My Final Post

“I had a dream that that one da”………………………………………….. ‘HaHa’ come on did you really think my final post would be so cheesy? Don’t worry put away the tissue box and carry on reading. Let’s go!

I genuinely have no idea how I am going even begin to sum up these last four and a half months. My experiences have varied so much from day to day, from country to country that it’s impossible to paint the whole trip with the same brush, if you know what I mean.

So here’s a quick summary of what went down: Began on the 3rd of May by cycling across Holland then took a train to Berlin, cycled south though Czech Republic until I hit the Danube in Austria, here I followed river into Slovakia and onto Hungary. Then the going got tough, heading west from Budapest across Hungary, a dash through Slovenia into Croatia by which time it was getting very hot. Once at the Adriatic coast I cycled south through Bosnia Herzegovina and Montenegro ending in Albania. I stayed a while in Tirana before heading east to Macedonia and south into Greece. Then finally east to Turkey and finished in Istanbul.

It’s been a long trip full of amazing places, great people, interesting sleeping conditions and when it comes to cycling well it’s been ‘up and down’. The last few months have been so cram-packed that it’s often easy to forget whole weeks or whole countries even. Reminiscing can be a dangerous game to play at this point in my trip. Because I cycled in and out of every city, town or beach I went to it has meant that every memory is linked to the next one. I often need to shake my head and bring myself back to the present and away from the bank of memories I have acquired over the summer: the different beds slept in, the restaurants visited, the roads cycled on and of course the people who I encountered.

By the way I am writing this is beautiful Istanbul where I have been now for the last three weeks. It’s a great city. Everyone should come here at least once. It’s busy and mad as hell but stunning is so many ways.

Confessions of a cyclist.
Right (cough) I have been thinking about whether to write this for some time now. Ok well here goes. There are two sneaky incidences to need to confess to. The reason being that I don’t want to have to explain it over and over when I’m home, so listen up. Yep I cycled a bazzilion miles but no I did not cycle the whole way. Twice I took a train and here are the reasons why. If you remember I was joined by that great Dutch girl Lindy for a week between Dresden and Prague. Well just after the border with Czech we agreed ‘screw this it’s been raining for days let’s get a train to Prague and skip a day’s cycle’. We did and I think we had a much better time for it. Second was in Croatia when Daniel came to see me. Pretty much didn’t make it to the coast in time so took a train the last stretch. There ya go clean conscience for me, the rest was done on peddle power.

So around a month back I mentioned how my plans for the next few years have changed somewhat. This trip has given me a fare bit of thinking space and somewhere on the road I realized that going to university at this point doesn’t feel quite right. There are a few factors to this. The subject, although I am interested in it (Environmental Sustainability by the way) isn’t something I feel comfortable spending five years studying. Not right now anyway. This idea led to, “well if this isn’t what I want to be studying then what is”? Something which has also been rattling around in my head is ‘wow isn’t traveling amazing, there is so much to see in the world and right now is probably the freest I will be”. What’s stopping me, is it the the preconception that after college comes uni, comes, job, comes work for the next 4o years? Screw that! Seeing the world will if anything show me the infinite possibilities of paths my life could take. There are more options then working at either Barclays or Tescos, you never know I might make a mean Mongolian Goat herder or at least give myself the chance to find what I really want to do.
So university has been informed that they will not be seeing me next year. I will instead work, save and plan for my next adventure. I am not sure quite what shape it will take at this stage or where I might go but I know that if I do this I am going to do it properly and take a few years out.
Yesterday I was sitting in a cafe in one of the many back-allies of Istanbul when a man, of around 50, came up and asked me where I was from. Turns out he was a professor at a university here and anyway we got talking about my plans for the next few years and he said something quite interesting. I can’t remember his exact words but they were something like “yes I see what you mean it will be rewarding to see the world but if you finish your studies you will have more weapons to attack the world with”. Yes he used the words ‘weapons’ and ‘attack’ so I slid my knife slowly away from his side of the table. Good point I thought I don’t like the idea of committing for 3-6 years in a degree I am not 100% behind but the idea of not studying does feel good either. Maybe something like Open University is more my thing… will have to look into that.

ANYWAY BLA enough about that ha!

What to say on this last of posts? Hmmm

Well I guess there are a few people who deserve my thanks, I guess. There is no real easy order to do this so I will just let them pop into my head and write away. Dad and mum for not bugging me too much, Rach, Mick and Oli for something I am sure, everybody who put me up for a night through warmshowers you were all so kind and really helped me out with advice on touring. Everyone from CouchSurfing a lot of great beds and happy memories with you guys. I must thank those people who had just met me and yet showed amazing kindness. Here are a few that spring to mind: Lindy for the flat in Amsterdam, the German man who put me up that night, the drunk Czech boy who walked me to his home, Claas and Lira for letting me work in their hostel in Albania, the policeman for the camping spot in Greece and the free burger in Montenegro. My bicycle of course needs a big round of applause (clap, clap, clap) 3,000+ kilometers and the only problem was two punchers. My IPhone (yes I am going there) it has been my portal to the rest of the world. This blog and everything on it, photos, videos, writing and mapping my progress was all done with this phone. Not to mention the Angry Birds iPhone game that has kept me busy for hours. Oh and seriously I need to thank you guys, the people who read my ramblings on this site. It has truly made me happy to see how many people have been interested and ye genuinely enjoyed writing this blog.

So yes not much else left to say. Erm I am back on Friday the 10th, and zero fuss is aloud! Will work in my old job for a little while and make back some money and then take a breath and think about next year. Oh ye I never mentioned, for some reason I took a photo of every meal I ate out (and some cooked in hostels) over the last four months. I have no idea what to do with these but may make a quick slide-show so keep popping back for that.

So ye once again thanks for reading.

Much Love.

Seb

Photos from Istanbul

Some photos from Istanbul

Ooo la la

There seems to be just as many cats as there are people.

B-E-U-tiful ha!

Tired as f**k

Some riot about to kick of :-/

Hanging with the French. I love this photo.

These kids were not eating chips but ripping up plastic boxes with their teeth.

Inside Eya Sophia

WELCOME TO ASIA

This penultimate message comes to you from a hot hot Istanbul hostel langue. There keyboard here is all mixed up so for once İ can blame something else for the spelling mistakes.

So my last post left me in Thessaloniki in northern Greece. Luckerly on my way in I stumbled upon what has to be the nicest hostel in town and although it was pretty busy, for the whole four nights that I stayed there I had the dorm to myself, bloody marvalus. The weather was scorching and the beer expencive but the people were nice and that’s what really made it. This trip was defiantly worth doing simply because, get this, I have learnt how to play both Backgammon and Yartzy. It took me a good two weeks to get used to the expensive everything ıs back ın western Europe.

On the Road

Thessaloniki

Athletes Foot

Getting back on the road meant that I was on the final stretch, about 600k along the north of Greece into Turkey. The proper climbs were behind me so my biggest challenge was the heat. My God! I thought Albania was hot. Greece was something else, so bad that I could literally only cycle 60k-70k per day. Anyway apart from sending too much money, passing dried out field after dried out field and having to buy a visa to enter Turkey, not much happened. Entering Istanbul on the other hand really was an experience. There are approximately 17 million people living in the city making ıt one of the biggest cities ın the world and by far the biggest ın Europe. It took me maybe 2.5 hours to get even close to the hostel.

I have been here in Istanbul now 3 days ans it really is amazing. You can’t move for old bulidings and bizar bizzars (hehe, well I find it funny anyway). So earlier today I took the short boat ride across the Bopherus and into the Asian half of the city. There is a bridge (well two bridges) that cross the water also bit those are stricktly for cars. And iv seen it, it’s assentuarly a motorway above the water. Tipical ha you cycle for four months over fourteen countries and you have to take a ferry the last kelomiter. You have to smile about these things right!

Deep Thinking on the way to Asia

I love new things

And before you ask they are probably too fragile to take home.

The Aya Sofya from the hostel roof

Finding work in a hostel here has turned out harder then I hoped but that’s ok, there is a lot to see in this city to fill three weeks. Now returning the 10th of September!
Have a nice day everyone

Thirteen down one to go.

Ok update time I believe. A few major things have happened over these last two weeks. The first was to decide which city to end my journey in either Athens or Istanbul. I chose Istanbul, a bit further but a lot cooler I think. People keep asking me if I will cycle back and I tell them I have no idea how I will get home but it won’t be cycling. I had three realistic options: 1, plain (£250-£350) and environmentally a bad thing. 2, train (£400 +) would take four days and be he’ll with a bike. 3, boat to southern Italy and hitch home (£100?) would take forever with a bike. Rather ashamed of myself I went for option one when I found a good offer for £120 from Istanbul to London on September 16th. it’s a good two weeks later then when I wanted to come home but hay I may try and work in a Hostel in Istanbul for my last couple of weeks. Plenty of time to go carpet shopping.
Bla that’s enough about plans hay? But Ill just drop one small bombshell, my plans for the next few years have changed which is all I will say on that for now.
OK OK OK what on earth have I been getting up to of recent?Well my last post left me at lake Ohrid. What a place. I was intending on spending one to two days there but the combination of good weather, beautiful lake, great people and a wild nightlife kept me there for seven.
My next resting place was the city of Bitola, the most southern ex Yugoslavian point before Greece. I couchsurfed here four polish students and ended up staying with them an extra day. The next day I crossed the boarder into Greece. The end of an era. For two months I had been in countries where a beer costs €1 and men mostly have short hair. Oh how I shall miss the the Balkans.
I stopped in a town callled Ptolemaida where this couple working in an Internet café arranged for me to camp in the garden of the police station. The guy also gave me a t-shirt with his football (Aris) team on it . Later that evening him and his girlfriend took me out for a meal and then drinks in a pub and insisted on paying for everything. Greek hospitality. I can get used to his
The next day while cycling towards Thassaloniki I was pulled over by the Highway Patrol people. According to them the road was too dangerous for bikes (it had a two meter hard-shoulder). They popped my bike in the back and took me, in the right direction, to a petrol station where they told me to wait 10 minuets for the next lift to come. My theory, on what happened next, is that the Greeks all sold their watches to help save the country from going bust but in doing so forgot how to tell the time because I waited 3.5 hours for that lift. Pissed off I made it finely to Thesselonika and to the third sea of my trip The Aegean Sea.

Albania to Macedonia

So after a pretty awesome send off meal with the hostel owners (Class and Lira), where we ate tortus, frogs and little birds, it was time for me to leave. I had arranged to couchsurf with a guy living in a town 60k towards the Macedonian border. Having not cycled in two weeks I thought it would be a smart move to just try this short distance and rebuild those muscles. The road followed the ridge of this massive mountain which almost killed me to get up. The views really were spectacular up there but I was still grouchy about this unexpected hill.
I spent that night with great guy from Turkey who insisted on payer for pizza beer etc.
The next day was another big test for my mussels and even more my will-power. From Elbasen I had a gradual uphill for 60 (that’s right 60) kilometers. At which point there was a final push or 3k really uphill. But fear not there was an upside to all this uphill malarky ‘the down hill’ I cycled uphill all day and dropped down hill in maybe 20 minuets it’s not fare right.
Anyway I have been staying in Ohred, a beautiful town on the bank Macedonia’s biggest lake. The hostel is cheap and the people are great so I may stay a few days . Decision time is upon me also. Do I head south to Athens or south-east to Istanbul?
Oh crap I forgot to mention the madest moment on my bike yet. On the uphill to Macedonia I was chaced by a pack of wild dogs for a good 40 meters. I strined my stomach trying to keep going. One of them was snapping it’s teeth no less then a foot from my ankle. Truly horrifing to be honest.

Albania (still alive)

Update time my people. So for the last two weeks I have been working at Albania Hostel in Tirana while I waited for my debit card to arrive.
Tirana; wow where to start? Ok the roads, there are no rules. It’s a car-eat-car system. Red doesn’t mean stop and the drivers don’t understand zebra-crossings which makes for a near death experience every time you cross the four lane high-way (why am I saying ‘high way’ I’m not America). The only rule of Tirana’s roads which I can make out is that every car must beep its horn three times per street.
The markets are great here, you can buy almost anything on the street, everything from live chickens to computers. There are kids that can’t be older then nine laying motionless (sleeping?) on the side of the street in the midday heat (35-40). I asked Claas the hostel owner about this and he said that it’s not uncommon for the gypsy kids to be drugged by their parents so that tourists give more generously, crazy ha. Anyway moving on. A few years back Edi Rama got elected as mayor here and decided to do something about the “gray-building-look” which has been so ‘in’ for the last 50 years throughout eastern Europe [and breath]. He commissioned artists to design and paint colourful pattens on the buildings. Below are a few of the ones that I found.
Working at the hostel is pretty darn cool and so relaxing. There were just three of us now running the show, Claas his wife Lira and now me so we all took shits playing hostel god. An evenings work would consist of hanging in the oriental lounge surrounded my Lemon trees, swapping travel stories and drinking beer (free for me).
I am tossing around some ideas for future travels and what to do with myself over the xomming years. Okay I have an idea and it’s way bigger then this trip but I won’t mention it until I properly commit.
Anyway enough for now. Tomorrow I leave Tirana and head south east towards Macedonia.

And here are some other piccies:

My new girlfriend

Dubrovnik-Montenegro-Albania

Ok so I can’t be bothered to give a full report of my time in Dubvrovnik as it was two weeks ago and I have almost forgotten about it. I will however post some pickies from ever so beautiful Dubrovnik for your eyes only. I will say quickley that the place is over-run with tourests and everything is priced accordingly, making it an expencive bump int the road for most backpackers. But it does boast great old town, the sea is a clear beep blue and the food looks amazing. It has a bit of a nightlife and if it’s fellow English speakers you are after they are never far off.

So in one of the photos about I am swiching the tires of my bike around. This little brainwave of mine turned out to be may more problamatic then I would have thought. Litraly on the hill out of Dubrovnik puncher number one kicked in. Okay no problem I have had a pretty good run so far so I will just pop off and fix it. It took me three hours to realise it but the new inner-tube which I had used had the tiniest of holes. It went flat at the Montenegran town of Herceg Novi which is pretty enough so I decieded to spend the rest of the day and night there. Moved on to Budva (the Montenegren version of Dubrovnik) where my tire went again luckerly this time it was where I wanted to stop. Spent a couple of cool days there watching the last two football games and chilling out. While there I noticed that I no longer had my debit card on me. PROBLEMO! After a couple of worried phone calls to Mr Bankman I found out that no money had been taken so I ordered a new card. I had a couple of hundred euros in my bags, enough to last the two weeks it would take to get my new card out to me. I decieded the best caurse of action would be to head to Albania as soon as possible as living is way cheaper there.
I arranged to work at a hostel in Tirana (the capital of Albania) for a couple of weeks in return for free accommodation, brekfast and beer.
Even up until the border people kept warning me off Albania. “don’t stop on the side of the road… Make sure you hide your money” that kind if thing. So the last 20k to the border my mind was racing, where the hell am I heading? Will I come back?
It was fine. No, way better then fine. The first thing you notice (apart from farm animals all over the place) was the way that kids of all ages are so happy to see you. EVERY one of them would wave and say hello as I cycled past it was so nice. There are pot-holes everywhere aswell which are hard to make out until you are on top of them. Not good for my already crippled wheel. I spent my first night in Albania with an Anerican girl I met through CouchSurfing.com. She had been volenteering in the town in of Lezhë (pronounced ‘asia’ with an ‘L’) the last two years and was an expert on Albanian culture. A useful friend.
The next day on my way into Tirana I ascaped death (just). So I am totering along this kind of busy road into the centre of the city. The cars can’t have been doing more then 30-45mph when I hear serious screaching behind me. I swiveled in my seat to see brown car playing ping-pong with the sides of the road. Smashing first on the pavment and then on the island in the middle of the road. He smashed about four meters behind me and ended up somehow purched on the meter high concreet block in the middle of the road. The guy was fine and so was I (thanks for asking) he jumped out his looked around and started to push his car off of it’s purch. A bunch of guys go to help him and within 20 seconds he is back in his car and off again. Back to normal as if nothing had happened, crazy ha.
Anyway I’ll stay in Tirana for a couple of weeks now and wait for my new card to arrive.