Well, as you may have guessed, Copenhagen wasn’t very good. In fact, it was a pretty soul destroying, depressing sort of place. The city, well, that was wonderful (and the Tivoli Gardens were definately a highlight) but the actual conference itself was a big, chaotic mess. I wrote an article for a special edition of Globalizations Journal on Crisis which you can find here which sets out why I thought that it failed. Many thanks to Prof. Barry K. Gills for the opportunity to contribute to such an amazing journal.
Since then I have successively ignored what happened there, continued to be scared of driving, spoken at many, many places re: Copenhagen, and finally gotten round to writing my dissertation. Woo. I have also made a big decision. See this map?
Amsterdam to Istanbul, The river way.
Well, you remember my stories about how properly crap I was at cycling? And how you have followed me in my journey through buying a bike, my first cycle to Newcastle (all of 5 miles), and then my epic Hadrians Wall cycle to raise funds for Copenhagen?
Apparently I now love cycling so much, that I have decided to cycle – all the way to Istanbul. Yes, Istanbul – you know, the one thats part-Europe-part-asia, on the Bosphorous, in Turkey, the one with the Blue Mosque?
Istanbul - The place where I will likely throw my bike into the sea.
Now I know my credentials aren’t great (remember that I failed my cycling proficiency test twice), but I figured, why the hell not? I have time to spare, not much money, and I would like to get fitter after eating endless amounts of junk food whilst writing my dissertation (four Tunnocks Tea Cakes last night – FOUR!).
I would like to spend the summer outside, with no worries except pedalling and finding a good camp spot, and lots and lots of time to see all the wonderful places that lie between Amsterdam and Istanbul. Ok, not all of the wonderful places, but some…well, at least the ones that don’t lie at the top of big hills anyway.
The last year has been pretty stressful, so a bit of nomadic lifestyle is just what i’m craving right now. And I can’t bloody wait! Two weeks tomorrow…
Bike – Check.
Panniers - Check.
Tent - Check.
Sleeping Bag - Check.
The guts to cycle 2,000 miles – errr check? 30 miles a day – thats do-able right?
Big Love.
xxx
P.S. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!
