Day 29 – Wednesday, September 3, 2025

Early in the morning, I noticed a thick cloud layer that we were passing through. I quickly spun the rain fly cover of my tent, but did not secure it properly – and yes, it started raining. I got quite wet, including my tent and the stuff inside. Luckily, it passed quickly, and I was later able to dry everything in the rising sun.

Later, I observed the Austrian firefighters during their morning briefing.

The Austrian firefighters getting their briefing

Playing with some kiddos

Due to the earlier emergency, we were delayed by three hours. Instead of arriving around 7 am, it was after 10 am when we reached the ferry terminal near Mestre, not the regular cruise ship terminal in Venice. I had a trick before arrival – I found an empty cabin, snuck in, and took a warm shower. It did wonders for my energy.

Close to Venice

I attempted a few lame hitch-hiking efforts, showing my sign to cars and lorries – all shook their heads. By the time I reached my bike in the belly of the ferry, disembarkment had already begun, and I noticed a long line of cars. Schengen is alive, but only barely – Italian border control was quite strict. As a biker, I had my own lane. An officer asked if I was carrying anything illegal; I smiled and shook my head. A sniffing dog became so excited by my mélange of odors that it wanted to jump all over me, and the officer did his best to restrain it.

I tried a few more hitch-hiking attempts but deemed them unlikely to succeed. I entered Mestre Train Station into Google, about 12 km away. I got there around 11:20, but the 11:45 train to Innsbruck had sold-out bike spaces. I recalled seeing a parked FlixBus and asked where buses departed – in front of the station. I spotted one to Budapest via Maribor but bikes were not allowed. I asked a Hungarian driver if I could ride along – he said yes, for €40, no questions asked, to Maribor. A train would have cost more and wasn’t guaranteed to take me, so I agreed.

We stopped briefly in Udine and Ljubljana, arriving in Maribor around 5:15 pm. An hour later, a train departed for Vienna, costing around €40, arriving at Meidling at 10 pm.

A church in Udine – the last photo on this trip

Between the bus and train in Maribor, I crossed the same bridge I had crossed in June on my way to Trieste. On the other side, I bought some junk food at McDonald’s, plus snacks and drinks.

We arrived on time in Meidling. A few minutes later, I took an S-Bahn to Hütteldorf, and after a short ride, I arrived at my parents’ place around 10:45 pm – after a 99-hour journey. I had left there at 2:15 pm on August 5. Altogether, after 29 days, 8 hours, and 30 minutes, I returned safely, having visited nine countries: Slovenia, Croatia (by bus), Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, North Macedonia, Greece, and Italy.