If someone came and told me 5 years ago I would be going on a cycling trip from Denmark to South Africa I would look at them and laugh. Because back then I didn't see such opportunities as anything but a vague dream that I kept trying to lock behind a door. Back when all I thought I ever wanted and would ever get was a well paid job, a nice house and a girlfriend that I could spend the rest of my life with.
Now when I look back, I can only laugh at myself
Living a life where your home is merely a few panniers is not a lot.. but it is enough and all I will ever need
I cannot believe it sometimes when I even felt proud of having a big apartment with all kind of stylish furniture. I always thought I loved peoples reaction when inviting them at my home and how impressed I could make them just by this one big materialistic show. When me and my girlfriend broke up I kept the apartment and kept running the same show for a little while. After a few months of dragging a few girls to my apartment to impress them(Sad i know), some other things slowly changed within me, I started to see new opportunities I long had forgotten.
I started discovering new sides of myself through outdoor activities and that door I had kept closed suddenly started to open up.
From a apartment to two panniers and a tent: The person who told me about a small two days cycling trip became my inspiration to do a 6 months trip across europe
I had figured out as much that I wanted to travel when I was done with my education.. but how? Would I hike a pilgrim route? Maybe hitchhike around? Honestly I never expected me to be gone more than a month.
Until the person I met started talking about a minor cycling trip she had done that sounded absolutely amazing. This is where I jumped in with both feed and decided that I would want cycle.. I would cycle from Denmark to Greece. How exactly I suddenly decided that I cannot tell anything else but it just felt right, like a little voice inside my head said: "this is it".
Now, first step was to actually have a bike and then my adventure would start
Within the 6 months of my cycling trip I learned a few things: You can go anywhere on a bike, Steemit is "apparently" a pretty fucking great website to share on and last but not least.. the world isn't as scary as I thought it would be
So here I am, living with nothing but what I can have in my panniers to carry around and while my upcoming trip from Denmark to South Africa might take 18 months or even more. I think we all can agree on that anything can change. If a small conversation could make myself go on a cycling trip across europe, who knows what 20 months full of inspiration can bring? I have a hard time seeing when this madness will end, in fact.. I hope it never will.
Will I ever go back to my old lifestyle? I don't think so, maybe I will settle down one day but never in the way I did back then, that day can wait a bit longer.
See you on the road!
-holm