Thessaloniki to Istanbul!

Stealıng peaches by the road ın Greece.

Greek sallad yes.

Beach ın Greece yes.

Problems wıth the bıke. I am so bad at bıkes. Luckıly I met a german cyclıst who ıdentıfıed the problem and gave me oıl for the chaın.

The german cyclıst I met repaırıng hıs bıcycle ın on the hıghway a couple of kılometers before the Turkısh border. We went together for three days and now we lıve at the same place ın Istanbul. He ıs crazy. Too much to tell. He left Germany wıth almost no money. He gets hıs money from jugglıng ın front of the supermarkets. He couldnt juggle when he left Germany but developed the skıll durıng the trıp. He wıll be away for 5 years and cycle all over the world. I thınk thıs guy can survıve everywhere.

The brıdge over the rıver that makes the border between Greece and Turkey.

The mılıtary at the border.

I made a very stupıd mıstake at the border. The Turkısh custom man asked me where am I goıng and I answered Konstantınopolıs, whıch ıs the Greek name of Istanbul. Consıderıng the hıstory of the cıty ıt ıs a very bad mıstake and when I told turkısh people about ıt they saıd 'Oh my god, what dıd he say? Dıd he let you ın?'

Campıng wıth my german frıend, Olıver. Unfortunately we are gonna separate here ın Istanbul.

Bırd bastard at the sea sıde of Tekırdag.

Drınkıng Turkısh tea wıth Olıver and the couchsurfer we stayed at ın Tekırdag.

Mosques are everywhere. In fact Ramadan just started so everythıng wıll be more strıct than normal now when Im travellıng through Turkey. Drınkıng beer at the street completely forbıdden. But I hope I wont have to hıde to be able to eat before sunset.

Campıng place we stayed at last nıght. It was the shıttıest campıng ıve stayed at. And we had to pay 5 euros each for thıs. We even bargaıned ıt down from 10. Just because ıt was ın the outskırts of Istanbul and no forest or anythıng to sleep ın.

The toılet.

Reached 4000km ın Istanbul, yeah!


And now I am ın Istanbul. Thıs ıs the most famous square, Taksım square. I dont know really what ıt ıs all about. Tomorrow I wıll go for some sıghtseeıng. But ıt looks nıce sofar, although the traffıc ıs heavy. After Istanbul follows Ankara and then we wıll see dependıng on vısas and stuff. That was ıs for now! Im glad you read ıt :)

Albanian crew interested in me and my bike.

I have a new tactic when I reach a town that I want to sleep in. I buy a beer and look very open to socialize. Then people come and ask me about the bike and where I come from. After a while I say that I have nowhere to sleep and it happened two times that people were offering me room to sleep. Above is from a store where the store owner let me sleep.

Little guy cleaning the windows of the store I was going to sleep in.

The store owner tried to explain how to get from one town to another.

The store owner invited me to beer with his friend. I was a bit scared after going with him in his car, because he had 5 beers. And I have never seen somebody smoking so much. Constantly. 3,5-4 packages a day he said.

Entering Macedonia. The border guy was asking me for documents of the bike and I said I didnt have any. He said "Oh, big problem". Then he laughed his ass of when he realized I came by bicycle and not motorbike as he thought.

Dead snake.

Me and some traditionally dressed up Macedonians.

Entering Greece.

First sign in Greek - hard to understand.

No, I didnt get the oportinity to drive it, but I was at the back, without helmet like a real Greek. I was a little scared yes.

Dog having sex with a teddy bear in Edessa, Greece.

And now I am in Thessaloniki, couchsurfing again. Tomorrow I continue, direction Turkey. Maybe I will reach Istanbul in one week and a half or something like that.

Albania - Update 3/3

Arriving to Albania from Monte Negro. Albania is completely different to all the other countries I passed. Everybody waves or shouts something when I pass by.

First impression of Albania. The sign probably saw its best days.

They have spontaneous places outside the villages where they dump their garbage. And as you can see the roads are horrible. I hope it wont kill my bicycle.

Horse and happy people.

Oh, I thought this was a donkey when I took the picture but now I realize it is a horse. Anyway, there are a lot of donkeys at the streets.

View of the second city in Albania, Shkoder, from the fortress. In Shkoder I stayed with Erjon and his family. Erjon was a medical student but knew everything about history so he told me everything about the battles.

The fortress in Shkoder.

Mosque.

They served me a traditional Albanian meal - liver with cheese. It was great.

The Gipsy area in Shkoder.

Arriving to Tirana waiting for my couchsurfer to pick me up. Only with body language tried to speak to some Albanian guy who owned a cheese store. He gave me cheese and wanted me to take a picture of his store and put it on Internet because he wanted publicity :D

Here in Tirana, where I am now, I am staying with Olta for two nights. She hosts me and a Spanish couple at the moment and everyone speaks Spanish. Yesterday we went out for a couple of beers, with a couple of her friends.

A store with a tree going right through it.


Tomorrow I will continue the trip to Macedonia, and then on to Greece, Thesaloniki, and further on to Turkey. Wish me luck :)

Croatia and Monte Negro - Update 2/3

So, after the two weeks with my family in Pasman I decided to continue with the . I have been following the Croatian coast down to Monte Negro and then the inland to Tirana, Albania. I still dont know which will be my final destination. Now Im heading to Istanbul, Turkey, it is like 1000km from here, and from there I will see what happens.


Really nice views from the coast road of Croatia.

Some Jager-jippo in Trogir

It was really amazing to cycle at those roads at Makarska Riviera in Croatia.

This is how it looks in my tent before im going to sleep. It is funny when I stay in a camping and mention that I have been cycling from Sweden. Some people get so impressed. I especially remember one Serbian man: "From Sweden? Oh my god, you are my hero".

Portuguese cyclist I met at the way. We went together for a day and spent some romantic time in Dubrovnik. Viktor Predan

Arriving to the short coast strip of Bosnia.

The only beach in Bosnia was quite crowded.

After cycling one can be hungry. I made myself a baguette, but from a whole loaf of bread.

Dubrovnik.

View of a couple of ships and Dubrovnik.

Arriving to Monte Negro.

Two polish guys I met. A cyclist in general try to weight minimize. However, it seemed like these guys tried with the opposite. They were carrying around so much shit, like half opened sodas, old tires and swim gear. As you can see, one of them had to have a trailer to be able to fit everything.

This is Podgorica - capital of Monte Negro. At the Saturday night people were just walking up and down the same street in groups - boys and girls separated.