FAQ

Here is a list of answers to the questions I get when talking about this adventure:

How long did it last

Exactly 6 months, 3 days, 13 hours and 15 minutes (187.6 days).

How many kilometers in total

At the end of a celebrative run around the Taksim Square monument, the odometer on my bike marked 12233. To this number 700 kilometers more should be added: it's the distance separating Lisbon from El Cuervo, Sevilla, where the odometer was installed.

How many kilometers per day

I had absolutely no training before this cycling tour, so I started very slowly.

First day I cycled 15km, second 20km and my daily kilometer average went up to 100/140km per day by the time I was in Italy.

What was the longest day

The very last day was the longest leg of my Lisbon2Istanbul adventure. It took me 18 hours and 214km to cycle from Alaybey, Malkara to Taksim Square, Istanbul.

What was the best country

I had plenty of beautiful experiences in each of the 14 countries I crossed, the one I remember more dearly is Albania because of how harsh, yet friendly, it was.

It is important to notice that my experience was limited to the coastal area of these countries, often off-season, so my perspective the places I visited is obviously different from the one you would have inland or in another part of the year.

What was the best dish

All, really all of the dishes I tried during this trip were amazing. To find out what they were and which one is the best you should buy the recipe book I am writing

Were you alone

This was a solo (no companions), self-supported (I had to carry everything, find food and cook, camp around most of the time) adventure.

I met people everyday and some of them were other bike tourists that I shared some kilometers with.

Thing is, what's really difficult is to stay alone; give it a try sometimes and you'll agree.

Weren't you scared of camping in the woods

Camping in Europe is very safe, and this view of mine is shared by the thousands of people doing it every year (solo women as well, mind you).

The reason why I wasn't attacked by some axe serial murderer is that most of the time nobody knew there was someone camping, and if they noticed my tent they'd be too scared that some axe serial murder was snoring there.

Obviously you have to pay attention to blend well with the environment, camp far from cities and most importantly try to follow the DON'T BE AN IDIOT golden rule

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