Author: Anja
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Continuing from Yerevan
When Tim joined us, it marked a significant milestone in our trip—a distant event that had once seemed far off, then suddenly became reality, and now had passed. Thomas and I had been on the road for nearly 80 days—by far the longest I had ever traveled—and we hadn’t even reached the halfway point! I…
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From Kars to Yerevan with Tim
After two months of cycling as a duo, we left Kars as a trio. Thomas’ friend, Tim, flew to Kars in the far corner of Turkey to join us on our detour through Georgia and Armenia. After weeks of heat and sunshine, it poured rain the day we met Tim in Kars. Luckily, the sky…
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Ankara to Cappadocia
When Thomas asked me what I expected from my birthday, I shrugged and said, “Cycling…?” We began our unspectacular journey the day before from Ankara, mostly along an almost highway-like road, with three more days of cycling ahead to reach Cappadocia. I’ve never really liked my birthday and usually dread it rather than look forward…
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Four Days to Istanbul
Four days from Alessandropolis to Istanbul. 390 km. Four days of rice fields, sunflower fields, wheat fields, some old houses, beautiful forest cemeteries, empty children’s playgrounds, old men drinking chai, heavy wind, and even more fields. Over time, the rice fields became fewer, wheat predominated, and the sunflowers did not yet smile towards the sun…
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Break Days in Greece
When we cycle (particularly during the early days when I wasn’t so fit yet), I sometimes feel like a machine, or an engine really. Fuel in—energy out. No fuel in—no energy out. We sleep, we eat, we cycle. Then, there are also break days: We sleep, we eat, we don’t cycle. Break days are some…
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Across the Balkans
In my naive (non-)expectation, I was somewhat surprised by how much and how immediately we noticed differences when crossing a border from one Balkan country to another. I probably shouldn’t have been surprised, as I can also notice changes immediately when crossing Switzerland’s borders. However, I always assumed this was because at least one of…
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Croatian Coast
On the second or third day of our journey, back in Switzerland, Thomas said that it might never get better than here. I remember that this statement confused me at the time. Sure, the cycling path was excellent, and the forest was beautiful. There was a train track next to us, and Thomas likes trains……
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To the Sea
What is there to say about cycling from Meran to the Austrian border, and through Austria to Slovenia? Oddly little. The days through the rest of South Tyrol and Austria were dominated by mixed weather and the goal of getting further. Yes, we cycled. Yes, we camped or stayed in hotels. It rained a lot.…
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Leaving home
It is raining today, and we are enjoying the beautiful view from our balcony overlooking the rooftops of Meran. We left Switzerland yesterday on a cycling path off the main road, only noticing that we had crossed the border because of a signpost reading “0.5 km to Switzerland” pointing in the direction we just came…