousi [00:13:28]:
Okay. The rainy jacket. Really, to be honest with you, I don't know how I made it. I think I would rest more whenever it was raining, and I would stay one more day because I have rim brakes and because I have carbon. Sorry, the French word comes. Carbon wheels.

Jerry Kopack [00:13:49]:
Yeah. What's the French word for that? Okay.

Calliope Georgousi [00:13:59]:
So because of that, I avoided the rain as much as I could. Yeah. So I did have a raincoat with me, but that was not for. Just in case it was raining a little bit. If it was raining a lot, I would probably stop and wait and. Yeah. Or I would go to the nearest place where I could rest.

Jerry Kopack [00:14:18]:
Any. Any plans to upgrade to disc brakes?

Calliope Georgousi [00:14:23]:
Yes. Yes. Because when I put more weight on the bike, it's not easy to. And other than that, I'd say there's nothing wrong with rim brakes. Really, there's nothing. Especially if you're not a heavy cyclist, like the weight of your body is. But here in the mountains, in the Alps, there are a lot of downhills, and a lot of people prefer to have disc brakes in that respect, for sure.

Jerry Kopack [00:14:57]:
Now, do you find certain kinds of landscape to be more interesting to you? Like, do you like coastal? Do you like flat roads? Do you like the Alps? The mountains? What do you like?

Calliope Georgousi [00:15:07]:
I got mesmerized by the Alps and the mountains.

Jerry Kopack [00:15:10]:
Yeah. Which parts?

Calliope Georgousi [00:15:14]:
Well, I so enjoyed the. Some of the best places were Slovenia. Slovakia was also nice, but Slovenia and also some parts of Prague, south of Prague were phenomenal. I remember a place near the river. Yeah. I did ask locals, I did ask locals a lot of times when I was staying with Warmshowers, guests like, oh, I'm looking toward, to go towards Vienna. Which way do you think I should take? And there were moments where they were saying to me, well, you know, they're making wine at this moment in time and, or this town is a UNESCO town, so maybe you want to go across that. And so these were also kind of like decision makers.

Calliope Georgousi [00:16:06]:
Going back to your previous question.

Jerry Kopack [00:16:07]:
Yeah. And it's great because you get that information by talking to locals. It's easy to look at the app on your phone and try to figure things out, but you really get that local intel from just talking to people along the way. Which kind of makes me ask you this one more question here. So solo travel, as you probably know, can be both very empowering and also, I don't know, sometimes kind of lonely. Did you have moments of each where sometimes you felt like, I am on top of the world. This is amazing. I get to go wherever I want, whenever I want or like, wow, I wish I had someone to talk to.

Calliope Georgousi [00:16:41]:
Yes, absolutely. There were moments where I saw amazing natural beauty just, just like jaw dropping natural beauty with beautiful turquoise blue rivers that have been untouched by human nature, by us humans. Beautiful mountains, beautiful fields with flowers. And yes, this is the moment where I was thinking, I'm at the top of the world. The birds are singing, everything around me is just so beautiful. And I felt attuned, even if I was lonely. And there were moments where I was thinking, well, I wish my ex partner was here with me. I wish X, Y, Z friend was there with me so I can share this beauty with them.

Calliope Georgousi [00:17:31]:
But that would have been a different journey.

Jerry Kopack [00:17:33]:
Sure, sure. So you probably felt this way as well. But there's, there's something just deeply transformative about going slow and traveling by bike. Do you think this ride shaped or changed you at all?

Calliope Georgousi [00:17:47]:
Yes, absolutely. Defined me as a person.

Jerry Kopack [00:17:49]:
Okay.

Calliope Georgousi [00:17:51]:
I had in many ways. I can mention at least four here. It made me more organized. I had to remember pretty much I was a scout before. And I think if I hadn't been a scout, I wouldn't have the confidence to start something like this. And so back to your question. It has made me more organized. I had to know where my things were, inside out.

Calliope Georgousi [00:18:20]:
Whenever I needed my raincoat, I would change the position. I had to reshape things as I was going along the way, I had to adapt to different situations, had to be open when new situations arose. I had to think quickly when problems came on the bike to see how I can go around them. So it has made me more adaptable, more flexible, more organized and. And more resilient in that resilience.

Jerry Kopack [00:18:54]:
Okay. Just because sometimes things happen and the only person who's going to be able to figure it out is you. Right? Because you're solo.

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Jerry Kopack [00:20:00]:
So. So speaking of that, this is a question I like to ask people from time to time. Because with any trip, especially of this length or this distance, things inevitably go wrong. Was there ever a time when something happened, you thought to yourself like, wow, how am I going to find my way out of this one?

Calliope Georgousi [00:20:18]:
Yes, it was the moment that I fell from the bike. And yeah, I was. I was nearing my destination. I was 5km away after four days riding Germany. Riding and writing. This is a huge country and really pleasant to ride. But it was 5km away from the borders to Czech Republic and I was at the mountain called Marienberg. So there, there were a lot of rolling hills, as you can imagine.

Calliope Georgousi [00:20:53]:
And I didn't know whether I should go quickly on the downhill because I could see that there was. Directly after that there was an uphill. So I had to make a decision. Should I go quickly and then win some space or should I go fast or should I go slower and then pedal and grind? And I decided to go fast so I can take some slack. But then as I was going down, I saw that there was a pothole and I got afraid and there was wind at the bottom of the road. So going afraid, I started actually pushing on my brakes a lot. Maybe it was a good thing that I had rim brakes, because if it was disc brakes, probably I would be off the bike, but because it was downhill, I. I slided on the road and I slide and I lost a lot of skin.

Calliope Georgousi [00:21:51]:
Oh, yes.

Jerry Kopack [00:21:53]:
So elbow. Oh, sorry, I say. I was going to say elbow. Hip, knee.

Calliope Georgousi [00:22:00]:
Yeah, elbow, hip, knee, calf and uncle.

Jerry Kopack [00:22:08]:
Okay, so what did you do?

Calliope Georgousi [00:22:10]:
So. Exactly. Yeah, the first thing I did was trying to think, like, how do you say help in German? I could see, yeah, a person in the field, but they were working and they had headphones on. So I was asking for help and nobody heard me. But there was a house nearby, and I was so lucky that some other cyclists saw me and they came over and they. They lifted the bike from me because I was under the bike, and they lifted the bike and then I walked down, and then they gave me some first aid. We made sure that I didn't break any bones. And then I continued another 25km to arrive to my destination, to my campsite.

Jerry Kopack [00:22:56]:
Wow. So you basically just dusted yourself off. Did you rinse out any of your wounds or just get back on your bike?

Calliope Georgousi [00:23:03]:
Yeah. It's amazing how our body is having the adrenaline that it has. It can keep us going. And I kept on going, and I went up that hill that I was afraid, and I moved on, and I pitched my tent and I cooked that night, and people were watching me, and I took care of my wounds and. And then I had to do another 100 kilometers to. To reach Prague. So I did another 100 kilometers to reach Prague the day after.

Jerry Kopack [00:23:39]:
So not even a day off. I thought maybe you might check into a hotel, take a shower, scrub things out, take a rest.

Calliope Georgousi [00:23:46]:
I took a shower, but I shouldn't have taken a shower because you're not supposed to put water on the wound. My wound was about this big.

Jerry Kopack [00:23:54]:
As big as your hand with your fingers extended?

Calliope Georgousi [00:23:57]:
Yeah.

Jerry Kopack [00:23:58]:
Wow. Okay. And were you. Were you worried that, am I injured? Am I going to be able to go forward? Did those thoughts cross your mind?

Calliope Georgousi [00:24:08]:
Yes. Yes. I was thinking, how am I going to go forward? I need to go. Where am I going to stay? I'm in the middle of nowhere. And so that's why I had to motivate myself to continue.

Jerry Kopack [00:24:21]:
It's amazing how powerful the human spirit is. Right? Just like this fight or flight to. I have to go because what is the choice?

Calliope Georgousi [00:24:29]:
And then when I arrived in Prague and eventually I went into my Airbnb and I thought, okay, now I can rest. I can have a hot shower. I can have the place to myself. I don't need to pitch a tent I don't. I can rest. It's so interesting how the body actually shut down because I was sleeping for 13 to 12 to 13 hours for the next. For the following week.

Jerry Kopack [00:24:49]:
Yeah. Trauma, right. Your body experienced a great degree of trauma. And I mean, how was that first day after your. After your crash to wake up? Sore?

Calliope Georgousi [00:25:00]:
Yes, it was sore. And it was also difficult to change the wounds and it was also difficult to sit. It was also difficult to. Somebody had to buy the shopping, somebody had to cook, and that was me. But at. At the same time, I was feeling tired and I wanted to go to sleep. So it was a very challenging time. But it's.

Calliope Georgousi [00:25:22]:
That's when I'm talking about resilience. Like to understand that I needed to do things in a slower rhythm but keep on going because I needed to keep on going.

Jerry Kopack [00:25:33]:
Wow, that is truly inspiring. So I know we had talked offline about you wanting to really encourage and empower other women to set off on these kind of adventures outside of being scared because you might crash. But are there any tips that you might want to share or to give to some of the ladies who might be listening to this?

Calliope Georgousi [00:25:55]:
A lot of. Yeah. One thing I want to say from this experience is that it's always important. My learning from that is that it's always important to be in control and to feel safe. I don't know what the speed is when you're going downhill, but as long as you feel safe. Many a times when I'm riding with boys or with other. With other people, some people are going faster and I have a feeling, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I can do that, I can do that. But I.

Calliope Georgousi [00:26:25]:
Nowadays I'm thinking, no, stop this. Go in your own rhythm. Because I don't want to have another fall. And if I have that fall, it's going to be nasty and it's going to be difficult to get back on the bike. So. So always being in control and feel that, you know, no matter if it takes me five more minutes, you know, to go downhill, other people will wait for me. And it's important to take my time to respect that time, that everybody has their own time. Yeah.

Calliope Georgousi [00:26:58]:
To go downhill and learn some techniques, also some descending techniques, some ascending techniques, if we can.

Jerry Kopack [00:27:06]:
What about outside of the actual cycling, just as far as setting out on a trip, like getting yourself mentally ready, prepared, like getting the gear, learning certain basic maintenance. Did you know much about bikes or how did you learn these things?

Calliope Georgousi [00:27:22]:
I learned much about camping as a scout.

Jerry Kopack [00:27:26]:
Okay.

Calliope Georgousi [00:27:27]:
So one thing I had always in Mind is to have my first aid gear. And the other thing was to know where it is, even if it's nightfall and I need to. I knew what I wanted to. I wanted always to have some food. And in case I. In case something happens, I should be able to stay overnight wherever I could with my tent and wait for the next day so I would have enough food for one night if. And if something happened, that was the one thing. And I organized my stuff a lot.

Calliope Georgousi [00:28:03]:
I reorganized myself my stuff time and time again during the trip and I found that this happened time and time again. Does that answer your question? Yeah.

Jerry Kopack [00:28:14]:
Is there anything else? Because there are women and men as well who may be comfortable cycling, but they've never taken off and done a big trip like an overnight or a one week or a one month or how, how long did, how long did your trip take you? All the way down to Greece.

Calliope Georgousi [00:28:33]:
It took me about three months, but then again I was resting for about three weeks in Prague.

Jerry Kopack [00:28:38]:
Sure.

Calliope Georgousi [00:28:40]:
And it was about 2, 500 to 3,000 kilometers.

Jerry Kopack [00:28:45]:
And so for many people that seems audacious. Like they, they can't fathom doing a three month trip with 2,000 kilometers. Like, what would you tell someone who's thinking about doing a trip like this across Europe?

Calliope Georgousi [00:28:57]:
Taking off stuff that. Taking off stuff so that you feel comfortable if something happens that you. You'll be. You'll be okay for one night at least. But don't take too much stuff. I've seen some Warmshowers, guests coming with me with five, six, eight pioneers, huge pioneers. And I. And they really, I really wonder, somebody said to me something really wise, if I could say this, that you take as the amount of things you take, show how much fear you have.

Jerry Kopack [00:29:36]:
Ah, take your fears with you. Interesting, because I also have seen people with front panniers and rear panniers and a frame bag and then a backpack. And that's interesting expression. I've never heard that before.

Calliope Georgousi [00:29:51]:
Yes. If you think about it, the more we try to be organized, the more stuff we take, the more we let go of stuff, the more we are open to use whatever we want we have on our way. And I would also say one thing that I learned in Amsterdam, I was looking to make sure that I have a place to stay because of peace of mind here. Oh, I need to know where I'm staying tomorrow. But then another cyclist said to me, calliope, you don't really need this because you're just a solo cyclist. And here campings in Europe like will always have one Place for one person on a one person tent. So you don't really need to organize things too much. And that really freed me a lot.

Calliope Georgousi [00:30:43]:
Like I. Yes, absolutely.

Jerry Kopack [00:30:46]:
Interesting. I love that. I know that I have done some trips before in the past as well and I used to be really focused on where am I going to try to get to every night. And then I had met a couple from Swiss who reminded me that I have a tent, I have a sleeping bag, I have food for a couple of days. And if I don't make it to this next place, it's going to be okay because I have everything that I need and I'll get there tomorrow or some other day.

Calliope Georgousi [00:31:13]:
Exactly, exactly.

Jerry Kopack [00:31:15]:
Was there any place along the route that you thought you didn't really want to leave?

Calliope Georgousi [00:31:21]:
Oh, yes. Slovenia was amazing. As I said, Ljubljana was fantastic. The Lake Bled was something else. And also the other lake was also amazing. But I promised myself that I would like to do one month trips every year after that and get to stay in a place more to get to know people, to get to know the culture, rather than going from one place to another to another to another every day. It was emotionally challenging sometimes meeting people and then going, meeting and then going. So I would say Plisvice Jezero in Croatia is a national park, which is paradise on earth.

Jerry Kopack [00:32:09]:
Really. Tell me why.

Calliope Georgousi [00:32:12]:
There is an amazing landscape, beautiful landscape from connected lakes and streams and waterfalls. And the nature there is absolutely protected with an enormous amount of rangers, people who are cleaning the area, people who care about the environment. People in Croatia and Slovenia are really caring for the environment more than other people that I've met, other countries, at least Greece, for example, in comparison, if I could say. And yeah, you'll see the turquoise blue. You'll see the. It takes about seven hours to go around that national park to walk that. You're not supposed to do anything else. You're not supposed to stay, you're not supposed to swim in there.

Calliope Georgousi [00:33:04]:
But it's just phenomenally beautiful. Yeah, one must see it. I think there are only two or three places in the world like that.

Jerry Kopack [00:33:15]:
So when you finally arrived in Greece, were you excited to be done or you wanted to keep going?

Calliope Georgousi [00:33:22]:
I wanted to keep going, actually.

Jerry Kopack [00:33:24]:
Yeah.

Calliope Georgousi [00:33:25]:
I was excited to rest a little bit and be with my family, but I wanted to keep going. And I was thinking, okay, where do I want to do next? What do I want to do differently next time? And one of the decisions I made is that instead of going from one place to another to another, I would like to rest a few more days to a place to get to know it. Not too long, not more than three, because then I'll get lazy.

Jerry Kopack [00:33:54]:
I, I, in the limited time that I've known you, you don't strike me as a lazy person. So I'm not concerned about that.

Calliope Georgousi [00:34:03]:
No, like, as in, like, you get heavy, like you.

Jerry Kopack [00:34:05]:
I understand.

Calliope Georgousi [00:34:06]:
Oh, I'm good here. I'm good. I want to stay. Yeah, I decided to have a hammock since, Okay, I didn't have before. I decided to have a hammock, the lightest hammock. But, yes, I did find it.

Jerry Kopack [00:34:19]:
Okay.

Calliope Georgousi [00:34:20]:
I'd have 500 grams of a hammock. Although I'm not a hammock person. I'm not a person who would sleep in the hammock, but I would like to have a siesta in the hammock.

Jerry Kopack [00:34:28]:
Okay. So I talked to people about what is a luxury item that you would carry. And some people might think that a hammock is a luxury item. Like, I met someone from Italy who carried an espresso machine, which is definitely a luxury item. So your hammock is your luxury item. It sounds like.

Calliope Georgousi [00:34:48]:
Yeah, my AeroPress is a must item.

Jerry Kopack [00:34:51]:
Okay.

Calliope Georgousi [00:34:53]:
And my coffee, even though I could do away with it, really, I could.

Jerry Kopack [00:34:59]:
You're in Europe, but there's coffees available everywhere, right?

Calliope Georgousi [00:35:03]:
Yeah, exactly. But it will never be like the aeropress.

Jerry Kopack [00:35:07]:
So it sounds like you're hooked. So is there a next big trip for you? A place you want to see at.

Calliope Georgousi [00:35:15]:
This moment in time? Really? I've traveled so much. One part of me says that I want to stay and rest and create some stability around me and within me. But, and that's, this is one, one of the reasons why I decided to stay in Grenoble. But fate didn't like it. So I will be leaving France very soon. So. But if there was one place that I'd like to go this summer is Paybusque.

Jerry Kopack [00:35:46]:
Where's that?

Calliope Georgousi [00:35:48]:
And Pay Basque is at the west of France, the west coast of France, Eurovilla 1.

Jerry Kopack [00:35:54]:
Okay.

Calliope Georgousi [00:35:55]:
And which is one of the best and most organized routes for cycling in comparison to the other Eurovilla routes? And it's a Eurovillo route. The route is actually by the coast and it goes through Bidar Birrell, which are really, the country there is so rich, the culture is so rich. They have a, a language of their own. They've got view to the Pyrenees from one side. From the other side, you've got the view to the ocean. The ocean is fantastic. It's clean. It's beautiful to swim there.

Calliope Georgousi [00:36:35]:
The beaches are lovely, fantastic. The people are friendly. They're locals. They have a lot of history. One thing I'd like to say to people is because I meet a lot of people in the Warmshowers and they go for the cheapest and they don't go to. I don't know if they go to visit museums, but it's very important to go and visit museums, to go and visit local exhibitions, to understand the culture of a place, the history of a place to eat, the local food, the. Because really then all you're doing is just going from one place to another.

Jerry Kopack [00:37:13]:
Yeah. And that's, in my experience that. That's why we travel. Right. Is to experience these places and. And maybe see through a different lens, through a different set of eyes that's different than our own. And. And through that experience, we create shared experiences and realize that as a whole, we're not really that different from everyone else.

Calliope Georgousi [00:37:35]:
Absolutely.

Jerry Kopack [00:37:36]:
Yeah. Well, I want to thank you so much for taking time to chat with me today, for listening who have been tuning in other ways for people to follow along or find out what you're up to these days.

Calliope Georgousi [00:37:50]:
Yeah, I do have an Instagram, which I haven't updated in quite some time.

Jerry Kopack [00:37:54]:
Well, get on it.

Calliope Georgousi [00:37:56]:
Yes, absolutely. Maybe if you have any suggestions on what I should do next in terms of blogging or what is the next thing after Instagram?

Jerry Kopack [00:38:06]:
What is your Instagram? We'll start there.

Calliope Georgousi [00:38:10]:
Sorry, I do have an Instagram. It's Calliope Cycles.

Jerry Kopack [00:38:13]:
Okay.

Calliope Georgousi [00:38:15]:
So it's my name. T, A, L, L, I, O, P, E dot Cycles.

Jerry Kopack [00:38:20]:
Got it. Yeah. We will post that in our show notes and get out there and update that. Get out on some more adventures, post some things because we want to know what you're up to.

Calliope Georgousi [00:38:30]:
I'll put some rights from Grenoble.

Jerry Kopack [00:38:32]:
Good. All right, everybody, I want to thank you all for tuning in for my conversation today. If you enjoy our show, give us a like on our social channels or maybe just tell your friends. These stories hopefully will inspire you to set off on your own bicycle adventure and maybe make the world feel a little bit smaller, one pedal stroke at a time. My name is Jerry Kopak, and until next time, keep the wheels rolling and the stories coming. Thanks for joining us on Bike Life. I'm Jerry Kopak and I hope you enjoyed today's episode as much as we enjoyed sharing it with you. Please leave us a rating and review or just tell your friends this helps us reach more cyclists and hosts around the world.

Jerry Kopack [00:39:12]:
To learn more or become part of this amazing community, Visit us@warmshowers.org or follow us on Instagram at warmshowersorg. If you'd like to be a guest on the show or have a question you'd like us to explore, email us@podcastarmshowers.org.

Calliope Georgousi [00:39:33]:
Sam.