Link to: Camino de Santiago walk write up.

Link to: A month in Thailand write up.

Cycle Across Europe - 2014

Journey Totals

Days:
78 days total
70 cycling days
8 rest days

Left Home: Saturday 30th August 2014
Arrive Istanbul: Saturday 15th November 2014

Accommodation:
39 nights camping
38 nights indoors

Time:
301 hours 50 minutes cycling

Distance:
5149.4km
3200miles

14 countries:
Northern Ireland, Ireland, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Turkey = 1 Continent.

0 punctures
0 mechanicals
0 injuries
0 training
0 practice cycle rides/trips
3 times oil put on chain

Music:
Lorde, Pure Heroine
alt-J, An Awesome Wave
Disclosure, Settle
David Guetta, Nothing But The Beat
Rudimental, Home

Best Items:
EasyAcc 15600mAh Battery Pack
Buff
Mountain Warehouse Travel Pillow
High-Viz Yellow Vest
Dermalogica Ultracalming Super Sensitive Tint SPF30

Best Food:
Bryndzové Halušky in Slovakia
Dinner at Dunavski Plićak Guest House, Serbia
French Croissants
German Pretzels
Steak & Rösti in Switzerland
Super Salad in Germany
Duck Dinner in Hungary
Pastries in Hungary
Corny Cereal Bars (Banana/Chocolate/Coconut)
Salted Peanuts
Flavoured Popcorn
Water

Worst Moments:
Phone interview from Istanbul for BBC Radio Ulster - worst time of the whole trip, haha!!
The end of the adventure :-(

Best Bits:
Being outside everyday
Camping
Sunrise & Sunsets
Nature & Animals
Travelling & Continually moving forward
Freedom from the trivial
The unknown of each day
Miles of Smiles
Millions of Memories
Loved it all
:-)

Istanbul: The End - Day 78

Saturday 15th November 2014 - Breakfast on the top floor of building again. Pack our dirty stuff up and hit the road.

Bikes didn't disappear overnight thankfully!

Not too bad from here on into town. Back onto the motorway D100, across the second lake. Here there is a wide footpath we rode on for a bit. Then took a right and followed the coast round to Sultanahmet.

Go along the perimeter fence of Istanbul Atatürk airport. Watch the planes coming into land for a while, can nearly see the people in the windows they're that low, one every couple of minutes, crazy!

Pass a new massive hotel built along the water front, looking out at loads and loads of boats/ships anchored out on the water.

Through parks, past old city wall ruins, along old seafront promenade and past a fish market to the left turn off the road, under a bridge, up into the old town area.

Shops, hotels, restaurants, the tourist end of town. Push the bike up the short sharp cobble hill, turn down the street on the right and the blue mosque jumps out at us from the end of a row of shops. Wow!

I've just cycled from my house in Northern Ireland, to the edge of Europe!!!

Who would've guessed I'd make it here, having never planned or practiced this cycle touring thing before the day I rolled down my driveway!!

Few final destination photos, then round to the hostel. Loads on same street with bar/restaurant open fronts, onto the road.

Have lunch, check in. Leave clothes with a crazy cat lady to wash for 17lira.

Go for walk through streets and a small bazaar, see the square and the mosque all lit up at night, with colourful water fountains and lots of people wandering around. Pretty nice.

Kebab and beer for tea, while watching as the street steadily livens up, lots of people out and about in the evening.

Going to enjoy a good sleep tonight, as I splashed out on a room all to myself ... but really quite sad it's all over and I don't have anywhere to cycle to tomorrow :'-(

Day 78 - 15.11.14
Avcilar to Sultanahmet, Turkey
1h 57min cycling
27.6km
726 calories
285 metres asc

Cycling the D100 into Istanbul - Day 77

Friday 14th November 2014 - Another poor nights sleep.

Breakfast of bread and jam. In a dining room of only men, with Turkish breakfast news on the TV, at full volume!

Today it's windy and raining.

Pedal away from hotel with energy levels about 10%. Feel sick.

Stop at first petrol station for some water. Even though I've not been feeling well for the past week or so and it's a struggle to keep cycling all day, I actually really enjoy the challenge of it, weirdly enough!! I'm a bit odd like that.

Pass another touring cyclist who has stopped at a vegetable stall at the side of the road. He is having a cup of tea with the owner.

Think about how different he is being treated by the locals, making his journey and view of a place completely different from mine. We are both obviously visitors from a different country, he gets offered tea and friendliness, I get harassed for sex by a man who clearly hadn't washed in several weeks. Nice!

I continue on. He then catches up with me and we cycle on for a while together. Turns out he has been ill too the last few days.

We stop a few times a petrol stations. At one town he goes to a pharmacy and gets some medicine while I mind the bikes.

Stop at a Burger King. Starting to get dark and its raining. The road has become busier, the hard shoulder gets narrower, turns into a crumbled mess, then to non existent.

Dirt and water spray from the passing cars.

Steadily gets busy as it gets darker.

Road gets more traffic less edge space & lots of on off slips coming in from the right.

Dark now, steep climb up between the two lakes at Büyükçekmece.

Coming down the other side it's an amazing view seeing all the lights of city and roads spread out on all directions below. Nearly like the view when coming in to land on an aeroplane at night.

Up to 40kmph... cars, buses and lorries whizz by us. Being careful to cut across the onslip roads. Such a rush, love it!!

I don't think François was really enjoying it too much though. I had really wanted to make it to Sultanahmet tonight.

Eventually though we pull over at a hotel at Avcilar. I guess it's best not to chance luck too much. He goes in and negotiates a good deal of 80lira for a room which we split.

Put our bikes in the back of a van as there is no room inside. Hmm, wonder if it is the last time we'll see them! That would be funny after cycling all this way. I think I'd just walk the last bit if it happened though!

Such a nice, fancy, modern and new hotel with lovely rooms. We then promptly deposit our dirty, smelly bags and wet clothes everywhere!!

Traffic outside never dies down through the whole night, that surely is one busy road.

Before reaching Turkey I had read a few reports of the infamous D100 into Istanbul. I stopped reading them after about the third or fourth one I found, as it was all generally so negative and suggesting future cyclists take a different route or get a bus in. I prefer to always find out things for myself and to form my own opinions based on experience.

Having just cycled it, on a rainy, cold Friday evening, at rush hour, at night in the dark, I can confirm that yes it was a busy road. There isn't much room at the side, but the lanes are wide and compared to some of the single lane roads through Hungary and Bulgaria, I didn't feel like the cars and lorries were just skimming past me like before.

There is also another road that runs parallel but is separated from the three lane main part by a kurb. It runs along the front of the shops and allows access to the other streets. This could be an option if people weren't confident on the main part.

If you're used to cycling in cities, it's not really an issue though, as long as you keep your wits about you and your eyes and ears open and watch for the merging traffic from the right.

Be confident, be visible and show your intentions by signalling.

Having never cycled in a big city before this trip, I think cycling through Brussels, Strasbourg, Basel, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade and Sofia was also good training for the D100 into Istanbul!

Day 77 - 14.11.14
Çorlu to Avcilar, Turkey
5h 18min cycling
80.5km
2298 calories
945 metres asc

Rest Day Çorlu - Day 76

Thursday 13th November 2014 - Feel like crap. So sick. Stay in bed all day.

Go out to Burger King across the road for chicken, at about 8pm. Get drenched in the downpour coming back across the road.

Get straight back into my sick bed again.

Day 76 - 13.11.14
Çorlu, Turkey
Rest Day

Turkish Sex Pest, Hills and Sickness - Day 75

Wednesday 12th November 2014 - Bad night, ill and lots of noise in hotel and from outside. Sickness sweats all night too, so not much sleep had.

Up for breakfast on the roof which was looking over the town, skyline dotted with lots of mosques. Nice. Bread and jam. Not so nice.

Walk down the street to cash machine.

Draining.

Pack up, pay and go.

Petrol station stop for water. Going to be a tough day, feel rotten. Just focus on turning the pedals.

Onto D100 again.

Massive continual rolling hills as far as I can see. Big hard shoulder to cycle on but traffic quite busy all day.

Big views across the countryside. Downs are slow due to headwind.

Decide to stop at 20km 40km 60km....just as a way to keep going, as I felt like death warmed up. Just need to keep turning the circles.

Pull over to let a wee old man in a tractor pass me on the uphill of the hard shoulder. He waves me on, but I wave him on and he laughes and waves. It was a slow old tractor, but I was going even slower. Car following tractor also passes.

Top of hill the tractor is gone, but the car has stopped. As I slowly approach, a man gets out of the car.

He starts talking to me in Turkish. No idea what he's saying, but as his car is blocking my path I have to stop, as well as just coming up a climb and feeling ill, I'm wrecked.

Keep telling the man I don't understand. He keeps pointing down the road, the way I've come from. He has no English at all.

Tell him I have to go and when the road is clear, cycle around his car and continue.

He passes me and I can see he's pulled in again up ahead. This time he's out of the car and totally blocking my way past.

He has a pen and paper and starts writing something down, in Turkish. Eh, no I still don't know what you're on about (although I do have a fair idea really). Keep repeating I don't understand and when there's a gap in traffic cycle round him, again.

Again he passes me and pulls in up ahead. This is on a long climb, I'm sick, I can't sprint off anywhere, there's only fields around me and cars and lorries whizzing past.

As I approach this time he stops me by putting his hand on my handle bars. Now I'm pissed off. I remove his hand. He keeps jabbering on. Then starts touching my arm.

Really?

Removed his dirty hands off me, telling him I don't know what he's saying and I have to go. Holds my handle bars again, then makes kissing motions and thrusting actions.

I refrain from vomiting all over is his face, then say 'Eh, NO!' whilst pulling my most disgusted face, throw his hand off my bars and cycle on.

Think he may have also been a few sandwiches short of a picnic too.

Anyway, car registration was 59 HP 027 and this happened on the D100 a few km before Luleburgaz, if any other girls are cycling alone that way, keep your eyes peeled.

So coming into Luleburgaz and I know its going to get dark soon. But I really want to make Çorlu. Should I just stop at a hotel here encase creepy man is following me.

Decide to just keep going. I didn't have the feeling he was about any more.

Slow going and totally drained, but keep pushing on.

Dark, put lights on, then do 4 hours along the side of the D100, which is now getting busier.

Coming into Çorlu there's lots of industrial type places along the road. Big dogs hiding in the grass jump out and bark at me in the dark. At this stage I find it a little amusing.

Never ending.

Into town and its another slow 10km until the hotel I want to stay at out the other side.

People (men) in the hotel are a bit leery, but as its been a long and tiring day, I'm taking no shit from them. Once they realise this, they're pleasant enough.

Burger King across the road is closed, grr.

Shivers and sweats now, not nice. Just decide to go to bed.

Wash the black diesel fume grime off my face and ears, blow it out of my nose and cough it up. Definitely was sucking diesel today, literally. Yuck.

Day 75 - 12.11.14
Edirne to Çorlu, Turkey
8h 22min cycling
129.2km
3600 calories
1383 metres asc

Cycling into Turkey - Day 74

Tuesday 11th November 2014 - Wake earlyish. Feel worse. These past few days have been an almighty struggle. Cycling big distances when you can't breathe, have a sore throat, sore head, stuffy & runny nose and have the sickness sweats ... all the fun times!!

But Istanbul is sooo very close now!!

Can hear the lorries outside, continuously passing. Argh.

Misty outside this morning again. Head back up to the petrol station to stock up. Cherry croissant for brekkie, which was nice.

Same road, ride the white line, lorry's, few hills. Think I pass a dying dog at one stage. Either it's been knocked down by a vehicle, or its only waking up. I tell myself its just waking up, as I can't stop and wouldn't be able to do anything for it if it was, or if I did.

Blocked ears makes the traffic quieter today - trying to think of positives of bring ill. Can't smell any horrific smells with a blocked nose either.

Petrol station in Svilengrad. Sit for a while after having some flavoured popcorn and croissants. Try and muster up the energy to leave.

Petrol stations in Bulgaria still have men working on the forecourt. They have a job on their hands here though, trying to choreograph the big lorries pulling in and out, mixed with the cars.

Onto the motorway now toward the border, quiet big hard shoulder of smooth tarmac.

Bottles of urine and shredded tyres litter the road side.

Come up to a newly built, but not open wide road. Traffic is diverted into single file, I continue on down the lovely new tarmac road and have it all to myself!

Lorries stopping about 10km from the Turkish border, queued up, waiting.

Eventually pass them all and arrive at the border. First check, just show my passport.

Next check I end up having to wait an hour, as the Bulgarian side had no electricity!! Get cold.

Pass through the next checkpoint, cars driving through without stopping,  but I get yelled at and called back.

Wait for several minutes, no one comes speaks to me or comes out. Go to cycle off again, then get shouted at again. They finally take my passport and put details on computer.

Next check, guy barely looks at my Turkish visa on my phone before he stamps passport. Okay.

Next one cycle on through, as it's just the vechile registration plate check.

Finally, I'm into Turkey - my 14th country I'll have cycled in this trip.

Along the hard shoulder of the D100.
Then head into Edrine. Getting dark after all that phaffing around at the border.

Can't believe the aliveness of the city when I arrive. Lights, people, shops, restaurants, noise, music, chatter everywhere. My senses are assaulted, my eyes take time to adjust to all the colours.

Feels so alive compared to the last few weeks through the towns of Serbia and Bulgaria.

Find hotel in centre, B&B for under £20.

Do some washing in the bathroom sink. Then crash out, as still totally bunged up with the sickness.

Day 74 - 11.11.14
Haskovo, Bulgaria to Edirne, Turkey
4h 48min cycling
100.2km
2829 calories
591 metres asc

Sick, so sick of Bulgarian Lorries - Day 73

Monday 10th November 2014 - Wake with a really sore throat. Haven't been feeling 100% since leaving Sofia, but feel awful this morning.

Go for breakfast in the big fancy dining room. No buffet breakfast. Only order an option of menu. I go for French toast. I get pancakes?? The waitress assures me its French toast. Its clearly not. I can't be bothered with any hassle so just eat it.

Feel so grim.

Head off, stop at petrol station for water and take a couple of paracetamol. Can't hardly swallow, throat is so sore and dry.

Head off.

Main road now, not motorway. No hard shoulder.

Sweats, not exercise ones, sick sweats. All day. Urgh.

Back to riding the white line and lorries skimming me all day. Seems to take forever to do 40km.

Plovdiv - eat at McDonald's. Meant to be nice town, don't have time to go look. So not in a touristy mood either.

Back onto road. Hardly any stops today, just keep going. If I stop I reckon I may not start again.

Can't even drink or look around the road is that busy and dangerous.

Amused by all the little mice along the verge. They scurry away and disappear into their holes, which pock mark the length of dirt and grass along side the road, when I come past.

See lots of cabbage and dead animals.

Put lights on, it gets misty, then dark.
See a road from a petrol station into town, instead of the main road. Decide I'll use it when I get there now its dark, it'll be a safer way into Haskovo.

Turns out there's a motel beside the petrol station. Think it's a truckers place. Into the dark yard behind the building. A big dog barks over in  dark corner, rattling the chains it's on each time. Clank up some metal steps in my cycle shoes to find a man in the bar, watching telly, in a plum of cigarette smoke, with the door locked.

Nice man, hardly any English. 35lev for room, bike comes in too!! Save any hassle riding round town in dark.

Throat still sore. Feel wick.

Day 73 - 10.11.14
Pazardzhik to Haskovo, Bulgaria
5h 34min cycling
109.8km
2892 calories
532 metres asc

Cycling out of Sofia - Day 72

Sunday 9th November 2014 - Early start. Up and away before anyone else awake. Posted the keys of the gate in the letter box before leaving.

Rain overnight, so roads wet, therefore I'll be getting wet and dirty this morning!

Sunday morning so the roads were quiet ish. Cycled through the centre of Sofia, hardly any traffic there, so was able to do my sightseeing without any hassle on the way through. Definitely the time to cycle in the city, early Sunday mornings!

Onto main road out the east of Sofia, which then turned into a motorway, the A1/E80. Bicycles allowed though and eventually there was a nice wide hard shoulder to use. Sun coming through too and nice scenery off in the distance.

Come off motorway, thinking it'd be nice to ride on a quieter country road. No. It's not. Too many climbs and pot hole roads... Find my way back to the motorway.

See a sign - 110km to a McDonald's.

Hard shoulder for miiilllleeesss. Hassle free cycling, if a little boring. But some of the views were amazing and the colour of the trees everywhere was lovely.

Also had to go through a tunnel. It was okay though, as there were lights through it and the shoulder also continued through it. Then it was downhill for ages after which was fab, if a little chilly!

Get to mcds and feast.

45km to Plovdiv, can't be arsed riding in dark, so cycle into and stop at Pazardzhik, which I'd only a few km from the McDonald's on the E80.

Find most expensive hotel in city of course. Bargain with the woman on reception and get €20 off the room rate. The water is cold though. The bed is comfy. Not feeling great.

Day 72 - 09.11.14
Sofia to Pazardzhik, Bulgaria
6h 04min cycling
121.6km
3584 calories

936 metres asc

Rest Day Sofia - Day 71

Saturday 8th November 2014 - So I decided I would finally take a rest day, after continuously cycling for the past 17 days.

Lay in, then eventually went out to the supermarket for food.

Fooooooood!!!!

So much nice looking things in the supermarket and they also had an amazing hot food counter. Purchased a big bag of a random assortment of food & drink to feast on.

Giant scallions and cabbages for sale at the stalls on the side of the street.

Ate food. Lay about.

Supermarket again in the evening. Started to rain though. Pack for morning. Nice girl I chatted to from Japan in the dorm. Also shared with an Italian guy, who was constantly on his phone trying to sort out some kind of bank transfer between Italy and Bulgaria. Quite annoying to have to listen to after about the third call....

Day 71 - 08.11.14
Sofia, Bulgaria
Rest Day