Well, that took a turn. It’s with weird and mixed emotions that I’m writing this. On Thursday evening I packed everything, got my bicycle readied up and everything and in the evening sat down to eat dinner and then go to bed so I’d be ready to go on the road the next morning. I look at the weather report and I have to make a very hard confession to myself. With the weather forecast looking the way it does, I really just don’t see how any of it will be fun. It literally predicts snow and rain non-stop for the whole time I’d be on the road. Would it be doable? Most definitely. Would it be fun? No. Not for the whole stretch, especially when I’m alone and have no one else to turn the wet misery into something to joke and laugh about.
Last summer was different. The weather in Norway was probably worse than it’ll get at any point here within the next few weeks, but there I was already on the road, I was etching in on my goal and it was a completely foreign landscape and country with an incredible atmosphere and feeling to it that totally made all of it worth it. And even then, I reached my limits and wouldn’t have made it much further. This time, it’d be only for around fifteen days in a landscape that is already very familiar to me and it just… Well I don’t want to spend this precious time that I have for travelling and adventuring battling myself to push through some hardship that was totally avoidable. Is that all against the mindset and spirit of a true adventurer? Maybe – I’m sure there are enough hardcore people out there, that wouldn’t mind – after all tents are waterproof, right? But I just had to admit to myself that I feel like it wouldn’t be fun for me. So what did I do? Well I completely changed my plans last second and spend all of today frantically trying to plan everything and make everything work and so on. Because now, I’ll just be using InterRail to travel around Europe trying to meet up with friends and go whereever my heart takes me. And obviously I’ll still end up in Amsterdam, because there is no way I would give up on reconnecting with the people there and the city.
What about “Cycling for Life”? That’s what made this decision so hard as well because I knew I just announced this project and everything but in the end not many people have made pledges yet, so I’ll just postpone it to the next big tour I will make which undoubtably will happen sooner than later.
I’d like to go into more detail and talk about everything a bit more, but it’s already way past midnight here and my first train leaves early this morning, so I really need to catch some sleep. I’m sorry if I have disappointed anyone with my decision, but in the end I’m doing this for me, trying to find joy and happiness through travelling and freedom. In my way.
More updates will follow soon!
Take care everyone!
Raphael's Travel Blog 