Berlin, Berlin Brandenburg (Germany)

When I was meeting people on my journey, they had two questions. The first one, are you not scared? The second one, why? No, I was not scared. Very easy answer. But, the why question got me. Because I had only one answer. Because I can. And honestly, that was true. I never had the dream to go on such a long-distance bike trip. I simply wanted to have a significant break and a challenge that seemed worthwhile. I had money saved, and I had time. Good enough.

This one keeps me awake at night. Like really. Yesterday evening I was listening to how to wild camp and I saw myself sitting alone at night in a forest and peeing my pants. Hearing sounds, imagining the worst. Usually I listen podcasts about serial killers to fall a sleep. So my repertoire how bad could look like is gigantic.

Long story short. I would love to say that I just camp wherever I find a good slot. But I can't. At least not now. I will need to get comfortable with the idea and slowly ease in, ideally with some companions. But it will happen. In the meantime I'm figuring out some alternatives.

When traveling for business, I'm really good at packing. During my life I have assembled quite some clothes, but magically they're all fitting together. So I can pack quite minimal, generally I only fly with hand luggage. Hiking similar. And while this might sound not too charming, I prefer to stink a little bit rather than killing my back. The first time I packed my panniers though, wow, I hardly could ride the bike. To be fair, I packed cookbooks and all crazy things. Volume was fine, but weight was not.

Now I need to pack for a year. And I'm going to do mistakes. Good thing is, I can ship things home and if I really miss something, I can buy it. So there won't be too much drama.

There are people who do a lot of research when looking for bikes, considering this, considering that. I'm not like that. I do usually have a picture in my head of what I want. And it's basically impossible to convince me of anything else. Similarly with my bike. I did have already two bikes. A Canyon road bike and a beautiful city bike, custom made for me by Santucci Cycles. Both were not made for the tour, so I needed a new one.

Some time ago I lived in San Francisco. There I encountered for the first time Surly bikes. Steel frame, and slightly old-fashioned looking. Back then I thought about getting one, now was the time!

The idea for this trip is to go with the flow. That sounds cheesy, but that's the plan. I don't have an end date, I don't need to be anywhere at a specific time, at least for the time being and I have no idea what I'm going to find on the way. Some roads might suck, some areas might be tempting to go once I'm closeby or I might meet people that I want to team up for some time. I want to leave space for serendipity. But I made a rough route, it might change completely though, but I need to start somewhere. The starting point will be Brindisi, a small town in Puglia. From there I bike up to Scotland and down to Tarifa and then up to Fulda. That's the plan. It's a rough 17500km.

Wednesday is my last day in the office. I quit. It's not quite like quitting earlier. I quit often and I mostly quit when I felt my job was done. In this case my job is done as well. What makes it different is that I don't want to work anymore. That's a bit off, I want to work, I love to work. But I decided to take a significant break and keep it absolutely open what's next. I don't have another job lined up. I'm allowing myself to go on a little adventure.

And I'm curious where I end up.