Day 0

The tomatoes are packed, cucumbers - check, the fried meat is in the trailer...The tenth Bike Expedition can begin! To an onlooker, we are doing the same things as we were in the nine previous years: being busy on the courtyard, fixing bikes, sorting food - and really, there's but one tiny difference: this year, we're so brave that we are going to, wait for it, Tekirdag, Turkey! Sure, we'll be skipping Bulgaria, but that still leaves 1000 kilometers (~600 miles) of biking ahead of us.

The fun starts tomorrow - we'll be heading to the Gilau lake, and then at Marisel begins the first climb. Nearly 15 kilometers (~9 miles), but the sad truth is that we can't really figure out a route on which the first day isn't the hardest one. This year it definitely is, at least from a cycling point of view. Of course, if we look at it as but a teeny-tiny slice of the 16 days cake we are about to consume, then our point of view on its difficulty can change. But it's the little slices that make up the whole: every meter of climbing, every sweaty vest, every roadside picnic contribute to the experience. This year, however, we'll be washing off our sweat in the Marmara Sea.

Until then, we invite you to follow this blog, where we will be posting many-many pictures and messages.

Some photos of us packing: