Cycling Through Greece

Athens –> Corinth–> Aiyion –> Patras –> Agrinio –> Arta –> Ioannina

Last Wednesday, I set off on my adventure on two wheels, more or less oblivious to what was ahead. I learned to bicycle at a young age and am confident in my ability to survive in the outdoors, so what could go wrong? Plus, I am a runner, so biking should be easy, right?

Rio Antirrio Bridge

Although I have not had any terrifying life-threatening occurrences, I have been learning a lot and have been humbled countless times throughout this first week. I expect more of that to come as I move through different countries.

ROSE

I encountered another biker who was a month and a half into his adventure. This was the first biker I had met so far, so it was great to meet a fellow bike traveler on the road. Stefan is from Germany and had begun his trip in his hometown of Munich. From there, he pedaled through most of the countries I was heading towards. We exchanged stories about our experiences so far and discussed any concerns. This was only the beginning of Stefan’s adventure, as he planned a year-long bicycling trip that will end in Beijing, China. He is also carrying all of his paragliding equipment with him, so he is able to fly when the right place and elements present themselves. What an adventure!

I asked Stefan why he had decided to embark on such an adventure, as I have been struggling to find an answer to this myself. Stefan paused and said, “Because I can and may not be able to later. I will be 60 in 10 years and have been slaving away at my last job for over 10 years.” He holds a PhD and was working as a group head at a large biotech company in Munich, Germany. What a change in pace.

Stefan had quite the setup. Although I did not get a picture of him on his bike, it looked much like this one. I would assume he has a much easier time getting up inclines than I do…

Stefan and I exchanged a few emails, and he provided me with pages of information about Albania, including places to stay, people to say hello to on his behalf, food to eat, and what to watch out for. He also offered to help with any questions I might have about Montenegro and Croatia. What a gift to have met someone who has already seen much of what I hope to cover in the coming weeks!

Why am I doing this and what triggered this massive change in my life? Why am I traveling by bicycle, and why in Eastern European countries? Why travel in general, and what do I hope to accomplish by doing this?

It turns out that when you are biking alone on a road through the mountains of Greece, you have a lot of time in your own head. It also turns out that even if you would not consider yourself one to talk to yourself, things tend to change as more time passes without talking to others. Whether out loud or in my head, all of the questions above have been swirling around this week. They are all loaded questions with complicated answers. I could easily come up with an answer if asked, but it would be hard to really explain the entirety of the answer to someone. I recently listened to “The Elephant in the Brain” audiobook, so I might be overanalyzing my motives completely.

Why travel at all?

People travel for many different reasons and in many different ways. In my opinion, there is no right or wrong way to travel as long as you are kind and respectful of the people and the places you journey to. This means following the “leave no trace” rule, smiling, and making an effort to acclimate to the culture you are in. This list could go on and on, but we know what being kind and loving means. Leave wherever you went in a better place than it was before. Take that however you want, as it covers it all.

I travel because I want to learn about the cultures of countries all over the world. I want to meet people with stories completely different from mine. I want to show people that Americans are not all the same. I try to set an example for how humans should interact and treat each other when communication may be difficult. One of the reasons I love to travel so much is that when I do, I hold myself to a higher standard and become a better, more loving version of myself.

Don’t get me wrong—people, myself included, do not only travel to be kind, share love, and so on. There are selfish and subconscious reasons for travel. I realize that gaining language skills, cultural knowledge, and experiences will likely put me in a better position to get certain jobs. There is no doubt that this is a large reason why people travel. Knowledge is power, and there is so much knowledge to be gained outside the confines of our borders.

Why am I doing this?

I think Stefan had a great answer to this question that relates to my answer in some ways as well. I am doing this because I can and may not be able to do a trip like this later on in life. I am physically and mentally capable right now, but who knows what the future will bring. As much as I hope to be able to do this or something similar at the age of 50, we all know life throws curveballs, and what I can control is what I do TODAY. I am also doing this because I have this time, which is rare, and I want to make the most of it.

What triggered this change?

I had been working at a company for almost three years, and although I had an incredible appreciation for the company and many of the people there, it was no longer serving me in the way I wanted and needed. I realized that this was not what I wanted to continue doing but was unsure of what I did want to do. I was not willing to jump into the next thing without taking a serious look at what I was searching for and how I wanted to get there. As a bit of a side project, I began taking an online course to get my TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) certification. As a result of gaining the certificate, I decided that I would follow a passion of mine and teach English for a year while deciding what the next move would be. The teaching contracts in Asia begin at the beginning of June, so this is a bit of a gap-1/4th year I never had kind of situation.

Why travel by bicycle and why to Eastern European countries?

I have never been to the eastern regions of Europe, and I have always wanted to visit. Given the amount of time I had, I thought, why not ride a bicycle? I figured seeing it on two wheels would give me a more in-depth experience in each country. Not only that, but traveling by bicycle, camping, and staying in hostels is a very frugal way to travel with a minimal carbon footprint. Most importantly, though, it was a new challenge that would require me to spend a large amount of time alone in my own head.

For those who are highly extroverted, you may understand the struggle to be alone for days on end. It was one of my goals to become a bit more at peace with this feeling that before made me sad and unhappy. I am not going to change who I am and will always prefer to be in the company of people, but I think there is value in being able to be present and content when alone for extended periods of time.

Now, I hate to be real, but there are downsides to traveling this way. By traveling by bicycle, I am limiting my ability to see places outside of the route I decide to follow. I am able to cover much less ground than I would by motorcycle, train, bus, or plane, making it a bit less productive in some senses. Many times I am so exhausted by the time I arrive at the destination that I am not willing to experience that place in the same way I otherwise would have. My “path” does not mix well with the paths of others, so I have not and will most likely not be able to travel with anyone else. It isolates me in many ways. In many ways, I was looking to be isolated, but I think people need to be aware of these downsides before deciding to embark on a trip like this.

I guess the lesson is that there are advantages and disadvantages to most of the things we choose to do in our lives. When looking through all of these answers, I think that my answers may change or transform throughout this adventure. I hope they do, as that would mean I have learned something from all this isolation.

THORN

The travel day from Athens to Corinth was unquestionably the hardest day of my trip thus far. It was my first day on two wheels, and I was still getting a feel for what to do and not to do. There is a reason why all the advice about biking in Athens is negative, suggesting taking a ferry from the Port of Athens to outside towns to start any adventure like this one. Nevertheless, I was determined to get to Corinth that day, and the time in a day did not allow for any ferries or island hopping.

Looking back at where Athens was!Reluctant to take any roads even comparable to highways at first, I began by taking side roads through the city’s outskirts. By doing this, I was leading myself far outside the route given to me. My trusty app and I were not agreeing on much at all. I ended up going up an incline to the top of what seemed like a mountain, as well as taking a route miles out of the way of what was originally given to me.

It wasn’t until I finally reached the top of the “mountain” and checked my progress that I realized my optimistic expectation of the distance I would be able to cover daily was a bit unrealistic. I had already eaten through much of my daylight, fuel (human energy), and my map indicated I had over 40 miles remaining. The original distance was only 46 miles, so you can understand my frustration. On the positive side of the incline, what goes up must also come down!

All in all, I made it to Corinth that night at around 8:30 PM after departing from the hostel that morning at around 10:30 AM. I pulled through despite the many challenges. I biked in the dark for multiple hours, biked along a large highway successfully, and experienced a substantial incline with my carriage without anything horribly wrong happening. All things considered, it was a success!

Acrocorinth ruins in CorinthI will be entering Albania in the coming days and am excited for a bit of a change of scenery. I will update with a new post next week with more on Albania.

Here is something I put together from my time in Greece.