I’ll let you make this one yours.
Just the way I was able to make my ride north through Europe mine. It could’ve been a quite-long-but-not-really, only so interesting, half ass experience that would fall just short of OK. More than anything else – due to the epicness it followed. With a little effort – it became one of the most emotional and heartwarming experiences of my life.
Nostalgia overload. And the closing of a circle way beyond my wildest dreams.
Obviously you only have that much emotion invested in this to you digital girl’s realisation of her dream. There are however a few of you reading this that have been with me since the early days of this journey – and that have spent a fair chunk of time during these last years, pouring over the lines and photos I’ve managed to spit onto the pages of this blog.
The only heart exploding here will be mine.
And just like my ride through Europe this blog post has all the potential to be a quite-long-but-not-really, only so interesting, half ass experience that falls just short of OK. More than anything else – due to the epicness it follows.
Then of course comes that part of a little effort.
I think that if you’ll let it – your heart might have the time for one extra beat with this one.
To make a long story short would be the wrong expression here. This homebound ride through Europe was a string of short chapters of this ride – made endless. I won’t bother trying to explain it, but rather just tell you what happened.
… and this is where the rest is up to you.
This time capsule of a journey started in Bern. From where I shared this story with you. What I didn’t tell you was that this was also the time and place where I got to fly back in time and space to relive some of the most intense weeks of my life – with the people who were there doing the very same thing with me.
In Bern there was also Patrick, that lovely man who – just like most people I’ve crossed paths with these last years – have never made it onto the pages of this blog. There was my failed attempt to leave, only to instead end up yet another night the couch of Marianne & Thomas.
There was nostalgia, home brew beer and tears of laughter around the Zurich dinner table of my first true cycling companions Iris & Reto.
There was the next failed attempt of leaving. Ending up with a belly full of fondue and heart full of love after that long evening with also blog anonymous Kathrin. The girl who brightened my day over and over again during my first year, both on our way to Singapore. After crossing my path in everything from Turkish Kurdistan to Kyrgyz shit town Sary-Tash to Thailand & Malaysia. And then now, each warming our hands on a cuppa glüewein in a winter-cold Switzerland.
I have no words to explain how I feel about the fact that there were also those best hugs in the world of black belt life livers Karin & Fritz. Like I already told you in the last post this European time travel throwback wasn’t even limited to this journey. There was even my childhood and life-before-this, in form of my god mother Kristina.
And then.
Then there was Nicolai. Outside whose front door I got to close the circle. The circle around the world. That circle I started, I don’t even know how many lifetimes ago.
Like with most things – leaving your life behind to ride a bicycle around the planet is easier said than done. And the gratitude I still feel for getting to do so cheered on by this Dane is way beyond my English vocabulary. Courage is a peculiar thing. And so is the magical trait that oh so few people possess – the undefinable ability to infuse it in others.
Starting this thing was a challenge. To finish it off is and will be the biggest cliff I’ve ever jumped. Thank you Nicolai – for once again giving me the I-can’t-fckn-wait urge to do it.
It’ll be great. For helvede.
Now all that’s left of this thing is to ride home.
I can’t wait to catch you next Sunday.
Until next time,
Fredrika
