Interview mit Cyclist Turkey | The Cyclist Mag

Could you tell us a little bit about yourselves?

Melanie & Daniel:

We are Melanie & Daniel from Germany. Since 2019 we are traveling the world by bicycle and we will be on the road for up to 5 more years and a 50.000km. We are heading towards Japan but we never know where our route takes us to. 😉 We love to do adventure Videos (Turkish and English subtitles available) on youtube.com/vaegabond and photos on Instagram.com/vaegabondsworld for you guys.

How was your relationship with bikes before your trip?

Melanie:

To be honest for me the bike was a nice tool to get from A to B or ride to the office. Actually I never did a long distance tour before or rides more than one day.

Daniel:

Same here, I used the bicycle as a vehicle to get somewhere or go shopping. I just did a tour of 80km before, so nothing serious. But I love bicycles and I build some custombikes like a 2,2m tallbike on my own with some friends. Videos of the building are on your Youtube.com/vaegabond

When did your trip start? How did it start?

Melanie & Daniel:

We started our trip near Nuremberg in Germany in September 2019. Actually our aim is not just getting to Japan. It’s more about the traveling itself. We want to explore other countries, different cultures, trying new food and getting in touch with the local people. Those encounters are what makes this trip really unforgettable. There is so much to learn. These experiences and memories really change our lifes. We also want to get beyond our physical and mental limits, to get back to the basics in life and to grow from the inside. So far we cycled over 13.000km

What were your initial plans and what changed on the road?

Melanie & Daniel:

Before we came to turkey we explored several countries in western Europe and Morocco in Africa with our bikes. Then the pandemic spread out and we couldn’t continue anymore because of the closing borders. So we had to go back to Germany and waited 2 month till the corona lockdown was over. Then we started again and cycled all over the balkans towards country number 16 -> Turkey. Now we are also kind of stuck again because Georgia and Iran are closed. But Turkey is a really nice place to get stuck. 😉 When it´s possible to cross the border to Georgia we will go ahead all the way through Iran, India, South East Asia… till we reach China and Japan.

How is your trip going?

Melanie & Daniel:

You can never plan your trip to 100%. So the last year we adapted our route due to covid but also because of recommandations of local people where to go. This turned out to be the best way to explore a foreign country. Just follow the locals and take the most hidden routes.

What difficulties are you facing? Which beauties keep you going?

Melanie & Daniel:

Despite of regulations for covid there where no serious difficulties on our way. We are able to repair and fix our bikes by ourselves and are used to be in the nature for severel days without facing any other human. Sometimes it´s hard to push the fully loaded bike for hours up to a mountain, but the reward is always a amazing few and hearty encounters with locals. These experiences are unique. With the bike we have a deeper conection to the nature and have a closer insight in other cultures.

You are in Turkey for a while. Were you planning to stay here that long or is it a pandemic affect?

Melanie & Daniel:

We planned to cross Turkey within 3 month (because of VISA) but due to the pandemic everything changed so we are here since November 2020. Actually we are waiting till the landborder to Georgia is open again. Meanwhile we work on new videos for our youtube channel youtube.com/vaegabond, on new articles and improvements on our homepage vaegabond.com. We also keep us sporty while doing rock climbing in the mountains of Antalya.

What do you like and do not like about Turkey?

Melanie:

I really like the local food and encounters with the people in rural areas. Also the landscape is amazing. We cycled along the coastline from Canakkale to Antalya and also to Cappadokia. Turkey is a really beautiful country with lots of diverse regions.

Daniel:

I love the same things als Melanie said and furthermore the huge variaty in culture. Everywhere you go the people are still connected with their cultural roots. Everything changes all the time and you experience Turkey in a new way every day.

What both of us don´t like is all the trash here. We pick a lot of trash from the roadside every day and bring it to some trashbin. It´s so sad that such a beautiful country has so much trash problems.

What differences in bike culture have you seen in the countries you’ve visited?

Melanie & Daniel:

When we entered Turkey we were immediately aware of the growing bike community. Everywhere we saw bundels of cyclists and met a lot of bike lovers. We have the feeling that turks are more into meeting and cycling together.

Also the Netherlands was really different. It´s well known for its excellent bike paths and we really saw bikes everywhere. It was a pleasure to follow all this nice bike routes, where no cars were disturbing us. In Bulgaria for example not many people used bicycle, it´s so different here, we love this.

What are your favorite places so far in Turkey?

Melanie & Daniel:

Its hard to say, because we like a lot of places. So far we cycled the South/Western part, so no Idea about North/East this will come next. Especially the remote places and small villages in the mountains are so beautiful. I also enjoyed the Troja culture route and Dalyan with its old monuments. The seaside around Kas, Demre, Olympos was also really nice and of course the chimneys of Cappadokia are amazing.

What would you recommend to people who like to go on a trip like yours?

Melanie & Daniel:

Oh yes. Such a trip is mind blowing and growing. But you dont have to do a world trip over several years for experiencing special mooments and get changing life experiences. It´s also nice to have a weekend ride in another region of your own country. There can be so huge differences. You learn not only about other cultures you also have to spend time with yourself, deal with proplems you might not considered you really have it. You also get behind your own physical borders. There is just one thing: go for it and try! You don´t need expensive equipment!

You don’t have to answer this but I am sure lots of couples who want to go on a long trip are curious about it. Is it difficult always being together? You may face some problems on the road and are things getting tense between two people sometimes?

Melanie:

A life like this always has its good and bad sides. Indeed its not easy to spend time together 24/7. You have to find compromisses and accept the different physical conditions and power. But you are also growing together. You learn to trust each other and within a short time you find out whats the perfect way to split common dutys like pitching the tent, cooking food, oranizing water and stuff.

Daniel:

It´s not easy all the time! Of course there are arguments between us, we are not the same opinion all the time, nobody would be like this. But it´s really nice to grow on this, especially in stressfull sitations like hunger, bad weather, hardcore roads or if we are totally exhausted. We rely on each other, talk about opinions and sort out arguments. We really enjoy this and grow our minds in a lot of ways.