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    • How did this cow get up there?! (There's a cow there hidden)Misty view and I wasn't going to wait for better photo moments

      Didymoteicho and sleeping with the cows

      18 octobre 2023, Grèce ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

      One of the overarching dilemma's of this travel blog is what to post and how much. I could make it a weird Wikipedia duplication and only give you some facts of history with pictures; but then you would actually be better of not reading this. Or, at the other extreme, share only my personal experiences or thoughts and tell you about the people I meet, conversations I have, food I eat. You guessed it: I will do a bit of both.

      Let's start on the 17th: really tired legs made me only want to cycle so much, and I definitely didn't want to go and do the impending 1000m climb in one go. So I decided to just start the climb and see if I could find a good place to wildcamp. Obviously it's rough mountain terrain, but that's not the issue, the issue is cows: cows everywhere. Just everywhere quickly accessible, shitloads of cow shit, or cows dingling-dangling about. (I tried a farm that I found but noone was home, so I pushed on.) These are some very athletic cows they have here in the greek mountains.

      So having found a spot seemingly quiet enough, and having spoken to some cow-herders who said it was fine, except to be weary of police and "Pakistani" (?!), of course I was woken up at 12am by dingling of cowbells—unnerving at first but surprisingly soothing after a while— and then about an hour later a barking dog: great night.

      (A second farmer the next day said that there are refugees hiding in the mountains and they can be dangerous. That's what the other one meant by "the pakistani". Luckily(?) it was raining all night.)

      Obviously I wasn't terribly fit the next day, and minute village after village, no supermarket to be found. The only village — which also had affordable hotels and appartments — was didymonteicho. I thought of taking a train from there, but apparently these don't run anymore.

      What's cool about this village: it has an ancient castle and fortress above it, which dates back, partially, to before christ. So sometimes you stumble upon sights worth seeing. In the netherlands and austria they would have made a museum out of this by the way; here it's just some walls an towers with maybe a table to give some background info. In any case, this fortress clearly was useful in many ways: you can see miles in every direction.

      To finish off with some wikipedia copy-paste work: The castle is accompanied by several myths, one of the most famous is that of the Forty Arches, and is where Charles XII, King of Sweden, is said to have been imprisoned by the Turks.
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    • Komotini

      17 octobre 2023, Grèce ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C

      Yesterday was one of those totally mixed days. Left the campsite and Hans and Anita, a super nice dutch couple that were touring across turkey for 90(?) days with their caravan who helped me in many ways getting prepared for turkey, got tons of free fruit from a fruitmonger (“you need the energy” and “in the end I’d be helping myself, since we are all one!”) and found this small little town called “paradisos”. Nothing there except paradise.

      Then stumbled on a dull straight road with lots of headwind, nothing om either side (well except for the occasional _turkish_ town in the middle of nowhere in greece) and took a break 10 minutes before heavy rains started. So all good. Afterwards also ran into a couple from the UK who are also blogging their trip, and it turns out I already missed quite a bit of stuff in North Macedonia. Cannot see everything I guess.

      But the thing worth posting about is dogs here. So, mostly, dogs are not kept here except for a purpose: guarding the territory, sheepherding, etc. That’s why here, and in albania, kosovo, North Macedonia, you see a lot of stray dogs. But the guarddogs can be super dangerous and scary, and I had already experienced that in a mild fashion before.

      But now, just before komotini, three dogs came rushing towards me on a very wide (two or three lanes) road, and kept following me; usually they let off. These didn’t, and you will automatically steer away from them to avoid running into them; I ended up on the wrong side of the road, waving at cars to slow down because of these insane dogs. Accidents do happen this way and I have heard many accidents already have happened this way. They just rush into traffic.

      I used to like dogs but these are horrible creatures. Online (there is luckily an online cycling community) people suggest to get off the bike, and go dog-whisperer on them. Yell and be authoritative; in any case it will be less dangerous than to keep cycling.

      Just some experiences to share here.

      Anyway, komotini is a nice little town with a mosque from the ottoman era (around 1400) and some few remains from the old castle.
      En savoir plus

    • Past thessaloniki somewhere

      15 octobre 2023, Grèce ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

      Let’s update this again. I arrived in thessaloniki a few days back and finally, FINALLY, managed to fix the insert issue for my ortlieb panniers. I emailed ahead to the only ortlieb dealer in like a 500-km radius, and so now I should not have to worry so much about my front-right back falling off. In addition I got up-sold 100€ a new ortlieb bags to actually have my tent and birckenstocks properly attached to my panniers. I’m sure this will be worth it.

      Thessaloniki is a really nice city! Just relaxed, good food, cafes everywhere, and a nice food market that I went to twice in the two days I was there. (Oh man, the olives, cheese, pommegranates… just a bit too meat-based). Then today by chance tumbled on some hotsprings on the way east, and bathed in some unexpected natural baths. Pretty cool.

      Also met some really cool people along the way.
      -Michael from lebanon who gave me awesome history lessons about turkey and where to visit (he was also very opinionated about food and everything, but that’s alright, so am I)
      -Jacob and Anna who cycled from London to Thessaloniki and had some awesome experiences to share
      -that lovely danish girl who volunteered at the hostel _whose name I cannot remember_ ( artist name kontra — not that it matters, its just annoying, not remembering names)
      -anita & hans who travelled all across turkey and gave me loads of tips what to visit—Ill probably visit turkey a bit longer…

      So the pictures, in random order:
      The Byzantine tower of galatista that was closed when I got there
      Some cool couple that study maths that I met at the hotsprings
      Some walls in kavala
      Me being serious with my main man aristotle.

      The few sentences I write here don't do any of it justice. Let's just say, gotta love greece.
      En savoir plus

    • Macedonia & Greece

      11 octobre 2023, Grèce ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

      If you don't know, I use komoot for most of my route planning, because it integrates nicely with my wahoo computer. (How much easier it is nowadays, compared to having to constantly stop and look.) Well, sometimes komoot likes to think some paths are roads, tracks are paths, and nothing whatsoever is a track. And it isn't nice when that happens.

      On tuesday I had a nice route planned that would save me from following the highway all the way south — or so I thought. Well at some point the road became a horrible loose gravel road became tractor tracks; and I was too far in to turn around. Managed to push myself through, chilled out in front of an old house in a small town somewhere, had a nice not-talking hanging out with some old guy (well he only spoke macedonian, and my utalk knowledge is pretty much useless), had some coffee, and then tried to push on: then the road stopped and komoot basically fckd me. So back to the old road along the highway.

      However, in the evening I stumbled, having already set up my tent somewhere where it wouldn't bother anyone, on a huge flock of sheep and a turkish sheepherder. Nice and cool unexpected meetings. Then the next day — god was I tired in the morning — I had the roughest gravel road ever again. Am I happy I'm running tubeless, everything held up and I really did not hold back. I was then greeted in the town shortly after by a guy waving at me, who turned out to be from Israel and also to be touring with his family. Super relaxed couple although they aren't able to go back home now, due to the war.

      Oh, short explanation is needed for the picture of the horrible handwriting. I intended to always keep a diary. Well, I frequently have thoughts I want to jot down, but with such (fully coked up from adrenaline) gravel riding that gets kinda hard. So I forced myself to write down those lines, to know what to write here ;).
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    • Skopje

      8 octobre 2023, Macédoine du Nord ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

      Day three of the three-countries-in-three-days thing. Well, actually, you know how Arendt said that our inventions (flying, not even mentioning the internet) have made the world smaller? You can now access anything in the world from your home. Well, cycling makes the world bigger. It expands everything; makes everything slower.

      Anyway, the afternoon was bliss with tailwind, downhill, lots of sugars, good weather. Morning was super hard but them the ride to skopje in the afternoon was super chill.

      Unfortunately I encountered some group of youngsters wearing polo shirts, one with his sweater wrapped around him in the douchebag style. Acting like they own the place. Guess what? Dutch fraternity group. I hate these people, they really make me hate the country I come from: the absolute garbage of our society, should be excluded from society and sent to xinjang for vocational re-education.

      Al the pictures of paintings are of awesome artworks, clearly related to the war, in Kosovo. The dogs... I dont know, I felt bad for them, they seemed deserted: I encountered some more stray dogs on the roads.
      En savoir plus

    • Kosovo

      7 octobre 2023, Kosovo ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

      So the last three days I did a „one country a day“ type deal; on a bike there are not too many places you can do that. But in this case, it was actually easier.

      So kosovo… well the towns I entered already seemed very different from Albania (a lot busier), but not necessarily that mich better off. The towns mostly had a good vibe to them, and some good bakeries and bars in there, too.

      Weirdest thing by far is big, and I mean mansion-size, buildings on the outskirts of towns. What the hell are they doing there? They look like vegas hotels, but its outside a small town, in the middle of nowhere, and cannot ever be profitable. Just so weird.

      Pretty nice about kosovo is that I got approached by random people if I stood somewhere looking on my phone where to go, helping me out, giving advice, and always amazed that Im doing this by bike etc etc. “Dont you get tired?” “Yeah man, like, now. =D” relaxed people.

      However, Kosovo is sometimes really a shithole in places. Random shitloads of trash. (And unfortunately it seems like the serbians want kosovo for some reason. Im beginning to hate serbia — and I met some super friendly serbians along the way =) ).

      The video is still from Albania.
      En savoir plus

    • Albania 🤟

      6 octobre 2023, Albanie ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

      What have you heard before about Albania? I have heard it be referred to as „an absolute shithole“ where they burn plastic trash, I had been warned a few days back by greece motorcyclists at the Montenegro border customs to „be weary of albanians“, and I heard it to be poor. But then I also heard that they are super friendly people who are very proud of their country. Basically, I had no idea what to expect: in any case I had planned my route to only go across Albania briefly, and quickly head to Kosovo (fewer meters in elevation: my goal is to get to turkey, and climbing is a bitch with all that luggage).

      So, after having been there, my experiences:
      - warmest welcome in a country ever: “welcome to Albania, stay as long as you want, we hope you like it here!” At the border office.
      - I got greeted by random drivers (who give you plenty of space), kid on a bike (“where are you from? Im from Albania!”) and an old guy transporting a goat up a mountain on a old motorcycle.
      - Big houses when you enter, which I thought were for big the big families they have here or something.
      - absolutely stunning views with absolutely horrible roads. You cannot believe how bad this road was: constantly checking if all my packs are still on there.

      Then again, I was only there for just over 24 hours. This was a shame, but I could not backtrack on my route: I’d have to have ridden that horrible, horrible road back, and that was not to my liking.

      It was only afterwards that I learned about the horrible history the country has had, with being occupied by twenty (+-) different powers, having had a very strict communist dictator (who also did good things for the country allegedly) until recently. Still, a lot of corruption in politics makes it very hard for people to get ahead.

      But these people clearly love their relatively young country.

      I was also approached by an albanian guy when I was cooking some stuff on my stove about where I was from and whether I wanted to buy some weed. Very nice guy; thats what he does.

      Also, in the video I was still confidently bombing down the road (and it got way, way worse later on), that changed once I got less confident about my packs.
      En savoir plus

    • Olive garden camp

      5 octobre 2023, Monténégro ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

      Yesterday had a chat on the free ferry here in montegro with an italian touring cyclist. Conclusion: yes, drivers here are insane, they dont give you space, and they should stop honking.

      Didnt get too far yesterday (had to swim and chill at the ocean) and went again to a (also again closed) campsite, because along the coast wildcamping isnt really doable. Today again along the coast but body wasnt into it, so only did a third of a day. Then stumbled (well, not really stumbled, it's way up above the city of bar) on an idyllic "olive garden camp". https://olivegardencamp.com/ (super annoying cats here though, wont let you eat because they are hungry, but what do I know about cat food?)

      Oh, yeah, had a flat yesterday because all my sealant dried up.

      Also tried cycling the bike without luggage up this hill; its such a different experience. You can actually get up hills.
      En savoir plus

    • Back to the coast

      3 octobre 2023, Croatie ⋅ 🌙 20 °C

      Pretty heavy day here after still not waking up super confident that I was fit. But despite my previous quarrels with this coast, I wanted to see it again. I'm all about love/hate relationships, you see.

      The ciro trail is super cool! Mostly quiet, mostly flat, mostly following an old railway line, and with a lot of history behind it. (Paid for by the EU by the way; they do cool stuff, like cycleways in Bosnia!). The austrian emperor built this railway from mostar to Dubrovnik and, even though it is not running anymore, they made it into something of an open-air museum. (According to my dad ^^; I frequently get background info from back home.) But I was a bit too focussed on making it to the coast to do proper sightseeing.

      Oh yeah, this deity thing: I was a bit stressed out at some points, so found myself saying things like "thank god" a couple of times. Its just nice to posit some benevolent force — whatever that means physically — making sure this trip goes smoothly, you know? (But fuck those wind gods of the other day.)

      Oh yeah, no wind today at the coast. And the campsite Im at is closed, so I dont have to pay.
      En savoir plus

    • Mostar

      30 septembre 2023, Bosnie Herzégovine ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

      So, 2 october im still in mostar, feeling pretty shitty or under the weather. The weather is awesome though.

      Yesterday I chatted some american up about turkish coffee (and how this weird cup arrangement that they serve it with is to be understood—turns out there is no unique proper etiquette, they just do it confuse people) and he recommended the museum on the war and genocide. Being in a particular predilection for a good understanding of history, I continued to study the horrors that were being done in this country. (This odd usage of language is just for my own pleasure.)

      Well, having had little knowledge of the geopolitical history of the conflict, I ended up with a chat with an employee of the museum. The yugoslav wars were very complex, but unbelievable brutal.

      Basically, in my understanding, the croats wanted independence from yugoslavia, and then, having nationalistic ideals, croats in bosnia also wanted a self-proclaimed “croat republic of herzeg-bosnia”. Serbs (by far the worst in the conflict in terms of genocide and mass-rape) were ultra-nationalistic, didn’t accept the new state of bosnia, and sought for a greater serbia, including republica srpska. First the croats fought with the bosniaks (who were given a very small piece of land under proposed partitions), against the serbs, also defending mostar. Then after a while, the croats talked with the serbs about a new partition, fell out with the bosniaks, and attacked their former allies and destroyed the bridge here in mostar.

      This is not intended as a full summary, but just serves to remind everyone that these nationalistic tendencies —also of greater hungary, austria, slovakia— will only lead to horrible wars. They are misconceptions, this unity that these people believe in doesn’t exist. Self-proclaimed states or annexations only lead to atrocities, and will not solve any issues in life, it will only end it.

      Yeah this is still a travel blog: nothing said that travel blogs cannot be educational or opinionated.

      Also, watch “quo vadis, aida?”
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