1. intro
2. week 0
3. my inspiration
4. the new path

The day of my departure. I am leaving my homebase in Denmark to embark on a journey. I want to explore the world on a bicycle. There is no end-date or end-destination. I want to head in a general eastward direction and avoid trains, buses, ferries and planes as much as possible. Trying to follow land connected countries. This is going to be super exiticing. It is adventure time.

Tomorrow is departure day. I am leaving to embark on a travel. It has been a long process and a longer wait. I am sitting at my desk in my childhood room at my Mom's looking out the window across the neat, grassy garden and onto the paved road running alongside the house. It's early morning and I have been up all night. The morning mist is hovering above the pavement. I am fighting an honest battle trying to finalize some sort of plan. But there are so many roads to be travelled, so many decisions to be made. My mind is racing, borderlining overload, trying to comprehend routes, packlist, border crossings, visa rules and all sorts of other challenges and possible obstacles. Trying to simulate every scenario so I can be well prepared. I can't wrap my mind around it all – and perhaps I should not try to. Perhaps I should accept defeat in detailed planning and begin to expect the unexpected. Let myself be free flowing and welcome the unpredictable and the indeterminate. Perhaps I should just leave it partly to destiny's guiding hand. I'll guess that's what I am going to do. I'll just stick to a list of countries connected by land and set a direction that is general east.

Before I decided to travel, I was seriously contemplating, for a long time, how my life would look like in the future. It often happened a late day at work where I would peak over my wall of monitors and mindlessly stare into a sea of identical rows of desks so typical of a modern office space. I would ask myself: 'Is this it? Is this all? Am I going to do this every day until retirement?' I recalled the opening scene from the movie 'Trainspotting' where the protagonist starts of in a monologue talking about choosing life. I found myself at a crossroad where I needed to decide on a direction and choose my life. The once glorious path of career life all of the sudden seemed less desirable. Sure it was a steady paycheck allowing me to have a homebase but it all just seemed so repetitive and forced upon by society. My remedy at the time was to escape during vacation weeks. The farther away I could travel the better.

In one of my vacations I was standing on a small town street in Laos. I can't remember what I was doing but all of the sudden my eyes catches an elderly couple rolling into town on their fully loaded bikes. I must have seen biketourers before, but this was the first time a new adventurous sensation started to bubble inside of me. It was like my heart all of the sudden was beating faster and faster, pumping this sensation around and into every inch of my body. I could feel the throbbing. I had goosebumps all over. I let the moment pass. But as I lay down in bed that night I could not sleep. Somehow this sensation had gotten a good, solid grip of me. Next morning, as I saw the couple eating breakfast on a side walk café, I could not control my urge of curiousness. I dared to approach the couple and asked if they might want to tell a story or two about their bike travels over a cup of coffee. They were delighted to share and for every minute and every second I sat in amazement and absorbed it all. At the end I said to myself: “This is it. This is me choosing life. Biketouring!”

But ending or pausing one path of life to begin another is easier said than done. Even though it is just going to be a temporary path. It requires boldness. What about my daily routines in Copenhagen. What about my homebase, my apartment, friends, family, career, stability. Over the years I had built a fortress around this comfort zone. And it felt good regardless of how repetitive and mundane it was. I was not going to give it up easily. So why should I leave this behind? What am I searching for?

As it turns out, the adventurous sensation is a strong force within me. Time has passed since I met the biketouring couple and I have in that period realized that life is about exploring. Life is about adventure. Life is about discovering and creating oneself. I am willing to give up and leave my fortress. And so it happened that I bought myself a touring bike and named her Tamika. I am now looking forward to seeking new shelters every night. I want to gaze out on the distant horizon and bike in sun, rain and snow. I am thrilled at the idea of pedalling across endless roads, through landscape, countries and continents. Days packed with the unexpected. I promise myself one thing: It's not about mileage and not about reaching destinations. It is more than just touring on a bike – the bike is only a tool. It is about exploration and experiences, about venturing into unknown personal territory. It is about pushing boundaries and widening the perception of who I am. It is about riding along coasts with the roaring sound of waves. It is about climbing over silent mountains, spending lonely nights under starry skies. It is about encounters with amazing people and cultures. It is about roaming the world at my own desires searching for a fusion of peace and happiness. All of that might sound like I am searching for a devine purpose for my travels and it might be far fetched. In all honesty, if I just get to experience a tiny bit of it, I would be happy and all will be worth it.

Today I am sitting at my desk, in my childhood room at my Mom's, looking out the window. My old life is unravelled. My apartment is sold as well as my old sailboat. I've quit my job as I want to travel without an end date. I have parted ways with almost all of my belongings. My life is now packed into four panniers and a handlebar bag. It feels like I've gone full circle, back at where I once left to begin my career path. Now I will take a new path. I don't know how long I will be travelling. It might be months. It might be years. It might be decades. There is no end destination. I really like how this makes me feel. As Eleanor Roosevelt once said: “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”

Tomorrow is departure day and I will mount my fully loaded bike and yell out 'YOLO' as I start pedalling my very first meters.

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the new daily grind

2021-07-10 | blog

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