Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.

I had written a bit of an update a couple days ago, but I can’t even remember what I was writing about then or if it was even coherent, so here I go again! This is how things are looking going into the second half of my trip! I was talking with a friend of mine last week about communication while travelling. We made the observation that when we are/were travelling, we talk more frequently with family. That has been my experience thus far, though, this past month has been a bit of an exception. I haven’t done anything terribly exciting, so I haven’t had as much contact with family and friends when compared to when I am moving every three or four days. After my one foray to North Cyprus I have been stuck on the southern side of the country with all the Eastern European and British expats/holiday-ers). There isn’t all that much to do in my immediate area, but it is always nice to just go down to the beach to read a book. I’ve spent quite a bit of time down by the water - a holiday from my extended holiday. The weather for the past month has been pretty consistent, highs in the high teens, usually sunny, but often clouding over in the mid-afternoon. In retrospect four weeks in Paralimni is a little too long (mostly because I wasn't able to visit the north), but that makes me all the more ready to move on to new horizons.  I’ve spend a bit of time on the bike as well, I want to avoid the soreness I experienced after leaving Istanbul in December after not cycling at all for 10 days. On two occasions I made the trip into Larnaca from Paralimni, roughly 50 kilometers each way. In Larnaca there is a couple old churches, a very stripped down ancient greek settlement, and one nice coffee shop. Nothing terribly exciting, especially after already coming through Europe and Turkey (I’ve been spoiled by some of the best in all three categories). That said, the exercise is always nice! I took one really nice ride two weeks ago, a failed attempt to cycle to Nicosia and back. The route had me snake alongside the Green Line in an attempt to cut down on the total distance. I gave in as I came up to some more sizable hills, this is after being forced to take a longer route because of UN restrictions and roads closed for construction. A third factor has been the amount of wind on the island. Mornings are calm, but the afternoon routinely sees winds gusting up to 40km/h, which is enough to make a ride of any distance laborious. What else.. I have spent a fair bit of time relaxing and watching netflix. I don’t really want to try and quantify it into hours, because it is probably way too much. I watched a couple hockey games from the Olympics in Korea. It felt a little strange to be watching all the winter sports after walking home from the beach in shorts and a t shirt. This past weekend I got to catch some of my former teammates from CMU play some Futsal in Winnipeg! I really enjoyed that. I’ve also had the chance to clean all my gear. Nearly six months without washing everything properly is probably not a good idea - especially with how much I use things like my tent and sleeping bag. I ended up spending an entire day air-drying my sleeping bag while breaking up the clumps of feathers by hand. Really. An entire day. I had a bit of a scare on Saturday morning. I found a raised red mark just inside my hairline on Wednesday night. I thought nothing of it at first, but come Saturday morning the area had gone from red to yellow and I got concerned that it was something more serious than a zit. My first thought was a tick bite so I went off to the local hospital to get it checked out. I was seen by nurse and doctor within 15 minutes of arriving at the hospital and was only charged 10 euro for the services. They passed it off as nothing too serious and gave me some anti-inflammatory cream, upon my insistence of the possibility of it being a tick, they gave me four little pills as well. Upon more serious google-ing, it might just be a spider bite (still a little concerning) but any fears of something like Lyme Disease have subsided. I do have insurance through April, but my emails to my insurer have gone unanswered about extending coverage for the rest of my trip. Insurance is a whole different headache - I had enough trouble getting it in the first place (Manitoba doesn’t cover trips with the provincial health plan if the time spent away is more than 50 days, or something like that and the prerequisite for third party insurance is that I am insured by the province…). C’est la vie. I have mixed feelings about heading back out on the road tomorrow. On one hand, it will be really nice to explore new places again, but on the other hand, it’s hard to give up the comforts of being stationary! I’ve had a warm shower everyday for the past month, I’ve had access to a fridge and freezer, and I’ve had electricity everyday. On the road there are many stretches where I don’t shower for three-four days, more often than not I do not have a refrigerator at all, and my electricity is limited to the capacity of power banks I pack with me. With respect to refrigeration, I am a little amazed I haven’t gotten terribly ill from food yet. I’ve been on the road with meat and cheese since encountering the fact that a lot of stores aren’t open on Sundays in France and Switzerland. Usually meat and cheese left for up to a week without refrigeration is a really bad idea. Knock on wood I continue to avoid any serious health-related complications! Leaving tomorrow. I’ve spent some time trying to plan out the next six months of my journey back towards the UK. I try to plot out a rough route, and the kilometers it will take to cycle that route. I then translate that into how many days it will likely take to cover that distance. I have roughly 40 more days left on my visa in Turkey before I have to leave, but that is more than enough time to cover the ~1400km to get to the Bulgarian border. From there on it is a little more delicate. I’m trying to plan my trip so I spend as little time as possible transiting from Northern Croatia to Russia for the World Cup (I managed to secure accommodation in Kaliningrad from June 14-18). I’m hoping to minimize my time traveling to the World Cup, so I have more time after the World Cup to travel through Scandinavia in the summer. Things get a little extra tricky in the summer because I have to make some difficult choices. I’m at that age in life where all of my friends find happiness and decide to get married. There are several weddings just in July that I could travel back to Canada for, but that would likely mean putting a bookend on my trip. I am leaning towards not attending the weddings and continuing my trip into August and returning to the UK. My parents just bought flights to Scotland on the 20th of August to visit me!! They’re planning a 9 day trip around Scotland! I think touring around Islay and Skye drinking whiskey sounds like a pretty great way to finish up my year-long trip! Speaking of people visiting, I’m trying to coordinate with my friend Chris, to meet up sometime in May in Austria/Poland. He landed himself an internship in Germany as part of his law degree! We had originally dreamed up cycling together for a week or two, but a weekend in Vienna is not a bad consolation prize! A little more of a longshot is seeing mom’s aunt and uncle in St. Petersburg in June/July. I grew up with Rob and Carol seeming like more-immediate family (if that makes sense. They’re technically a generation removed, but their youngest child is my brother’s age. Anyways, they are taking a cruise through the Baltics at the end of June and I might be able to catch up with them when they pull into St. Petersburg for a day! Maybe! I should probably stop procrastinating and go back to the apartment to pack up all my things. The plan for the next week or so is to cycle through Famagusta and continue North to the Karpaz Peninsula in search of wild donkeys. I’m hoping to be on a boat back to Turkey on Thursday or Friday, then make my way inland to Cappadocia. I’m a little wary of being up on the central steppe in Turkey, Forecasts show lows down to zero degrees again. Nothing I can’t handle, but I’d prefer it if it were ~20 and sunny like it is today in Paralimni! Best, Gavyn.