From Solinksa Kronika (Solin Chronicle), 15 June 1998

Translation of the article "Cyclists from the Internet" (view scanned article [79KB, JPG]) is as follows:

'Cyclists from the Internet'

Katja Tokic

Three guys and one gal, cycling around the Mediterranean, passed through Solin last month.

Here is another example of how the world is becoming a global village. Ethan Gelber, Corinne Whitney, Anthony Ziehmke, and Padraic Kennedy are the names of four young Americans who are cycling around the Mediterranean and, at the end of each day, writing about their experiences on a Web site accessible from all over the globe. Knowing that their road would bring them to Solin on the 19th of April, I met them at the entrance of our city and had a chat with them.

The three guys and one gal started their journey, organized by a group called BikeAbout, on September 25, 1997, in Morocco, and they plan on finishing after 9 months and around 17,000 kilometers of cycling, in Gibraltar in June 1998. BikeAbout is a non-profit organization that specializes in Internet adventures that promote education, peace and understanding among nations through cycling and the use of technology in all learning environments. Thus, the BikeAbout team is trying to meet teachers and students in all of the places through which they are traveling. They are trying to open communication with them, the results of which will be accessible the very next day on the Internet to all students of the world.

Asked to tell one important anecdote about the journey, Ethan said that in almost every country, the team was warned about the neighboring countries' people. However, instead of being filled with criminals, each country was crowded with generous and friendly people, rich cultural heritage, and regional and national pride.

Corinne, asked to say what it was like to ride with three guys, said that, putting aside the strange looks from hotel managers and the fact that the guys were a lot faster than she was, it was mostly fun.

The cheerful team has so far passed through Morocco, Algeria [sic], Tunisia, Libya [sic], Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Turkey, Greece, Albania (they couldn't enter Yugoslavia for political reasons), Bosnia-Herzegovina, and part of Croatia. They have yet to cycle Slovenia, Italy, Monaco, France, and, finally, Spain. Anyone interested in finding out more about BikeAbout, Ethan and the troupe, as well as details on all the exciting visits to the abovementioned countries, here is their Web address: http://www.bikeabout.org.