Budapest - Isztambul - magyarul

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Quit

Monday I stood up from my safe, well-paid, comfortable and secure job. Exactly after five years of work here. Silence.

It makes me feel I-don't-know-how. I can already smell the sweet aroma of freedom and at the same time I'm a bit afraid of what will come. Still, there are plans what gives me power to move on.

This decision was surely empowered by the ten-day-sitting I had last week and before. I recognised this move was inside me for almost two years from now but I didn't have the guts to stand up and say: hey, my dear boss, I leave my desk. Now I did it. And I'll see if it was a good decision or not. Any guess?

So now I'll work till end of June (end of contract, one month handover of work), then I'll arrange my financial background (to see exactly how many savings I have). Then breaks released, pedals pushed, handlebar turned towards Turkey.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Finally - the beginning

Last Friday I received the approval of a six week long holiday. This allows me to carry out my plan - to a take a long bike ride. Istanbul was on my list for a long time so it was quite obvious for me as a destination.

I had several detailed plans on the trip to ride for six weeks:

- To go a round trip like Bp-Istanbul-Bp through Serbia, Macedonia, Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania and home. I didn't choose this version as I think it would be too much in distance and I don't want to push myself hard.
- To go a Bp-Antalya and fly back home from there - cancelled, mostly because of the same reason as above.
- To go by train to Belgrade, Serbia, and ride from there till Antalya. This one could be a compromised solution, but still I didn't choose it. I want to ride from "house-to-house", I want to take the whole trip.

So I decided to ride to Istanbul on a long way, take it easy, don't rush, see whatever I want to see, stop whenever I want to stop, deep-dive into the small streets of Istanbul and live with the city for a longer period. Even if I get there long before the plane takes me home, I can ride to Izmir and get back to Istanbul by train. The possibilities are endless - and the main and most important fact: I don't have to hurry!

Few people who asked where do I travel, after listening to my story, also asked if I make some notes on the trip. The idea of a log was in my mind so I just registered here - in this way I can practice my english (a few foreign friends can read this also) and my writing abilities, and also share my experience. I hope my english will get better and better as I go along. Actually I have a strong temptation to write it in hungarian language but I decided to choose the harder way. Ah, and I also hope I'll have the possibility to update this log on the move.

That's it as a starter, as my first post ever. I'll now have a break from my everyday life for 10 days, switch off all the stuff around and inside me and come back on the 22nd of May to have five extreamly loaded days of work, of preparation on the trip and of updating this little log-of-mine.