Ten Days Here and Ten Days There

I'm writing a fast and short one now. It's 2 am, I'm trying to type as quietly as I can because there is a little family trying to sleep in their little home in their little room in Sofia. They had been hosted me for three days, and they are the people who has harts as big as a whale has.

Catch Up With...

This was the text I sent to CouchSufring after spending a day in an expensive hotel in Craiova - I'm looking for a couch so I could stay one more day in Craiova, so I can catch up with my writings and with editing my photos and with planning my trip further. This was the first time I used CouchSurfing.

Slowing Down During Acceleration

I switched to the mode to first write in Hungarian, than translate it to English. I had no possibility to write for many days, so this time I gave birth to a huge, endless post in Hungarian. I won't be able to translate the whole text, instead, I try to get the essence from it in a shorter version.

Riding Alone with Company

After spending two days at Alba Iulia I felt I have to go. I've already knew where are the good and cheep places to eat, where to stop and when the traffic lamps change so I can slip through a road crossing. Also I felt we became friends with the romanian gardener in the camp - who could speak only romanian, but we had nice and funny discussions (as I can't speak romanian).

Just Notes

The man at the romainian border
The jump from the truck down to the roadside on E60 (no fall, no flat tyre).
The kind old lady on E60 / backyard camping
Her husband, the bike lover
The old Semperit he gave me

Thoughts between Lesu and Alba Iulia

This is the first time when I wrote the hungarian version first, so let's see how it works. :) Anyway, I feel myself a bit strange. Sometimes I could write novels, sometimes a word is too much. Also many things happened in the last week (actually, the first week) that I'm a bit confused. Surely it is familiar to everybody who had ever travelled further then the shop on the corner. Dense, intense, full of action and impressions. Huhh, what to say, how to go further?

Surviving and Getting Support

So many people asks me why I go alone. They say it is more dangerous, and I'll be lonely. Partly it is true, but since I'm on the way I met so many people, mostly friendly, smiling and helpful ones - and the list just getting longer.

How things getting smoother

I had the second broken spoke yesterday evening. I found a nice camp in Debrecen, had stand the bike to a tree and make a phone call. And suddenly, while the bike peacfully standing under the tree, one spoke sais: "Paioung". Welcome, second broken spoke! What would you like to tell me?

The Scope of a Broken Spoke

I'm writing now in my tent in a camp in Tiszafüred. I just started but I decided to have a whole rest day here. This is one nice property of not making strict plans day by day - so I make use of it.

Checking the Gadgets - Only for geeks!

I`m thinking of how I`ll manage noting down my thoughts and editing and uploading photos when on the move. I have a laptop but it`s obviously too heavy to carry with me and it`s battery lasts only for one or two hours - I imagine there can be situations when I`ll have time and mood to write but have no access to any kind of power supply. So I`m in the process of finding a better solution.

Why I think it's important to write...

...about my trip. I hope this whole journey will be a big step in the process of clearing, cleansening, purifying my mind. Hopefully a big step forward.

There are so many pages throughout the Internet I've read and what pushed me little by little to this hereandnow, where me, too, am writing about whys and hows. I found those pages made me think of my whole life in a different way, they slowly changed my views on many things. If I don't have some extra time I had in the office reading and browsing the web looking after some interesting and motivating pages, I'm sure I was still sitting there dreaming of some complately different life but in the meantime doing nothing. If I didn't read, I don't move now.

How plans are shaping...

...and how my trip is building up from little fragments - I'm just wondering. I've received a tip to check out a web site where there is a detailed description of a ten day long organized trip in Turkey. As I was reading through the program I've found the name Mevlana (Rumi), and the place Konya. Most probably I'll visit this place.

Hungarian version started

It became obvious that starting a log like this only in English language is not that much enough. So I just started a hungarian one and will update both as the ride is going on.

Also there is a little link below the blog description on both pages linking on each other. Simple solution what works - design comes later. (Uh, I can feel some kind of programmer attitude here).

Why I quit my safe, secure and well paid job

I love riding the bike. I love travelling. I love writing. I love taking cool pictures what others love. To bring this together, I thought why not go on a big cycle ride taking a little camera, a notepad and myself with me, pushing the peadls permanently.

For this, I had to quit my job. There were versions of the trip what I could manage to take in some weeks without quitting my job, but that would be a complately different issue, that would be a holiday. The situation is way more complex and different. Don't stop reading!

Last day in the cubicle...

...after sitting here five years. I can hardly comment on it. Rainy. Wonderful.

Let Mr. Twain speak instead of me:

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain

And now, partytime!

Start Date

I’ll start the journey from my hometown, Eger, on the 31^st of July, 2011. I choose this location because I was already planning a back-in-time tour with my old friends whom I was biking a lot in the surroundings of Eger. Unfortunately we’ve seen each other rarely in the past 20 years – with some of them only 1-2 occasions. I really hope the old group of friends can come together on the first day ride to the direction of Tisza.

So I’ll hopefully meet my old buddies at 9 am. in front of the Collage building, from where we used to start every Saturday / Sunday morning.

Till that time I have two more weeks in the office and I’ll have one month to prepare and clear all my dealings here so I’ll leave no duties behind. 

Ah, and also, whoever reads this accidentally and interested, of course can join the tour, all welcome!

Pasabahce - TURKEY

I received this nice present a few days ago – most of the time I drink from one of the hundreds of the same glasses we have here in the office. Last time I opened the cupboard and the whole army of the uniformed, simple, same little glasses were missing. However there were a few partisans having unique, designed style – so I could only choose from one of these. As I was drinking from this nicely shaped glass looking at the bottom of it, I found my l little present: Pasabahce – TURKEY. So I had a deep smile and was giving thanks for I-don’t-know-who warming up my soul.

Vision of "TURKEY" through the drinking glass

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.

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.