"If you really want to discover the world, get on a bike!"
We're not experts at book reviews, but it's long been on our minds to review the cycling-focused books, which don't number more than the fingers of one hand, and build a collection on our blog... For the opening, to motivate Berna for a tour, we wanted to start with a woman's long-distance cycling story 😍We prepared it with pleasure; I hope it gives you ideas! May it inspire you and put you on the road. ☺
The author is a woman on a round-the-world bike tour; in fact, the first woman to complete a Guinness record attempt of 28,970 km in just 150 days(!), without sponsors: Juliana Buhring. To give an idea of the size of her goal: there was no previous record or attempt in this field among women, and among men the best men's time broken before her was 180 km a day and 165 days!
In the book, we read with great pleasure the story of how the idea of the record attempt came about, the preparation and setting off, and the adventures that happened to her on the road. On this very hard road starting from Italy, there was bad luck from time to time, and she was daunted in the face of difficulties, but we're so glad she wrote it down with the pride of breaking the record.
Let's leave the details and subtleties to the book, but we want to write a few parts we loved. Juliana sets off with audiobooks and shares the notes she listened to while doing long kilometres. It's very enjoyable that she includes quotes accompanying the climbs, the breaks and the exquisite views along the way. I'm quoting from a fall: "This time I hit the ground very hard, one foot still clipped into the pedal. My helmet protects my head, bouncing like a basketball on the rails... Philip Roth in my ear reminds me, 'As with all pleasurable things, you see, this too has its unpleasant side.'"
Then, as you know, roads create awareness, short or long. Especially when reading such a long and hard kind, our expectations are high too: "Pain takes you to the foundations of existence. It reminds you of your weakness, that you are mortal, that you cannot live forever. If there were no pain, mankind could not know its limits, could not know itself. So says the English actor reading War and Peace (Tolstoy) in my headphones" Living Tolstoy's experience from the pedals, within herself as life flows on, sharing it and making us question as we read... "And what is existence anyway but an accumulation of small things? We don't realise how much we rely on small things until we live without them." It felt very moving to us!
RÜZGARA KARŞI
Now to what caught our attention on the route: borders! What happened to her at each crossing, different human scenes, completely different cultures. But most of all Asia! This beautiful region, which we haven't explored yet either, is treated with its differences by a European on her bike named Pegasus.
Then India! A dangerous, hard journey.. But stopping is not an option!..
And, under the heading Turkish Delight, the route's leg in our country: reading this part, which I was very curious about, was very enjoyable. The offers of tea, the petrol stations lined up frequently and the hospitable people of Anatolia, or her chaotic take on Istanbul and its view of cycling, aren't surprising. And the dogs, which we know are very hard for cyclists to get past.. But the note "I'm surprised that people think a woman can't travel safely alone in Turkey" is surprising. It makes us proud!
Finally, we want to share how she writes about her passion for the bike: "I can understand the appeal of the motorbike, and the thrill of eating up the open road. Even if used only for a ride, it beats being in a car a thousand times, watching everything from behind glass, insulated from sounds, looking at the world as if at a television screen. On it, there's no barrier between you and the world: you can feel the wind and smell the smells. But you're too fast; going that fast, you may not notice all the small things. On a bike, though, you're inside the film, one of its main parts.
Because you're completely connected to your surroundings, you absorb every sensation around you. The slightest change in the land, the texture of the road, the direction of the wind, every climb and every descent, the ever-changing weather... You smell every plant, every flower, every roadkill starting to rot on the asphalt. You hear every birdsong, every insect and animal. As you take the country into you, the country takes you into it. If you really want to discover the world, get on a bike!"
The book's original is in English, from Juliana's own hand: "The Road I Ride". It was published by Garaj Kitaplar, and its price is 15₺.