For the last 58 days, I have been cycling in Europe. From London to Istanbul has been a dream adventure of mine for many years and finally, I have gotten around to doing it. With still a week to go I wrote this small piece as a self-reflection after my short time being on the road.
The phrase "being free" is commonly used and I didn't want to use a cliché but it's hard not to use. Being on the road gives you the feeling of freedom, no commitments, you are left to your own devices. It's hard to describe to others who haven't been in similar circumstances, I have been free to discover the continent on my own terms and it feels exhilarating. It's a great feeling that is as extremely addictive as heroin, a feeling I want to feel again and again.
This journey had nothing to do with the bike, I tend to struggle to explain to proper cyclists that what motivates me to cycle is the unusual way of travelling. It is a way of seeing everything at a slow pace, you have time to explore places, learn about the country and meet new people rather than speeding past in a car or a train. Slow travel becomes a lifestyle and it feels glorious. I am in complete control, I can slow down when I want, stop when I want, pick up the pace when I want, I have all the time in the world.
There is no better feeling than looking at a map and seeing where you have been and where you are going. After 58 days I look back at my progress with a sense of pride remember the things I have seen and the people I have met with fondness and look forward to the adventures to come.
The road can also be hard. I often feel that I could be bipolar when I am cycling around on the saddle. I have constant mixed emotions, sometimes I'm tired, hurting, fed up and the next minute I'm excited, happy and loving life. I have time to think about life and what I want and the things that have gone wrong. The mind can play tricks and can sway your moods. I sometimes linger on moments when I have screwed up but can also remember the most precious of memories. These certain trains of thought can all change the way I look at life and change my attitude towards what is in front of me. But that's life, it can be boring, agonising, depressing, awful, and tedious but life can also be happy, exciting, beautiful, and glorious and it's all down to a state of mind and what you do with this one pointless wonderful life.
The road can be unpredictable, there could be a heatwave, a storm, far too much rain, or too many hills or the roads could be rough and bumpy. Other days I feel it is worth the pain and misery when you find a gorge with beautiful mountains carved by nature with dramatic medieval castles perched amongst the beauty. Perhaps a stunning city view from the top of a hill watching the chaotic city residents rushing around with their busy lives while you rest and admire the concrete man-made beauty and feel lucky. Or maybe I am crossing a bridge with a view of a streaming river and feeling one with nature. All these feelings are part of the adventure.
I am learning the vital lesson of knowing what my body wants before it starts to scream at me. The body is incredibly simple. You can always do something to make the body feel better before it starts to suffer too much. If you're about to get exhausted, take a rest, if you're not hydrated enough, have some water, if you're hungry it's time to have food! This seems simple but I find it's important to identify this before your body starts to shut down. Luckily it's my bike that seems to be in a worse condition than myself. The human body is fascinating, my body seems to have adjusted to the kind of life I'm currently living, the aches and pains I had in the beginning have gone away and I've changed and got stronger. My bike however hasn't adapted as well.
Occasionally the feeling of loneliness creeps in, I am very comfortable with this feeling but sometimes it is overpowering. It is sometimes hard to wonder why I am doing this alone and wonder why I am not doing this with someone I love. But sometimes being alone can be the best thing in the world, it provides the freedom that I have always wanted. The easy solution to loneliness is going out and talking to people in bars and in hostels and creating memories that quickly relieves the loneliness curse but it will always sneak back when you're least expecting it.
Time is a weird thing, months could fly by and feel like a week and nothing could happen and you wonder where the time has gone. During my adventure, I feel I have been away forever but it's only been a couple of months. I look back at what I was doing on my first day in London and it feels like a distant memory as so much has happened, I have seen so much, met so many people and done as much as humanly possible in a short period of time. Maybe the key to life and time is packing your days with adventure and exciting stuff in between your hectic work life.
How can someone be truly happy and content? Well, I don't think anyone has the answers but I feel mad adventures like this are a little way towards that happiness. But it can also create the feeling of a lack of contentment when the journey ends. I feel I just need to get out of my comfort zone and challenge myself more and mix things up more and maybe I can get as much out of life as I have with this journey.
This adventure is just a short highlight in a long life I hope to lead but all journeys have to end eventually. Normality will return and I will be back to serving pints in Dublin in no time, listening to the same old stories from locals at the bar. However, like the locals, I will have memories that will last forever and these memories will be some of my fondest, isn't that what adventure is all about? Creating stories and memories that will last a lifetime.
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