Post 17 - Barcelona to Crete by bike

Post 17 - Barcelona to Crete by bike

Wow, I have no idea how to start. It’s not easy, so many things have happened, such a wide range of feelings and emotions. I look back on the last two and a half months and they feel like a year to me, maybe the secret to slowing down time lies in a life full of events.

Handing over the keys and setting off

The days started in the tent, at a host’s or a hostel. Getting organized and setting off, pedaling, stopping for coffee and breakfast, pedaling, having lunch and resting, pedaling, starting to look for a place to sleep and settling in for the night. As Dudu Tasa said, “In the end, you get used to everything”, getting up in the tent, putting on your cycling clothes and going out for a few hours on the road became a routine. The daily ride was usually around 90-100 km with the longest day in Romania at 140 km. Throughout the entire journey I rode 5058 km with a cumulative ascent of 41,230 meters through Spain, France, Switzerland, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Greece. I started at my previous home in Barcelona and finished at the family home in Plakias, Crete, Greece.

The route

_The full route on the komoot app I navigated with_

Many friends asked me “Are you enjoying it? Are you having fun?”, my answer is “sometimes”. A bit of a boring answer considering it’s a vacation, isn’t it? So the truth is, I think that’s the most logical answer. Even on my previous trips, I felt like I didn’t enjoy myself 100% of the time and not everything was always as magical as we would have expected. I think a trip like this is very similar to life itself in that sense, sometimes we’re on top of the world and sometimes we’re pissed off. That’s how it is. If I try to point out what makes a day good, it would usually be social gatherings, a sense of success and ability from difficult challenges that I’ve overcome, and sometimes a sense of happiness and inexplicable simplicity. This journey leads to the simplification of everyday problems, worries like “how will I pay back the mortgage” become “where is the supermarket”, which by all accounts are simpler problems that are solved quickly, and thus cause a kind of peace of mind, since you found a supermarket and most of your life’s problems are solved. A tough day will usually be characterized by difficult and congested roads, bad weather or an inexplicable feeling of low energy.

But yes, I also enjoy, really enjoy. I really enjoy the simple things, getting to the supermarket after a long ride and getting all the available calories. I enjoy the stunning landscapes that have changed so much along the journey between snowy mountains, rivers, endless wheat and corn fields, beaches and green hills. The social encounters are perhaps the most significant thing about this journey, it is true that it is a bicycle journey but for me meeting people was the most interesting thing and usually also something that improved my mood considerably. The fact that most of the bicycle paths are side roads and pass through remote areas has brought me together with different and strange people. The bike loaded with gear made it very easy for me to create social interactions with the locals who were always very curious (especially the further east I went), plus for some reason my self-confidence and sociability increased during the days of the trip and it gave me the strength to approach strangers and talk to them. I really enjoyed seeing that human nature is mostly good, many people offered help whether it was a warm bed or ice cream. For me on a trip like this where I was mostly by myself, even a short conversation or a smile was definitely meaningful. Sometimes that’s all it took to make a day a good one.

And here is a list of the good people who made this trip great: At Sebastian’s, Risica, Romania

With random Romanians who bought me Fanta. In Romania, many of the minimarkets didn’t have a credit terminal and I didn’t have Romanian cash. For a week, almost every day someone bought me ice cream (without me asking, but I did look a little poor, I guess)

With Nino and Teo the Greeks on the first night in Greece. The connection with the Greeks was completely natural, a mentality that reminds me a lot of the Israelis. An evening of good food, backgammon and cute people

Me and Dad riding on the Greek island of Evia. The most fun with Dad! The one who taught me to ride and woke me up at 6am to ride the Kziv route from a young age

Dad and I with the view of the Acropolis in Athens

Anthony the Frenchman and I sailing a catamaran in Port Camargue in France

Yonathan and I after another famous pass in France

Yonathan and I got a ride and hot dogs from a Swiss couple

Yonatan and I with a Swiss guy on one of the tracks

At Mirko’s in the yard with friends, after a night out. Amazing breakfast with lovely people. I stayed at Mirko’s for two days and it was lovely

Xander and I bouldering in Arco, Italy

The Arco climbing group, Italy

With my host Damiano near Verona, Italy

Putting on tefillin with good guys in Venice, Italy

With Milan, a football player in an amateur league in Hungary. I asked to put the tent next to the pitch, they invited me to their end-of-season celebrations. It included a lot of alcohol (Palinka) and great food

At Peretz and Niki’s in Bansko, Bulgaria, days full of good friends and great rest

Big Yam and little Yam in Athens, Greece

After many days without meeting cyclists, meeting cyclists on the busy roads of Romania

With Natalia, my first host! I asked to fill up with water and asked if she knew a place to sleep, she invited me to set up the tent in the yard. It was a good start to the trip and the realization that there were great people along the way

With the Italian Elio who rode from Lisbon to the Milan area, it was fun to meet other riders randomly

With the lovely Julian and Caroline who were the first riders I hosted in Barcelona, ​​now the wheel has turned and I am staying with them in Grenoble, France

In Sion, Switzerland. I met a nice guy while waiting for my food. He gave me McDonalds (:

A cool night in Switzerland, I slept on some lake, I heard Spanish and started talking to the guys who of course invited me to the barbecue

With a nice Swiss guy I met at Mirko’s and then again before the pass

Avner and I having ice cream and coffee on the outskirts of Trieste, Italy

Me and Laura, the Swiss girl I met in Padua, meet again in Trieste, Italy

Cute Slovenian guys. I saw a climbing wall outside in the middle of the ride, I talked to them a bit and they offered me to climb. One of the tiring days

End of the day in Slovenia with Mitja and his dad who invited me to pitch a tent at their place In the yard

A cute Hungarian who lifted my spirits on the outskirts of Szeged, Hungary

Cute Romanian children who saw me riding my bike through their village and immediately offered to help and expressed a lot of interest in the journey

Me and Florin in Romania, I arrived in one of the villages in Romania where everyone knew Spanish. Florin and his family opened their home and heart to me and it was lovely

The feeling of competence I felt brought me happiness, days when I climbed steep mountains or rode long distances showed me that I was capable of a lot and it slowly built my faith in myself and my body.

On this journey, I feel loneliness more strongly. I explain this by the fact that it is a trip without many partners, meaning that even if there are other cyclists on the roads, they are almost never synchronized with my route. This creates a situation where most of the people I meet stay in my life for a period of time ranging from two minutes to three days. It is difficult.

These feelings helped me understand for myself how much social connections are something that is important to me and does me good. I better understand the balance between solitude and togetherness that suits me. Many times I have wished that I would meet cyclists who follow my path and ride together for a long time. This happened three times. The first time was when Jonathan joined me from Annecy to Martini, the second in Venice, when I met Avner who rode from Amsterdam to the Balkans. And the third time was when my dad joined me for three days On the way to Athens. It was great fun for me to spend the ride in a dialogue rather than a monologue. To share a good meal and an exhausting climb.

The ride itself is also often challenging, the body is tired and sore on difficult days, the mind seeks interest and excitement on monotonous days. In the end, everything ends, even the longest climbs, the most boring plains. The cappuccino, the ice cream and the descent also end. After all, this is true of everything in life. A day that particularly emphasized this thought for me was a long day of riding in Romania on roads packed with trucks and extreme heat. The ride ended when I arrived at a nice roadside hotel where I indulged in a delicious pizza, coffee and a massage. All of the above came to an end at some point. One moment I’m sweating, hurting and tired on the bike, the next moment I’m clean, eating something delicious in the air conditioner. In the end, you get used to the fact that everything ends in the end.

I loved meeting cyclists who are also on such journeys and seeing how many different ways there are to do such a journey. Some ride a long distance in a day and some don’t, some take large amounts of equipment and some very little. I’ve seen sophisticated bikes with modern bags and I’ve seen 100 euro bikes and ultra-old bags. I was very impressed to meet quite a few older riders. I highly recommend this kind of journey to anyone, the flexibility it offers really allows almost anyone to find their own path.

I’m happy with the way I shared what I was going through with my friends and family, I tried to stay real and not embellish the situation when it was less fun. I’m happy now that I have this souvenir and I can see the process I went through and remember moments from the journey. This form of sharing also gave me a way to vent a little and feel a little less alone. The reactions and messages from friends and family gave me a boost of positive energy and encouragement that were often very essential. So on that note, thank you to everyone who followed and supported me, you are the best!

In conclusion, this is an amazing journey, with ups and downs (literally), Very insightful, fun, difficult and in one word, complete.

Thank you for reading and see you on the next journey (:

Yam.