New bike, different me, the same country as many times before.
I managed around two weeks on my old rusty city bike. The bike I used since always in this town, mainly to ride to school with or drunk through town at 3 in the morning. I always loved my bike, but never managed to look after it. No breaks, no light, and again I forgot to oil the chain.
One more time I got a flat tire, and that was it. I can’t do the “student-city-bike-broke-I-don’t-care” cycling anymore.
Whatever the gear or tool is, it should work, should be worth looking after, otherwise how can you expect it to bring you any further than around the next corner.
Meanwhile the next corner can sound very exciting, all it unveils is usually another next corner. And if cycling to Istanbul made me realize I need a proper bike with functioning breaks, it also made me realize that this country has to offer some equally exciting landscapes that wish to be cycled through.
Green forests, massive Alps and snowy peaks, clear water, cycling lanes, wide streets, no wild dogs, no rubbish or very little, and a thousand corners you can’t reach by car. Amazing, it was there all along, who wasn’t there was myself. Now I am and now I realize I have it all right there in front of my doorstep.
Intuition, vision and the right timing seemed to have matched, when I got my new bike and a few weeks later some bags. All secondhand but brand new, another part I love about how people here generally take good care of things.
At 5.30am I start cycling up and to the other side of a little mountain. Wonderfull green, growing plants all around, cows and a little stream, I follow upwards. On a, still, quiet cycling lane all the way to a little lake.
Nestled in between a few hills, from a few angles I can see the Alps in the background. By myself on a wooden deck, a few fishermen are around on their little boats. The early sun shines on my face and I notice, that Peanut-butter Sandwiches and coffee taste as good here, as they did in the middle of Turkey.
A swim and some thoughts later I leave. A lot of cyclists on the lane now. All of their equipment could have probably also bought them a car. An overengineered cycling lane for over equipped cyclists. But I don’t mind that anymore, in fact I have come to appreciate it.
Sometimes it is nice to suffer in the middle of nowhere on dangerous roads, wild dogs and epic views, and other times it is equally amazing to cycle on a save cycling lane with serious cyclists, a perfectly functioning bike and beautiful nature around.
With plenty of new ideas in my head I finish that first little trip, knowing that now, technically, Istanbul, or any other place I wish to be, can be at the end of this road again, the one that starts at my doorstep.
Thanks to every one passing by, enjoy your week and if you do your cycling on marvellous lanes or dangerous roads!
All photos and words are owned by ©kesityu taken and written by myself.