The beginning

Today, October 5, A European Journey has started. A few things I'd like to write at the beginning:

Me

A couple of interviews were published: they talk a little bit about the project and about me.

You can find them on the websites of Life in Travel and Bicycle TV.

In my plans, I'm not going to write very much about the biking part of the journey: there are plenty of blogs in the net where you can read a diary of every single day of someone's journey, but IMHO they are quite boring most of the times. At least, mine would be a boring one. So, no everyday update about n° of kms, averages, where I stop to eat, time I start and finish biking, etc. :)

I'll update Facebook and Twitter as often as possible with pictures.

Instead, I'm gonna try to tell stories about the people, the places and the things that impressed me, keeping a subjective view of things.

In most books, the I, or first person, is omitted; in this it will be retained; that, in respect to egotism, is the main difference. We commonly do not remember that it is, after all, always the first person that is speaking. I should not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as well. Unfortunately, I am confined to this theme by the narrowness of my experience.
(Henry David Thoreau, Walden)

You

What about YOU? Since this is all about Europe, if you have something cool to say about Europe, you can share it with everybody. I hope to get a few contributions from Couchsurfing friends, but also from any reader: I greatly appreciate and welcome things like "you have to listen to this amazing progressive rock band from Montenegro!", "let me tell you why you should visit Poland" or "I explain to you why this geopolitical situation was created after the Yugoslav wars"!

This is the purpose of the journey: VISIT. LEARN. SHARE. UNDERSTAND.

Europe gives us tons of topics to talk about, most of them unknown to me. You're right, it's not necessary to ride a bike to do that, but I'm a self-defeating person, so that's how I do it. I love cycling, by the way.

Write me cool stories about the places I'm riding through, if you wish. Send to:

aeuropeanjourney@gmail.com

Couchsurfing

I talk to many people who don't even know that couchsurfing exists. Not good! Couchsurfing is awesome, seriously. This is what I wrote about couchsurfing (and similar projects, like Warmshowers) a few months ago, in a moment in which I was deeply inspired and in love with CS:

" Couchsurfing has taught me one of the greatest life lessons: we are often warned about how dangerous the world is and how wrong it is to trust a stranger. But we forget that we are strangers in the eyes of every traveller and that our behaviour can influence his/her opinion about our own town, our country or even the goodness of mankind. By defeating fear and prejudice towards other people, we are always rewarded with some good moments which remind us that, after all, "there is some good in this world, and it's worth fighting for". Stay human. "

Where I go

Here, more or less.

To family and friends

I often feel lucky because of you. This is a reminder I'll carry with me: