"Tour de Monde" is how I explain what I'm doing to the French. One man said "brave" as I explained him my route. Another said something like "courageous". They want to be nice. They probably think I'm stupid to do something like this. Bad things do happen. I know that too. But so do good things. There is no point missing the latter because I'm afraid. This isn't bravery. It's just how things work. The day is just as beautiful as the night is scary. And you miss it all if you stay inside.
The days are long up north at ...Read More
I had to do this...
I stayed in Paris for two days. Now I'm on my way to Lyon and possibly to the Alps... Everything's fine. Just wanted to check in as I'm in brief Wi-fi zone. I'll do a detailed post in a few days... Read More
London has done a few things. First, It forced me to reset all my know-how and habits of riding a bike in traffic due to the inversion of flow (it feels like writing with my left hand). I had to desert the bike and take the 'tube' around the city. This wouldn't be a big issue if I was staying here just for a day or two, which had been original plan. All I had to do was to receive the package Evren sent me from L.A. and move on. But of course, I did not take into consideration the ...Read More
I entered New York State on Friday, April 17.
Arrived in Toronto the next day.
North American route is over. Along with it, some other things also came to an end. I now know that I'm leaving this continent and riding back home is not a plausible option anymore. The luxuries and conveniences of being in this side of the world are going to fade away slowly. One specific characteristic of this journey is that it began from Los Angeles, a city that symbolizes the ultimate edge of western civilization. As I move forward, this system of values and everything that comes with ...Read More
Tomorrow will probably be the last day of riding in the US. I'm now in a hotel near Cleveland, a city on the shores of Lake Erie. I'll take HW 90 all the way up to the Niagara Falls, where I'll be crossing into Canadian soil.
After leaving Madison and Savaş behind, I headed towards Chicago. I was coming close to a crossroads where a few phone calls were waiting for me. Ada's birthday, mom and dad, then finally an old friend who lives in Indiana. Fırat and I have known each other since we were little boys and somehow grew ...Read More
We stopped at a cafe in York, Nebraska. Savaş realized that my skidplate was touching the exhaust pipe so I took out some tools. It was nothing major, but when you do any kind of repair in a cafe's parking lot, you are bound to get some attention, even in a place like York. That's how we met Mr Hartfield, a tall swimming instructor planning to do a trans-american bicycle tour... He must have felt some connection to what we were doing because he took out ten dollars and called it our 'coffee-money'. Normally we would kindly refuse it, but ...Read More
It's midnight. I'm inside my tent. I don't know the name of this place but we are camping next to a lake. There is some cellular reception so I wanted to say hi and post a picture of myself in my sleeping bag.
It seems that the geese are also resting somewhere around this lake. I can occasionally hear their voices. We've been seeing them since Nebraska. They are migrating north, facing the same strong winds we do on our bikes.
Thank you all for your encouraging and nice comments. I am doing most of this trip solo, but it feels great ...Read More
