It was around April and I was out with one of my friends Stephane. He was telling me about his plans to leave Uk after 10 years to go to Barcelona and the fact the he was planning to go by train. I found the idea very appealing and thought that I should do something similar for my return to Greece. But as I was a little bit tipsy at the moment, the idea sloped to the extreme and thought that cycling all the way would be a lot cooler. Then I went home and checked on google maps for a possible route. The shortest distance to Ancona in Italy was 2500km! I freaked out and thought I should better think about it again next morning when I am sober, kind of hoping I will have changed my mind by then. The days passed but I was still thinking about it more and more, until I got to the stage that I started using my favorite quote to further convince my self. It’s better to regret for something that you did rather than something that you didn’t, which is a thought that has helped me in the past several times to make a decision and luckily with always a good outcome.

After that point, I started looking into it more and more, by reading loads of  articles and forums on the Internet about bike touring and asking people that have already done long rides in the past. Then I bought the first piece of gear which officially marked the beginning of my very ambitious trip. That was a  £0.99 mini compass.